Joan M. Francioni

A Java programming tool for students with visual disabilities

This paper reports on a tool for assisting students with visual disabilities in learning how to program. The tool is meant to be used by computer science majors learning the programming language Java. As part of the developmental process of building this tool, we have implemented a rapid prototype to be used by people with disabilities in order to define appropriate requirements for the full version of the tool. This requires that the prototype is completely usable via a keyboard and speech interface, and it is easily adaptable for trying out different strategies. In this paper, we present the motivation and philosophy of the full tool, called JavaSpeak. We also present the details of a prototype implementation of JavaSpeak.

Debugging parallel programs using sound

Portraying the behavior of parallel programs can be done in a variety of ways. One way is to generate a graphical display related to the program’s behavior so that a user can visualize what happens during the program’s execution. As an alternative to visualization, auralization can also be used to portray the behavior of parallel programs. This paper explores how sound can be used to depict different events that take place during a parallel program’s execution. In particular, the discussion is focused on dis@ibutedmemory parallel programs. Three mappings of execution behavior to sound were studied. The first mapping is related to process communication in a distributed-memory parallel program. The second mapping tracks the load balance of the processors of a system, In the third mapping, the flows-ofcontrol of the parallel processes are mapped to related sounds.

Nonvisual tool for navigating hierarchical structures

The hierarchical structure of a program can be quite complex. As such, many Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) provide graphical representations of program structure at different levels of abstraction. Such representations are not very accessible to non-sighted programmers, as screen readers are not able to portray the underlying hierarchical structure of the information. In this paper, we define a set of requirements for an accessible tree navigation strategy. An implementation of this strategy was developed as a plug-in to the Eclipse IDE and was tested by twelve student programmers. The evaluation of the tool shows the strategy to be an efficient and effective way for a non-sighted programmer to navigate hierarchical structures.

Computer science accessibility for students with visual disabilities

Students with visual disabilities face unique challenges in learning to be computer scientists. These challenges can be overcome, however, with the use of specialized software tools and hardware equipment, collectively called assistive technology. In this paper, we discuss the environment we are using for three students with visual disabilities who are starting in our programs this year. This environment includes a collection of commercial assistive technology and a programming tool that we have developed in-house.

Testing races in parallel programs with an OtOt strategy

Nondeterminism makes concurrent programs difficult to test. The testing task is made more difficult by the presence of races that are deliberately introduced by a programmer. A powerful approach towards testing a concurrent program is to test all instances of its execution for a given input. The only known general purpose run-time testing technique for unrestricted message passing parallel programs} called controlled execution, has exponential complexity (O(pnkg(n))). In this paper, we present a run-time algorithm with polynomial time complexity (O(pkg(n))) for testing for the occurrence of undesired races in a class of message passing parallel programs. This algorithm improves upon the previous technique of controlled execution by using Race Expressions, Race expressions are used for the specification of race conditions based on the program’s context. A OneThread-atOneTime (OtOt) strategy is the basis of this class of techniques for race detection. We have implemented this algorithm in a testing and debugging tool, called mdb, for the Parallel Virtual Machine (PVM) environment [25].

Interdisciplinary application tracks in an undergraduate computer science curriculum

The Computer Science Department at Winona State University revised its curriculum to include an interdisciplinary approach adapted to the study of computer science. The new curriculum consists of a traditional Computer Science option and an Applied Computer Science option consisting of four separate tracks, namely: bioinformatics, computer information systems, geographic information technology, and human computer interaction. This paper describes the design strategy and implementation plan as well as the content of our multi-track Applied Computer Science curriculum.

Breaking the silence: auralization of parallel program behavior

Abstract The run-time behavior of a parallel program is defined by many parameters, for example, the program′s communication structure, the processor utilization profile, and the dynamic size of message queues. To understand the execution of a program, it is frequently necessary for a programmer to consider the run-time behavior from a number of different angles. Also, it is sometimes useful to consider one aspect of the behavior in isolation, whereas other times it is necessary to consider different types of behavior together. Sound offers an alternative form of investigation to simply using multiple graphical and textual views for studying the behavior of a program. In this paper, we discuss the properties of parallel programs that are well suited to being mapped to sound and present a number of example mappings. As evidence of the effectiveness of the sound mappings, we present case studies based on a prototype sound tool. In general, sound was found to be effective in depicting certain patterns and timing information related to the programs′ behaviors. Also, by listening to sound representations that were sychronized with graphical displays, the speed of recognition and distinction of programs, and parts of programs, was increased.

A conference's impact on undergraduate female students

In September of 2000, the 3rd Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing was held in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Along with a colleague from a nearby university, we accompanied seven of our female undergraduate students to this conference. This paper reports on how the conference experience immediately affected these students --- what impressed them, what scared them, what it clarified for them. It also reports on how the context in which these students currently evaluate their ability, potential and opportunity in computer science is different now from what it was before the conference. Hopefully, by understanding their experience, we can gain some insight into things we can do for all of our undergraduate female students to better support their computer science and engineering education.

Aural signatures of parallel programs

The run-time behavior of a program is defined by many parameters, thus it is frequently necessary for a programmer to consider the programs behavior from a number of different angles. This paper discusses the properties of parallel program behavior that, theoretically, can be mapped to sound, such that the natural properties of sound portray significant information about the program. Thus, when an aural display is combined with a graphical display, it will be possible for a user to gain more (or quicker) insight about a programs behavior than by using a graphical display alone. In support of this claim, this paper demonstrates the use of sound as an enhancement to graphical displays for a number of parallel programs. In particular the auralizations allow the listener to detect patterns within parallel program communication behavior and processor utilization distributions. A study of the uniqueness of these patterns, or signatures, is also discussed.<<ETX>>

A debugging standard for high-performance computing

Throughout 1998, the High Performance Debugging Forum worked on defining a base level standard for high performance debuggers. The standard had to meet the sometimes conflicting constraints of being useful to users, realistically implementable by developers, and architecturally independent across multiple platforms. To meet criteria for timeliness, the standard had to be defined in one year and in such a way that it could be implemented within an additional year. The Forum was successful, and in November 1998 released Version 1 of the HPD Standard. Implementations of the standard are currently underway. This paper presents an overview of Version 1 of the standard and an analysis of the process by which the standard was developed. The status of implementation efforts and plans for follow-on efforts are discussed as well.