What is Malta’s most abundant resource? The sea and sun. Till now very few uses have been found for such resources due to the lack of applications in conventional industries. However, what would happen if we became unconventional?
Think Algae farms. Malta and Gozo could be using the warm waters around them to produce a cheap, healthy food. With copious sunlight prevalent throughout the year, local sushi bars could serve sushi wrapped in local nori. Malta could export to large profitable markets overseas. The farms could provide a large influx of work and increase cash flow to the Maltese Islands.
2014 has welcomed a slue of new and innovative gadgets, partially thanks to crowd funding sites. These sites help inventors bring their ideas to life. I took the opportunity to compile a small list of 2014’s top gadgets.
Valletta is preparing to be the European Capital of Culture (ECoC) in 2018. In its run-up a Cultural Mapping Project is currently being implemented in Malta to map cultural places around the Islands. The project is focusing on public space discourse in a contemporary urban setting.Continue reading
This book was published in 2010 but unfortunately remains one of the few examples of positivity towards Islam coming from the West. British Jim Al-Khalili was born in Iran and he wrote about science during the early days of Islam, also giving a beautiful picture of life before the Islamic revolution of 1979 that forced his family to flee. Al-Khalili is a an accomplished theoretical physicist and broadcast presenter for BBC Horizon, The Big Bang, Tomorrow’s World and Science and Islam (the parallel TV series to this book).
If you love history, you will love this book as Al-Khalili goes into great depth—three whole chapters—to explain the circumstances that led to the golden age of science within Islam. The standard history of science texts usually paints the Islamic Empire (the scientific golden age was mostly from the 8th till 13th century) as being the great saviour of Greek texts having translated the works of Pythagoras, Aristotle, and other Greek scientists that then instigated the Renaissance in Europe when they were translated into Latin and other languages. Al-Khalili shows that these scholars were not mere translators but innovative in Mathematics, Astronomy, Medicine, Chemistry, and other fields. Scholars came from all major faiths.
Al-Khalili takes till Chapter Four to start detailing these scientific achievements. I would have preferred if these came sooner. He reveals facts such as that the zero was not invented by the Arabs but by the Indians, the Arabs simply used it to powerful effect. The Arabs pushed mathematics by leaps and bounds and Al-Khalili uses multiple chapters to outline them all. They invented decimal fractions, part-invented the decimal system, and invented proofs of mathematical equations through induction, using pages of equations to break down the initial equation and prove it absolutely, which is still the gold standard for modern mathematicians.
“He reveals facts such as that the zero was not invented by the Arabs but by the Indians, the Arabs simply used it to powerful effect”
He talks about the polymath al-Razi (854 AD–925 AD). Al-Razi lays claim to classifying substances according to their properties based on experimentation. He used experimentation to select the most hygienic site for Baghdad’s hospital, improved medical ethics and even accepted mentally ill patients (when concurrently the Christian world saw them as devil-possessed), distinguished between curable and incurable disease, clinical trials, and many other advances. His medical textbook al-Kitab al-Hawi fills 23 modern volumes, the largest in the Arab world.
Al-Khalili talks about plenty of other advances and scholars that are sure to surprise readers. The book can be slightly challenging for people to get through. Al-Khalili writes beautifully, clearly, but somewhat academically. If you’re interested in learning about a neglected part of the history of science, this book is for you.
I spoke to Al-Khalili back in 2010 about the TV series related to this book. His final words were that I had to bring his series to Malta. Words relevant then as they are now: a shining light on the possible positivity within Islam interpreted in the right way.
University can be incredibly stressful. Staff perform high level work with plenty of academic responsibilities, while balancing a private life and leisure time. The number of students at University is rising every year. For academic and support staff this means a more intensive workload, pressure, and stress. For students it is the pressure of attaining good results, maintaining relationships, and other social and emotional wellbeing issues, such as coping with peer pressure, struggling with deadlines, and worries about the future. Numerous studies suggest that examinations negatively impact on student health and wellbeing. Some coping strategies and time management programmes have evolved at the University of Malta, for example by the University Chaplaincy. Such well-meaning initiatives are good and do good, but tend to happen sporadically and around examination time.
Many University of Malta students balance multiple identities. They often fall outside the typical demographic of an 18-year-old sixth form school leaver. Our students come from diverse socio-economic backgrounds, and may be studying full-time or part-time, with a variety of life roles: mature students, women with care responsibilities, persons challenged by disability or facing problems due to sexual orientation. Whatever the situation in life, each diverse identity places increased demands upon the students’ time and private life. These demands influence their University experiences, study perceptions, and learning style. Their peers might treat them differently due to their background.
“A social wellbeing policy will help foster confidence in its approach to academic learning, and to eliminate discrimination in favour of a more inclusive learning environment”
Besides worries about assignment deadlines and writing exams, many students are also in employment. I am not sure this trend is in line with University of Malta regulations, nevertheless, that is the situation. Students also worry about future prospects with no guarantee of secure employment after finishing their studies. So it is not only academic concerns that come in the way of student social wellbeing, and these may lead to high levels of stress, anxiety or frustration, depressed mood, difficulties with time management, procrastination, poor concentration, withdrawal from friends or family, or physical symptoms such as headaches, sleep problems, and exhaustion. University life presents numerous stress factors that may trigger off mental health difficulties.
Students experiencing stress are normally recommended psychological intervention and counselling, which may be beneficial for extremely stressed students. However, research suggests that physical activity helps improve mental health and wellbeing. The University of Malta, through its Work Resources Fund, promotes cycling through the Green Travel Plan. The initiative is more about sustainability and the environment, apart from a solution to the parking problem. However, cycling does improve our mental health and wellbeing, and is a free personal de-stressor by taking our mind off work or study, and leads to healthier lifestyle choices.
A social wellbeing policy for University will help foster confidence in its approach to academic learning, and to eliminate discrimination in favour of a more inclusive learning environment. Indeed, the principles of equality and diversity such as gender or disability are essential for a true understanding of social wellbeing, and these same principles need to be included in our University’s policy document and implemented in practice. Diversity in a dynamic, intellectual environment enriches professional and educational experiences for both staff and students.
Diversity on campus is needed and important for a healthy University. Internationally, social wellbeing on campus is being promoted through an organisational structure embedded into the ethos, culture, policies, and daily practices of a university. A social wellbeing policy includes an improved occupational health and safety system, and a commitment to address mental wellbeing, physical inactivity, unhealthy eating and substance misuse. The University needs constant commitment to positively influence the life and work of all staff and students.
Prof. Frances Camilleri-Cassar
The University is encouraged to guard the integrity of its communication system. Collaboration and open communication fosters conversations and relationships necessary to bring about social wellbeing. The communication process needs to be trusted and confidential for team spirit and social wellbeing. For instance, I would strongly argue for an email policy that discourages unnecessary use of bcc in emails, as the practice of not telling the original addressee is unethical and downright deceitful.
The University of Malta could establish itself as a national contact point on the European Network for Health Promoting Universities (see www.eurohpu.aau.dk). It would commit the University to place social wellbeing high on its policy agenda. A working document published by the World Health Organisation Regional Office for Europe provides guidance on how to set up and develop a health-promoting university project, which would enhance and protect the social wellbeing of all staff and students.
Finally, I would also suggest an exploratory research study about aspects of university life, stress factors in teaching and learning activities, and how these impact on individual experiences. The aim is to understand the general quality of life, and how this can be improved for an informed social wellbeing policy document at the University of Malta.
This article is based on a paper Camilleri-Cassar presented at a seminar organised by the Faculty for Social Wellbeing in October 2013.
Read more here:
– Carroll, A. (2011) ‘Exploring the link between equality, diversity and wellbeing.’ In Marshall, L. and Morris, C. (eds) Taking Wellbeing Forward in higher education: reflections on theory and practice, University of Brighton Press.
– Hagarthy, D. and Currie, J. (2012) ‘The Exercise Class Experience: an opportunity to promote student wellbeing during the HSC’, Journal of Student Wellbeing, vol. 5(2):1-17.
– Hall, C., Ramm, J. and Jeffery, A. (2011) ‘Developing the University of Brighton as a Health Promoting University: the story so far.’ In Marshall, L. and Morris, C. (eds) Taking Wellbeing Forward in higher education: reflections on theory and practice, University of Brighton Press.
The Microgame is a buzzword that has exploded over the last year in the board game community. Microgames are video game mini-games but analog and a lot more awesome. Love Letter is the microgame that popularised the format—Kanai’s 16-card wonder.
Love Letter was not the first microgame, it wasn’t even Kanai’s first microgame. R, another game of his was a popular title which you could buy by emailing the designer. He would then mail you an envelope with the cards in it, which was the board game itself. Love Letter is a spiritual successor to ‘R’, and the first of his works to have an international distribution.
In Love Letter you are trying to deliver the proverbial letter to the princess. You do this by gaining the favour of her closest friends. The deck is made up of these people, all having a number. The person who holds the card with the highest number at the end of the round, or the last person standing, wins.
In the game you always keep one card in your hand, and at each turn you draw a card and choose one of the two to discard. Each card though, has a specific ability, which activates as soon as you discard it. For example, if you play a Guard, you have the opportunity to try to guess another player’s card. If you do, that player is out. The Countess for example, cannot be caught with the Prince or the King (you must discard her if she does). This would mean fornication. The Priest can see another player’s card, since this constitutes confession, and the Baron can kick out anyone of a lesser number than him due to politics.
The game takes a little bit of getting used to. It is quite different from other mainstream games but I have not had so much fun with cards since I first found money in birthday cards.
With almost infinite replayability, a price point of around €9, extreme portability, and tight, nail biting moments, Love Letter is a definite buy. There is very little chance of going wrong. Five Stars.
Digital games need to keep players engaged. Since games are interactive media, achieving this goal means that game designers need to anticipate player actions to create a pre-designed experience. Traditionally, developers have achieved this by restricting player freedom to a strict set of actions thereby curating player experience and ensuring the fun factor. However, games are taking a different route with more users making their own content (User Generated Content, UGC) through extensive creativity tools which make it hard to predict player experience.
Vincent E. Farrugia
To overcome these challenges Vincent E. Farrugia (supervised by Prof. Georgios N. Yannakakis), merged game design and artificial intelligence (AI). He developed a software framework for handling player engagement in environments which feature user generated content and groups. The three pronged solution tackles problems during game production, playing the game itself, and making sure the framework is sustainable. To maintain engagement within groups he analysed data for a particular person within the group but also patterns common across the whole group. Farrugia created software tools, autonomous AI aids, and tools to test and support the framework.
The software framework is made up of inter-operating modules. Firstly, an engagement policy module allows designers to specify theories to express their vision of positive game engagement. Player modelling then shapes this backbone to specific player engagement needs. The module can autonomously learn from player creations as reactions to game stimuli. Individual and group manager modules use this mixture of expert knowledge, AI learnt data, and player game-play history to automatically adapt game content to solve player engagement problems. This procedural content generation (PCG) is tailored for a specific player and time.
The framework’s abilities were showcased in a digital game also developed by Farrugia. Various technologies were incorporated to encourage player creativity in group sessions and to enhance networking. The setup also allowed the AI to quickly learn from each player via parallelism. Initial testing used a simulated environment with software agents. Preliminary testing on real players followed. The simulation was through a personality system to validate the underlying algorithms under various conditions. The resulting diverse game-play styles provide suggestions for AI model improvement. Farrugia is enthusiastic about future work for this AI framework and giving developers better tools to allow player creativity to flourish while maintaining positive game-play experiences.
This research was performed as part of a Master of Science degree at the Institute of Digital Games, University of Malta. It was partly funded by the Strategic Educational Pathways Scholarship (Malta), which is part-financed by the European Union—European Social Fund (ESF) under Operational Programme II—Cohesion Policy 2007—2013, ‘Empowering People for More Jobs and a Better Quality of Life’.
