Haifa Takruri-Rizk

The Gender Subtext of Science, Engineering, and Technology (SET) Organizations: A Review and Critique

Despite over 30 years of equality legislation, women in science, engineering and technology in the U.K. remain severely under-represented. This article explores the broad array of explanations for this concern, beyond palpable sex discrimination. This literature review employs a complex range of complementary and conflicting approaches over multiple disciplines, reflecting the complexity of gender identity, stereotyping and inter-sex relations. We then discuss how certain structural, cultural, identity, and interactional arrangements combine to hinder the effective operation of the equality agendas in the workplace, and suggest how a “diversity” approach to equal opportunities is the way forward to eliminate organizational sex segregation.

Enviromote: A New Solar-Harvesting Platform Prototype for Wireless Sensor Networks / Work-in-Progress Report

Wireless sensor networks (wsn), especially those that deal with environmental monitoring which require long periods of unattended operation, are severely limited by the default energy source used; that is battery cells. Based on experiences drawn form real-world deployment of such networks, researchers have come to realise that providing a sustained energy source to the WSN is of outmost importance. Driven by such an incentive and based on ongoing research in the application of WSN to precision irrigation, we present Enviromote; a solar-harvesting, energy-wise upgradeable platform for environmental sensor networks. Design considerations, choices and preliminary results are presented.

Gender Segregation and ICT: An Indo-British Comparison

Gender segregation in science, engineering, construction, technology (SECT) is a common persistent feature, both in India and U.K. Even though culturally the two countries differ in various ways, underrepresentation of women in SECT is widespread and a cause for general apprehension and in recent years this has attracted centre stage in the study of gender, work and family. In this chapter we discuss our research findings of a comparative study undertaken between India and Britain in the ICT sector. With twenty seven interviews with ICT professionals in the two countries, we discuss their views on ICT education, recruitment and employment practices, work-life balance, changing gender relations, opportunities for progression and retention in the two countries taking into consideration women’s role in power and politics in the both countries; how ‘public’ and ‘private’ patriarchy shapes women’s position in the labour market, with an essential backdrop of ‘patrifocality’ in the Indian context. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60960-759-3.ch004

Efficient message transmission method for in-vehicle emergency service

In the event of a traffic accident it is very important to deliver emergency messages to the Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) as soon as the accident occurs in order to help the ambulance and other rescue teams arrive at the scene to offer emergency treatment. The PSAP needs to know at least the location of the accident. The main communication network used to transfer data to the PSAP from the in-vehicle emergency system is the internet or by using normal calls. Therefore, if the user is unconscious or has no access to the internet, the emergency message cannot be completed and the mobile operator cannot exchange data with the PSAP. In this paper, a solution is proposed to use the control channel instead of the data channel to receive emergency messages from the vehicle. The main advantages of this solution are that the connection between the user and the PSAP is always available and the message will transmit even if the user is unconscious.

Efficient Communications for Location-Based Services Using Spare Extensions of Control Channels in Mobile Networks

Location-based services (LBS) are services that are provided to the user according to their location. The components of an LBS needed to secure an end-to-end service successfully are: a mobile terminal; a positioning system; a communications network; and a service and data provider. In normal systems, the communication network used to transfer data and user requests to the data and service provider is the internet. Therefore, if the user has no internet access, the LBS cannot be completed and the mobile operator cannot exchange data with the user. In this paper, a recommended solution is proposed whereby control channels will used instead of data channels to send the user request to and from the service and data provider. The main advantages of this solution are that the connection between the user and the data and service provider is always available especially in case of emergency.

Integrating dual antennas into the wimedia UWB framework for WPANs

Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) technology is a well-established antennae technology that can not only increase system capacity, but can also extend the link coverage area for wireless communication systems. In this paper, MIMO technology has been applied to Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPANs) that operate in the license free Ultra Wide Band (UWB) spectrum. A dual antenna configuration applying Dual Circular DC32-QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation) is proposed for indoor wireless systems that can improve the transmitting rate and coverage area for range demanding applications. Simulation results in terms of a performance analysis of bit error rates and throughput are then presented, and shown that significant improvements in the proposed model over traditional systems can be obtained.

Transmission of medical messages of patient using control signal of cellular network

Abstract The healthcare system needs to track and monitor patients’ status and information. One of the most important requirements is that the patient is able to access the service anywhere at any time. Systems are being developed using the Internet to monitor patients’ status, and in some areas, especially rural areas and motorways, the Internet may not be available, even though the mobile network is available. In some cases, the network might be overloaded, so the patient information cannot be delivered to the hospital or medical centre. We propose a new method that uses the spare extension of the random access channel (RACH), which is carried by physical random access channel (PRACH) to send the patient information to the medical centre. We present the mathematical model of the channel and compare the results with another system from 3GPP to evaluate the results. The results show that the proposed method needs less time to transmit the patient’s information.

Improving the energy efficiency for the WBSN bottleneck zone based on random linear network coding

The reduction of energy consumption and the successful delivery of data are important for a wireless body sensor network (WBSN). Many studies have been performed to improve energy efficiency, but most of them have not focused on the biosensor nodes in the WBSN bottleneck zone. Energy consumption is a critical issue in WBSNs, as the nodes that are placed next to the sink node consume more energy. All biomedical packets are aggregated through these nodes forming a bottleneck zone. This study proposes a novel mathematical model for body area network topology to explain the deployment and connection between biosensor nodes, simple relay nodes, network coding (NC) relay nodes and the sink node. Therefore, this study is dedicated to research both the energy saving and delivery of data if there is a failure in one of the links of the transmission, which relates to the proposed random linear NC model in the WBSN. Using a novel mathematical model for the WBSN, it is apparent that energy consumption is reduced and data delivery achieved with the proposed mechanism. This study details the stages of the research work.

Compatibility of the Palestinian joint MSc in electrical engineering (JMEE) with the EU system of higher education

The Bologna higher education process aims at improving the quality of services and human resources through mutual learning, comparison and exchange of good practice. Some Partner Countries outside the EU have been encouraged to reflect the Bologna specifications in their higher education systems as a result of their international cooperation and in particular their participation in EU programmes such as Tempus. Even though these countries have not signed the Bologna Declaration, they have started initiating reforms using the Bologna Process recommendations and tools on a voluntary basis, as a source of inspiration. The paper considers a joint master programme in electrical engineering, developed under the Tempus project “Joint Master in Electrical Engineering (JMEE)”, and particularly the compatibility of the programme with the EU system of Higher Education. The JMEE programme is developed by all project partners - three Palestinian universities, four EU universities and two Palestinian companies. The main focus is curriculum reform in electrical engineering higher education by developing the first electrical engineering Master of Science Programme in Palestine, as well as promotion of the Bologna HE process. Studies of the Bologna process in the Partner courtiers are presented in the paper. Analyses of the EU guidelines for developing a successful joint programme is done. The most important actions and good practices are provided: joint coordination and external representation of the consortium; joint development; joint quality assurance; joint financial administration; joint student administration; joint promotion of the programme and joint student recruitment. The structure of the developed joint master programme is presented. The JMEE programme is two years master programme and according to the European Qualification Framework (EQF) it corresponds to the 7th level - Masters degree after obtaining a professional bachelors degree. The JMEE programme was accredited by the Palestinian Accreditation and Quality Assurance Commission. The role of Palestinian universities, Palestinian industry and EU university partners in the development of the JMEE is presented. The joint actions of the consortium according to the EU guidelines in the stage of the development of the programme are analysed: Defining the need for the programme; Market and technical studies, Financial study, Defining the target student group, Content development, etc. A comparison of the Palestinian credit systems, used in JMEE and European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) is done. The Intended Learning Outcomes (ILO) groups defined in the JMEE are presented. A comparison of the ILOs and the learning outcomes defined in EQF is presented. In general the elements of compatibility of the JMEE with the EU system of Higher Education and particularly the EU policy and guidelines for the joint programmes are analysed. Based on the evaluation some conclusions are made.

Integrating dual antennas with hybrid dual circular 32-quadrature amplitude modulation to increase the coverage area for wireless sensor networks

WSN’s and WPAN technologies continue to develop rapidly with integration into numerous applications. The ever increasing demands on these systems require that radio transceiver extended their coverage area and adopt more efficient algorithms to full fill the requirements of new applications. In this paper, a unique application of Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) technology is applied to the application of WSN’s in order to dynamically extend range and thus overall coverage area. The scheme incorporates multiple antennas with Dual Circular 32-QAM modulation for MB-OFDM based systems in order to increase the wireless communication range. Simulation results are then presented that have shown a significant improvement in the system performance in terms of the bit error rate and also signal to noise power ratio