Wednesday 30 November 2016

Miniproject: Using Scratch to build and train a neuron



1. Single Neurone

 
Instructions:

  • Set the inputs by pressing the buttons marked input 1 and input 2 (Red is off(False or 0) and Green is on(True or 1))
  • Change the weights by changing weights 1 to 3, wx goes with input x and weight 3 is the bias.
  • To activate the neuron you need to click on the the yellow ball ('the neuron').

The video below show it in action and explains the code.


To see the code go to https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/131892234/ .



2. Training a Neurone
In this part, the training of a neuron all written in Scratch is tackled. The video shows it action and you can have a go at using the software yourself at the end of the post. The Scratch code can be found at https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/132915502/







All opinions in this blog are the Author's and should not in any way be seen as reflecting the views of any organisation the Author has any association with. Twitter @scottturneruonAll views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with. Twitter: @scottturneruon

Sunday 27 November 2016

Near Northampton: BCS Coventry Christmas Lecture: Searching to Speak.

 Taken from: http://coventry.bcs.org/branch-programme-2016-2017/searching-to-speak/


Searching to Speak

Title:  Christmas Lecture – Searching to Speak.

Speaker:  Professor Paul Curzon (Queen Mary University of London)
Date: 7th December 2016, 7pm, with refreshments from 6.30pm, and a buffet afterwards
Location:     Engineering and Computing Block, Coventry University

This years Coventry Christmas Lecture, supported by BCS, IET and the IMA.  It takes place on the 7th of December at 7pm, at Coventry University.  Places are free, but booking is essential:  https://coventrychristmas2016.eventbrite.co.uk
Abstract:
One of the worst medical conditions imaginable is locked-in syndrome. It leaves you totally paralyzed except perhaps for the blink of an eye. Your intelligent mind is locked inside a useless body, able to sense everything but unable to communicate. It could happen to anyone, out of the blue, as a result of a stroke. If you wanted to help people with locked-in syndrome, the obvious thing might be to become a doctor or nurse, but how could a computer scientist help?
‘The Diving Bell and the Butterfly’ is an incredibly uplifting book. It’s the autobiography of Jean-Dominique Bauby, written after he woke up in a hospital bed totally paralysed. In the book, he describes life with locked-in syndrome. He did have a way to communicate not only to write the book but also with medics, friends and family. He did it without any technology at all.  How?

Thursday 24 November 2016

Computer lecturer’s research helps improve the next generation of technology

A computing lecturer at the University of Northampton, who is researching into how the efficiency of our everyday devices, such as mobile phones, can be improved, has been awarded the best paper at two recent conferences.
Dr Michael Opoku Agyeman has written several journal papers focusing on how the next generation of technology can meet the ever increasing demands from consumers. He was invited to present his work at the 19th Euromicro Conference on Digital System Design in Cyprus and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ 14th International Conference in Paris.
Part of his research concentrates on whether several processing elements can be incorporated on a single chip, known as System-On-Chip, to improve the efficiency and speed of the computing systems that we use every day, from mobile phones to video-game consoles and even medical equipment. Usually, metal-based interconnecting wires are used for on-chip communication, but Dr Opoku Agyeman is looking into alternative fabrics, such as three dimensional integrated circuits, millimetre wave and surface wave technologies.
Dr Opoku Agyeman explains: “At the heart of each of the devices we commonly use is the processor which keeps it all running. We now expect more features from smaller devices which provide flexibility and efficiency, as well as longer battery life or some type of energy saving mode. To meet these demands, the next generation of devices will need to incorporate the System-On-Chip element and consequently the architecture and communication design techniques must be developed to improve the effectiveness of our computer systems.
“The System-On-Chip combines several components such as processors, peripherals, memory blocks and power management circuits on a single integrated circuit. One issue in particular that dominates next generation designs arises from the non-scalable wire delays and power consumption of the on-chip communication infrastructure.
“To compensate for the fast-paced technological scalability with the performance bottleneck of conventional metal-based interconnects, I have been involved in researching alternative interconnect fabrics. The highlights of my research have so far included an analytical channel model for wireless System-On-Chip design, for which I was awarded the best paper at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ Conference, along with my international collaborative work resulting in a technique that improves the performance of on-chip networks, which was recognised at the Euromicro Conference.
“It is a great honour to be awarded the best paper for both conferences which are highly prestigious.”

All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with. Twitter: @scottturneruon

Wednesday 23 November 2016

Design of performance-aware resilient wireless NoC architectures

Opoku Agyeman, M.Wen, Z.Kanakis, T.Tong, K.-F. and Mak, T. (2016) Towards the practical design of performance-aware resilient wireless NoC architectures. In: 7th International Conference on Cloud Computing, Data Science & Engineering. USA: IEEE. 


Abstract
Recently, an improved surface wave-enabled communication fabric has been proposed to solve the reliability issues of emerging hybrid wired-wireless Network-on-Chip (WiNoC) architectures. Thus, providing a promising solution to the performance and scalability demands of the fast-paced technological growth towards exascale and Big-Data processing on future System-on-Chip (SoC) design. However, WiNoCs trade-off optimized performance for cost by restricting the number of area and power hungry wireless nodes. Consequently, in this paper, we propose a low-latency adaptive router with a low-complexity single-cycle bypassing mechanism to alleviate the performance degradation due to the slow wired routers in such emerging hyhbrid NoCs. The proposed router is able to redistribute traffic in the network to alleviate average packet latency at both low and high traffic conditions. As a second contribution the paper presents an experimental evaluation of a practically implemented surface wave communication fabric. By reducing the latency between the wired nodes and wireless nodes the proposed router can improve performance efficiency in terms of average packet delay by an average of 50% in WiNoCs.


All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with. Twitter: @scottturneruon

Tuesday 22 November 2016

BCS Bedford event: Cybercrime - Prevent and Protect



Cybercrime - Prevent and Protect
Sean O’Neil and Danny Howett "AN Investigator", Bedfordshire Police

Wednesday, 23th November 2016
7.00-8.00pm
(Registration starts at 6:30pm)
Pilgrim Suite, Park Inn Hotel, 2 St Mary's Street, Bedford MK42 0AR
(Free Parking at the rear – Inform Hotel Reception on arrival )



Register online at: https://events.bcs.org/book/2327/ 

Agenda
6.30pm                        Registration, refreshments and networking
7.00pm                        Talk by Sean O’Neil and Danny Howett "AN Investigator"
7.40pm                        Questions and Answers
8.00pm                        Networking

Speakers:


Sean O’Neil  LLb (Hon) MSyl, has extensive law enforcement experience having served for 30 years in UK Police service.  He was a fully qualified ‘Senior Investigating Officer’ (SIO), with vast experience in dealing with ‘Critical incidents’ and ‘Crisis Management’ affecting organisational reputation.  He is now tasked to provide cyber security advice to business; to help prevent cybercrime attacks and bring companies together to learn and tackle cyber enabled crime.


All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with. Twitter: @scottturneruon

Monday 21 November 2016

SDQ: Software Defined Networking experimentation framework




Fawcett, L.Mu, M.Broadbent, M.Hart, N. and Race, N. (2016) SDQ: enabling rapid QoE experimentation using Software Defined Networking. In: IFIP/IEEE International Symposium on Integrated Network Management. New York: IEEE. (Accepted)

Abstract
The emerging network paradigm of Software Defined Networking (SDN) has been increasingly adopted to improve the Quality of Experiences (QoE) across multiple HTTP adaptive streaming (HAS) instances. However, there is currently a gap between research and reality in this field. QoE models, which offer user-level context to network management processes, are often tested in a simulation environment. Such environments do not consider the effects that network protocols, client programs, and other real world factors may have on the outcomes. Ultimately, this can lead to models not functioning as expected in real networks. On the other hand, setting up an experiment that reflects reality is a time consuming process requiring expert knowledge. This paper shares designs and guidelines of an SDN experimentation framework (SDQ), which offers rapid evaluation of QoE models using real network infrastructures.

To be presented at:
15th International Federation for Information Processing/Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IFIP/IEEE) International Symposium on Integrated Network Management (IM2017) http://im2017.ieee-im.org/
Lisbon, Portugal
08-12 May 2017

All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with. Twitter: @scottturneruon

Thursday 17 November 2016

Lecturer and MSc Student have journal paper accepted

Bhebhe, W. and Opoku Agyeman, M. (2016) 

Communications on Applied Electronics. 
2394-4714.


Abstract
The search goes on for another ground breaking phenomenon to reduce the ever-increasing disparity between the CPU performance and storage. There are encouraging breakthroughs in enhancing CPU performance through fabrication technologies and changes in chip designs but not as much luck has been struck with regards to the computer storage resulting in material negative system performance. A lot of research effort has been put on finding techniques that can improve the energy efficiency of cache architectures. This work is a survey of energy saving techniques which are grouped on whether they save the dynamic energy, leakage energy or both. Needless to mention, the aim of this work is to compile a quick reference guide of energy saving techniques from 2013 to 2016 for engineers, researchers and students.



All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with. Twitter: @scottturneruon

Wednesday 16 November 2016

Michael wins his second award.

Opoku Agyeman, M.Vien, Q.-T. and Mak, T. (2016) 
IEEE/IFIP International Conference on Embedded and Ubiquitous Computing (EUC 2016). 
France: IEEE Computer Society

Abstract
Recently wireless Networks-on-Chip (WiNoCs) have been proposed to overcome the scalability and performance limitations of traditional multi-hop wired NoC architectures. However, the adaptation of wireless technology for on-chip communication is still in its infancy. Consequently, several challenges such as simulation and design tools that consider the technological constraints imposed by the wireless channel are yet to be addressed. To this end, in this paper, we propose and efficient channel model for WiNoCs which takes into account practical issues and constraints of the propagation medium, such as transmission frequency, operating temperature, ambient pressure and distance between the on-chip antennas. The proposed channel model demonstrates that total path loss of the wireless channel in WiNoCs suffers from not only dielectric propagation loss (DPL) but also molecular absorption attenuation (MAA) which reduces the reliability of the system.

some related posts





All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with. Twitter: @scottturneruon

Tuesday 15 November 2016

Mini Project: Bibliographic Analysis of Computing

I have been curious about tools for analysing social connections for a while.


In this post I am looking at a couple of ways to analyse bibliographic relationships. Starting with the simplest, Word Clouds but then  at an interesting tool VosViewer discussed previously. All the data is taken from the University of Northampton's Research Repository - Nectar - for members of the academic Computing team.  




Word Clouds

The image above is based on data for all the listed publications for the computing team since 2011. It includes the authors, title, conference, etc; but no abstract. It takes quite a bit of editing and really all that is being shown is the Authors name for the most published authors and a few key terms. Provides a nice snap shot but is difficult to interpret.




Co-author Analysis
Here is the same data but processed using software that is only looking at the authors and showing how many times a particular pair have published together. Some interconnections between authors can be seen.


Text Analysis
This is the same tool as above, but this time looking at the text within the title and abstracts. All words in the title and abstract of the papers; but using binary counting (so a term is only counted once per publication) and allowing only the terms with 60% highest relevance through; you can get a graph like the one below. Personally I the graph find beautiful, gives a sense of a lot going on; but is difficult to interpret.


Now repeating the same exercise but with only words that appear at least three times.

The groups are clearer. This group has some interesting subject area coming out; for example wireless networking and machine-to-machine communicaton; alongside pedagogic, cultural research and sensors for animals.


Let us apply this last approach to some individual cases
Case Study 1: Mid-Research Career Academic



Case Study 2: Mid-Research Career Academic 2


In both Case Study 1 and 2, there are several groupings. Case study 1 the subjects in the groupings are more diverse than in case study 2, which has greater specialisation.


Case Study 3: Early Career Researcher
Greater separation in the groups (though three groups are related in terms of subject) than in the first two case studies. This is in part may be due to the smaller number of papers compared to the first two case studies (between four to eight times fewer).

Case Study 4: PhD by Publication Candidate

There is a stronger inter-relationships between the groups, than has been in some of the other case studies. This, I would argue, is a positive feature for someone pursuing a PhD by publication; suggesting a coherent 'story' to their publications.




All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with. Twitter: @scottturneruon

Sunday 13 November 2016

What do we do ? - bibliographic analysis

In an earlier post looked at the interconnections since 2011 of members of the Computing team at the University of Northampton, as viewed through data available in the University's Research Repository.


In the following images the most commonly (appears at least 3 times in either the title or abstract of papers) words are displayed. The data was processed using the VosViewer from the Centre for Science and Technology Studies, Leiden University, The Netherlands.


The image above is for the whole of the Computing publications listed and suggests since 2011 an emphasis on education, networking and modelling; with some 'islands' around data analysis; system design; network on a chip and interestingly 'clinical symptom' (which is probably related to some work with data analysis of animal health).


The two images below are taken from individual's team memeber's data within the repository. The criteria for inclusion was words that had appeared three or more times in either the title or the abstract - a word was only counted once per paper.



The one above covers data for one person; and seems to include areas around robots and problem-solving; modeling of systems.




This one seems to have groupings around smart cities; development of technology processes; simulation; and vehicle-to-vehicle communications.



All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with. Twitter: @scottturneruon

Saturday 12 November 2016

Social Analysis of Publications

The Computing staff's network of co-authors, at the University of Northampton, based on the University's  research repository NECTAR - http://nectar.northampton.ac.uk/view/divisions/SSTCT.html on 12th November 2016. The data goes back to 2010.




The data was analysed using the software VOSviewer - http://www.vosviewer.com/ free software for visualising networks. Differences in colours represents, the clusters of publications with those authors picked out by the software. The relative size of the circles is the relative number of publications listed; so for the two biggest circles/hubs it relates to 55 and 34 publications in this time period. Some relatively new authors, to the University but not to research, explains some of the 'islands' and the number of publications within it - it only reflects publications whilst at the University of Northampton.

To dig a little deeper, going to  look at the two biggest 'hubs' through their NECTAR records, so potentially going back before 2010.


To see the source data:
http://nectar.northampton.ac.uk/view/people/Turner=3AScott_J=3A=3A.html as of 12th of November 2016.

To see the source data: http://nectar.northampton.ac.uk/view/people/Al-Sherbaz=3AAli=3A=3A.html as of 12th of November 2016.

The line thicknesses reflect the amount of collaboration (papers) between authors. My personal views it shows a mixture of working with some key co-authors, as well as also working with wider sets of authors is a positive strategy.


All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with. Twitter: @scottturneruon

Thursday 10 November 2016

Computing Publication 2016 - October update - 36 and counting




  1. Abbas, R.Al-Sherbaz, A.Bennecer, A. and Picton, P. (2016) Development of scheduling process for the M2M communications system in smart cites. Panel Presentation presented to: School of Science and Technology Annual Research Conference, Newton Building, The University of Northampton, 02 March 2016. (Unpublished)
  2. Abbas, R.Al-Sherbaz, A.Bennecer, A. and Picton, P. (2016) Scheduling process for the M2M communications system in smart cites. Seminar Presentation presented to: The University of Northampton Graduate School Postgraduate Researcher (PGR) Conference 2016, Northampton, 14 June 2016.
  3. Ajit, S. and Dodds, J. (2016) Student perceptions of automated marking and feedback system in computing. Poster presented to: Higher Education Academy Annual STEM Conference 2016: Inspire to Succeed: Transforming Teaching and Learning in STEM, East Midlands Conference Centre, Nottingham, 28-29 January 2016.
  4. Al Barrak, A.Al-Sherbaz, A.Kanakis, T. and Crockett, R. G. M. (2016) Utilisation of multipath phenomenon to improve the performance of BCH and RS codes. In: 8th Computer Science & Electronic Engineering Conference. New York: IEEE. (Accepted)
  5. Al-Dabbagh, M.Al-Sherbaz, A. and Turner, S. J. (2016) Development [of] a real-time ITS using VANETs: a case study for Northampton Town. In: SAI Intelligent Systems Conference 2016. IEEE. (Accepted)
  6. Al-Rubaye, Z. (2016) Lameness detection in sheep through behavioural sensor data analysis. Poster presented to: Graduate School 11th Annual Poster Competition, The University of Northampton, 18 May 2016. (Unpublished)
  7. Al-Rubaye, Z.Al-Sherbaz, A.McCormick, W. D. and Turner, S. J. (2016) Lameness detection in sheep through the analysis of the wireless sensor data. Workshop presented to: The University of Northampton Graduate School Postgraduate Researcher (PGR) Conference 2016, Northampton, 14 June 2016.
  8. Al-Rubaye, Z.Al-Sherbaz, A.McCormick, W. D. and Turner, S. J. (2016) The use of multivariable wireless sensor data to early detect lameness in sheep. Workshop presented to: School of Science and Technology Annual Research Conference, Newton Building, The University of Northampton, 02 March 2016. (Unpublished)
  9. Al-Sadi, A.Al-Sherbaz, A.Turner, S. J. and Xue, J. (2016) The management of distributed software defined networks in smart cities. Workshop presented to: School of Science and Technology Annual Research Conference, Newton Building, The University of Northampton, 02 March 2016. (Unpublished)
  10. Al-Sadi, A.Al-Sherbaz, A.Xue, J. and Turner, S. J. (2016) Routing algorithm optimization for Software Defined Network WAN.In: Al-Sadeq International Conference on Multidisciplinary in IT and Communication Science and Applications (AIC-MITCSA) - IRAQ (9-10) May. Baghdad, Iraq: IEEE. (Accepted)
  11. Cui, M. H.Knox, D.Opoku Agyeman, M. and MacDonald, R. (2016) Role of music in clinical acupuncture: a cross cultural investigation. In: International Conference on New Music Concepts (ICNMC 2017). Milan, Italy: ABEditore. (Accepted)
  12. Cui, M. H.Michael, O. A.MacDonald, R. and Knox, D. (2016) A cross-cultural exploration of music in history: language, health and art implications. In: International Conference on New Music Concepts (ICNMC 2017). Milan, Italy: ABEditore. (Accepted)
  13. Cui, M. H.Opoku Agyeman, M. and Knox, D. (2016) A cross-cultural study of music in history. International Journal of Culture and History. 2(2), pp. 65-69. 2382-6177.
  14. Edan, N. M.Turner, S. J.Al-Sherbaz, A. and Ajit, S. (2016) Performance evaluation of QoS using SIP & IAX2 VVoIP protocols with CODECS. In: SAI Computing Conference 2016. London: IEEE. 9781467384605. (Accepted)
  15. Hendrix, M.Al-Sherbaz, A. and Victoria, B. (2016) Game based cyber security training: are serious games suitable for cyber security training? International Journal of Serious Games. 3(1), pp. 53-61. 2384-8766.
  16. Hill, G. (2016) Review of a problems-first approach to first year undergraduate programming. In: Wu, B. and Kassel, S. (eds.) Software Engineering Education Going Agile: 11th China-Europe International Symposium on Software Engineering Education (CEISEE 2015). Switzerland: Springer International Publishing. 9783319291659. pp. 73-80.
  17. Maghdi, H.Al-Sherbaz, A.Aljawad, N. and Lami, I. A. (2016) UNILS: Unconstrained Indoors Localization Scheme based on cooperative smartphones networking with onboard inertial, Bluetooth and GNSS devices. In: Proceedings of IEEE/ION PLANS 2016. Savannah, Georgia, USA: IEEE. 9781509020423. pp. 129-136.
  18. Mu, M.Broadbent, M.Farshad, A.Hart, N.Hutchison, D.Ni, Q. and Race, N. (2016) A scalable user fairness model for adaptive video streaming over SDN-assisted future networks. IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications. 0733-8716.
  19. Mu, M.Simpson, S.Farshad, A.Ni, Q. and Race, N. (2016) User-level fairness delivered: network resource allocation for adaptive video streaming. In: 2015 IEEE 23rd International Symposium of Quality of Service (IWQoS). USA: IEEE/ACM. 9781467371131. pp. 85-94.
  20. Mu, M.Simpson, S.Stokking, H. and Race, N. (2016) QoE-aware inter-stream synchronization in open N-screens cloud. In: 2016 13th IEEE Annual Consumer Communications & Networking Conference (CCNC). Las Vegas: IEEE. 9781467392914. pp. 907-915.
  21. Niamut, O.Mu, M.Denazis, S. and Race, N. (2016) Social telemedia: the relationship between social information and networked media. IEEE Computer Magazine. 49(5), pp. 92-97. 0018-9162.
  22. Oakes, J.Johnson, M.Xue, J. and Turner, S. J. (2016) Simplified deployment of virtual machines using an intelligent design engine. In: Proceedings of Science and Information (SAI) Conference 2016. London: IEEE. 9781467384605. (Accepted)
  23. Olajubu, O.Ajit, S.Johnson, M.Turner, S. J.Thomson, S. and Edwards, M. (2016) A textual language for requirement modelling. Workshop presented to: School of Science and Technology Annual Research Conference, Newton Building, The University of Northampton, 02 March 2016.
  24. Opoku Agyeman, M. (2016) A parameterizable channel model for Wireless Networks-on-Chip design. In: 16th Mediterranean Microwave Symposium (MMS2016). IEEE Xplore. (Accepted)
  25. Opoku Agyeman, M.Tong, K. and Mak, T. (2016) An improved wireless communication fabric for performance aware network-on-chip architectures. International Journal of Computing and Digital Systems. 5(2), pp. 161-171. 2210-142X.
  26. Opoku Agyeman, M.Vien, Q.-T.Ahmadinia, A.Yakovlev, A.Tong, K.-F. and Mak, T. (2016) A resilient 2-D waveguide communication fabric for hybrid wired-wireless NoC design. IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems. 1045-9219.
  27. Opoku Agyeman, M.Vien, Q.-T.Hill, G.Turner, S. J. and Mak, T. (2016) An efficient channel model for evaluating Wireless NoC architectures. In: Workshop on Applications for Multi-Core Architectures. IEEE XPLORE. (Accepted)
  28. Opoku Agyeman, M.Vien, Q.-T. and Mak, T. (2016) An analytical channel model for emerging wireless Networks-on-Chip. In: IEEE/IFIP International Conference on Embedded and Ubiquitous Computing (EUC 2016). France: IEEE Computer Society. (Accepted)
  29. Opoku Agyeman, M. and Zong, W. (2016) An efficient 2D router architecture for extending the performance of inhomogeneous 3D NoC-based multi-core architectures. In: SBAC-PAD Workshop on Applications for Multi-Core Architectures. USA: IEEE . (Accepted)
  30. Rose, T. J. and Bakaoukas, A. G. (2016) Algorithms and approaches for procedural terrain generation. In: Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Virtual Worlds and Games for Serious Applications. Barcelona, Spain: Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers. (Accepted)
  31. Sani, Y.Mu, M.Mauthe, A. and Edwards, C. (2016) A Bio-inspired HTTP-based adaptive streaming player. In: 2016 IEEE International Conference on Multimedia and Expo (ICME 2016). Seattle, USA: IEEE. (Accepted)
  32. Turner, S. J. (2016) Enhancing computing student employability skills through partnership working in STEM outreach. In: Wu, B.and Kassel, S. (eds.) Software Engineering Education Going Agile: 11th China-Europe International Symposium on Software Engineering Education (CEISEE 2015). Cham: Springer International Publishing. 9783319291659. pp. 67-71.
  33. Turner, S. J. (2016) Python junkbot. Poster presented to: Python Conference (PyCon) UK 2016, Cardiff, 15-19 September 2016.
  34. Turner, S. J. and Childs, K. (2016) Artists. In: Caldwell, H. and Smith, N. (eds.) Teaching Computing Unplugged in Primary Schools: Exploring Primary Computing Through Practical Activities Away from the Computer. London: Learning Matters. pp. 51-72.
  35. Wen, Z. and Opoku Agyeman, M. (2016) On improving the performance of hybrid wired-wireless Network-on-Chip architectures.In: International Workshop on Network on Chip Architectures (NoCArc 2016). New York: ACM. (Accepted)
  36. Zong, W.Wang, L.Xu, Q. and Opoku Agyeman, M. (2016) SlideAcross: a low-latency adaptive router for chip multi-processor.In: Proceedings of Euromicro DSD/SEAA 2016. Cyprus: IEEE. (Accepted)


All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with. Twitter: @scottturneruon

Tuesday 8 November 2016

efficient 2D router architecture to extend 3D NoC-based multi-core architecture performance

Opoku Agyeman, M. and Zong, W. (2016) An efficient 2D router architecture for extending the performance of inhomogeneous 3D NoC-based multi-core architectures. In: SBAC-PAD Workshop on Applications for Multi-Core Architectures. USA: IEEE . 

Abstract
To meet the performance and scalability demands of the fast-paced technological growth towards exascale and Big-Data processing with the performance bottleneck of conventional metal based interconnects, alternative interconnect fabrics such as inhomogeneous three dimensional integrated Network-on-Chip (3D NoC) has emanated as a cost-effective solution for emerging multi-core design. However, these interconnects trade-off optimized performance for cost by restricting the number of area and power hungry 3D routers. Consequently, in this paper, we propose a low-latency adaptive router with a low-complexity single-cycle bypassing mechanism to alleviate the performance degradation due to the slow 2D routers in inhomogeneous 3D NoCs. By combining the low-complexity bypassing technique with adaptive routing, the proposed router is able to balance the traffic in the network to reduce the average packet latency under various traffic loads. Simulation shows that, the proposed router can reduce the average packet delay by an average of 45% in 3D NoCs.

To read more go http://nectar.northampton.ac.uk/8918/ or http://www.cos.ufrj.br/wamca/program.php

All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with. Twitter: @scottturneruon

Monday 7 November 2016

A parameterizable channel model for Wireless Networks-on-Chip design

Michael, O. A. (2016) A parameterizable channel model for Wireless Networks-on-Chip design. In: 16th Mediterranean Microwave Symposium (MMS2016). IEEE Xplore. 

Abstract
To alleviate the performance degradation due to the slow non-scalable wirelines in conventional Network-on-Chip Wireless Networks-on-Chip (WiNoCs) have emerged as a promising solution. However, on-chip communication poses several constraints on the wireless layer. Hence, there is the need for simulation and design tools that consider the effect of the wireless channel at the nanotechnology level. In this paper, we present a parameterizable channel model for WiNoCs which takes into account practical issues and constraints of the propagation medium. The proposed channel model demonstrates that total path loss of the wireless channel in WiNoCs suffers from not only dielectric propagation loss (DPL) but also molecular absorption attenuation (MAA) which reduces the reliability of the system.

All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with. Twitter: @scottturneruon

Saturday 5 November 2016

How to be an Unplugged Artist

A recently released book Teaching Computing Unplugged in Primary Schools  edited by Helen Caldwell (University of Northampton) and Neil Smith (Open University) has a number of interesting chapters by authors who are passionate about how computing is taught in schools. The central theme is unplugged activities, without using computers, but still teach the fundamental of computational thinking.

Ok, confession time. I co-wrote, along with Katharine Childs (Code Club), Chapter 3 Artists so I am biased here, but I believe in the central theme of Unplugged Computing. Computing, and Computational Thinking in general,  is not just about programming and using a computer (though using computers and  programming are vitally important to Computing) but it is also about many other things including problem-solving, being creative and working collaboratively.

Chapter 3 is about linking these computational thinking ideas to produce visual art, by applying computing principles including  repetition, following and refining algorithms, and abstraction. The chapter also looks, how these links have already being made, with examples such Sol Le Witt where not all the work that was produced by the artist himself, but some by others following his written instructions - in other words an algorithm. There is even a game Thomas's Tangles

The other chapters make links with areas such as Robots, Musicians, Explorers, Magicians, Gamers, Cooks and Scientists.

References

Barr, D., Harrion, J., and Conery, L. (2011) Computational Thinking: A Digital Age Skill for Everyone Leading and Learning with Technology, ISTE, March/April 2011 [accessed via http://www.csta.acm.org/Curriculum/sub/CurrFiles/LLCTArticle.pdf on 26/12/2015]
Barr, V. and Stephenson, C. (2011) Bringing Computational Thinking to K-12, ACM Inroads, Vol 2. No 1, pp 48 - 54 [accessed via http://csta.acm.org/Curriculum/sub/CurrFiles/BarrStephensonInroadsArticle.pdf on 26/12/2015]
https://doi.org/10.1145/1929887.1929905
Computing at School (2013) Computing in the National Curriculum: A guide for primary teachers [accessed via http://www.computingatschool.org.uk/data/uploads/CASPrimaryComputing.pdf on 13/3/2016]
Denning, Peter J. (2009) Beyond Computational Thinking, Communications of the ACM Vol 52, Issue 6, pp 28 - 30 [accessed via http://sgd.cs.colorado.edu/wiki/images/7/71/Denning.pdf on 26/12/2015]
DfE: Department for Education (2013) National Curriculum in England: computing programmes of study
Freedman, J. (2015) Cycloid Drawing Machine [online] URL: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1765367532/cycloid-drawing-machine accessed on 3/3/2016.
Google. 2016 Project Jacquard [online] URL: https://www.google.com/atap/project-jacquard/ accesed on:1/3/2016.
Knuth, D. 1968. Preface, The Art of Programming vol 1., Boston: Addison-Wesley.
Knuth, D. 1996. Foreword. In: Petkovsek, M., Wilf, H., Zeilberger, D. A=B.. Natick: A K Peters/CRC Press, vii.
Koetsier, T., 2001. On the prehistory of programmable machines: Musical automata, looms, calculators. Mechanism and Machine Theory, 36(5), 589-603.
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0094-114X(01)00005-2
Menegus, B (2016) CDMS: Built with Processing [online] URL: http://wheelof.com/sketch/ accessed on 4/3/2016
MoMA. 2012. MoMA| Video Games [online] URL: http://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2012/11/29/video-games-14-in-the-collection-for-starters/ accessed on: 1/3/2016.
Papert, S (1993) The children's machine: Rethinking schools in the age of the computer. New York: Basic books
Pearson M (2011) Generative Art: A practical guide using Processing, New York: Manning, 3-12
Selby, C. and Woollard, J. (2013) Computational thinking: the developing definition University of Southampton [accessed via http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/356481/7/Selby_Woollard_bg_soton_eprints.pdf on 26/12/2015]
The Art Story (2016) Sol LeWitt [online] http://www.theartstory.org/artist-lewitt-sol.htm accessed on: 6/3/2016
Wing, J. (2006) Computational Thinking Communications of the ACM Vol 49 pp 33 - 35 [accessed via https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~15110-s13/Wing06-ct.pdf on 26/12/2015]
https://doi.org/10.1145/1118178.1118215
Wing, J. (2011) Computational Thinking - What and Why The Link - News from the School of Computer Science, Issue 6.0, Spring 2011 [accessed via http://www.cs.cmu.edu/sites/default/files/11-399_The_Link_Newsletter-3.pdf on 26/12/2015]
Liukas L (2015) Activity 7 The Robots Hello Ruby - Adventures in Coding, New York: Feiwel and Friends, 94-97.
Schofield, S (2016) Generative Artworks [online] URL: http://www.simonschofield.net
Turner S (2016) 3 'Art' Scratch Projects [online] URL: http://compuationalthinking.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/3-of-my-scratch-projects-for-week.html accessed on: 12/3/2016.





All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with. Twitter: @scottturneruon