In this thesis, we study the importance of background knowledge in relation extraction systems. We not only demonstrate the benefits of leveraging background knowledge to improve the systems' performance but also propose a principled framework that allows one to effectively incorporate knowledge into statistical machine learning models for…

The demands of an increasingly knowledge-based society and the dramatic advances in mobile phone technology are combining to spur the growth of mobile learning (mLearning). However, for mLearning to attain its full potential, it is essential to develop pedagogy and instructional design tailored to the needs of this new learning environment. At…

This dissertation bridges the fields of haptics, engineering, and education to realize some of the potential benefits haptic devices may have in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education. Specifically, this dissertation demonstrates the development, implementation, and assessment of two haptic devices in engineering and math…

Natural Language Generation (NLG) is the process of generating natural language text from an input, which is a communicative goal and a database or knowledge base. Informally, the architecture of a standard NLG system consists of the following modules (Reiter and Dale, 2000): content determination, sentence planning (or microplanning) and surface…

With the advent of ubiquitous computing, interaction design has broadened its object of inquiry into how smart computational artifacts inconspicuously act in people's everyday lives. Although user-centered design approaches remains useful for exploring how people cope with interactive systems, they cannot explain how this new breed of…

The context for this work is two-agent team decision systems. An "agent" is an intelligent entity that can measure some aspect of its environment, process information and possibly influence the environment through its action. In a collaborative two-agent team decision system, the agents can be coupled by noisy or noiseless interactions…

The article aims to illuminate the character of Web 2.0 based on a reading of Martin Heidegger in order to provoke new epistemological questions about Web 2.0 and knowledge formation. The article applies the ontological grounds on which Heidegger described being-in-world and worldliness to the phenomenon of Web 2.0. The article states that Web 2.0…

It was just a generation ago that computers entered the workplace. Back then, they only "represented" the work we did, nothing else. But today, some sort of computing device is involved in how we play, how we communicate, how we get our news and of course, how we work. What this means is that today almost all aspects of our lives are "represented"…

The primary purpose of this study was to replicate and extend a study by Gravina, Austin, Schroedter, and Loewy (2008). A similar self-monitoring procedure, with the addition of self-monitoring accuracy training, was implemented to increase the percentage of observations in which participants worked in neutral postures. The accuracy training…

The significance of teaching the basics of engineering education in middle- and high-schools is generally acknowledged by policy makers, teachers and researchers in the U.S.A. as well as a number of developed and developing countries. Nevertheless, engineering topics are rarely covered by precollege curriculums. A key contributing factor is that…

The juxtaposition of classic sociological theory and the, relatively, young discipline of human-computer interaction (HCI) serves as a powerful mechanism for both exploring the theoretical impacts of technology on human interactions as well as the application of technological systems to moderate interactions. It is the intent of this dissertation…

Automation can mitigate issues when scaling and managing quality and identity in public discourse on the web. Discourse needs to be curated and filtered. Anonymous speech has to be supported while handling adversaries. Reliance on human curators or analysts does not scale and content can be missed. These scaling and management issues include the…

This study represents a research validating the efficacy of Davis' Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) by pairing it with the Organizational Change Readiness Theory (OCRT) to develop another extension to the TAM, using the medical Laboratory Information Systems (LIS)--Electronic Health Records (EHR) interface as the medium. The TAM posits that it is…

Technology offers three major benefits to world history teachers: an online supply of supplemental resources; access to creative tools; and the opportunity for students to collaborate. These three positive contributions vary in the degree of involvement they require of students. Supplemental resources offer or display information, but often lack a…

Numerous efforts seek to increase awareness, interest, and participation in scientific and technological fields at the precollege level. Studies have shown these students are at a critical age where exposure to engineering and other related fields such as science, mathematics, and technology greatly impact their career goals. A variety of advanced…