The Third International Conference on eHealth, Telemedicine, and Social Medicine eTELEMED 2011 February 23-28, 2011 - Gosier, Guadeloupe, France

Tutorials

T1. Integrated Web- and Agent-based Computer Supported Collaborative Design
by Dr. Bernadetta Kwintiana Ane, Universität Stuttgart, Germany

T2. Multimodal Environments with Haptic Feedback for e-Learning
by Prof. Dr. Felix G. Hamza-Lup, Armstrong Atlantic State University, USA

 

DETAILS:

T1. Integrated Web- and Agent-based Computer Supported Collaborative Design
by Dr. Bernadetta Kwintiana Ane, Universität Stuttgart, Germany

Summary

The Web was originally developed for information sharing within internationally dispersed teams and the dissemination of information by support groups. A CSCD system developed with the Web as a backbone will primarily provide access to four primary system attributes, i.e. catalogue and design information on components and sub-assemblies, communication among multidisciplinary design team members in multimedia formats, and authenticated access to design tools, services and documents.

A Web-based collaborative design system usually uses a client/server architecture, in which the interaction between components is predefined. This kind of approach is often insufficient to support dynamic collaborative design environments, where tasks are usually involving complex and non-deterministic interactions, producing results that might be ambiguous and incomplete. Therefore, agent technology is introduced as a solution. An agent-based collaborative design system is a loosely coupled network of problem solvers that work together to solve problems that are beyond their individual capabilities (Shen eta al., 2001).

Software agents in such systems are communicative, collaborative, autonomous (or semi-autonomous), reactive (or even proactive), and intelligent. Different system architectures have been proposed and used to implement agent-based systems. Some systems use approaches similar to the blackboard architecture or the client/server architecture, e.g., the Design Board approach in SiFAs (Brown et al., 1995) and the shared graphical modelling approach in ICM (Fruchter, 1996). Most systems use federated system architectures, e.g., a facilitator approach in PACT (Cutkosky, 1993) and a mediator approach in ABCDE (Campbell et al., 1999). While, a few systems use the autonomous agent approach (Shen and Barthes, 1995).

Objective

To provide participants with knowledge and understanding on the basic concept of CSCD, methodology, tools, and architecture that is needed to build an integrated Web- and Agent-based CSCD system at the minimum requirements-level.Content

The tutorial is designed to deliver the following subjects:

1. Introduction: Today’s CSCD application
2. History: CSCW, Collaborative Engineering and CSCD
3. Basic concepts of CSCD
4. CSCD Methodology
5. CSCD Tools
6. CSCD Architecture
7. Web and Agent Technologies for Collaborative Design
8. Case Study: Tracking of Design Changes in mechanical product development
9. CSCD Trends and New Challenges

 

T2. Multimodal Environments with Haptic Feedback for e-Learning
by Prof. Dr. Felix G. Hamza-Lup, Armstrong Atlantic State University, USA

Outline:

• Human - human perception
• Machine - input/output
• Multimodal environments - the VR myth
• Haptics - brief history
• Haptic hardware and software
• Application domains
• E-learning with haptics
• Assessment
• Conclusion