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Conference Object Citation - WoS: 1Haptic User Interface Integration for 3d Game Engines(Springer-verlag Berlin, 2014) Sengul, Gokhan; Cagiltay, Nergiz Ercil; Ozcelik, Erol; Tuner, Emre; Erol, BatuhanTouch and feel senses of human beings provide important information about the environment. When those senses are integrated with the eyesight, we may get all the necessary information about the environment. In terms of human-computer-interaction, the eyesight information is provided by visual displays. On the other hand, touch and feel senses are provided by means of special devices called "haptic" devices. Haptic devices are used in many fields such as computer-aided design, distance-surgery operations, medical simulation environments, training simulators for both military and medical applications, etc. Besides the touch and sense feelings haptic devices also provide force-feedbacks, which allows designing a realistic environment in virtual reality applications. Haptic devices can be categorized into three classes: tactile devices, kinesthetic devices and hybrid devices. Tactile devices simulate skin to create contact sensations. Kinesthetic devices apply forces to guide or inhibit body movement, and hybrid devices attempt to combine tactile and kinesthetic feedback. Among these kinesthetic devices exerts controlled forces on the human body, and it is the most suitable type for the applications such as surgical simulations. The education environments that require skill-based improvements, the touch and feel senses are very important. In some cases providing such educational environment is very expensive, risky and may also consist of some ethical issues. For example, surgical education is one of these fields. The traditional education is provided in operating room on real patients. This type of education is very expensive, requires long time periods, and does not allow any error-and-try type of experiences. It is stressfully for both the educators and the learners. Additionally there are several ethical considerations. Simulation environments supported by such haptic user interfaces provide an alternative and safer educational alternative. There are several studies showing some evidences of educational benefits of this type of education (Tsuda et al 2009; Sutherland et al 2006). Similarly, this technology can also be successfully integrated to the physical rehabilitation process of some diseases requiring motor skill improvements (Kampiopiotis & Theodorakou, 2003). Hence, today simulation environments are providing several opportunities for creating low cost and more effective training and educational environment. Today, combining three dimensional (3D) simulation environments with these haptic interfaces is an important feature for advancing current human-computer interaction. On the other hand haptic devices do not provide a full simulation environment for the interaction and it is necessary to enhance the environment by software environments. Game engines provide high flexibility to create 3-D simulation environments. Unity3D is one of the tools that provides a game engine and physics engine for creating better 3D simulation environments. In the literature there are many studies combining these two technologies to create several educational and training environments. However, in the literature, there are not many researches showing how these two technologies can be integrated to create simulation environment by providing haptic interfaces as well. There are several issues that need to be handled for creating such integration. First of all the haptic devices control libraries need to be integrated to the game engine. Second, the game engine simulation representations and real-time interaction features need to be coordinately represented by the haptic device degree of freedom and force-feedback speed and features. In this study, the integration architecture of Unity 3D game engine and the PHANToM Haptic device for creating a surgical education simulation environment is provided. The methods used for building this integration and handling the synchronization problems are also described. The algorithms developed for creating a better synchronization and user feedback such as providing a smooth feeling and force feedback for the haptic interaction are also provided. We believe that, this study will be helpful for the people who are creating simulation environment by using Unity3D technology and PHANToM haptic interfaces.Article Citation - WoS: 16Citation - Scopus: 15Using Eye-Movement Events To Determine the Mental Workload of Surgical Residents(int Group Eye Movement Research, 2018) Dalveren, Gonca Gokce Menekse; Cagiltay, Nergiz ErcilThese days, eye-tracking is one of the promising technologies used in different fields such as aviation, arts, sports, psychology and driving for several purposes. Even though it is being used for health purposes, studies involving eye-tracking are rare in the field of endo-neurosurgery. This study aims to use this technology to promote our understanding of the effect related to computer-based instructional materials on mental workload of endo-neurosurgery residents. Four computer-based simulation scenarios are developed based on skill development requirements of endo-neurosurgery residents. Two of them were designed as general models and the other two as simulated surgical models. During these surgery procedures, in real settings, surgical residents need to use their both hands simultaneously to control the endoscope and the operational tool in a coordinated fashion. Therefore, to shed light on the participants' behaviors, these scenarios are performed with dominant-hand, non-dominant hand and, finally with both-hands using haptic interfaces. Twenty-three residents volunteered in this study. Their eye-movements were recorded while performing the scenarios. According to the results of this study, when performing the simulated surgical models, an increase in the participants' mental workload was recorded when compared to the other scenarios. Accordingly, it can be concluded that the eye-movements of surgical residents can provide insights about the anticipated level of difficulty about the skill-based tasks. This information might be very critical to properly design and organize instructional materials for endo-neurosurgery, and also to better guide and evaluate the progress of trainees in computer simulation-based skill training environments.Article Citation - WoS: 20Citation - Scopus: 25Detecting Latent Topics and Trends in Software Engineering Research Since 1980 Using Probabilistic Topic Modeling(Ieee-inst Electrical Electronics Engineers inc, 2022) Gurcan, Fatih; Dalveren, Gonca Gokce Menekse; Cagiltay, Nergiz Ercil; Soylu, AhmetThe landscape of software engineering research has changed significantly from one year to the next in line with industrial needs and trends. Therefore, today's research literature on software engineering has a rich and multidisciplinary content that includes a large number of studies; however, not many of them demonstrate a holistic view of the field. From this perspective, this study aimed to reveal a holistic view that reflects topics, trends, and trajectories in software engineering research by analyzing the majority of domain-specific articles published over the last 40 years. This study first presents an objective and systematic method for corpus creation through major publication sources in the field. A corpus was then created using this method, which includes 44 domain-specific conferences and journals and 57,174 articles published between 1980 and 2019. Next, this corpus was analyzed using an automated text-mining methodology based on a probabilistic topic-modeling approach. As a result of this analysis, 24 main topics were found. In addition, topical trends in the field were revealed. Finally, three main developmental stages of the field were identified as: the programming age, the software development age, and the software optimization age.Article Citation - WoS: 10Citation - Scopus: 12Distinguishing Intermediate and Novice Surgeons by Eye Movements(Frontiers Media Sa, 2020) Menekse Dalveren, Gonca Gokce; Cagiltay, Nergiz ErcilSurgical skill-level assessment is key to collecting the required feedback and adapting the educational programs accordingly. Currently, these assessments for the minimal invasive surgery programs are primarily based on subjective methods, and there is no consensus on skill level classifications. One of the most detailed of these classifications categorize skill levels as beginner, novice, intermediate, sub-expert, and expert. To properly integrate skill assessment into minimal invasive surgical education programs and provide skill-based training alternatives, it is necessary to classify the skill levels in as detailed a way as possible and identify the differences between all skill levels in an objective manner. Yet, despite the existence of very encouraging results in the literature, most of the studies have been conducted to better understand the differences between novice and expert surgical skill levels leaving out the other crucial skill levels between them. Additionally, there are very limited studies by considering the eye-movement behaviors of surgical residents. To this end, the present study attempted to distinguish novice- and intermediate-level surgical residents based on their eye movements. The eye-movement data was recorded from 23 volunteer surgical residents while they were performing four computer-based simulated surgical tasks under different hand conditions. The data was analyzed using logistic regression to estimate the skill levels of both groups. The best results of the estimation revealing a 91.3% recognition rate of predicting novice and intermediate surgical residents on one scenario were selected from four under the dominant hand condition. These results show that the eye-movements can be potentially used to identify surgeons with intermediate and novice skills. However, the results also indicate that the order in which the scenarios are provided, and the design of the scenario, the tasks, and their appropriateness with the skill levels of the participants are all critical factors to be considered in improving the estimation ratio, and hence require thorough assessment for future research.Article A User Task Design Notation for Improved Software Design(Peerj inc, 2021) Ozcan, Eda; Topalli, Damla; Tokdemir, Gul; Cagiltay, Nergiz ErcilSystem design is recognized as one of the most critical components of a software system that bridges system requirements and coding. System design also has a significant impact on testing and maintenance activities, and on further improvements during the lifespan of the software system. Software design should reflect all necessary components of the requirements in a clear and understandable manner by all stakeholders of the software system. To distinguish system elements, separation of concerns in software design is suggested. In this respect, identification of the user tasks, i.e., the tasks that need to be performed by the user, is not currently reflected explicitly in system design documents. Our main assumption in this study is that software quality can be improved significantly by clearly identifying the user tasks from those that need to be performed by the computer system itself. Additionally, what we propose has the potential to better reflect the user requirements and main objectives of the system on the software design and thereby to improve software quality. The main aim of this study is to introduce a novel notation for software developers in the frame of UML Activity Diagram (UML-AD) that enables designers to identify the user tasks and define them separately from the system tasks. For this purpose, an extension of UML-AD, named UML-ADE (UML-Activity Diagram Extended) was proposed. Afterwards, it was implemented in a serious game case for which the specification of user tasks is extremely important. Finally, its effectiveness was analyzed and compared to UML-AD experimentally with 72 participants. The defect detection performance of the participants on both diagrams with two real-life serious game scenarios was evaluated. Results show a higher level of understandability for those using UML-ADE, which in turn may indicate a better design and higher software quality. The results encourage researchers to develop specific design representations dedicated to task design to improve system quality and to conduct further evaluations of the impact of these design on each of the above mentioned potential benefits for the software systems.Conference Object Citation - WoS: 17Citation - Scopus: 23Maintenance, Sustainability and Extendibility in Virtual and Remote Laboratories(Elsevier Science Bv, 2011) Kara, Ali; Ozbek, Mehmet Efe; Cagiltay, Nergiz Ercil; Aydin, ElifThis study presents discussions on sustainability of Virtual and Remote Laboratories (VRL), and provides challenges toward maintenance of VRLs. Technical and pedagogical issues in extension and sustenance of VRLs are discussed with the experiences of the authors gained in the development of a VRL system, European Remote Radio Laboratory (ERRL) platform. Moreover, the study presents actions to be taken in sustenance plan and expendability of VRL system with the advances in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and educational technologies along with the needs of educators and learners in formal education. (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd.Article Citation - WoS: 8Citation - Scopus: 10Evaluation of Ten Open-Source Eye-Movement Classification Algorithms in Simulated Surgical Scenarios(Ieee-inst Electrical Electronics Engineers inc, 2019) Dalveren, Gonca Gokce Menekse; Cagiltay, Nergiz ErcilDespite providing several insights into visual attention and evidence regarding certain brain states and psychological functions, classifying eye movements is a highly demanding process. Currently, there are several algorithms to classify eye movement events which use different approaches. However, to date, only a limited number of studies have assessed these algorithms under specific conditions, such as those required for surgical training programmes. This study presents an investigation of ten open-source eye-movement classification algorithms using the Eye Tribe eye-tracker. The algorithms were tested on the eye-movement records obtained from 23 surgical residents, who performed computer-based surgical simulation tasks under different hand conditions. The aim was to offer data for the improvement of surgical training programmes. According to the results, due to the different classification methods and default threshold values, the ten algorithms produced different results. Considering the fixation duration, the only common event for all of the investigated algorithms, the binocular-individual threshold (BIT) algorithm resulted in a different clustering compared to the other algorithms. Based on the other set of common events, three clusters were determined by eight algorithms (except BIT and event detection (ED)), distinguishing dispersion-based, velocity-based and modified versions of velocity-based algorithms. Accordingly, it was concluded that dispersion-based and velocity-based algorithms provided different results. Additionally, as it individually specifies the threshold values for the eye-movement data, when there is no consensus about the threshold values to be set, the BIT algorithm can be selected. Especially for such cases like simulation-based surgical skill-training, the use of individualised threshold values in the BIT algorithm can be more beneficial in classifying the raw eye data and thus evaluating the individual progress levels of trainees based on their eye movement behaviours. In conclusion, the threshold values had a critical effect on the algorithm results. Since default values may not always be suitable for the unique features of different data sets, guidelines should be developed to indicate how the threshold values are set for each algorithm.Article Citation - WoS: 2Citation - Scopus: 4Mobile Application Software Requirements Specification From Consumption Values(Mdpi, 2023) Derawi, Mohammad; Dalveren, Gonca Gokce Menekse; Cagiltay, Nergiz ErcilIn today's society, mobile applications are becoming more popular and providing several advantages. However, users will resist using a product regardless of how well-tested or solid it is if the wrong requirements are implemented. Understanding the factors that influence the purchase of mobile applications can provide useful information for mobile application design and development. Hence, the purpose of this research is to better understand the impact of consumption values on customers in order to identify the software requirements for a mobile application. This study analyzes the possible behavioral changes of similar groups of university students in a five-year period. For this purpose, a questionnaire is administered to engineering faculty students in 2017 (46 females and 66 males) and 2021 (45 females and 90 males) to better understand customer behavioral changes. The findings highlight the significance of conditional value in customer behavior when purchasing mobile applications. Even though the other consumption values were found to have a negligible effect, there is some evidence indicating that the impact of consumption values on different target customer groups may vary considering their gender and familiarity with apps. Further research needs to be conducted to better understand the possible impact of age, cultural differences, education levels, and special considerations such as visually impaired people. Therefore, this study encourages mobile application designers and developers to raise awareness for the effect of consumption values such as conditional value on their customers' mobile application purchasing behaviors. The possible impact of the consumption values needs to be deeply understood, specifically for the target customer groups, and it should be considered in the software requirements specification (SRS), which is one of the important principles that allow software under consideration for development to function. As a result, a better understanding of consumption values will help developers design and develop better applications by specifying software requirements and marketing strategies.Article Citation - WoS: 6Citation - Scopus: 7Are Left- and Right-Eye Pupil Sizes Always Equal?(int Group Eye Movement Research, 2019) Cagiltay, Nergiz Ercil; Dalveren, Gonca Gokce MenekseEye movements provide very critical information about the cognitive load and behaviors of human beings. Earlier studies report that under normal conditions, the left- and right-eye pupil sizes are equal. For this reason, most studies undertaking eye-movement analysis are conducted by only considering the pupil size of a single eye or taking the average size of both eye pupils. This study attempts to offer a better understanding concerning whether there are any differences between the left- and right-eye pupil sizes of the right-handed surgical residents while performing surgical tasks in a computer-based simulation environment under different conditions (left-hand, right-hand and both hands). According to the results, in many cases, the right-eye pupil sizes of the participants were larger than their left-eye pupil sizes while performing the tasks under right-hand and both hands conditions. However, no significant difference was found in relation to the tasks performed under left-hand condition in all scenarios. These results are very critical to shed further light on the cognitive load of the surgical residents by analyzing their left-eye and right-eye pupil sizes. Further research is required to investigate the effect of the difficulty level of each scenario, its appropriateness with the skill level of the participants, and handedness on the differences between the leftand right-eye pupil sizes.Article Citation - WoS: 90Citation - Scopus: 132Big Data Software Engineering: Analysis of Knowledge Domains and Skill Sets Using Lda-Based Topic Modeling(Ieee-inst Electrical Electronics Engineers inc, 2019) Gurcan, Fatih; Cagiltay, Nergiz ErcilSoftware engineering is a data-driven discipline and an integral part of data science. The introduction of big data systems has led to a great transformation in the architecture, methodologies, knowledge domains, and skills related to software engineering. Accordingly, education programs are now required to adapt themselves to up-to-date developments by first identifying the competencies concerning big data software engineering to meet the industrial needs and follow the latest trends. This paper aims to reveal the knowledge domains and skill sets required for big data software engineering and develop a taxonomy by mapping these competencies. A semi-automatic methodology is proposed for the semantic analysis of the textual contents of online job advertisements related to big data software engineering. This methodology uses the latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA), a probabilistic topic-modeling technique to discover the hidden semantic structures from a given textual corpus. The output of this paper is a systematic competency map comprising the essential knowledge domains, skills, and tools for big data software engineering. The findings of this paper are expected to help evaluate and improve IT professionals' vocational knowledge and skills, identify professional roles and competencies in personnel recruitment processes of companies, and meet the skill requirements of the industry through software engineering education programs. Additionally, the proposed model can be extended to blogs, social networks, forums, and other online communities to allow automatic identification of emerging trends and generate contextual tags.
