TAM, Vincent W.L. (Dept. of EEE, The University of Hong Kong) http://citers2013.cite.hku.hk/en/paper_616.htm --------------------------- Author(s) bear(s) the responsibility in case of any infringement of the Intellectual Property Rights of third parties. --------------------------- CITE was notified by the author(s) that if the presentation slides contain any personal particulars, records and personal data (as defined in the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance) such as names, email addresses, photos of students, etc, the author(s) have/has obtained the corresponding person's consent.

1. Cloud + Simulators - Dr. V. Tam (HKU-EEE) 1
By Dr. V. Tam, Alex Yi, Edmund Y. Lam, Allan H.K. Yuen and Cecilia Chan

2. So, it’s a joint project among..
Cloud + Simulators - Dr. V. Tam (HKU-EEE) 2

3. An Overview
 Cloud Computing
 The Past Development of the COMPAD Simulator
 The NEW COMPAD+ : Background & Motivation
 Existing System Features of COMPAD+ on a Cloud
Computing Platform
 Evaluations
 Extensions
 A Quick Demo.
Cloud + Simulators - Dr. V. Tam (HKU-EEE) 3

4. Cloud Computing…
 More than the iCloud / Dropbox / Google Drive
mainly for personal data storage and synchronization;
 The Cloud Computing platforms such as the Amazon
Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) and Microsoft
Windows Azure may provide powerful/reliable
computation or data security for significant tasks;
 Such tasks may include personalized/intelligent info.
search, image processing/recognitions, simulations, or
e-learning games
therefore “Infinite Possibility” !!
Cloud + Simulators - Dr. V. Tam (HKU-EEE) 4

5. The Past Development of COMPAD
 COMPAD – Learning PAD for COMputer systems;
 An interactive (pen/touch-based) simulator project
initiated in 2008 and developed on the Samsung Q1
tablet using the Microsoft Digital Ink Library;
 Project URL: http://www.eee.hku.hk/~compad/
Cloud + Simulators - Dr. V. Tam (HKU-EEE) 5

6. Results of the COMPAD Project..
 Students’ feedbacks: the
COMPAD simulator was used
in tutorial classes of a course
since 2008 and received +ve feedbacks
(ar. 70% of the students considered it
as “a useful tool to facilitate their
learning”)
 Research results: 1 jour. paper & 3
conference papers were published.
Cloud + Simulators - Dr. V. Tam (HKU-EEE) 6

7. Results of the COMPAD Project..
 Invited Talks: the P.I. was
invited twice to share their work
in Beijing (one in the Mobile
Comp. in Ed. Workshop’ 09) as
organized by the MSRA;
 Selected as one of the “Project
Hightlights” by the MSRA.
Cloud + Simulators - Dr. V. Tam (HKU-EEE) 7

8. The NEW COMPAD+
- Background & Motivation
 Tap off the exciting opportunities of Cloud
Computing to facilitate students’ learning,
esp. thru’ interactive simulations;
 Definitely NOT just an increment (delta) to the
original project !!
 Definitely NOT a “make-up” version of the original
simulator on the conventional “client-server” model !
Cloud + Simulators - Dr. V. Tam (HKU-EEE) 8
SO, WHAT IS IT ??

9. The Existing Features of the NEW
COMPAD+
 Flexible Simulation Models built on the
Cloud Storage that may readily support
various computer architectures;
 Powerful computation empowered by the
Cloud Service (on the Cloud Server) to
support any complex simulation as required;
 Customizable user interface run on any web
browser [supporting the HTML5], thus
platform-independent !!
Cloud + Simulators - Dr. V. Tam (HKU-EEE) 9

10. Evaluations !
 Already applied in 2 tutorials – 1 mid-term
(March/2013) and 1 by the end (April/2013);
 The evaluations were done thru’ survey questionnaires
designed by the CETL@HKU and Dr. Allan Yuen (Fac.
of Edu, HKU);
 Both sets of evaluation results were being analyzed,
esp. with some preliminary results looked +ve;
 Also planned to apply & evaluate on another MSc
course [ELEC 6036 – High Perf. Comp. Arch.] to be
offered in the upcoming June – July, 2013.
Cloud + Simulators - Dr. V. Tam (HKU-EEE) 10

11. Future Extensions !
 E-learning quiz games including some short quiz
questions (possibly more FUN ;-) retrieved from the
Cloud server to test students’ understanding;
 Learning Analytics – thru’ integrating with quiz /
question banks, “effectiveness” of interactive
simulations delivered by our COMPAD+ to facilitate
students’ learning (in LOG files) can be systematically
analyzed;
 Integration with existing online materials or e-
learning systems;
 Many others…
Cloud + Simulators - Dr. V. Tam (HKU-EEE) 11

12. A Short Demo..
(By my RA Mr. Alex YI)
Cloud + Simulators - Dr. V. Tam (HKU-EEE) 12