Saifullizam Puteh

Fuzzy ambient intelligence for intelligent office environments

In this paper we present an ambient intelligence system for modelling and control of power use within an office environment. We define a multi-scale model of the office worker, consisting of a coarse grained office user profile, together with a fine grained characteristics model to summarise their behaviours. Sensor data gathered from individual offices are used to create these models. Collected data are fuzzified to produce meaningful and understandable descriptions of the workers daily activities. These models of the individuals form the basis of a Dynamic Power Usage Scheme (DPUS) to control individual offices. A trial version of the system has been implemented using individual academic staff offices in a university campus. Experiments have shown that even a simplistic user profile can lead to significant power savings from appropriate control of computers in an office environment.

Damage Equivalent of the Flexible Pavement Variation with Load Applied

Previous research revealed that influence function is strongly influenced the appropriateness of pavement damage prediction and are demanding to be concern in order for better prediction of long term pavement performance. In order to identify the impact of traffic loading condition on the influence function of the pavement toward failure, further stucdy was done to determine the exponential value in the Damage Equivalent Law for varies loading condition and also vehicle speeds. To achieve the aims, the simple quarter truck model was efficiently used with personal computers to predict pavement loading. Towards reality of traffic loading condition will contain a distribution of axles load between unladen and fully laden, the study was further taking into account realistic axle load variation. Results are presented from a study to evaluate the relative influence of truck speed and axle load variation on the stiffness of the asphaltic layer and thus the primary response of the pavement. In conclusion, the exponential value in the Equivalent Damage Law is clearly sensitive to both factor.

Instructional rubrics as an alternative approach for improving practical teaching among teachers candidate

Practical teaching process is different as compared to the theoretical teaching process. Practical teaching in workshops or laboratories requires teachers who have the knowledge, skills and attitude in order to provide high efficiency in the teaching process. Therefore, an instrument that is legal and can be trusted is needed to measure teacher candidate competency value so that the skills can be ensured and enhanced before the teacher candidate step into a practical job later. Existing assessment instruments in Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM) that evaluate the teacher candidate are in the form of a checklist and are not specific towards every construct. Therefore, this study was conducted to design practical teaching assessment rubric to assess teacher candidate teaching at the university. The construction of this rubric involves four phases: Phase 1, the formation of concepts and items; Phase 2, construction sections; Phase 3, pilot study and the validity of the content and Phase 4, data analysis and discussion. This study used a Multiple Facet Rasch Measurement Model version 3.71.4 which involves three facets, namely, items, the examiner, and video teaching students. Examiners consist of 14 students from semester two of, Master of Technical and Vocational Education in UTHM enrolled in the subject of Microteaching in PTV. Meanwhile, student teaching videos were taken from student of Postgraduate Diploma in Education (DPLI), UTHM. The resulting rubric has been reviewed in terms of reliability, value of infit and outfit mean square so that it meets the requirements of the Rasch Measurement Model. Analysis of data results found out that the produced rubric can assess teacher candidate practical lesson in UTHM.

Information processing and knowledge discovery framework for sustainable building environment using multiple sensor network

Building environment plays an important role in ensuring a healthy and productive environment for indoor occupants. However, with the increasing demand for comfortable thermal environment and the call for sustainable building operation, achieving a balance between energy consumption and users thermal preference is challenging. From the informatics perspective, previous studies mainly focused on intelligent building system and occupants activity analysis, while the research on knowledge discovery from building information for optimized building operation is less emphasized. In this paper, we propose a framework for information processing and knowledge discovery for sustainable building environment. Using ubiquitous wireless sensor networks, we showcase how we can feasibly collect and analyze sensory data for the benefit of building environmental assessment and building system control. A case study involving indoor environmental monitoring at two university offices is presented to showcase our approach. We then conclude our work with some discussion on future works.

Federal Road Profile Model Generation Based on Road Scanner Data

In Malaysia, the application of Mechanistic-Empirical approach in pavement design guide is still in early stage of introduction and many more researches need to improve it. One of the task needs is generating road profile model to evaluate the dynamic axle loads from vehicles. Therefore, this study aims to generate a few models of road profiles based on the real road profile data called reference road profiles model using mathematical method. The reference road profiles data are a measurement of new paved federal road in Malaysia. A profiles of two section roads (300 m length each) measured by road scanner were determined from Malaysia Public Work Institute (IKRAM). The Profile Viewing and Analysis software (ProVAL) was used to filter unwanted wavelength, visualized the measured road profile data and obtained the road profile International Roughness Index (IRI). Meanwhile, Matrix Laboratory software (MATLAB) was used to generate road profiles based on Dodds and Robson Power Spectral Density (PSD) approximation equation. The calibration between generated and reference road profiles were examined by correlation coefficient value. From the results, all generated road profiles with correlation coefficient value ranges between −1 < ρ < −0.7 or 0.7 < ρ < 1, gives different IRI values with the reference road profile. However, the differences of IRI values are acceptable (less than 5 %). Therefore, all 56 models of generated road profiles are applicable for long term pavement performance. Although, a road profile model with the same IRI value with a reference profile is the most applicable for long term pavement performance.

University office simulator for energy and comfort optimisation

In this paper, the simulation of the environmental conditions in university offices is addressed. Based on the real data collected from the environment, a flexible simulator is developed which accepts different office worker profiles including expected office occupancy and computer usage. The simulator generates sensory signals which represents different activities and occupancy of the office environment. These signals will then be used to control heating, lighting and computer stand-by mode of operation. The validity of the simulator is verified by tuning the simulator parameters to occupancy data collected by sensory systems from real offices.