Reviving the Blog (Research Update 1)

It's been a while since I had posted a topic in this blog because of no good topic to write and also I am only online once a week. It is not like our school days where we need to update our blogs as required by Dr. Gamboa at least once a week. The past months was really different. The blogosphere where I belong together with my classmates were not as crowded,busy and as informative as before although there are some that are continuously writing nice posts in their blogs. Honestly I really missed blogging that's why I'm starting to revive this blog once again.

After months of posts recession in this blog, I thought of a nice post to start with and I came up having a post with my pending research topic.

I admit that this topic was the hot topic in our blogosphere where everybody in the class were busy updating about their research proposals, consulting each other about the process. I haven't posted any upodate on my research during that time because I am really confused with the topic that I had proposed and also it was very difficult and time consuming for me to learn new concepts in network simulation. I also asked advice from our dean and then he frankly said to me that the topic is too difficult and very time consuming to develop especially for an inexperienced student like me. With this reasons I decided to look for another research topic that is relevant but can be completed within the alloted time. That's why no updates were posted during that span of time. But now that I had the topic already and I am starting to have the proposal for the research topic so it is time for me to do what I haven't done in the past. For my first update is the title of my topic which I believe will be very applicable to our univesity.

"Level of Awareness of Virtual Learning Environments and the Utilization Level of USEP VLE among USEP students"

This will going to be the title of my new research topic. It is more simple than the first one but I think it is also relevant.

The thing that motivates me to conduct this research was that USEP has not gone online learning yet. The new paradigm of learning nowadays is the combination of distance learning and face to face discussion that we commonly known as "blended learning". Although there are some instructors that are using online resources (blogs,e-mails,forums etc.) to support face-to-face discussions,but still the level of awareness and the proficiency of USEP students are not yet determined. The study could also help the university in the future if they will also offer online courses.

My next update would be the objectives and the significance of this study.

My Research Topic Proposal

"Analysis of Network Performance of University of Southeastern Philippines Virtual Laboratories using Simulation Modelling"

Honestly, I am very new to the the field of network simulation and system modelling. Being a neophyte in this area seems to be the biggest hindrance for me that's why there are times that I am about to change that research topic given the fact that I have only 1 semester to complete it. But I am very interested in the topic with regards to data communications and computer networking and other topics that are related to networking in short. This is one of my motivation why I want to pursue this research. Add onto my motivation, I want also to learn new things that are related to computer networking. I also want to contribute to the ideas as far as network simulation is concern. But the biggest motivation of all, I want to prove to myself that I can finish this research inspite being a new to this field and to prove to myself that I am worthy to be called an I.T professional.

Research Update: I am having a hard time constructing the review of related literature since majority of the articles and researches I found were too technical for me and I found a very hard time relating these ideas. But I will do all my best to finish it as soon as possible.

I am currently reading and learning the basics of a network simulator. One of my choice of simulator is the ns simulator which is an open source software for simulation.


I can do it!.....

What Can I Do to Stop Climate Change?

Climate change is any long-term significant change in the “average weather” of a region or the earth as a whole according to wikipedia [1]. This phenomenon which is the earth climate change is normal since earth's climate is dynamic and always changing through a natural cycle [2]. But the 21st century has been facing huge problems which are the results of climate change. It has been the headlines of every articles, main agenda in every international and national conventions and the main topic of every discussion, a hot item anywhere in short. Add on to that the recent press releases in the televisions, newspapers and even in the internet that climate change effects have been going worst and years passed by and immediate but long term plans and solutions must be made to stop the continuing damages. Being a student growing up, this facts which are obviously contradicting each other and had somehow caused some confusion in my young mind. Why are we going to stop climate change if it is natural in nature? In what way climate change destroy the mother earth? These and a lot of questions were running in my mind the first time I encountered such facts. Later as I have grown up and learned a lot from all the information I gathered and learned from school, the answers to all the questions that made me confused for years were finally answered. The latest or the current status of the effects of climate change were already severe and that made me shocked when I knew the causes of transforming the natural occurring climate change into an abnormal force that drives human species from extinction in the near future.

According to www.edugreen.teri.res.in the causes of climate change were categorized into 2 categories; the natural cause or the internal factors and the other one is the non climatic factor, external factors, but it is now commonly called human cause. Natural cause as the word implies, are caused by natural phenomenon that are happening within the earth's natural resources such as volcanic eruptions, continental drift and ocean currents. These phenomenon contribute to climate change. But these phenomenon are natural forces in nature and there's no way for us humans to stop it. But what is really the alarming cause of climate change are those the results of man's daily activities. Because of the fast paced improvement of man's quality of life, the change of earth's climate that are occurring today have been speed up because of man's activities, and this trend has made the whole world worried a lot. The modern climate change is what we commonly known today as the global warming. The sudden rise in the average temperature in the earth had caused major calamities such as flash floods due to rise of sea levels because of melting of ice in some portions of the earth and stronger and frequent typhoons hitting the land. Many researches resulted to a common finding, the cause of this unusual warming in the earth's atmosphere is the increasing volume of greenhouse gases emitted by human being specially carbon dioxide (CO2). During the modern era, the naturally rising carbon dioxide levels are implicated as the primary cause of global warming since 1950. It is very evident that the main reason of such drastic rise in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases emissions is the migration of people to industrialization. The fast changing trend of technology has worsen the problem of proper disposing of greenhouse gases. With more and more industries and devices were created which resulted more jobs for people over the years. More people from rural areas migrated to cities for such opportunities the urbanization has to offer. More agricultural land and forests were converted to urban lands and subdivisions to accommodate more migrating people. This land conversion also has become a cause for the speeding up of climate change. There are different scenarios of climate change contributions but share a common cause; it is technology that is the major contributor to the abnormal change in climate and global warming together with the inappropriate human usage of technologies. The present scene has becoming more complicated and severe because of the blowing number of people around the world all contributing tremendous volume of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) “ that global warming is occurring and that is very likely 90% certain man-made. Sooner or later, this findings could easily increase to 100% if no actions or solutions to be taken. The fight against climate change and global warming is a serious war and everybody should take part of it.

Human being can be described as a criminal armed with high powered weapon and our mother earth is the defenseless victim. Guess what the high powered weapon that slowly killing the victim, “it is the technology”. Time will come our mother earth will die and the hope for saving the earth is in our hands.

The responsibility of finding solutions to stop climate change and global warming lies in the hands not only of the powerful nations and individuals but in the hands of everyone of us, every person living in this world. Everyone should contribute by sharing their knowledge and ideas that leads not only short term but long term solutions. Theres no need to be a superhero with superpowers to save the world from total destruction.

Being a student is not a hindrance in helping to alleviate the speeding climate change and minimizing the global warming. I can't deny that as a student, my capabilities and skills are limited, but in simple ways I can contribute to the world wide combat against climate change. Great things starts from simple beginnings as the saying goes. Experts and environmentalists from all around the world had identified simple solutions to minimize the effects of climate change. As I read some of them, I can't believe that the suggested solutions were very simple and somehow easy to do. Everyone regardless of their professions, status in life and educational attainment can do it.

But why was that the condition of climate change has becoming more severe in these past years if the remedy are very simple? The awareness to these solutions plays a major role in our combat for solving climate change and global warming. No matter how handy and easy the solutions are if everyone doesn't know and not even aware of the problem we are facing right now. Everything will be useless.

Awareness of Climate Change and its Solutions

As a student in the field of Information Technology, helping to the people specially those who are uneducated or unaware of the present situation of global warming and its solutions would be very easy for me. With the help of the internet and the web, proper dissemination of information could be very easy and very fast with the aid of internet resources and activities like blogging, forums, groups and even in social networking sites like multiply and facebook. The message could be relayed to everybody easily and quickly to level up their awareness level to the problem we are facing on global warming. I think if the people are aware, everything will fall into pieces. From this simple and cost efficient solutions, if everyone will do it, we could reduce millions of tons of greenhouse gases we emit on the atmosphere. In lesser time, life goes back to normal. That's the essence of sharing a bit of information to everyone. You help everyone to take part of the world wide combat against global warming without losing anything from you. Another way of disseminating information to increase the level of awareness of everybody is creating a advocacy group in school or in the community to have a full force in fighting climate change and global warming. Just like in the University of Southeastern Philippines – Obrero Campus, an advocacy group composed of Information Technology students were created with the primary goal of disseminating information on the effects of abusing the use of technologies in the environment. The group was called Green Campus Computing. Banners were created by the members of the group and posted it in some portions of the school and in some bulletin boards inside the school for all students and faculty and staff to read and also made them realize that before we have fun using our latest appliances and gadgets, imagine also the effects of using it too much. People in the field of Information Technology has the edge among other fields in our university since we are well acquainted on the latest technologies and its effects in the environment, so its time for us to return the favor.

The academe and the government also play a major role in the awareness level of its respective constituents. These institutions are powerful and influential enough to make its members follow. In the academic sector where I belong, the inclusion of environmental issues and concerns in school curriculum could be of great help and this goes to all school levels, from elementary to college level. If not, conducting seminars and forums about climate change and global warming in schools could again very effective. The government must join world wide conventions and initiatives in fighting global warming and they must relay the message to its citizens thought its different departments.

The biggest challenge for me as a Information Technology student at the same time an advocate against speed up of climate change and global warming was that how can I disseminate such information without creating any misconception or confusion on the their part. It is easy to say to them that using technology is the major contributor of speed up of climate change and global warming, but without causing any trauma that will force them to resist from using technologies. Life without technologies is useless. Technologies have become a commodity because of the benefits they provide to its users and consumers. I think people won't survive if there is no technologies on their side. Everything that is too much is not good and technologies itself is not exempted.

Energy Conservation and Practical Decision Making

Use technologies wisely, this is the best way to explain. We need to conserve every energy that our technologies are using. There are research findings that electronic appliances, gadgets and devices emit huge amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. I think 99% of houses in the cities and urban lands all around the world have 2 or more electronic appliances and in a worst case scenario, majority using all of them at the same time in an average of 20 hours everyday. Try to imagine the volume of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases human being emit everyday and this goes for 365 days a year!. That's how our world has been experiencing right now. The atmosphere has been absorbing poisons coming from us everyday. I'm not saying stop using technologies instead, be practical in using it. Use only technologies or electronic appliances that serves your needs at a given time. Don't use all electronic appliances all together at the same time, this might cause overload and also might cause fire. The smoke coming from burning house could also contribute to climate change. From the average of 20 hours everyday, try to reduce it to 15 hours daily. The 5 hours less could reduce our greenhouse gases emission of a huge volume and could extend our existence here on earth for few hours. Unplugging appliances you are not using, scheduled ironing of clothes and turning of the lights when no one is using could be practical ways of conserving energy while saving some money from your electricity bills. Proper discipline and practicality of using technologies could be of great help in fighting global warming and climate change.

According to Sharon Hays, the leader of the U.S delegation of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (2007) in Paris, France and also the deputy director for Science at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, “the U.S which emits the most greenhouse gases, has so far not accepted any form of reduction in such emissions, either as part of international efforts or domestically.” I wasn't surprise that U.S is the number one when it comes to the greenhouse gases emission since it is very evident in the civilization and the technology advancements of the country. But what made me really surprised was that the americans has not supported any efforts both globally and locally when it comes to fighting against climate change and global warming. They are reluctant to support maybe because they are afraid to lose a penny from their wallets and they don't want to sacrifice a little time of their pleasures for the benefit of everybody. I understand that people of these days specially in the highly civilized countries like U.S.A and Japan to live without technology but its up to their conscience. They are old enough to know what is right and wrong. The Philippines is a 3rd world country, and we emit a little less greenhouse gases than those countries like Japan and U.S. But what made me really frustrated was that 3rd world countries like the Philippines were those who were badly affected by global warming and climate change. Stronger typhoons hit the country leaving thousands of people homeless and killings lives of defenseless people. The forces of nature will not identify american or japanese to be its casualties (just a joke). What's the message of this is that why wait for them to action? We have our own little way of fighting global warming. According to Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the U.N Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), “ The economic costs of waiting to act will be severe.”. Theres no need to wait if we already have the solution.

Everybody has the luxury of using technologies for our own good. We have the right to use it provided we can afford to have it. People in the field of Information Technology like me even though I'm still a student must adopt to what's the latest technologies in the market. Sadly sometimes I can't afford to do so. At first, I was somehow frustrated but later I realized that always having the latest technologies in the market was not always good and could also contribute to the problem on global warming and climate change.

We cannot deny the fact that technology development or inventions and innovations are becoming very fast which resulted to huge no. of technologies in the market. People will buy this latest gadgets. But we are living in the age where technologies has become obsolete even before it is implemented or introduced in the market. With the rapid technological innovations, in a few months time, new models will be released in the market with added features than those of the older ones. Again, people will patronize such technologies. This scenario will recursively occur over time. Now the question will be what will happen to those obsolete devices? How are we going to dispose it? We all know that these are non-biodegradable. These wastes was named Electronic wastes or “e-wastes”. “These are wastes type consisting of any broken or unwanted electrical or electronic device” (wikipedia.org). Problem of disposing such wastes had caused a lot of headache to different countries since these are non-biodegradable wastes. As years passed, the no. of such e-wastes continues to increase. These wastes also contains substances that contribute to the global warming. However, there are some solutions to this problem like junk shops and recycling. But not all can be sold and recycled. Be practical in your decision making in buying gadgets and electronic devices. Being in the field of Information Technology doesn't mean you buy every new technology that will be introduced in the market. Buy only those that suits your needs. Also be selective on each technology. Buy those technologies that are environment friendly technologies. Choose technologies that are energy star and energy efficient. Practical decision making in buying and disposing electronic devices and gadgets could be of great help in the reduction of greenhouse gases emission in the atmosphere. As a student with limited resources specially financial, it is very easy to do it.

Looking at the environment I am leaving right now, everything were already dominated by technology. Bu just merely observing every technology human being is using, you can identify which technology contributes to global warming. That's why each and everyone of us should be aware and responsible enough to do our roles as human being. I believe that being a student with limited capabilities, I have the guts to make earth a better place in the future. As what I have saying in the early part, the battle against climate change and global warming is not an individual battle, it is a battle that everyone of us should participate.

We cannot change the reality, the reality that people depends on technology to survive. I believe that it is impossible to eradicate technology in this world. Human will not survive if there is no technology besides them. At the beginning of the industrial revolution in the 19th century, many thought that technology is perfect. They made people lives simple and organized. Later on they realized that the more helpful technologies were, the more destructive it becomes. God is really Good. Everything that He created were always in a balance.

As a summary, students play an important role in finding the solutions to climate change and global warming. Honestly, I was really surprised with the suggested solutions against climate change. I think if everyone knows it before, this problem should not get this huge and worst. These solutions seemed to be very simple but it is very difficult to do. People are obsess with technology. Sacrificing a little bit of their income and pleasure in exchange of mother earth's rehabilitation seemed to be very difficult to do. But reality again speaks to itself, we cannot take away technology from human. Technology is the key to success of mankind. But can we do it without compromising the life of our mother earth and risking our lives? I recall one of the folk song of a famous band Asin, “Hindi nga masama ang pag-unlad kung hindi nakakasira ng kalikasan” from their song “Masdan mo ang Kapaligiran”. We need to balance everything. It is not late to action against this problem. Just keep in mind that we are doing it not only for us but also for those who will follow us.

references:

[1].http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change#The_memory_of_climate

[2].http://www.eoearth.org/article/Causes_of_climate_change

[3].http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=10-solutions-for-climate-change

[4].http://www.loka.org/idt/SocialEffects.htm

[5].http://ccir.ciesin.columbia.edu/nyc/pdf/q1a.pdf

Publishing a research in Top-Tier Organizations

ACM and IEEE are two of the most popular and the most influencial organizations in the industry right now specifically in the field of engineering and information technology in general. These organizations conduct researches which are very relevant to the readers. Journals, papers and researches that are found in their websites are sure to be informative, reliable and relevant. Readers has a guarantee that what they read are reliable since it is well evaluated by such an expert. I think anyone can or have their work published on such prestige and well renounce organizations provided that you follow on the criteria which they establish. I have read some journals and researches and based on my observations, some of their criteria are as follows:

1. Relevance factor - is the journal or the research serves a major role in providing a new dimension in learning? Not only relevant to the readers but also the journal or the research also related to the context in which organiozation's are expert with.

2. Reliability factor - is the author of the research really has a knowledge on the topic he/she is researching? It is important also to know whether the author has a knowledge on what he/she is doing. Addon to the reliability factor, does the work is based on previous works or articles which are from reliable sources? It is also important to know that the theories and information are based from facts.

3. Uniqueness factor - does the paper has not been published before? or is the paper is not copied from the work of others? The organization must review the work very carefully to avoid issues like plagiarism. They must also inspect proper referencing styles.

4. Presentation factor - does the paper well presented to be easily understood by its readers? Or the paper/journal's topic is well organized for its readers.Seeing your work published in these organizations website means that you are a good researcher and your work is well recognize by everybody.

I think this should be the goal of anyone, to see their work published in ACM,IEEE and many more.

How Research are Evaluated?

It is very important for a work to be evaluated in order to determine if that work has served a particular purpose. Especially research paper, it should be evaluated thoroughy since it serves as a foundation of new knowledge in a specific field. Evaluating a research whether it is good or bad will play a major role in the development of the new learnings and also to determine its reliability and relevance.According to Todd Litman, "Good research reflects a sincere desire to determine what is overall true, based on all available information, as opposed to bad research that starts with a conclusion and identifies supporting factoids (individual facts taken out of context)."[1]. This means that a good research is conducted to prove that a certain phenomena is true or false but we need available information in order for us to support our findings. This is one characteristics of a good research.

For me, I can say that a research is good if it can solve a particular problem either global, national or local problem, or maybe discover a new dimension in the field in which it is conducted, discovery that will shock all. The research is important if it is being used by everybody in the society to solve a problem. In short, a research is good if it is relevant and can others can benefit from it. A research is also good if it possesses uniqueness. Unique in a sense that it is not conducted before. Although there are some researches already conducted that are topic related, the research should not be the same with the previous researches. A research is good if it is unbiased. A research should present its findings based on the results and the researcher must not manipulate data. And last, a research is good if it can provide consice and reliable resources to verify that the theories and ideas presented in the research were based on previous researches conducted prior to the work. These will make the research more reliable and also to prove that the researcher is doing some readings and has a lot of knowledge of the topic and not just pretending.

How Research are Evaluated?

I think these are the criteria for evaluating a research:

1. relevance - The research should answer the question "What is the purpose of conducting the research?"

2.uniqueness - "Is the research not conducted before?"

3. presentation (grammar etc.)- "Is the research presented well for readers to understand?"

reference:

[1] http://www.vtpi.org/resqual.pdf

State of Computer Science Research

According to Latanya Sweeney [1], computer science research can be divided into 3; theoretical computer science, programming languages and systems and artificial intelligence (AI). Computer Science is a very young discipline which is still evolving as years have passed [3]. Up to this moment, many research groups, companies and even schools conducting some researches regarding the 3 divisions of computer science research.

The article I found is entitled "Computers trained to "read" mind images of words" (http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN2939892820080530?sp=true). The article was about how the computer was used inorder to perform one of which I think very impossible to know or determine, and that is reading a person's mind by looking at scans of their brains as they thought about specific words[2]. This article belongs to the programming languages and systems division of the computer science research. As far as the state of computer science research is concern, this research marks another milestone when it comes to computer application. Unlike on past researches which focuses only on optimization of algorithms and mathematical concepts, this research focuses on the new trend of computer application, in this case in the field of human anatomy. The discipline of the research is really unique from other researches on the past. This findings is very important in order for the scientist to know how our brain stores information.

Technical topics Mentioned:

- human - computer interaction
- bioinformatics

References:

[1] http://privacy.cs.cmu.edu/dataprivacy/projects/csresearch1.pdf
[2] http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN2939892820080530?sp=true
[3] http://www.cs.huji.ac.il/~feit/papers/exp05.pdf.
[4] http://www.answers.com/topic/state

Research topic for CS/IT students

Being in the field of computer science a research in the field of our specialization will be an advantage and very applicable to us. Research topics in genetic algorithms, detecting and reducing spams over the internet will be a very good topics in research. These are international problems that needs to be solved. But I am studying in a school which has no adequate resources to support researches to the field in which we are studying as of the moment and there are also local problems that needs to be addressed first. For me, topics in which our expertise could be used in solving such local problems is a bright idea and worthy to be expanded more. Maybe topics such as how computers can be used to increase rice productions of the country and creating a more powerful system in order for us to predict or to accurately identify the movement of a typhoon. We can't deny the fact that we are living in a third world country and we need to exert our efforts to discover new learnings in the field of ICT in order for us to compete to other countries.

Reserach for the future

Selecting a research topic plays a major role in every student's future in a sense that selecting a topic will surely determine what are the fields of interest of a student. For sure he/she will select a topic which he likes or he/she has a concise and brilliant ideas at the same time ample resources. This will help a student choose a right career in the future knowing the fact that the student master that field of specialization.

I totally agree to the saying "Nothing is constant except change". Specially students like us who are in the field of Information Technology in general, we must be updated to new knowledge available in the industry today. Conducting a research allows us to gain new insights with regards to the latest knowledge available so that students like us will not act as "ignorant" when we face the real world. By just merely reading previous researches conducted, we can discover a problem which needs further studies to solve.


As a summary, conducting research will serve as a preparation of students in facing the real world. This will serve as their tool on how their fortunes go.