Stan Kurkovsky

Engaging students through mobile game development

This paper describes using mobile game development as a motivational tool to engage students early in the curriculum. Mobile devices have become an integral part of everyday lives of modern students; using these devices as a part of the coursework may help them see the immediate connections between Computer Science and real-world technology. Compared to traditional game development, programming mobile games is less complex, which enables students with limited programming experience to create playable mobile games within the scope of a single course. Experience presented in this paper may be easily duplicated, but it may be especially useful in the first college-level course for students with CS AP credits.

Using asynchronous discussions to enhance student participation in CS courses

As Computer Science (CS) educators, we are involved in teaching a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses such as database management systems, networking, software development and web development courses. In addition to the traditional classroom environment, we use online and blended teaching methods to enhance student participation and improve the achievement of learning objectives. Typical online supplements to classroom instruction include posting homework, links to external resources, lecture notes and exams online. Asynchronous discussions and synchronous chat sessions provide additional forums outside the classroom for strengthening interaction and enriching the learning experience for students. This paper focuses on how asynchronous discussions can be used to enhance student participation in CS courses; increased participation leads to learning effectiveness, rich involvement with the course content, and student satisfaction.

Educating for mobile computing: addressing the new challenges

Computers that once filled rooms now fit in our pockets, and unlike their predecessors, mobile computers abound. The mobile industry is surging, with more smartphones being sold to consumers than PCs [17]. But does the rise of mobility impact computer science education? We claim that computer science educators must seriously consider mobility as they examine their curriculum. In this working group report, we offer a brief defense of why mobile computing belongs in our courses, summarize our survey of several hundred courses which already incorporate it, and discuss how educators might adopt it in their own courses. We hope that this work will help computer science educators make informed decisions about incorporating mobile computing into their courses and provide examples of such integration on different levels, ranging from individual projects or lecture topics to mobile computing as a learning context for an entire course.

Experiments with Simple Iris Recognition for Mobile Phones

Mobile phones play an increasingly important role on our everyday lives. It is becoming increasingly important to provide a reliable and easy to use method for securing these devices against unauthorized access. This paper describes an approach to adapt iris recognition for resource-constrained mobile phones by reducing its computational complexity. Experimental results indicate adequate run time and quality of recognition that is comparable to other, more complex iris recognition systems developed for mobile devices.

Mobile game development: improving student engagement and motivation in introductory computing courses

Computer games have been accepted as an engaging and motivating tool in the computer science (CS) curriculum. However, designing and implementing a playable game is challenging, and is best done in advanced courses. Games for mobile devices, on the other hand, offer the advantage of being simpler and, thus, easier to program for lower level students. Learning context of mobile game development can be used to reinforce many core programming topics, such as loops, classes, and arrays. Furthermore, it can also be used to expose students in introductory computing courses to a wide range of advanced topics in order to illustrate that CS can be much more than coding. This paper describes the author’s experience with using mobile game development projects in CS I and II, how these projects were integrated into existing courses at several universities, and the lessons learned from this experience.

Pervasive computing: Past, present and future

The paradigm of pervasive computing describes ubiquitous computing environments that provide anytime and anywhere access to information services while making the presence of the system invisible to the user. Pervasive computing envisioned by Mark Weiser emerged at the conjunction of research and development in a number of areas which include embedded and devices and systems, wireless communications, and distributed, mobile and context-aware computing. This paper provides an overview of constituent components of pervasive computing and outlines the current progress made as a result of convergence of these areas of research.

Can mobile game development foster student interest in computer science

Mobile culture refers to an increasingly important role that mobile communication and mobile media play in our everyday lives. Young people are often viewed as the driving force behind the innovation in mobile technology, since they comprise the majority of early adopters and most avid users of mobile gadgets and applications, especially mobile games. Many contemporary college students grew up surrounded by computer games and electronic gadgets and, therefore, may better relate to mobile technology than to the desktops dominating current academic environment. This paper makes the case for using mobile game development as a motivational tool and a learning context in computing curriculum, which is supported by the results of a large student survey. The paper also presents a case study illustrating how mobile game development can be successfully integrated into a breadth-first introductory Computer Science course.

Multimodality in Mobile Computing and Mobile Devices: Methods for Adaptable Usability

Originally designed for interpersonal communication, today mobile devices are capable of connecting their users to a wide variety of Internet-enabled services and applications. Multimodality in Mobile Computing and Mobile Devices: Methods for Adaptable Usability explores a variety of perspectives on multimodal user interface design, describes a variety of novel multimodal applications, and provides real-life experience reports. Containing research from leading international experts, this innovative publication presents core concepts that define multi-modal, multi-channel, and multi-device interactions and their role in mobile, pervasive, and ubiquitous computing.

Using Jini to enable pervasive computing environments

Pervasive computing is a vision aimed at facilitating access to information anywhere and anytime, wherein stationary and mobile devices interact seamlessly to aid the users in their tasks. As the enabling hardware becomes smaller, smarter and cheaper this vision is poised to become a reality. While hardware devices form the building blocks of pervasive environments, a pervasive environment requires a robust software technology that can integrate them into a single cohesive unit. This paper discusses the suitability of Jini networking technology as an enabling and integrating technology used by pervasive environments. Specific issues of Jinis suitability for mobile devices and alternative technologies are also discussed.

Continuous RFID-Enabled Authentication: Privacy Implications

Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology has been used in many application areas, including tracking shipments, inventory control, tracking livestock, locating missing pets, and studying wildlife. Recent years saw a rise in applications where RFID is used to track and monitor people with a broad objective of improving safety and productivity. RFID is now used to track military and law enforce ment personnel, locate lost children in amusement parks, and improve critical response time and efficien cy in hospitals by tracking medical personnel. RFID tags for tracking people can be either worn or implanted, but both methods pose significant ethical challenges to privacy. Applications involving subdermally implanted RFID tags and their ethical and privacy implications have been surveyed. The main focus of this article is on RFID systems that use wearable tags that can be embedded in badges or clothing for employee tracking at the workplace.