Maria M. Larrondo Petrie | Florida Atlantic University (original) (raw)

Papers by Maria M. Larrondo Petrie

Proceedings of the 21th LACCEI International Multi-Conference for Engineering, Education and Technology (LACCEI 2023): “Leadership in Education and Innovation in Engineering in the Framework of Global Transformations: Integration and Alliances for Integral Development”

Smart Grids represent one of the most important sustainable electrical power systems. Microgrids ... more Smart Grids represent one of the most important sustainable electrical power systems. Microgrids are vital components of the smart grid, supplying energy to different types of customers in both stand alone or grid connected modes. Therefore, the study of microgrids is of extreme relevance. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have become a useful alternative for millions of students and professionals that wish to learn about a specific topic. In this scenario the design of a MOOC to study aspects of a microgrid such as Cybersecurity, State Estimation and Optimization represents a step towards the modernization of the education associated with electrical systems. This paper describes the main aspects in the design process of a MOOC in Cybersecurity, State Estimation and Optimization for Electrical Microgrids. The process of design has been supported by the eFellows program administered by the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) and funded by the US National Science Foundation (NSF); and the Latin American and Caribbean Consortium of Engineering Institutions (LACCEI). The MOOC includes practical online laboratories using engineering software, such as MATLAB, Python and Google Colaboratory, utilizing real datasets for solar radiation, electrical demand, voltage, current, among other variables. The real datasets, provided by the Ministry of Mines and Energy of the Dominican Republic, have been placed in Open Science Framework's repository, granting free access to other researchers, professors and students.

Proceedings of the 20th LACCEI International Multi-Conference for Engineering, Education and Technology: “Education, Research and Leadership in Post-pandemic Engineering: Resilient, Inclusive and Sustainable Actions”

Proceedings of the 18th LACCEI International Multi-Conference for Engineering, Education, and Technology: Engineering, Integration, And Alliances for A Sustainable Development” “Hemispheric Cooperation for Competitiveness and Prosperity on A Knowledge-Based Economy”

Laboratory practices are a very important component in the training of engineers. Deficiencies in... more Laboratory practices are a very important component in the training of engineers. Deficiencies in the training of engineering students generate deficiencies in the quality of graduates, these deficiencies are generated because higher education institutions do not have the infrastructure required to carry out student training processes, common reasons are: lack of budget for acquire the equipment, lack of space for the deployment of the equipment, high costs associated with maintenance and operation, etc. LACCEI in conjunction with the OAS and the company Lab in a Window developed a strategy to facilitate collaboration in Latin America and the Caribbean on the subject of online laboratories. As a result of this collaboration, an international network has been established for low-cost access and exchange of access to laboratory infrastructures that are adapted for access and control through the Internet. This initiative includes free access to LACCEI members to an online platform that offers access to online laboratories (virtual remotes and hybrids), these members can also share laboratory experiments in exchange for receiving access to other experiments that other participating institutions offer in the system. This work presents a training plan for teachers of Engineering courses on how to compose online laboratories using Smart Laboratory Learning Objects (SLLO) created by a composer. In this case we specifically use the composer module of the SARL system.

2018 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE)

Online laboratories can exhibit smarter behavior when information about the user and his/her cont... more Online laboratories can exhibit smarter behavior when information about the user and his/her context is given as an input to the lab. Part of this data can be gathered from a virtual learning environment (VLE) or any other educational system that contains information about the user. Information provided for these systems include: the type of user (student, teacher, administrator), user current level of experience (amount of time performing lab experiments, background knowledge) and results obtained in previous lab experiences. Additional context information can be provided by the user device, such as the geographical location, device type, bandwidth, date and time, among others. With this information, the online laboratory system can offer different variations of laboratories to each user and customize the experiment interfaces and activities in terms of task difficulty level, situational context and support information. The user interactions and administrative information can be collected and stored in the Learner Record Store (LRS) in the form of xAPI statements, ready to be accessed by the VLE to update the current state of the user information and extract/perform learning analytics. This paper presents the design and implementation of a model to integrate xAPI technology with online laboratories demonstrations that includes the VLE integration and user context information as part of the online lab experience.

2020 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE)

This Innovative Practice full paper presents a software system which purpose is to be used to com... more This Innovative Practice full paper presents a software system which purpose is to be used to compose online laboratory experiences. Online Laboratories have improved their reliability and interoperability thanks to innovative developments proposed in recent years. New companies in this area have proposed novel interaction mechanisms such as the inclusion of immersive graphic user interfaces as well as the possibilities for access laboratory experiments as a service, having the alternative of just paying for the laboratory services demanded, for an specific class or for individual users. In terms of technology it is now possible to have multiple laboratory instances running from a single laboratory infrastructure or laboratory station. In terms of standardization, big efforts have been made by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the community of Online Laboratories to release in 2019 the first standard 1876-2019-IEEE Standard for Networked Smart Learning Objects for Online Laboratories. The software system presented in this work uses a set of available resources including virtual laboratories (simulation based), local laboratory equipment, remote laboratories, laboratory activities, assessment definition and learning content (text, audio, video, etc). The system provides to the users a friendly set of tools to compose their laboratory experiences, following the IEEE 1876-2019 standard definition. The output composed laboratory experiment is saved as a Smart Laboratory Learning Object (SLLO) including mechanisms to be self-adaptable according to variables such as laboratory activities difficulty level, user previous results on the same or similar laboratory activities, and user expertise in the topic (determined based on information retrieved from the Learning Management System LMS).

2021 World Engineering Education Forum/Global Engineering Deans Council (WEEF/GEDC)

Participation of women in engineering fields has been acquiring a global perspective of primary i... more Participation of women in engineering fields has been acquiring a global perspective of primary importance in society. However, women have less presence in STEM areas than in other disciplines, such as education, health, social sciences, and arts. Incorporating women into engineering is a long road, which requires first, unfailingly young women with a deep passion for these careers and a strong will to pursue their university careers and achieve a professional degree. It is precisely with this motivation that the Latin American Open Chair “Matilda and women in engineering” (CAL Matilda, for its acronym in Spanish) arises, a regional cooperation initiative for increasing women in engineering. CAL Matilda represents a joint effort of three founding governing institutions: the Federal Council of Deans of Engineering of Argentina - CONFEDI, the Colombian Association of Engineering Faculties - ACOFI and the Latin American and Caribbean Consortium of Engineering Institutions – LACCEI. Their objective is to create an academic space for debate, reflection, collective construction of knowledge, teaching, research and carrying out activities that stimulate and promote equal rights, opportunities, and spaces for women in the academic and professional fields, and for the promotion of engineering vocations in girls and young people in Latin America and the Caribbean.

2021 20th International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing and Communications (IUCC/CIT/DSCI/SmartCNS), 2021

One of our greatest present challenges are designing vaccines against SARS COV2 and its variants.... more One of our greatest present challenges are designing vaccines against SARS COV2 and its variants. Rational vaccine design uses computational methods prior to development of a vaccine for testing in animals and humans. The latest methods in rational vaccine design use machine learning techniques to predict binding affinity and antigenicity but offer the researchers only isolated stand-alone tools. A difficulty that software engineers and data scientist face in development of tools for doctors and researchers is their lack of knowledge of the medical domain. This paper presents a set of domain model developed in collaboration between software engineers and a medical researcher in the process of building a tool scientists could use to predict binding affinity and antigenicity of potential designs of SARS COV2 vaccines. A domain model visualizes the real-world entities and their interrelationships, that together define the domain space. This domain model will be useful to other software engineers trying to predict other characteristics of vaccines, such as potential autoimmunity response.

2018 Learning With MOOCS (LWMOOCS), 2018

The IEEE Educational Society has sponsored the development of IEEE-SA P1876™ standard for Network... more The IEEE Educational Society has sponsored the development of IEEE-SA P1876™ standard for Networked Smart Learning Objects for Online Laboratories. This paper proposes two different architectures that integrate components to support educational online laboratories, through the use of xAPI statements to communicate between Remote Laboratory Management Systems, Virtual Learning Environments and Learning Analytics Generators. Proof of concept implementations of three scalable, ad hoc, low-cost, mobile, online laboratories that utilize the proposed distributed and centralized architectures are described, one fully integrated to an Actionable Data Book. The next steps would be to implement Mobile Massive Open Online Laboratories (M-MOOLs) within the context of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), using the P1876™ standard under development.

Proceedings of the 3rd International Workshop on Security in Information Systems, 2005

We have previously proposed a UML-based secure systems development methodology that uses patterns... more We have previously proposed a UML-based secure systems development methodology that uses patterns and architectural layers. We studied requirements and analysis aspects and combined analysis patterns with security patterns to build secure conceptual models. Here we extend this methodology to the design stage. Design artifacts provide a way to enforce security constraints. We consider the use of views, components, and distribution.

Remote laboratories in the educational context are made possible by the integration of the latest... more Remote laboratories in the educational context are made possible by the integration of the latest advances in telecommunication technology, software architectures and educational standards support. Remote laboratories are important in education because they provide access to equipment that some institutions cannot afford to purchase or maintain, reduce the need for dedicated physical space for equipment and personnel to staff laboratories. But more than just fill the absence of a real physical laboratory, remote laboratories can improve the users experience through the use of enhanced adaptive interfaces that, when complemented with the use of educational standards like Tin can API, can provide information important in the educational context, for example, the mastery level of the student and the complexity of the experiment. Based on that information, the remote laboratory could take actions related to the controls of the experiment, for example, disabling or enabling part of the e...

Online laboratories are a broad field that includes virtual laboratories, remote laboratories and... more Online laboratories are a broad field that includes virtual laboratories, remote laboratories and hybrid configurations. The assessment of the reliability for these systems requires the identification of the laboratory components or human actions that can lead to a possible failure in the online laboratory normal operation. Having now bigger online laboratories implementations that provide access to hundreds or even thousands of users, the identification and evaluation of failures, causes and developing countermeasures, such as recovery mechanisms or alerts, is becoming increasingly important in order to provide more reliable systems. The paper presents a model for the assessment of failures, causes and countermeasures (actions, alerts or practices) that mitigate or eliminate failures. The model was created based on common failures reported by online laboratories users and based on the testing of a remote laboratory prototype implemented specifically for this purpose. The model for ...

2015 ASEE International Forum Proceedings

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings

where she has served as Director and Assistant Dean of Engineering. Her major interests are in ex... more where she has served as Director and Assistant Dean of Engineering. Her major interests are in experimental design, data analysis and multi-phase systems. She teaches fluid mechanics, unit operations and process dynamics and control. Dr. Gephardt is Chair-elect of the AIChE Societal Impact Operating Council (SIOC) and is Vice President for Accreditation of the Latin American and Caribbean Consortium of Engineering Institutions (LACCEI). She also serves on the board of the AIChE-Delaware Valley Section and is its immediate past president. Dr. Gephardt holds Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in chemical engineering from the University of Delaware and a B.S. in chemical engineering from Northwestern University. She is a registered professional engineer in the State of Delaware and conducts workshops and consults in the areas of experimental design and data analysis for the chemical and pharmaceutical industries.

IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, 1997

Most popular object-oriented analysis (OOA) methods provide good support for creating abstract, u... more Most popular object-oriented analysis (OOA) methods provide good support for creating abstract, understandable models of system behavior and structure. The lack of firm semantic bases for most of these methods makes it difficult to rigorously reason about modeled behavior, and also makes it difficult to check the compliance of implementations (design and programs) against them. In this paper* we formalize the Fusion object-oriented analysis modeling techniques to make the models produced more amenable to formal analysis. We illustrate the formalization process by presenting some of the results of a case study carried out as part of our experimentations on formalized Fusion models.

Advances in Digital Forensics III, 2007

A pattern is an encapsulated solution to a problem in a given context that can be used to guide s... more A pattern is an encapsulated solution to a problem in a given context that can be used to guide system design and evaluation. Analysis, design and architectural patterns are established formalisms for designing high quality software. Security patterns guide the secure design of systems by providing generic solutions that prevent a variety of attacks. This paper presents an attack pattern, a new type of pattern that is specified from the point of view of an attacker. The pattern describes how an attack is performed, enumerates the security patterns that can be applied to defeat the attack, and describes how to trace the attack once it has occurred. An example involving DoS attacks on VoIP networks i § used to demonstrate the value of the formalism to security designers and forensic investigators.

Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2005

Wireless systems have found wide acceptance in many industries such as military and healthcare. T... more Wireless systems have found wide acceptance in many industries such as military and healthcare. These systems appear under a variety of architectures including fixed networks, cellular networks, and ad hoc networks. We survey some security problems, of interest to researchers, in wireless systems when used in these environments. Most studies of the security of these systems emphasize cryptographic aspects, we concentrate on other security aspects, such as operating systems, access control, web services, and location awareness.

Proceedings of the 14th Conference on Pattern Languages of Programs, 2007

Distributed systems introduce a new variety of security threats. The organizations that own them ... more Distributed systems introduce a new variety of security threats. The organizations that own them must protect their information assets from attacks. To do this we need to start with highlevel models that represent the security policies of the institution. We present patterns that derive from traditional models: first, the Policy-Based Access Control which models how to decide if a subject is authorized to access an object according to policies defined in a central policy repository. Then we present implementation-oriented patterns that implement the Access Matrix or RBAC model: The ACL pattern allows control access to objects by indicating which subjects can access an object and in what way. There is usually an ACL associated with each object. The Capability pattern allows control access to objects by providing a credential or ticket to be given to a subject for accessing an object in a specific way. Capabilities are given to the principal.

… for Engineering and Technology (LACCEI 2008 …, 2008

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings

is a representative of the Interamerican Development Bank in the Dominican Republic and leads the... more is a representative of the Interamerican Development Bank in the Dominican Republic and leads the Greater Caribbean Region Engineering Accreditation System project.