Tag: research

Perceptions and Impacts of Local Education within the ICT Field

Posted on by Frankie

I am very proud to have mentored Ms Jade Vella in her undergraduate research titled: “Perceptions and Impacts of Local Education within the ICT Field” which was also presented in the MCAST Qualitative Research Conference held between the 4th and 7th December 2023, and eventually published in the MCAST Research Journal. In this study, we applied a triangulation of perspectives starting with the use of Factor Analysis of Mixed Data on scrapped education and professional data of 200 graduates which gave initial insights shaping the subsequent surveys and interviews.

MCAST @ DaSET 2023

Posted on by Frankie

Very pleased that our MCAST IICT undergraduate research, authored by Ms Clair Abela and myself, has been accepted and presented at the 2nd International Conference on Data Science and Emerging Technologies 2023 (DaSET 2023). Our study titled “Wound Stage Recognition using YOLOv5” focuses on the use of YOLOv5 to detect and classify pressure injuries. Clair has demonstrated great dedication and rigor in her research undertaking and excelled not just at an institute level but also at an international level, representing MCAST and Malta. The full publication can be found on Springer Link.

Abstract: Pressure injuries or pressure sores are lesions that develop over the bony prominences of the body. It is noted from professional nurses and from first-hand experience, that such wounds are often wrongly classified, making the healing process difficult and painful for the patient, when it does not need to be the case. This study aims to research the use of modern computer vision and artificial intelligence techniques to aid in the classification of pressure ulcers to a degree superior to that achieved by humans. The YOLOv5 algorithm was trained in various combinations of three data sets. Single-phase and multi-phase architecture models were developed and trained for the different data set configurations to identify the ideal scenario of classification for the different stages of pressure ulcers. A single-phase architecture model trained using the public data sets and enhanced with the novel data set improves on the current state of the art. While the single-phase architecture was deemed the better option for the wound stage classification throughout this study, both architectures had their own strong points. The multi-phase architecture was found to be better suited for smaller data sets, while the single-phase architecture was better suited for larger ones. It was also found that throughout both architectures, the combination of 3 data sets is varied enough, however, less is not. This study is further strengthened through the input of different viewpoints that complement the lead researcher’s work.

MCAST Research & Innovation EXPO 2021

Posted on by Frankie

It was a real pleasure and honour to participate and present current research undertaken at MCAST Research & Innovation Expo 2021. Great advancements and achievements from cross-institute and industry collaboration.

Mr Juan Jose Bonello, Mr Daren Scerri and I presented our work under the Continuous Assessment of Pollution and Environment Events via Satellites (CAPES), namely the Land-Use and Land-Cover project with the Malta Resource Authority, the research in remote NO2 sensing with Ms Abigail Vella, and the RemSen event.

With Ms Kimberly Terribile, Mr Juan Jose Bonello and Mr Daren Scerri we presented our research in the Recognition of Underutilized Maltese Marine Species (RUMMS).

MCAST @ ICCE-Berlin 2021

Posted on by Frankie

At the 11th IEEE International Conference on Consumer Technology, six undergraduate research have been published. Mr Justin Duncan, Mr Sigmond Gatt, Ms Yanika Mifsud and Mr Owen Xuereb were mentored by myself, whilst Ms Zvetlana Bajada and Mr Silvan Vella were mentored by Mr Daren Scerri.

Mr Justin Duncan has undertaken research in “Social Distancing Crowd Segmentation, Estimation and Visualisation”. Mr Sigmond Gatt researched “Use of Blockchain Technology in Automation of Ad-Hoc Leasing Agreements”. Ms Yanika Mifsud has researched “Dance Style Classification by LSTM RNN”. Mr Owen Xuereb researched “A Grad-CAM and YOLO based approach to extracting a human passageway ROI”. Ms Zvetlana Bajada focused her research in “A Cloud-based Edtech Framework for Augmenting 3D Objects to Assist Vocational Learning”. Mr Silvan Vella has researched “Vision-based Health Protocol Observance System for Small Rooms”.

It was also an honour and privilege to have served on the Technical Programme Committee where I had the opportunity and pleasure of reviewing other research. Thank you to the team.

Well done to all students for your hard work and dedication.

MCAST @ BNAIC/BENELEARN 2021

Posted on by Frankie

On the 10th November 2021, MCAST IICT was represented by Ms Abigail Vella who presented our research in “Remote NO2 emissions assessment during COVID-19 lockdowns” at the BNAIC/BENELEARN 2021 conference. This work was also assisted by Mr Daren Scerri. We made use of the European Space Agency Copernicus Sentinel-5 satellites and observed the emissions for the months of March-May of 2019 and 2020. Our observations were strongly correlated with official reports by the Environment & Resource Authority, to whom we presented our findings. A really well done to Ms Abigail Vella for her hard work and dedication, really proud of our work.

A really well done to the organising committee of the conference and to the University of Luxembourg for such a wonderful and inspiring event. Strongly recommend the event and venue.

MCAST ICT Applied Research Group

Posted on by Frankie

It is my great pleasure to announce the launching of the MCAST IICT Applied Research Group, ICTAR for short. We are a group of eight IICT academics and a senior research officer whose aim is to focus on support research at MCAST IICT. We work on research projects, deliver talks and organise workshops. We have five research themes:

  1. Learning Technologies
  2. Information Security & Digital Forensics
  3. Games Research
  4. Artificial Intelligence
  5. Digital Ledgers, Cryptocurrencies and FinTech

We can be contacted via ictar@mcast.edu.mt.

MCAST IICT Research

Posted on by Frankie

On the 12th June 2019 a series of presentations were delivered by my 2nd year and 3rd year IICT students to share their research advancements with 1st Year BSC students and lecturer’s alike.

Damiano Nicastro – Brand Identity Tracking via Audio Streams

Damiano Nicastro, a 2nd Year B.Sc. Software Development student presented his research in Brand Identity Monitoring using Audio Streams.

Irisann Agius – Clustering Raspberry PI devices for advanced Processing Power needs

Irisann Agius, also a 2nd Year B.Sc. Software Development student presented her research in Clustering Raspberry PI Devices for Advanced Processing Power needs which is a growing need due to the growth in research being experienced at MCAST IICT.

Axel Curmi – Automated Academic Achievement Verification via Blockchain and Image Processing

Axel Curmi, a 3rd Year B.Sc. Software Development student, presented his research in Automated Academic Achievement Verification via Blockchain and Image Processing. The first part of this research was presented in a Springer conference last year and exhibited at the Delta Summit 2018.

Ricardo Sciberras – Automated Traffic Congestion Estimation via Public Video Feeds

Ricardo Sciberras, a 3rd Year B.Sc. Software Development student, presented his research in Automated Traffic Congestion Estimation via Public Video Feeds. The first part of this research was presented in the ICCE-Berlin IEEE Conference last year.

Eman Sammut, also a 3rd Year B.Sc. Software Development student presented his research in Blockchain Based Car Park management system for Automated Vehicles.

Vioside @ MCAST

Posted on by Frankie

It was a real pleasure and proud moment to see MCAST IICT alumnus, Chris Borg, Nicole Borg and Steve Scerri who have formed Vioside Ltd., deliver a talk to our B.Sc. 2nd year students. Their story and talk was very motivating and encouraging, inspiring our young talent to work on what they really love.

Luke Benjamin Cassar, delivered a presentation about his research project on Augmented Reality in Catering, which he had the opportunity to presented in Germany, earlier this year, at an IEEE conference.

A heartfelt thanks on behalf of MCAST IICT for accepting this invitation, taking time from your work, to motivate our students.

  • Luke Benjamin Cassar
  • Chris Borg, Vioside Ltd.
  • Mark Anthony Farrugia, MCAST IICT

Presented 3 MCAST academic research at ICCE-Berlin, IEEE Conference

Posted on by Frankie

Really proud of my three students, Darren Cilia, Luke Benjamin Cassar and Ricardo Sciberras for presenting their work at the ICCE-Berlin IEEE conference. It was a great academic networking experience, with leading researchers in various fields such as deep learning, IoT and gaming.

 

Darren Cilia presented his second paper this year on Typing Biometrics, sharing our results in Passive User Authentication using Support Vector Machines with an error rate lower than 1%. Our first paper was presented at ISMS 2018 in which we published the data gathering application and dataset.

 

Luke Benjamin Cassar, the first MCAST Multi-Media Software Development student to have his research published, presented our work on the use of augmented reality within the catering business.

 

Ricardo Sciberras, most probably the youngest author being still a second year BSc student progressing to his third year, presented his research project on traffic flow estimation via public IP camera feeds.

 

It was a real honor and pleasure mentoring you all and seeing you present our work at a prestigious conference. Also, very proud for being the first students, together with Axel Curmi and Jerome Mizzi to give MCAST IICT the academic recognition at an international level.

 

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