Brian R. von Konsky

Anchoring the midurethra restores bladder-neck anatomy and continence

Dynamic perineal ultrasound studies show that midurethral anchoring of vagina prevents bladder neck descent, funnelling, and urine loss on effort. Appearances are consistent with continence control by a musculoelastic mechanism.

Enhancing the social issues components in our computing curriculum: computing for the social good

The acceptance and integration of social issues into computing curricula is still a work in progress twenty years after it was first incorporated into the ACM Computing Curricula. Through an international survey of computing instructors, this paper corroborates prior work showing that most institutions include the societal impact of ICT in their programs. However, topics often concentrate on computer history, codes of ethics and intellectual property, while neglecting broader issues of societal impact. This paper explores how these neglected topics can be better developed through a subtle change of focus to the significant role that ICT plays in addressing the needs of the community. Drawing on the survey and a set of implementation cases, the paper provides guidance by means of examples and resources to empower teaching teams to engage students in the application of ICT to bring about positive social outcomes -- computing for the social good.

Development of professional competencies in engineering education

This paper reports on a study conducted at a Swedish university in which engineering students reflect on their attainment of professional competencies using generic graduate attributes as a guiding framework. In this study, the nine graduate attributes from Curtin University in Perth, Australia were used as this framework. The Swedish students were asked to reflect on their understanding of the competencies, and to select three on which to focus over the course of the semester. Students predominantly selected professional skills, thinking skills, information skills, communication skills, and intercultural understanding. In a subsequent reflection, students were asked to self-assess improvement of their chosen attributes. Results showed that while the teaching staff judged that the students had further developed the competencies, students lacked a framework to see this for themselves and reported difficulty in reflecting on progress in professional competency attainment. This suggests that a more holistic approach should be taken earlier in the degree to focus student attention on professional competencies, and provide ongoing experience reflecting on progressive achievement.

Evaluating Software Inspection Cognition Levels Using Bloom's Taxonomy

This paper reports on results from a pilot study that used Bloom’s Taxonomy to observe cognition levels during software inspections conducted by undergraduate computer science and software engineering students. Cognition levels associated with three different code inspection techniques were investigated. These were the Ad hoc, Abstraction Driven, and Checklist-based reading strategies. Higher cognition levels were observed when using inspection techniques that utilise a more structured reading process. This result highlights the importance of introducing novice programmers to structured code reading strategies. Findings suggest that teaching different software inspection techniques throughout software courses, beginning with structured techniques, is an excellent way to build a student’s critical software reading and analysis skills.

Enhancing the Social Issues Components in our Computing Curriculum: Computing for the Social Good

The acceptance and integration of social issues into computing curricula is still a work in progress twenty years after it was first incorporated into the ACM Computing Curricula. Through an international survey of computing instructors, this paper corroborates prior work showing that most institutions include the societal impact of ICT in their programs. However, topics often concentrate on computer history, codes of ethics and intellectual property, while neglecting broader issues of societal impact. This paper explores how these neglected topics can be better developed through a subtle change of focus to the significant role that ICT plays in addressing the needs of the community. Drawing on the survey and a set of implementation cases, the paper provides guidance by means of examples and resources to empower teaching teams to engage students in the application of ICT to bring about positive social outcomes - computing for the social good.

The Significance of Participant Experience when Evaluating Software Inspection Techniques

Software inspections have been used to improve software quality for 30 years. The Checklist Based Reading strategy has traditionally been the most prevalent reading strategy. Increased Object Oriented usage has raised questions regarding this techniques efficacy, given issues such as delocalisation. This study compared two OO inspection techniques: Use-Case Reading and Usage-Based Reading, with Checklist Based Reading. Students and industry professionals were recruited to participate in the study. The effectiveness of each reading strategy was analysed, and the effect experience had on inspection efficacy. The results showed no significant difference between inspection techniques, whether used by student or professional developers but a significant difference was identified between student and professional developers in applying the different techniques. Qualitative results highlighted the differences in ability between industry and students with respect to what each group considered important when inspecting and writing code. These results highlight the differences between student and industry professionals when applying inspections. Therefore, when selecting participants for empirical software engineering studies, participant experience level must be accounted for within the reporting of results.

Measuring cognition levels in collaborative processes for software engineering code inspections

This paper demonstrates that different software code inspection techniques have the potential to improve developer understanding of code being inspected to varying extents. This suggests that some code inspection techniques may be superior to others with respect to improving the efficacy of future inspections, harnessing collective wisdom, and extending team knowledge and networked intelligence. In particular, this paper reports results from a study of novice developers’ cognitive development during a software inspection training exercise. We found that developers who performed a code inspection prior to modification tended to operate at higher cognitive levels beginning very early in the modification exercise. Those who had not performed an inspection tended to operate at lower cognitive levels for longer periods of time. Results highlight the importance of code inspections in increasing developers’ understanding of a software system. We believe collaboration between academia and industry in studies such as these would benefit the three major stakeholders: academia, industry and graduates.