Currently, academia is grappling with a significant problem—a lack of engagement. Humankind has gone too far into exploring entertainment options, while the education system has not really kept up. Millennials love playing games, and this addiction can be used to engage and motivate them in the learning process. This study examines the effect of digital game-based learning on student engagement and motivation levels and the gender differences in online learning settings. This study was conducted in two distinct phases. A game-based and traditional online quizzing tools were used to compare levels of engagement and motivation, as well as to assess the additional parameter of gender difference. During the first phase of the study, 276 male and female undergraduate students were recruited from Sophomore Seminar classes, and 101 participated in the survey, of which 83 were male and 18 were female. In the second phase, 126 participants were recruited, of which 107 (63 females and 44 males) participated in the anonymous feedback surveys. The results revealed that digital game-based learning has a more positive impact on student engagement and motivation compared to traditional online activities. The incorporation of a leaderboard as a gaming element in the study was found to positively impact the academic performance of certain students, but it could also demotivate some students. Furthermore, female students generally showed a slightly higher level of enjoyment toward the games compared to male students, but they did not prefer a comparison with other students as much as male students did. The favorable response from students toward digital game-based activities indicates that enhancing instruction with such activities will not only make learning an enjoyable experience for learners but also enhance their engagement.

Sleep pattern and posture recognition have become of great interest for a diverse range of clinical applications. Autonomous and constant monitoring of sleep postures provides useful information for reducing the health risk. Prevailing systems are designed based on electrocardiograms, cameras, and pressure sensors, which are not only expensive but also intrusive in nature, and uncomfortable to use. We propose an unobtrusive and affordable smart system based on an electronic mat called Sleep Mat-e for monitoring the sleep activity and sleep posture of individuals living in residential care facilities. The system uses a pressure sensing mat constructed using piezo-resistive material to be placed on a mattress. The sensors detect the distribution of the body pressure on the mat during sleep and we use convolution neural network (CNN) to analyze collected data and recognize different sleeping postures. The system is capable of recognizing the four major postures—face-up, face-down, right lateral, and left lateral. A real-time feedback mechanism is also provided through an accompanying smartphone application for keeping a diary of the posture and send alert to the user in case there is a danger of falling from bed. It also produces synopses of postures and activities over a given duration of time. Finally, we conducted experiments to evaluate the accuracy of the prototype, and the proposed system achieved a classification accuracy of around 90%.

Blockchain technology has emerged as a transformative solution for secure, immutable, and decentralized data management across diverse domains, including economics, healthcare, and supply chain management. Given its soaring adoption, it is crucial to assess the suitability of various blockchain platforms for specific applications. This study evaluates the performance of Hyperledger Fabric (HF) and private Ethereum (Geth) to analyze their scalability (node count), throughput (transactions per second (TPS)), and latency (measured in milliseconds). A benchmarking tool was developed in-house to assess the execution of key smart contract functions—QueryUser, CreateUser, TransferMoney, and IssueMoney—under varying transaction loads (10–1000 transactions) and network sizes (2–16 node count). The results indicate that HF performs significantly better than private Ethereum in terms of invoke functions, achieving up to 5× throughput and up to 26× lower latency. However, private Ethereum excels in query operations because of its account-based ledger model. While Hyperledger Fabric scales efficiently within moderate transaction volumes, it experiences concurrency limitations beyond 1000 transactions, whereas private Ethereum processes up to 10,000 transactions, albeit with performance fluctuations due to gas fees. The findings offer valuable insights into the strengths and tradeoffs of both platforms, informing optimal blockchain selection for enterprise applications that require high transaction efficiency.

Growing obesity has been a worldwide issue for several decades. This is the outcome of common nutritional disorders which results in obese individuals who are prone to many diseases. Managing diet while simultaneously dealing with the obligations of a working adult can be difficult. This paper presents the design and development of a smartphone-based diet-tracking application, Smart Diet Diary, to assist obese people as well as patients to manage their dietary intake for a healthier life. The proposed system uses deep learning to recognize a food item and calculate its nutritional value in terms of calorie count. The dataset used comprises 16,000 images of food items belonging to 14 different categories to train a multi-label classifier. We applied a pre-trained faster R-CNN model for classification and achieved an overall accuracy of approximately 80.1% and an average calorie computation within 10% of the real calorie value.

Sitting posture recognition systems have gained significant attention due to their potential applications in various domains, including healthcare, ergonomics, and human-computer interaction. This paper presents a comprehensive literature review and analysis of existing sitting posture recognition systems. Through an extensive examination of relevant research articles and conference papers, we identify and analyze the underlying technologies, methodologies, datasets, performance metrics, and applications associated with these systems. The review encompasses both traditional methods, such as vision-based approaches and sensor-based techniques, as well as emerging technologies such as machine learning and deep learning algorithms. Additionally, we examine the challenges, constraints, and future trends in the field of sitting posture recognition systems. Researchers, practitioners, and policymakers who want to comprehend the most recent developments and latest trends in sitting posture recognition technology will find great value in this study.

Lab orientation is a vital part of learning for new students entering the university, as it provides the students with all the necessary and important information about the lab. The current orientation is manual, tedious, suffers from logistical constraints, lacks engagement, and provides no way to assess that outcomes have been achieved. This is also supported by the results of a student survey which revealed students’ dissatisfaction with current process of orientation. This study presents the design and development of a sample augmented reality mobile application, AR-LabOr, for the lab orientation that helps students in a quick and easy adaptation to the lab environment by familiarizing them with the lab equipment, staff, and safety rules in a fun and interactive manner. This application makes use of marker-less augmented reality technology and a blend of multimedia information such as sound, text, images, and videos that are superimposed on real-world contents. An experiment with 56 students showed that they found the novel method of orientation using the application more engaging than the traditional instructor-led method. Students also found the application to be more supportive, motivating, and that it helped them in better understanding the lab equipment.