Alberto Signoretti

ReinSel: A class-based mechanism for feature selection in ensemble of classifiers

Classifier ensembles are systems composed of a set of individual classifiers structured in a parallel way and a combination module, which is responsible for providing the final output of the system. In the design of these systems, diversity is considered as one of the main aspects to be taken into account, since there is no gain in combining identical classification methods. One way of increasing diversity is to provide different datasets (patterns and/or attributes) for the individual classifiers. In this context, it is envisaged to use, for instance, feature selection methods in order to select subsets of attributes for the individual classifiers. In this paper, it is investigated the ReinSel method, which is a class-based feature selection method for ensemble systems. This method is inserted into the filter approach of feature selection methods and it chooses only the attributes that are important only for a specific class through the use of a reinforcement procedure.

Trip 4 All: A Gamified App to Provide a New Way to Elderly People to Travel

Abstract Older adults have much to gain from bringing technology into their daily lives. The extent to which this is possible strongly depends on careful design and accessible, easy to use products, developed using an elderly centered methodology. The senior tourism is a market in expansion and the old travelers need new and innovative technologies to help and support their trips. These technologies should contribute to a fun and safe experience, while promoting feelings of pleasure and self realization. In this paper we follow this design approach and put it to the test in developing the “Trip 4 All”(T4A), an application that works as a gamified virtual assistant to the elderly during a walking tourist visit. The gamified interaction with the visited environment intend to improve motivation to accomplish the visit and make the content absorption more fun and easier. The T4A works on georeferenced maps where the users’ geoposition is a trigger to launch storytelling content and/or challenges based on the aspects of the visited site as such: geographical, art, religious, historic, cultural and human. The success in the challenges give the user prizes, new resources and abilities to try more complex challenges that brings more valuable prizes and so on. Furthermore, the proposed application intend to work as a companion that provides self confidence, support and social integration to elderly tourists.

Using an Affective Attention Focus for Improving the Reasoning Process and Behavior of Intelligent Agents

Simulations based on cognitively rich agents can become a very intensive computing task, especially when the simulated world represents a complex system. Those simulations can however benefit from optimizations coming from the way in which agents react to changes in the simulated environment. This paper presents an approach for improving the efficiency of the decision-making process of autonomous agents in a simulation. The optimization is reached by dynamically adapting the agents perception to a bounded subset of all the agents surrounding elements, which contains only the most important elements for the agent at the current time. In other words, the agent is modeled as having a dynamic focus of attention.

Introducing affective agents in recommendation systems based on relational data clustering

This paper proposes the use of a multi-agent system (MAS) with affective agents in a recommendation system based on relational data clustering. This MAS works as a mediator between the user and the data stored in the system. In the proposed system, after logging in, each user will have an affective agent, called Interface agent, for interaction purposes. This agent models the users data requests according to the users profile and its affective status, sending it to the Recommender agent, which recommends a set of map points to be visualized. The system analyzes the users feedback in order to verify whether the recommended information was satisfactory. This feedback is analyzed through the monitoring of the interaction interface.

Um jogo voltado à prática de gerenciamento de projetos

A educacao a distancia tem ganhado significativa atencao tanto na academia quanto nas iniciativas governamentais. Neste contexto, cresce tambem a preocupacao com a avaliacao da qualidade dos diversos aspectos destes cursos mediados pelas tecnologias da informacao e comunicacao. Apesar de muitos trabalhos discutirem diversos aspectos da avaliacao em Ead, a literatura carece de relatos de experiencia que, especialmente, abordem os cursos tecnicos a distancia que possuem especificidades relevantes. Assim, este trabalho relata uma experiencia onde se avalia e adapta uma das propostas existentes na literatura de avaliacao mediada por foruns, ao contexto dos cursos tecnicos a distancia, constituindo-se esta adaptacao e sua discussao as principais contribuicoes do mesmo.Em Educacao a Distância mediada por meio de Ambientes Virtuais de Aprendizagem, foruns de discussao sao um instrumento importante e amplamente utilizado na articulacao de debates e discussoes entre os atores envolvidos no processo de ensino e aprendizagem. Com a ampla utilizacao dos foruns muitas mensagens sao trocadas e isso, por vezes, excede a capacidade de monitoramento por parte dos professores e tutores. O presente trabalho apresenta a concepcao de um classificador de mensagens de foruns que classifica as mensagens em positivas ou negativas, a fim de identificar mensagens que necessitam de maior atencao. Este trabalho aplica conceitos de mineracao de textos, com o algoritmo SVM obtendo taxas de acerto satisfatorias.Este artigo apresenta o framework Contagious, cujo proposito e estabelecer diretrizes que norteiem a construcao de redes sociais online orientadas a Difusao de Inovacoes. Compreendo-se o fenomeno das redes sociais online como consequencia natural do carater social do ser humano, vislumbrou-se esse meio tecnologico de comunicacao e interacao social como potencial ferramenta para a extensao de praticas educativas, com vistas a formacao do carater integral do cidadao. Para isso, foi adotada a teoria de Difusao de Inovacoes, propria das ciencias sociais. As contribuicoes deste trabalho, portanto, compreendem duas vertentes: a) o mapeamento de principios de uma teoria social na forma de recursos computacionais e; b) um enfoque orientado a educacao sobre as redes sociais online.A proposta do trabalho consiste em desenvolver um sistema para ser usado no celular como ferramenta de auxilio para alfabetizacao, utilizando-se de imagens e sons como forma de facilitar o aprendizado. Como metodo de desenvolvimento utiliza-se o processo P@PSEduc (Processo Agil para Software Educativo) e a ferramenta JME (Java Micro Edition).O crescente uso e difusao de tecnologias Web, a ubiquidade de ferramentas educacionais vem proporcionado verdadeiras revolucoes nos ambientes de ensino. Atualmente, sabe-se que nao mais se deve tratar alunos de forma homogenea, como se assim os fossem. Em face disso, este artigo apresenta um sistema adaptativo de apoio a aprendizagem colaborativa, cujo tema e a construcao e representacao do conhecimento por meio de mapas mentais multimidia. Tal sistema, baseia-se na Teoria da Carga Cognitiva, cuja preocupacao primaria e a facilidade com a qual as informacoes sao processadas pelos individuos.

An Interactive Book Authoring Tool to Introduce Programming Logic in Schools.

In the past years, there was a growing interest in teaching computational thinking in elementary and high school institutions. Although the idea is spread and well accepted among academics, it has been rarely put in practice in the classrooms. Currently, when a programming-related activity is offered, with some few exceptions, it is usually presented as an extra-curricular (optional) activity. However, it does not need to be disassociated from the common school curriculum. The present work is based on the idea that programming logic can be used transversally with different subjects, such as history, geography, science, literacy, mathematics, among others. The authors envisage to accomplish this goal by enabling programming as a supporting tool for teachers and students, allowing them to create digital interactive books. The tool, named piBook, has its main focus in the production of interactive storytelling using non-linear narratives. Besides, it is also possible to create textual games (such as role-playing games), interactive activities (such as quizzes), tutorials, chatbots and similar applications.

An analysis of data distribution methods in classifier combination systems

In systems that combine the outputs of classification methods (combination systems), such as ensembles and multi-agent systems, one of the main constraints is that the base components (classifiers or agents) should be diverse among themselves. In other words, there is clearly no accuracy gain in a system that is composed of a set of identical base components. One way of increasing diversity is through the use of feature selection or data distribution methods in combination systems. In this paper, an investigation of the impact of using data distribution methods among the components of combination systems will be performed. In this investigation, five different methods of data distribution will be used and an analysis of the combination systems, using several different configurations, will be performed. As a result of this analysis, it is aimed to detect which combination systems are more suitable to use feature distribution among the components.

piBook: Introducing Computational Thinking to Diversified Audiences

Information and communication technologies are reshaping the way we live and work. The expectation is that computational thinking will be a pervasive skill in (near-) future professions of ours’ increasingly digitized and responsive economies. Although this idea is spread and well accepted, acquiring such skills often implies attending specialized courses. However, the basic concepts of computational thinking do not need to be a specialized skill learned disassociated from other school curricula. As it is more related with mental tools used in the process of reflecting and solving problems it can be learned by being applied to a large variety of topics.