This project aims to prepare teachers for the challenges of information technology and its implementation in the classroom. We aim to train them in competitive programming by teaching them problem solving techniques using the Java programming language.
Lead Researcher: Ma. Mercedes T. Rodrigo, Ph.D.
Funded by: Google
The purpose of this project is to model how affect, engagement, and conscientiousness interact and how they influence learning among students using an educational game for physics called Physics Playground (PP). We aim to deploy PP in three schools: one in Luzon, one in Visayas, and one in Mindanao.
Findings from this study will aid in making policy recommendations to the Commission on Higher Education and the Department of Education regarding the use of ICTs in education.
Lead Researcher: Ma. Mercedes T. Rodrigo, Ph.D.
Funded by: Philippine Council for Industry, Energy, and Emerging Technology Research and Development (PCIEERD)
Project Period: December 2014 to November 2015
Surveys have shown that a wide segment of the population know how to send text messages, and although SMS is not media-rich, the technology offers the potential to reach participants in remote places. The project capitalizes on the wide availability of of mobile phones in the Philippines and the country’s extensive SMS network.
Our broad objective is to address the need for informal literacy training opportunities to all interested Filipino learners, paying particular attention to areas that are underserved by traditional schooling. We aim to achieve this through the deployment of adaptive SMS-based Grade 6-level reading modules for English.
Lead Researcher: Ma. Mercedes T. Rodrigo, Ph.D.
Funded by: Philippine Council for Industry, Energy, and Emerging Technology Research and Development (PCIEERD)
Project Period: December 2014 to November 2015
In order to address the general lack of digital learning materials to teach Philippine Social Studies, this project aims to build an augmented reality game that is engaging, educational, and contributes to the preservation of Philippine history. The game will be a 6D curriculum-based application, that uses augmentation using video and audio to display historical content based on learning competencies stipulated in the K-12 curriculum. The project hopes to increase the collection of digital resources available for Philippine History.
Lead Researcher: Ma. Mercedes T. Rodrigo, Ph.D.
Funded by: Commission on Higher Education
Project Period: October 2014 to September 2015
Description of the Workshop
Technology has made strides investigating how computational models of emotions can be built. In recent years, Computer Science researchers have realized that emotion models cannot be effectively used in real-world applications by themselves. They need to be analyzed in light of human interactions, and treated with other non-verbal cues as social signals to extract meaning from the data.
Right now, there is a need for human-centered systems, i.e. systems that are seamlessly integrated into everyday life, easy to use, multimodal, and anticipatory. These systems widen the breadth of users of computing systems, from the very young to the elderly, as well as to the physically challenged. Empathic systems are human-centered systems.
Empathic computing systems are software or physical context-aware computing systems capable of building user models and provide richer, naturalistic, system-initiated empathic responses with the objective of providing intelligent assistance and support. We view empathy as a cognitive act that involves the perception of the user’s thought, affect (i.e., emotional feeling or mood), intention or goal, activity, and/or situation and a response due to this perception that is supportive of the user. An empathic computing system is ambient intelligent, i.e., it consists of seamlessly integrated ubiquitous networked sensors, microprocessors and software for it to perceive the various user behavioral patterns from multimodal inputs.
Empathic computing systems may be applied to various areas such as e-health, geriatric domestic support, empathic home/space, productivity systems, entertainment and e-learning. Lastly, this approach shall draw upon the expertise in, and theories of, ubiquitous sensor-rich computing, embedded systems, affective computing, user adaptive interfaces, image processing, digital signal processing and machine learning in artificial intelligence.
On its fourth year, IWEC-14 focuses on the role of emotion and its analysis, recognition and synthesis in human-machine interactions, including the use of Artificial Intelligence in solving issues brought about by scientists’ desire to create meaningful human-machine interactions. While primarily data-driven, the workshop this year will investigate how domain knowledge and contextual information can be used to reduce the complexity of emotion analysis and synthesis, as well as empathic response modeling.
Topics of Interest
The workshop will be of interest to researchers working on affective computing, ambient intelligent systems, artificial intelligence and machine learning, including statistical modelling, and digital signal processing. IWEC-14 aims to serve as venue for these researchers to discuss and share ideas, raise concerns and technical issues, and form research relationships for future collaboration.
Review Process
Each submission will undergo a blind review with 3 assigned reviewers.
Important Dates
Workshop Papers due: September 22, 2014
Notification of Acceptance: October 16, 2014
Workshop Proceedings due: November 19, 2014
Workshop Dates: December 1, 2014
