Papers by Josep Casanovas
REsumEn La escuela es un contexto natural donde las estrategias docentes son esenciales para el d... more REsumEn La escuela es un contexto natural donde las estrategias docentes son esenciales para el desarrollo de la competencia lingüística de los alumnos. Analizamos el uso docente de la aplicación digital EVALOE-SSD como instrumento de desarrollo profesional, así como los cambios en su práctica y en las competencias lingüísticas de sus alumnos. La aplicación incluye un cuestionario de 30 ítems, con tres opciones de respuesta. Los participantes son 6 maestras y sus grupos de alumnos y un profesor de inglés de educación secundaria obligatoria y sus alumnos. Durante 4 meses los docentes han utilizado la aplicación una vez a la semana autoevaluando una de sus clases y tomado decisiones. Los resultados indican que los docentes han introducido cambios en sus clases y que las autoevaluaciones finales son más satisfactorias que las iniciales. La EVALOE-SSD es útil para promover la competencia comunicativa y lingüística de los alumnos de diferentes niveles educativos. PalabRas clavE Competencia lingüística, aplicación digital, desarrollo profesional, toma de decisiones, autoevaluación, reflexión docente.
In case of a fire emergency a set of resources are mobilized to response to this critical situati... more In case of a fire emergency a set of resources are mobilized to response to this critical situation. Depending on each emergency scenario the mobilized resources are placed during several days forcing to create shifts to relay the personnel. The vehicles placed in the emergency locations cannot always be used since they are required to perform more critical tasks. This problem can be modelled as a Vehicle Route Problem Pickup and Delivery with Time Windows (VRPPDTW) adding a set of new constraints. Different stochastic variables have critical influence on the performance of the transportation orders. The most important is the pickup since huge delays appear due to firemen maneuvers at the fire front that cannot be interrupted or travelling time from the fire front takes longer due to off-road conditions. A simulation model in combination to an optimization model helps on reducing the search space orienting it and removing infeasible solutions.
Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, 2021
We present a coupled macroscopic traffic and emission modelling system tailored to the Barcelona ... more We present a coupled macroscopic traffic and emission modelling system tailored to the Barcelona metropolitan area that allows estimating hourly road transport emissions at road link level. We use the developed system to perform an emission sensitivity analysis of typically high uncertainty emission features and assess their impact. We also explore the uncertainties of our system compared to a microscopic approach in a representative area of Barcelona. The developed macroscopic system shows a high sensitivity to spatially-resolved vehicle fleet composition inputs, meteorological effects on diesel engines (+19% in NO) and non-exhaust sources (80% of total PM emissions). The comparison with the microscopic system shows that discrepancies grow as a function of the congestion level, up to +65% in NO. The resulting coupled system will be used in further steps of the research to evaluate the impact of traffic management strategies upon urban emissions and air quality levels in Barcelona.
Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Computer Supported Education, 2018
School is an essential context that contributes to children's communicative competence. Decision ... more School is an essential context that contributes to children's communicative competence. Decision Support Systems (DSS) are tools that can help teachers to assess their own practice and to make decisions to improve it (Gregg, 2009). Our aim is the construction, implementation and validation of a digital Decision Support System (EVALOE-DSS), conceived as a teacher empowerment tool for self-assessment and decision making about their teaching practice concerning students' oral skills. Participants are 4 teachers and their groups of students of 4 diverse schools. The research procedure includes: 1) design and development of a DSS for different type of schools; 2) researcher assessment of one classroom observation using EVALOE-DSS; 3) weekly teacher self-assessment of classroom observation and decision making using EVALOE-DSS; 4) analysis of self-assessments, decision making and changes in teaching practices; 5) teacher-researcher assessment of the helpfulness of DSS and introduction of changes. EVALOE-DSS is a multimedia tool consisting of 30 items that assess 5 dimensions: teaching management, instructional design, communicative functions and teacher strategies, students' communicative functions, and students' management. It includes, also, a brief description of each item and a variety of resources to help teachers to make decisions and introduce the actions in their teaching practice.
Issues and Trends in Technology and Human Interaction
ERP implementation success is influenced by a large number of factors, which most of the times ar... more ERP implementation success is influenced by a large number of factors, which most of the times are difficult to measure objectively. User involvement and participation is one of the most cited critical success factors in ERP implementation projects, and one of the most critical ones for the their satisfactory outcome. This study attempts to define a set of metrics for monitoring user involvement and participation within ERP implementation projects by using the Goals/Questions/Metrics method. The results of this work are twofold. First, a literature review is presented on the user involvement and participation topic as related with ERP implementation projects. And second, a Goals/Questions/Metrics preliminary plan is proposed to monitor and control user involvement and participation within ERP implementation projects.
In this paper, we present the first version of a simulator that allows executing models defined u... more In this paper, we present the first version of a simulator that allows executing models defined using Discrete Event System Specification and models defined using Specification and Description Language. Specification and Description Language (SDL) is a graphical language, standardized under the ITU Z.100 recommendation, widely used to represent telecommunication systems, process control and real-time applications in general. Discrete Event System Specification (DEVS) is a formalism widely used on the simulation field to represent Discrete Event Systems. The execution of the DEVS models is based on a transformation of the simulation model DEVS representation to an equivalent SDL representation. To do this, we propose a XML representation for the DEVS models, and a XML representation for SDL models. Also, we implement an algorithm capable to perform this transformation.
Euro-Par 2016: Parallel Processing Workshops, 2017
Execution parallelism in agent-Based Simulation (ABS) allows to deal with complex/large-scale mod... more Execution parallelism in agent-Based Simulation (ABS) allows to deal with complex/large-scale models. This raises the need for runtime environments able to fully exploit hardware parallelism, while jointly offering ABS-suited programming abstractions. In this paper, we target last-generation Parallel Discrete Event Simulation (PDES) platforms for multicore systems. We discuss a programming model to support both implicit (in-place access) and explicit (message passing) interactions across concurrent Logical Processes (LPs). We discuss different loadsharing policies combining event rate and implicit/explicit LPs' interactions. We present a performance study conducted on a synthetic test case, representative of a class of agent-based models.
2016 Winter Simulation Conference (WSC), 2016
Agent-based modeling and simulation is a versatile and promising methodology to capture complex i... more Agent-based modeling and simulation is a versatile and promising methodology to capture complex interactions among entities and their surrounding environment. A great advantage is its ability to model phenomena at a macro scale by exploiting simpler descriptions at a micro level. It has been proven effective in many fields, and it is rapidly becoming a de-facto standard in the study of population dynamics. In this article we study programmability and performance aspects of the last-generation ROOT-Sim speculative PDES environment for multi/many-core shared-memory architectures. ROOT-Sim transparently offers a programming model where interactions can be based on both explicit message passing and in-place state accesses. We introduce programming guidelines for systematic exploitation of these facilities in agent-based simulations, and we study the effects on performance of an innovative load-sharing policy targeting these types of dependencies. An experimental assessment with synthetic and real-world applications is provided, to assess the validity of our proposal. 1 INTRODUCTION Context. Agent-based modeling (ABM) is a simulation technique providing abstract representations of a scenario via a descriptive model targeted at reproducing its evolution through its components, including their decision-making capabilities and interaction patterns. An agent, which is a component of the overall descriptive model, can be defined as an entity (theoretical, virtual, or physical) capable of acting on itself, on the environment in which it evolves, and capable of communicating/interacting with other agents (Jennings, Sycara, and Wooldridge 1998). ABM is very effective in capturing interactions at a macro scale which directly or indirectly come from the way agents behave at a micro scale level. In this sense, the individual or collective interactions among agents can be used to effectively derive properties of general systems which could be difficult to study by using more traditional simulation techniques. Therefore, the intrinsic expressive power offered by ABM makes it a proven solution to explore complex real-world scenarios, such as disaster rescue (
2018 Winter Simulation Conference (WSC), 2018
Probe vehicle (or connected car) data are becoming an important source of real-time travel inform... more Probe vehicle (or connected car) data are becoming an important source of real-time travel information for a variety of intelligent transportation system applications. Since traditional sensors have significant installation and maintenance costs, technological companies are interested in traffic data from these alternative detection techniques for computing traffic-aware shortest routes. This paper analyzes and evaluates the use of data provided by probe vehicles in two reactive navigation strategies and how this affects a set of city and driver key performance indicators. The case study adopts a microscopic simulation approach to emulate real-size fleets of probe cars providing positions and speed data. The paper presents and discusses the modeling approach and the obtained results after conducting an experimental design for a Barcelona district scenario. Moreover, a simulation-based framework is introduced for simplifying the analysis of simulation results and easily visualizing o...
2017 Winter Simulation Conference (WSC), 2017
The CitScale tool is a software platform for visualizing, analyzing and comparing the impacts of ... more The CitScale tool is a software platform for visualizing, analyzing and comparing the impacts of smart city policies based on innovative mobility concepts in urban areas. It places emphasis on new automotive vehicles aimed at reducing traffic or environmental impacts. This paper introduces this traffic simulation-based tool, and two case studies developed for different scenarios in Barcelona City are briefly presented to demonstrate the capabilities of the tool when it is combined with microscopic traffic simulation software. The first case presents an extensive evaluation of new innovative vehicles (electric vehicles, bikes and three-wheeled scooters) and mobility concepts (trip-sharing). In the second one, data provided by connected cars is analyzed in order to compare different developed navigation strategies and how they affect the city. Finally, some of the obtained results from both cases are concisely presented in order to show the potential of the proposed tool.
Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, 2011
The paper introduces a novel method to represent slab avalanche phenomena. The model is based on ... more The paper introduces a novel method to represent slab avalanche phenomena. The model is based on a cellular automaton generalization named m:n-CA k . This generalization allows the use of different layers in a single cellular automaton. Each one of these layers represents the GIS data needed to perform the calculations. The model is represented using Specification and Description Language, and is implemented in C++. The clear separation between the model representation and implementation simplifies the understanding of the behavior that rules the model. We determine experimentally two parameters that generate more accurate results in all the tested scenarios, namely the Penalization Coefficient (K p ) and the Inertial Coefficient (K i ). All the models have been validated using data from the Catalan Pyrenees.
Information Resources …, 2003
ERP implementation project success is influenced by a large number of factors, which most of the ... more ERP implementation project success is influenced by a large number of factors, which most of the time are difficult to measure objectively. User involvement and participation is one of the most cited critical success factors in ERP implementation projects, and one of the most critical ones for their satisfactory outcome. This study attempts to define a set of metrics for monitoring user involvement and participation within ERP implementation projects by using the Goals/Questions/Metrics method. The results of this work are twofold. First, a literature review is presented on the user involvement and participation topic as related with ERP implementation projects. And second, the use of the Goals/Questions/Metrics method is proposed to develop a metrics plan to monitor and control user involvement and participation within ERP implementation projects.
Proceedings of the 2002 Eighth …, 2002
Some researchers have studied the critical success factors in ERP implementations, out of which s... more Some researchers have studied the critical success factors in ERP implementations, out of which sustained management support is cited as the most one. Up to this moment, there is not enough research on the management and operationalization of critical success factors within ERP ...
Americas Conference on Information …, 2002
ERP implementation success is influenced by a large number of factors, which most of the times ar... more ERP implementation success is influenced by a large number of factors, which most of the times are difficult to measure objectively. Adequate Business Process Redesign (BPR) is one of the most cited critical success factors in ERP implementation projects, and one of the most critical ones for the their satisfactory outcome. This study attempts to define a set of metrics for monitoring BPR within ERP implementation projects by using the Goals/Questions/Metrics method. The results of this work are twofold. First, a literature review on the BPR topic as related with ERP implementation projects is presented. And second, a Goals/Questions/Metrics preliminary plan to monitor and control BPR within ERP implementation projects is proposed.
Advances in Engineering Software, 2014
In this work, we present a simulation model that makes it possible to find optimal values for var... more In this work, we present a simulation model that makes it possible to find optimal values for various building parameters and the associated impacts that reduce the energy demand or consumption of the building. In the study, we consider several situations with different levels of thermal insulation. To define and to integrate the different models, a formal language (Specification and Description Language, SDL) is used. The main reason for using this formal language is that it makes it possible to define simulation models from graphical diagrams in an unambiguous and standard way. This simplifies the multidisciplinary interaction between team members. Additionally, the fact that SDL is an ISO standard simplifies its implementation because several tools understand this language. This simplification of the model makes it possible to increase the model credibility and simplify the validation and verification processes. In the present project, the simulation tools used were SDLPS (to rule the main simulation process) and Energy+ (as a calculus engine for energy demand). The interactions between all these tools are detailed and specified in the model, allowing a deeper comprehension of the process that define the life of a building from the point of view of its sustainability.
WSEAS TRANSACTIONS ON COMPUTERS
This paper proposes a set of metrics to evaluate and compare applications in a new but quickly de... more This paper proposes a set of metrics to evaluate and compare applications in a new but quickly developing field – energy management software (EMS) in residential buildings. The goal of the paper is to highlight tendencies and to detect drawbacks of present applications to develop a new one taking into account the results of previous analysis. It shows a shortlist of applications examined. Provides the conclusion drawing to the metrics and proposes main issues to be considered in the development of a new application.
Two of the crucial parts in the process of performing a simulation study are validation and verif... more Two of the crucial parts in the process of performing a simulation study are validation and verification. The reason is these techniques help on increasing the confidence in the model, since it is not possible to demonstrate its absolute validity in all contexts. This paper presents the results of a white-box validation performed in an agent-based simulator for population dynamics. The tool provides a way to simulate the demographic evolution of large populations in a parallel environment. The purpose is to obtain population projections that can be used afterwards for policy analysis. Although the tool has been studied in terms of performance and scalability, its validation hasn't been addressed. With a white-box validation we expect to increase the confidence of policy analysers and social scientists in our simulation model.
Heterogeneity in a City
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Agent-based modeling and simulation is a promising methodology that can be used in the study of p... more Agent-based modeling and simulation is a promising methodology that can be used in the study of population dynamics. We present the design and development of a simulation tool which provides basic support for modeling and simulating agent-based demographic systems. Our results prove that agent-based modeling can work effectively in the study of demographic scenarios which can help to better policy planning and analysis. Moreover, parallel environment looks suitable for the study of large-scale individual-based simulations of this kind. 1
Agent-based simulation validation: A case study in demographic simulation
Abstract—Two of the crucial parts in the process of per-forming a simulation study are validation... more Abstract—Two of the crucial parts in the process of per-forming a simulation study are validation and verification. The reason is these techniques help on increasing the confidence in the model, since it is not possible to demonstrate its absolute validity in all contexts. This paper presents the results of a white-box validation performed in an agent-based simulator for population dynamics. The tool provides a way to simulate the demographic evolution of large populations in a parallel environment. The purpose is to obtain population projections that can be used afterwards for policy analysis. Although the tool has been studied in terms of performance and scalability, its validation hasn’t been addressed. With a white-box valida-tion we expect to increase the confidence of policy analysers and social scientists in our simulation model.
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Papers by Josep Casanovas