Question: To save time, speaker mn005 will only mark the sample of transcribed data for regions of overlapping speech, as opposed to marking all acoustic events. The digits extraction task will be delegated to whomever is working on acoustics for the Meeting Recorder project.


Question: Efforts by speaker mn005 are in progress to detect overlapping speech. For a single transcribed meeting, speaker mn005 reported approximately 300 cases of overlap. Future work will involve manually deriving time marks from sections of overlapping speech for the same meeting, and then experimenting with different measures, e.g. energy increase, to determine a set of acoustically salient features for identifying speaker overlap.


Question: Approximately 12-13 hours of Meeting Recorder data have been collected, roughly 45 minutes of which have been transcribed. Additional meetings by other ICSI research groups will be recorded. A suggestion was made that multi-channel data also be collected in cooperation with local media broadcasters, and that such events might be recorded live from ICSI.


Question: The group aims to collect over 100 hours of Meeting Recorder data in total. Speaker consent forms are being revised. It was suggested that subjects should sign a new consent form after 10 recording sessions.


Question: The group discussed topics including a potential collaboration with another ICSI member regarding the analysis of inference structures, efforts by speaker mn005 to detect speaker overlap, the current status of recordings and transcriptions, and future efforts to collect meeting data. In addition to weekly meetings by the BMR group, efforts are in progress to record meetings by other ICSI research groups, as well as routine discussions by non-ICSI members.


Question: According to the Industrial Design, there might be only a few choices for the energy source and materials from the current manufacturer, so he suggested that they had better look for another manufacturer for more alternatives. The Marketing put forward to design a user-friendly interface while the User Interface came up with the idea of including the voice recognition system into the remote control in order to provide better communication with the users. Apart from that, spinning wheels on the iPod and secured programming were also suggested.


Question: While discussing their presentations on the appearance design, both the Industrial Design and the Marketing put forward to use rubber as the material rather than other things like wood. The Industrial Design agreed to choose rubber because it can stand beat, drop and extrusion.


Question: The User Interface affirmed their previous efforts at first, but he thought that was not enough, so he went on to propose that they might consider buying another face plate and include a touch screen. In terms of the buttons on the screen, the User Interface found the existing problem that some of the buttons would be stuck in the screen and not so easy to be found and touched, so he suggested making those essential buttons in conspicuous colours like red.


Question: The group found that if they would use the touch screen as well as the voice recognition technique, the cost would up to 17 euros. On the other hand, in order to guarantee the one hundred percent profit, the price would be more than 30, which would risk losing potential consumers. Provided that they would control the cost within 12.5 euros, they would have to cut off some functions, for example, voice recognition. It was really hard to balance between the popular tastes, the cost and the quality.


Question: When the group found that it was hard to balance between the cost and functions, the Project Manager proposed to give up the voice recognition and keep the touch screen. But according to Marketing’s research, even if the interviewees were not informed of the touch screen, they showed a great preference for voice recognition. So just for catering to popular tastes, the Marketing insisted that they should keep the voice recognition in any case.


Question: The User Interface proposed to give up the idea of a hand-held model and give its way to the voice recognition system, while the Industrial Design thought it would be necessary for remote control to be able to be held in hand. Industrial Design believed that not all the people would always use the voice recognition system and most of the time they have to take it by hand. For most, voice recognition is only a kind of addition. If the remote control was not in a suitable shape, like something round, it would bring some troubles.


Question: The whole meeting was about a detailed prototype of the remote control. As before, this meeting also began with personal presentations. The Industrial Design focused on the components of the remote control, including the energy source, the buttons and the materials, while the User Interface suggested to use voice recognition technique and add secured or hidden programming onto the touch screen. Then the problem came that if they would like to make it so complex, they would go beyond the budget and have to raise the cost. Thus they decided to simplify some functions and buttons. Before the meeting ended, they also discussed the shape of the remote control.


Question: According to the Project Manager, the finance department proposed to price the product at 25 euros and make a profit of fifty million euros in total. However, the cost might be at only twelve fifty, meaning that the profit would be at one hundred percent.


Question: The User Interface proposed to build a stand-alone one, which can be different from any other devices. The Project Manager then added that it might be better with more useful functions like changing the faces. Marketing came up with the idea of making it be functional for other devices as well, just including everything in this remote control.


Question: In terms of the great idea of making a multifunctional remote control, a new problem occurred that no one would be in favour of the product if it is too large or it is too complex to remember which button is for a certain function. One possibly feasible solution was to make it a remote control with a touch screen.


Question: Industrial Designer was unsatisfied with the existing remote controls, for that they are seemingly cheap and of low quality. Thus the Industrial Designer intended to make it nice and slick, maybe something with multi plates.


Question: After coming up with the idea of multi plates, the Industrial Designer asked to give the remote control a name and patent it. Within a brief discussion, they named it as Leopard Print out of the hope that it would also be helpful in cold winter days.


Question: For fear that the exorbitant price of 25 euros of the remote control would shock the potential consumers, Project Manager proposed to trade off some functions for a lower price. Additionally, Project Manager mentioned an American computer electronics store to show that shipping products overseas can also make profits and then added this to the whole plan.


Question: The meeting was about a preliminary idea of new remote control, covering the price, the functions, the appearance and the name. After a brief self-introduction, Project Manager assigned the task. One of the most important issues of the meeting was about the price. Project Manager supposed the product should be sold at 25 euros with a one hundred percent profit. As it would be a multifunctional remote control, the members were confident that it would stand alone. Moving on to the issue of the appearance, the group analyzed the problems of the existing remotes and briefly talked about the user interface as well as came up with a name of the product.


Question: There were a lot of small wires connecting the components, the battery and the switches. On the top of the remote control, there was the chip, buttons with numbers and teletext. Industrial Designer suggested that the remote control should be small and contain only one long-lasting battery to cut cost. And a bleep could be added to remind the battery usage.


Question: Project Manager questioned the reason why not to use two batteries and Industrial Designer argued that two batteries would enlarge the size and thus, make the cost rise. Project Manager also questioned the button design.After discussion, they agreed that the menu button will only work on the newer televisions.


Question: Industrial Designer suggested having a trendy remote control with bright color, red for instance. But Marketing argued that it might add to cost and make it more difficult to design if the cover were to be changed. Industrial Designer also suggested that young people could draw on the cover to make their own remote control more unique. But again, it was questioned by User Interface who were not sure about whether it would be profitable.


Question: A remote control to have some influence on the TV set, both audio and video in a cordless way. User Interface suggested more functions on the remote control so that they could influence more devices like a radio or a video recorder. But the team was not sure whether the new remote control should be basic or multifunctional and they decided to get back to that point later.


Question: Marketing did a usability lab-test with a hundred people and found that users disliked the ugly look of current remote controls and the market segmentation includes different attitudes towards new functions. Users felt it hard to learn new functions and they zapped a lot. The channel switch was the most popular function while the power, volume and channel selections buttons were very relevant. The market was to be segmented to different groups and most users were between thirty-six and forty-five years old and young users had different tastes about the LCD compared to the old. The speech recognition features were welcomed by the second largest group, the young but which group they should targeted remained to be discussed. Marketing concluded that less important functions should be discarded and the device should be user friendly.


Question: Industrial Designer argued that the LCD and speech recognition features would largely add to cost. Project Manager said that the LCD would be cheaper than speech recognition and might be a good idea. The team would come back on that later.


Question: Project Manager decided that the remote control should only be used on television and targeted at the biggest size of group. Corporate colour and slogan must be used on the cover. They agreed that a power button, channel switches from zero to nine, volume control, mute should be contained and a small-size menu included.


Question: The team introduced their findings in turns and gradually came to some agreements. First, Industrial Designer introduced the structure of the device and suggested one battery and small size. Meanwhile, Project Manager questioned the cover design since it would not be cheap. Then, User Interface left a question whether the technical function should be basic or multi-functional. After that, Marketing concluded that less important functions should be discarded and the device should be user friendly. Lastly, Project Manager suggested discarding the teletext and asked for ideas about button design.


Question: Firstly, Industrial Designer presented on working design, identifying a few basic components of the remote. From the functional design perspective, Industrial Designer introduced what exactly the components were and how they worked with each other. Next, User Interface presented on technical functions design and personally suggested a small size of remote, red in colour and easy to use with must-have buttons. Then, Marketing presented on functional requirements and suggested the group aiming at both the functionality and beauty of the remote.


Question: Industrial Designer suggested the group could keep the design as simple and clear as possible because this would help them to upgrade their technology at a future point of time. Project Manager asked about the cost at this point, however, Industrial Designer had no idea about what each component cost. So Project Manager thought it should be considered because the price would increase if they were using more advanced technology.


Question: When Marketing mentioned about the long battery life, the group came up with the locator that the remote could beep when users clapped. Also, this function should be designed to not beep every five minutes so that users would not like the remote. The group mates agreed on it and thought it was an interesting and excellent idea.


Question: The group had a discussion about the target age group and they agreed to look at 15 to 35 year olds. Also, they decided to make it look simple, but still have those key buttons so it would be easy to use. Lastly, the group agreed to include one sort of menu button and voice recognition as an option.


Question: Industrial Designer suggested they should also look up popularity among the 25 to 35 years old age group if they looked into a stylish design. Marketing said it was 70% popular among this age group and thought this age group didn't have much economic burden so the remote price should not be unaffordable. User Interface supplemented that their remote might not function with the old TV. Therefore, the group decided to include both 15 to 25 and 25 to 35 years old age group into consideration.


Question: Project Manager thought since they not only targeted 15 to 35 years old age groups, they should have an implementation for voice recognition technology. Industrial Designer mentioned that voice recognition was not yet a mature technology and most remotes went for buttons to change channels. User Interface suggested they need to have both features and group mates agreed on it.


Question: This meeting was about functional design. Firstly, the group had three presentations on working design, technical functions and functional requirements. They suggested basic components of the remote control including the size, the colour, the ease of using and main buttons. Then group mates had a discussion on general requirements. They agreed to target disposable income groups between 15 to 35 years of age group. Also, they decided to have a simple, small-sized remote with key buttons and a menu button. Lastly, they agreed to integrate the voice recognition technology because the group mates thought they should not only focus on the target age group from 15 to 25, but also the age group from 25 to 35.


Question: According to a market survey, there were several things that users didn't like in current remote controls. First of all, users find them very ugly. Second, the current remote controls were not so easy to use and the facilities that they offered did not match what people really wanted. Third, people were very frustrated with their remote controls because sometimes they just couldn't find them. Therefore, the marketing suggested making their new product good-looking and equipped with less buttons and a speech recognition system.


Question: After conducting a survey, the marketing found power button was not used often because users used it only once per session while the channel selection was very often used which made it quite important. Volume was not often used but people wanted to have control on volume and that made sense. What much less often used was the settings, such as audio settings, screen settings, even teletext and channel settings.


Question: Because in general the early adopters of a new device were young people and teletext was used less among the young than the elderly. Plus, the young found it very relevant to have speech recognition in their remote control so that they could just tell the controller what they wanted instead of zapping.


Question: The user interface designer stressed that they should design nothing but a remote control because their principle was to make users' simple desires into simple actions. Therefore, the proposed concept for the design included just a few buttons, a screen with a back light which can change colours and titanium, which was accepted by the group.


Question: The user interface designer recommended to have a screen with a backlight which could change colours and to put all the options into this screen so that few buttons were needed and users would find it easy to use. As for the material, titanium was preferred because it was unbreakable and baby-proof. The user interface designer also suggested making the power and volume control fully automatic.


Question: The marketing thought it not easy to keep pressing 'next' to get to the channel people wanted. Then the user interface designer offered a solution that users could set up the channels that they often watched as one, two, and three so that they would never have to go through dozens of channels. However, in the Marketing's previous presentation, some people did love zapping, so the user interface designer suggested carrying out some research to find out how many people really needed to skip from one channel to another.


Question: The industrial designer described the product as a portable device with some energy source, an interface which included some pressing buttons and keys, a processor, some infrared source which could send the information to the main device, and different encryption codes for different TVs. Since the Marketing and the user interface designer mentioned speech recognition, the industrial designer also took that into account. All these components would cost 5 Euros or even less than that. As for gesture recognition and automatic power control, the group gave them up due to price issues. At the end of the meeting, the group also talked about how to enable the users to find the controller.


Question: Since the marketing and the user interface designer mentioned speech recognition in their previous presentations, the industrial designer suggested putting a simple speech recogniser on the digital signal processing chip and training the speech recogniser for particular users. However, the user interface designer concerned that it would be too complex. Then the industrial designer argued that even some simple mobile devices could have these voice dialers so it wouldn't be so sophisticated, and the marketing also said the product would be good to sell with the speech recogniser.


Question: The industrial designer thought the automatic power control would be a bit problematic because there were different criteria for different people. Then the marketing proposed that they should design a personalized product so that the users could have their own settings. The proposal was accepted by the industrial designer but later the idea of automatic power control was still abandoned because of price issues.


Question: The meeting was basically on functional design. First, the marketing talked about the user requirements based on a market survey and suggested making their new product good-looking and equipped with less buttons and a speech recognition system. Then the user interface designer stressed that they should design nothing but a remote control because their principle was to make users' simple desires into simple actions. Therefore, the proposed concept for design included just a few buttons, a screen with a back light and titanium, which was accepted by the group. Finally, when it came to the working design of the remote control, the industrial designer described the product as a portable device with some energy source, an interface, a processor, some infrared source, different encryption codes for different TVs, and speech recogniser. All these components would be within budget. At the end of the meeting, the group also talked about how to enable the users to find the controller.


Question: The translation of SmartKom to english is in its final stages. The variety of linguistic conventions seem to develop around an ego/allo-centric and a proximal/distal paradigm. From an engineering perspective, the belief-net for the AVE task should be completed within a few weeks. Since the whole system is going to be re-designed, there are major decisions to be taken regarding the parser and the ontology, as well as what can be re-used from past EML projects. In parallel, another team is working on formalisation and notation. Finally, more ideas are expected to come from students and their research.


Question: The translation of SmartKom to english is in its final stages. The synthesis module will be the last one to do, after the english syntax trees are completed. The system is still buggy and unstable, but it will soon be ready for a demonstration.


Question: The final english SmartKom demo will be presented to the whole institute once the system is de-bugged and stabilised.


Question: After the demo, the focus of research can switch towards purely scientific goals, including issues on ontology, deep semantic constructions, execution engines etc. Moreover, a new system will be designed for the project and at least some parts of it should be built.


Question: The meeting discussed various topics such as data collection and updates on the German parser. They discussed XML modifications and future thoughts on the ontology. Additionally, object representations will include an EVA vector. This can be incorporated in the database entry for a particular building or inherited from the ontology of the building type. The actual number of the inputs can create a combinatorial explosion when setting the probabilities. In any case, further to fulfilling the basic requirements (translating the parser and the generator into english), the project is entirely open-ended in terms of focus of research.


Question: The industrial designer provided several options respectively for energy, material and interface. Among these options, the industrial designer preferred traditional battery, titanium and simple push buttons so that they would have enough money for speech recognition. After that, the user interface designer proposed an LCD display only for output, which might be taken into account. The group also talked about how to enable the users to find their controllers.


Question: The industrial designer recommended batteries instead of solar cells because it would be problematic if solar cells didn't have enough energy. Titanium was proposed rather than rubber as the latter would make it difficult to do the moulding of buttons. Besides, the industrial designer wanted a simple push button because it only needed a simple chip and was less expensive than LCD.


Question: Although the industrial designer regarded LCD as costly, the user interface designer proposed adding an LCD as a kind of output that only displayed some information or menu and was not touch sensitive, which might reduce the cost.


Question: The user interface designer presented a good-looking design with few buttons. As for the colour, the user interface designer suggested making a backlight of the LCD screen with different colours, but this was denied due to the high cost. Then the industrial designer recommended changing the colour of the assembly at an extra charge to meet special needs. Light and infrared were also taken into consideration to make the controller glow in the dark. In order to make a smart controller, the group mentioned speech recognition and user identification.


Question: Because the marketing believed that young people wanted to be different from their friends and would be ready to pay more for things that were specific to them and made them special. Thus, providing some upgradeable remote controls with various colours for these customers would be a selling point.


Question: The marketing expert came up with the idea that the remote control could identify the user. Since it knows who was using it, it might record the kind of channels that you often watched and the level of volumes you liked. In other words, it would provide your way of using it. This would be a good sales pitch though it might be expensive.


Question: The marketing put forward three noteworthy aspects in trends. First and foremost, people loved fancy things that they could be identified with. The second point was that as a remote control it had to be technologically innovative. Thirdly, being easy to use was also necessary. From a broader perspective, fruit and vegetables were in fashion this year and being spongy was also popular. Thus, contrary to the industrial designer, the marketing thought rubber was more feasible in terms of sponginess. The group agreed that the product should resemble fruit and vegetable in shape and colour but the specific design was not decided.


Question: The marketing found that trends were quite the same in many areas. Take this year's fruit and vegetable as an example, it applies to everything from clothing to furniture, which meant it was quite general. It might be surprising that people liked products that looked natural and round rather than some futuristic remote control with angles and titanium.


Question: To follow the trend of fruit and vegetable, there were two options: something in titanium and smelling like fruit, or something spongy and fruity-like. The industrial designer would explore these two choices and he also suggested having two different assemblies, but the project manager said they couldn't have both. The project manager also mentioned another solution - painting the controller to pretend that it was titanium. The group didn't make a final decision.


Question: The meeting was mainly about conceptual design. In the beginning, the group focused on industrial components: energy, material and interface. The industrial designer preferred traditional batteries, titanium and simple push buttons so that they would have enough money for speech recognition. After that, the group talked about LCD display and locating methods. The second topic was user interface concept, which was basically a good-looking design with few buttons. The group decided to change the colour of the assembly at an extra charge to meet special needs. To make a smart controller, they mentioned speech recognition and user identification. When it came to trend watching, the marketing put forward three noteworthy aspects - being fancy, technologically innovative and useful. The group agreed to follow the trend but the specific design was not decided.


Question: The group gave a high score in terms of a fashion look, the ease of use, the locator, the scroll wheel, the LCD screen as well as the voice recognition technology. They also calculated the average overall score was six point five. The group agreed that the assessment was very good.


Question: Industrial Designer mentioned that they were considering that the remote was more for right-handed people than for left-handed people. Project Manager said that there didn't always have all left-handers or all right-handers in a family. Marketing mentioned that users could use their finger to scroll rather than their thumb and this would negate the whole RSI issue. Project Manager agreed on it and the group would need an investigation.


Question: The group agreed that the remote had a high score in terms of locatability, so they first thought it was also intuitive. Then, Industrial Designer mentioned that it might be a little more difficult for people to get used to in the beginning because the scroll was a new technology. Marketing thought it was obvious how to use it. Therefore, groupmates agreed to give an average score of five.


Question: The production cost was 12.5 Euros. So, the group decided to have one simple battery, no kinetic energy, no solar, one advanced chip on print, one sample speaker, one single-curved surface which can be folded, push-buttons, the scroll wheel, the LCD display. And they decided to give up the sample sensor as well as the locator.


Question: User Interface asked whether they could put an additional mute button on the top of the scroll spinning when discussing the scroll wheel push button. Marketing suggested the spin wheel with the LCD because it would not add much cost. Project Manager mentioned that it already came with the LCD and it's not on their list. The scroll wheel was on the remote side. Marketing agreed on it and group mates thought it was a good idea.


Question: Industrial Designer thought they lost the locator while keeping other features. But Project Manager responded that they were going to have a beeper. User Interface supplemented that it was not like a sample speaker, but it would beep so they still had the locator.


Question: This meeting was about the detailed design. Firstly, User Interface presented on the prototype, including the shape, the size of the remote and the user interface including the buttons and the scrolling wheel. Next, the group had an evaluation criterion on the prototype. They scored an overall six point five average on the prototype and thought they had done well on it. Then, the group had a discussion about project finance. The group decided not to have a sample sensor and the locator because they had a production cost of 12.5 Euros. Lastly, the group had a discussion about the project process, including the use of a pen, the whiteboard and the PowerPoint. Also, the group was satisfied with Project Manager's leadership and Project Manager also mentioned that their costs were within the budget as well as some admin work.


Question: The group briefly talked about their agreements of the past meetings. They were all concerned with the interchangeable user interfaces and they agreed to make it more natural-looking and multi-faces. The Industrial Design then mentioned the issue of the material. They decided to use a rubber coat in case the remote control would be damaged when being dropped occasionally. After most details were checked, the Project Manager turned to the budget problem. It is quite essential for them to be both environmentally friendly and economic.


Question: While discussing the financial issue, the User Interface put forward to making the remote control environmental and not using batteries, the Industrial Design disagreed with him. Because for one thing, no one could guarantee the solar cell work well all the time and for another, it is quite dear to set up a solar system.


Question: The Project Manager planned to include their project process in the presentation. In addition, he thought it would be an interesting experiment to carry out an open mic presentation in which the team members could get out of the roles and share their satisfaction of the room and their creativity freely.


Question: The User Interface first pointed out that they did not use the whiteboard at all, neither did they use the pen as well. However, according to Marketing, it was quite understandable that due to the room constraints, such devices were not used. But the worse problem was that they did not receive as many notes as they wanted, the Marketing even received no reply after he wrote his coach.


Question: The Industrial Design was not quite satisfied with the skin colours. He thought there were not enough colours for them to work with, however, the Marketing believed that the Industrial Design could have developed more colours for the group. This might be a pity of their teamwork.


Question: All the other three group members did not agree with the Project Manager that they thought they did not do enough as a team. Even though it might be because this was only a virtual project which did not require an actual building, as the Marketing said, it should be a much longer time of actual work rather than just imagining the remote control through three hours' meetings.


Question: This was the last meeting of their work. The meeting was about a summary of the previous achievements and agreements, including the details of the design of the remote control, like issues of energy source and budget control. After talking about their ideal remote control, the group moved on to plan their group presentation. They discussed what the PPT should include, what they should and should not mention in the presentation and also compared their work with their competitors.


Question: One of the graduate students is working on building the PDA of the future. The idea is to be able to record meetings for personal use and then query them for pertinent information. The data collection will be anonymized to a large extent, but not so much that the meeting does not represent a real scenario. This meeting will be one of the recorded meetings.


Question: C began by asking some questions about the recording procedure and wanted to know what excising utterances from the transcript would look like. C asked several questions to that end but clarified that the source of inquiry was curiosity and nothing more. Additionally, C wanted A to explain to the meeting participants what the experiment was for.


Question: A noted that all participants will have to sign a consent form and read out digits and requested that microphones be kept away from the mouth to minimize breathing sounds. A also mentioned that people will be anonymized in the transcript. A explained that the goal was to eventually be able to query meetings for information.


Question: The computer navigation system will work as follows. The subject of the experiment will familiarize themselves with information about a city. Then, they will be introduced to an advanced navigation system through which they can navigate the city, and they will be given several tasks, like buying stamps. The navigation system will crash, and the subject will be connected to a human operator. Then, the human operator will control the system based on the subject's requests as the subject tries to complete their tasks. Both sides, the assistant and the subject, will be recorded for data collection purposes.


Question: B explained that the subject of the experiment will first be given texts about a city, so they can familiarize themselves with foreign terms. Then, they will be introduced to a computer navigation system with which they can navigate the city and provided with a set of tasks to complete. Then, the computer system will crash, including the GPS, so the person will not even know where they are, and the human operator will assist them. To find their location, the subject will have to provide visual information to the human operator. B also thought that creating movies of walking would require a lot of technical effort but later claimed that it may be worth it. B clarified that the goal was to see how people communicate in such a scenario.


Question: D wanted to know if the videos for the navigation system would be recorded from a first person perspective. D was also trying to understand how ambitious the system was. D learned that the goal was to understand how people reacted and talked in such a scenario. D provided some information about potential candidates for the human operator and wizard roles as well.


Question: The meeting was about a computer based navigation system that will be used to conduct linguistic experiments on navigational terminology and intentionality, and it was simultaneously being recorded for another project. The navigational interface allows people to walk around a place and perform basic actions, like entering a building. Its goal is to understand what people intend to do based on granular linguistic features. The experimental set up is that people talk to a human assistant who controls the program in an attempt to complete a certain task. To study intentionality, the team will determine important linguistic features and use a Bayes model to see if they can predict the intention based on utterances.


Question: Huw Irranca-Davies said the process of early implementer areas had gone well and were encouraged to expand. Two things had been learned during this process by their team. To respond to the questioner, Huw Irranca-Davies then further explained the administrative burden they met and expressed a confident attitude in addressing that. The next question answered was about the spread issue of this project.


Question: Huw Irranca-Davies mentioned two things that their teams learned from early implementer areas. The first one was how to deal with bureaucracy and the second was about communication with both parents and pilot authorities.


Question: Huw Irranca-Davies mentioned there were some economic issues and cultural issues to deal with, rather than the capacity problems.


Question: Huw Irranca-Davies first talked about the registration of grandparents. Next, Huw Irranca-Davies denied the statement that Wales has the most fragile childcare sector in Britain, pointing out that childcare offers can make the section more resilient and robust. To continue, Huw Irranca-Davies mentioned that there would be capacity growth in the next several years to deliver the product.


Question: Huw Irranca-Davies emphasized that the focus was on registered licensed providers, for the childcare offer wanted to have a higher quality and provided wider aspects than single childcare. But some grandparents had been registered, licensed, and inspected and they looked after both their grandchildren and other people's children in a little group.


Question: Huw Irranca-Davies thought there would be capacity growth in the next two to three years to deliver the product. The confidence was constructed by the development of roll-out, in which the team was learning live time. Moreover, there was a separate fund into cycle meithrin to address the issue of the Welsh language.


Question: In this part, the meeting talked about the affordability of £4.50 amount (the universal amount) and add-ups for some cases. The group separately discussed the situation of families of different incomes levels and different areas.


Question: Huw Irranca-Davies thought £4.50amount was an appropriate and universal amount. As for the add-ons, even low-income families could discriminate between providers. Also, the team would be substantially transparent thus parents can make the decisions.


Question: New pilots in Cardiff and Newport would start in September. This was to learn the experiences of the high-cost areas. If it was shown that the rate in these areas was more expensive, then the team would come back and discuss it with the committee. But Huw Irranca-Davies emphasized that the project should start first, rather than assuming a higher rate necessary.


Question: This part talked about the impact on children and the school readiness issue. To be precise, the group had discussed disadvantaged families' problems, free education, the potential numbers and cost, and eventually the feasibility of the general rate.


Question: Huw Irranca-Davies stated that Flying Start helped disadvantaged children to step up to the foundation year and then step through into mainstream education in later years. In the scheme, there were 10 hours of education provision for every family. However, Huw Irranca-Davies acknowledged that the majority of disadvantaged children don't line up in Flying Start areas.


Question: Huw Irranca-Davies said the situation in the Valleys (model) was an example of what the team would like to see. This proved that the £4.50 seemed to work.


Question: This meeting was about the Welsh Government's childcare offer. During the whole process, Huw Irranca-Davies, Jo-Anne Daniels, and Owain Lloyd answered questions given.The first topic was about the situation of early implementer local authority areas, mentioning what it had learned and the burden they had met. Turning to the childcare offer itself, Huw Irranca-Davies answered several questions regarding its quality and growth. Next, hourly rates of the service and workforce capacity had been emphasized, followed by the discussion of public policy. Moreover, the meeting talked about the impact on children as well as school readiness. The last part was mainly about the assessment of the income levels of each family.


Question: The color of the prototype was yellow and the material was half rubber and half plastic with a company logo. Moreover, it could be curved inside to cover the buttons which were big and blue except the power button. Besides, both the button and joystick could switch the device off and the joystick was especially designed to control the channel and volume to make the device more fashionable. The team agreed that it was overall a good design.


Question: Marketing wrote down a few evaluation criteria, based on previous marketing strategy, on the latest trends, and on user preferences. There was a seven-point scale rating for each criterion. The team would give comments to each feature listed and agree on the final rating.


Question: The team agreed that only the scroll button and the LCD were new items for a remote control. The color of the device was doubted but Marketing argued that since the product aimed at the young market, the case looked good in pure yellow. Besides, the rubber material felt soft, making the device look and feel nice. However, the team thought that there were too many buttons, which did not align with the original idea.


Question: In terms of the material used on the device, the team decided to use only one material, either rubber or plastic instead of both or titanium. Moreover, the team agreed to discard the joystick but keep the LCD and advance chips,to make it still favored by the young market. Lastly, a normal color would be incorporated instead of a special color to decrease the cost by at least half Euro.


Question: The team thought they had a really great team work experience. Everyone had put efforts into the process and gave opinions to design a good remote control. Also, the project manager showed good leadership to control the overall process.


Question: Firstly, User Interface introduced the prototype of remote control based on the previous discussion of its function. The prototype was half rubber and half plastic with a yellow case. Secondly, Marketing designed an evaluation test under the guidance of the market trend as well as the customers' taste and the team gave one to seven points to each feature of the product.Thirdly, the team found that the current product exceeded the budget, so the team decided to discard joystick and use only one material with the normal color but the team agreed to keep the LCD as well as the advanced chips. Lastly, the team gave positive feedback on the project and the process.


Question: Firstly, Industrial Designer presented on the remote components including the circuit board, the chip, the kinetic energy, the solar cell, the case shape and the interface. Next, User Interface presented on user interface including the mechanisms to operate and input data, the shape and the size, the buttons and the voice recognition as well as the scroll wheel. Then, Marketing presented on market trends. In consideration of the target age group and technology innovation, Marketing suggested the group could go for LCD, the colours and the voice recognition as well as the flat spongy material based on current trends.


Question: When User Interface mentioned about the new developments they would include, Industrial Designer asked about what a spinning wheel with the LCD display was. User Interface explained that it was a wheel but not separate buttons. Marketing supplemented that it was a fast wheel to control over. Industrial Designer agreed on LCD with spinning and would include it into the design.


Question: When Industrial Designer mentioned that LCD was basically feedback from television and questioned the necessity of LCD, Marketing suggested that they could integrate with the television then it could come up with new information about what was on, and users could just see that on the remote rather than TV itself so that users won't get interrupted by viewing pleasure. Also, Marketing thought the group could have a minimalist remote control so that users could flip it open if they wanted to mess about it.


Question: They decided to implement a LCD display with a scroll wheel. Instead of using hand dynamos, the group decided to use a wind dynamo which was more environmentally friendly. And they would keep the kinetic energy as an option and keep the spongy material preferences as well as voice recognition. At last, groupmates agreed to apply interchangeable cases with incorporated colours to make the remote more trendy. They would use a simple battery, the advanced chip, a curved side case and rubber buttons.


Question: User Interface thought it would be hard to keep the remote control small with a wood case. Industrial Designer thought the thin wood remote would be easy to break. Project Manager thought given that they were looking at more spongy material preferences, rubber or plastic would be more practical. Also, the group thought that wood was not cleanable, so they decided not to use a wood case for the remote control.


Question: Industrial Designer mentioned that the push-buttons were their expertise in the industry when discussing the interface. And Industrial Designer thought it seemed to be out of trend, while Marketing thought they had to have push-buttons. Industrial Designer supplemented that if they had LCD displays, users could select everything on the LCD. However, User Interface thought the LCD was just for fast scrolling. So User Interface suggested using it as normal control. Marketing mentioned that they wanted buttons for users and everything else menu-driven.


Question: This meeting was about technical design. Firstly, the group had three presentations on remote components, user interface and market trends. They presented remote control features including the circuit board, the chip, the kinetic energy, the interface mechanism of operation, the scroll wheel to be added as well as the LCD and spinning innovation. Then, the group had a discussion about the key remote concepts. They decided to have a LCD display with a spinning wheel. They would not have hand dynamos, instead, they would have a wind dynamo. And they would keep the kinetic energy as an option and look at more spongy material preferences with rubber or plastic.


Question: Although there were no exact figures,they had seen over recent years that they were only recruiting to about 65 percent of targets. It was partially due to the financial incentives, but that was not all of the problems. Because this issue was not only in Wales, but a common issue in all over the world. For example, in England, despite higher financial incentives to join ITE courses, people still were not getting onto those courses. To solve this problem, they had taken several steps including making sure their ITE provision was world class, embarking on the first national ITE recruitment marketing exercise, etc. In this process, Llyr Gruffydd had a doubt that the level of ambition did not reflect the level of action that was needed actually. Kirsty Williams responded that different statistics told different stories. They obviously understood there were many steps they had to take, but they were trying instead of just sitting back and waiting.


Question: Even though there was no specific figure that could be provided, they had only been recruiting about 65 percent of targets.Therefore, there was a lot of work they have to do about this. First, they were making sure that their ITE provision was world class, and recently they were through an accreditation process for a new ITE provision that would start in the next academic year. Second, they had looked at financial incentives.Third, they were embarking on their first national ITE recruitment marketing exercise. Kirsty Williams mentioned that this was not a unique issue in Wales, but a common issue across the globe. Money was not the only reason that prevented people from getting onto these courses. What's more, from next year, they would be going to have their unique part-time PGCE route into qualification, which allowed people to bring their outside world experience into teaching, and this could increase the diversity in their teaching workforce.


Question: First, Kirsty Williams said the figures on their own would tell one story. If looking at qualifiers of ITE scores in Wales by degree type, a trend of numbers going up appeared. Both of them were statistics and it depended on which one you look at. They absolutely understood that there was a lot of work needing to be done, and that was why they had the evaluation of provision in ITE and they would be taking that ambition forward. They were not sitting back and just waiting. They were actually taking steps.


Question: Kirsty Williams firstly made it clear that it would not be appropriate to comment this since this process was independent of Government. Hefin David then proposed the impact on students and staff. Kirsty Williams thought there would be a responsibility upon the University of South Wales to ensure that those students already in the system were able to complete their studies with the appropriate level of support and tuition to enable them to achieve their career aspirations and graduate from that program. The same was true for staff. Kirsty Williams thought that would be a matter for the institution. After this, they had some discussions on the geographic spread of provision.


Question: Kirsty Williams thought this process was independent of the Government, and it would not be very appropriate to comment on it. From the very outset of their ITE reforms, they had made it clear that they expected very high standards in the ITE system, but this process was independent of the Government. More specifically with the concern of the impact on students and staff, Kirsty Williams mentioned that this would be a responsibility of University of South Wales itself.


Question: Kirsty Williams said there was a significant geographic spread with their current providers currently. They thought for some students, accessibility was an issue, and that was why they were responding with their part-time PGCE route, which actually would be located neutral. Therefore, if geographical disadvantages were stopping somebody from pursuing a career aspiration to qualify as a teacher, the new part-time PGCE would allow them to do this.


Question: Kirsty Williams firstly proposed that the main goal he would like to pursue was a healthy, strong and sustainable HE sector. They did not pursue or urge a policy of mergers, but they welcomed the mergers, if this was beneficial for individual institutions. Hefin David proposed that was in contrast with the predecessors, and talked about the situation when Cardiff Metropolitan University was under pressure from the previous Minister to merge with the University of Glamorgan and Newport. Kirsty Williams thought they needed to look at the future instead of looking at the past. They had a strong institution in Cardiff Met now. However, it was obvious that they got to learn some lessons from that process.


Question: Kirsty Williams said he was in favor of a healthy, strong and sustainable HE sector. If individual institutions wish to collaborate, that was a matter for themselves. They did not pursue or urge a policy of mergers, but if individual institutions felt that was of benefit to them and their students, they would have an interest in that and make sure that they were robust plans.


Question: Kirsty Williams was not aware of any disadvantages to Cardiff Met. In terms of students and staff, there would be some personal impact on them. However, in terms of institutions going forward, Kirsty Williams was not aware that they were currently struggling with any disadvantages. Instead of looking at the past, Kirsty Williams thought they needed to look at the future. It had turned out that they got a strong institution in Cardiff Met.


Question: Dawn Bowden proposed the topic of pay dispute and asked what could be done as a Government to try to get parties back round the table and solve this dispute. Eluned Morgan thought this was about ColegauCymru's negotiation, and they were keeping a close eye on this situation. Eluned Morgan thought it would be fair to wait until they get further along down the line. Then Eluned Morgan had a detailed explanation about what they had done, including listening and speaking to ColegauCymru, and they were aware of what the unions were saying as well. Furthermore, Eluned Morgan said they would wish to see pay equality in relation to teaching, but details in relation to this should be waited until the outcome of the negotiations of ColegauCymru. They were aware of all those situations and they knew they were going to have to deal with it in the future.


Question: Eluned Morgan agreed with Dawn Bowden that this was about ColegauCymru's negotiation. They would keep a close eye on this situation, but they would wait for the outcome of the negotiations of ColegauCymru before they take any serious steps. They had listened and spoken to ColegauCymru and were aware of what the unions were saying. However, at this point, they had no idea where the settlement was likely to fall.


Question: Eluned Morgan said that they would wish to see pay equality in relation to teaching. As for whether all staff should get the increase or only teaching staff but not non-teaching staff, Eluned Morgan thought this should be up to ColegauCymru to negotiate and to discuss, and they should wait for their outcomes.


Question: This was a Children, Young People and Education Committee, and it was the scrutiny session with a focus on higher and further education. This whole meeting was conducted in a question and answer format. They firstly started with a question related to the trend of secondary school teachers recruiting situations, and the reasons for this, and the steps they had taken to mitigate this trend. Then they had a discussion on the decision made by the education workforce council not to accredit the University of South Wales with the ability to deliver teacher training. After this, there were some questions and answers related to the reform and reconfiguration of the post-16 education sector, equality of opportunity and university mergers. In addition, the parity of esteem between academic and vocational post-16 education and funding allocation were also discussed. Then they talked about the regional skills partnerships and the pay dispute situation. At last, they shared some opinions on 'legalised cheating'.


Question: Vaughan Gething pointed out that due to the school lockdown, children as well as their parents would face difficulties at home learning and social-contacting. In case they would suffer from potential mental health problems, the government have to carry out a mental health recovery plan. Sian Gwenllian then mentioned that the CAMHS, as well as all the schools, should follow up the mental states of children and offer telephone and online support.


Question: When it comes to continuing mental health service during the lockdown, Vaughan Gething insisted that it was of great necessity to carry out a mental health recovery plan that with such a system, government can ensure the children could enjoy a healthy mental state during the school lockdown. However, at present they had not yet finished a detailed research in this job for that they were still under the cooperation with health boards to get a whole perspective of the situation.


Question: When Sian Gwenllian questioned whether they had got a monitoring system over the availability of the staff at the mental health organizations, Tracey Breheny rebutted that they kept following up their healthy condition to ensure that they have enough staff to offer the mental health care for the children.


Question: Lynne Neagle pointed out that due to the outbreak of the pandemic, more people reported depression and committed suicide. To deal with the harsh problem, they might have to carry out a review over the accidental mortality through the period. At the same time, Vaughan Gething suggested that even if most public services were shut down, the mental care, especially the perinatal mental health service, could not be stopped, just in order to support the vulnerable people.


Question: When talking about the evaluations on the increasing suicide crimes during the COVID-19, Vaughan Gething said that in order to prevent more tragedies, they had been offering mental health care for the people. Even if most public service had to be shut down during the outbreak, the staff at the crisis help continued to be available. In addition, they had a seven-day-a-week crisis care, which they hoped that could also be a long-term service to help people in need even after this particular period.


Question: Besides the crisis care, Vaughan Gething also claimed that they did not stop the perinatal mental health service either. However, there were still some problems. For example, because of the shut down of many public services, there might be not enough inpatient care for the pregnant, and less women were willing to resort to such service during the outbreak. Therefore, apart from providing enough inpatient care like the hospital beds, they would also pay attention to how to encourage the mothers to enjoy their service.


Question: The group mentioned that the vulnerable children and adequate social support should be carried out through the outbreak of the pandemic to protect them from infection or other mental and physical problems. The situation seemed awkward. However, fortunately, the group found that there were still enough staff available to offer mental support to those children. In terms of the children in foster, they thought the key problem at present was to ensure their living environment in the foster homes.


Question: When discussing the priority to take care of the vulnerable children, Julie Morgan mentioned that they would set out an expanded definition for the local authorities to have a clear idea about who and where to lay the stress. What's more, according to her claim, they had done a good job to guarantee that the children's mental states would be individually monitored. As for those staff who would monitor the children, they should hold a meeting every week to follow up with each other and check whether there occurred something new worth attention.


Question: According to Julie Morgan, the group had been in close cooperation with the fostering organizations in Welsh to guarantee the children in need. To people's relief, the fostering organizations were running well with enough staff and equipment during the pandemic so that the children could enjoy good care there. What's more, the fostering organizations prolonged their helpline time in case some emergencies would happen. Other support measures, say, the fund for the foster carers, would be followed up.


Question: In terms of their evaluations on the legitimacy of the children's rights, protection and demands, it was said that the group was launching a survey of children to see what the children were thinking over the outbreak of the COVID-19. The survey was carried online, asking mainly about whether the students were willing to go back to school and how they view other related problems. However, there were still indeed some drawbacks of their evaluations over the coronavirus Act. For example, the group thought that they should go further and view the laws from a future perspective, and assess each case individually more closely.


Question: When discussing the evaluations on the legitimacy of the children's rights, protection and demands, Julie Morgan mentioned that they had carried out an online survey to look into the children's thoughts and demands over the pandemic.The survey involved what did the children do through the lockdown, what they thought about the measures that Welsh government and their schools had taken, and whether they were looking for the reschooling. With those questions, the group was meant to have a more overall idea of the children's rights and demands in order to care for them better during this period.


Question: When it comes to the evaluations on the legitimacy of the children's rights, protection and demands, Nicola Edwards mentioned that they had been working on the coronavirus Act to see if they could ease some of the statutory requirements, further helping the childcare and education affairs in the future. Then Albert Heaney went on to elaborate that it was because that they were not meant to include any easements in children's social services at first, however, it was obvious at present that at least for those carers, they had to break the law of social distance to keep looking after the children in need. Therefore, they were calling for the possibility of losing the law for those who did have something to do with childcare and education.


Question: The meeting was about caring Welsh children during the outbreak of COVID-19. Due to the coronavirus, the state was locked down and a strict social distance was required, and then most schools in Welsh were shut down. The group was concerned whether the existing support was enough to ensure their children get through such a period healthily, in terms of both mentally and physically. They listed several possible solutions, including having the vaccination on the susceptible group, offering psychological support for the children as well as the pregnant women, and raising a contingency fund. Through their asking and answering with the ministers, the group finally agreed on a bright blueprint for the education and economic recovery in Welsh.


Question: The participants learned that the storage disks had eventually arrived. They were waiting on the disks to be installed. Grad E volunteered storage space on their own computer for the meantime. The meetings were around 1.5 gigs uncompressed and .5 gigs compressed. So, the group needed substantial space. The professor encouraged the team members to talk to Dave, the person responsible for managing the organization's storage systems, and figure things out.


Question: Grad E volunteered his 18 Gigabyte drive to the group. The drive had 12 gigabytes of memory and he was not using it for anything.


Question: The group needed Dave Johnson to install the some one hundred SUN - Blades that had arrived and would help with storage. But Dave Johnson, the professor informed them, was leaving for ten days. The Professor informed the group that Dave was always busy and the group realized that there was no dedicated person who could help them.


Question: The team thought that they should not have everyone attend meetings on specific topics. For general catchup meetings like this, they thought it would make sense to alternate every two weeks. The team joked around about having a guys meeting, as one of the groups would not have any female members. They were mainly concerned with collecting more data through their own meeting recordings. Though, many of the meetings they were having for that purpose were shorter than they would have liked.


Question: The professor polled the group on how many people would not be interested in meetings on recognition. He thought that they should at least try the smaller meetings and see what happens.


Question: The team was joking about one meeting being a "guys" meeting because both the female members of the group would be in the other meeting. They also seemed to be using foul language and joked at all the bleeping it would entail in the transcription.


Question: The meeting concerned mostly status updates and logistical affairs. The participants learned that the transcription status was good. The progress on the DARPA demo was also good, except the interface did not look as pretty as they had wanted to. The storage disks, which they had been waiting for, had finally arrived, but the person responsible for installing them was going on break. The participants also decided to schedule less meetings, so they have updates to report when they do. The meeting ended with technical discussion about model performance.


Question: They want to keep the cost under 12.50 euros by controlling the materials, and they want to sell them internationally for 25 euros, with a target of 50 million euros worldwide. So they wanted the remote to be compatible with most TVS in the world, or at least all the TVS they make.


Question: The team came up with some general desired features about their new TV remote controls,including compatibility, appearance and functions .First, they thought compatibility is of importance.Second ,they thought good looks and sizes of remote controls were two vital features .Third, buttons should be designed properly.


Question: The team decided that the remote had to be compatible with most of the world's TVS, or at least the ones they made. And the buttons must be internationally recognized.They also thought that the function of the remote control was to change the state of the TV and this could be realized by pressing the button.


Question: They argue that the TV remote should not be too colorful and must match the color of the TV they sell. They admit that no color is acceptable to everyone. It's something they think people generally don't like bright colors. It's their intention to make the TV remote in black or gray or silver.


Question: They thought that the number of buttons on existing remote controls should be reduced.So they wanted to make buttons multifunctional to simplify the remote control buttons.And they also thought that the buttons must be internationally recognized.


Question: The project manager wants to sell the remote internationally for 25 euros and keep its cost under 12.50 euros to meet the global profit target of 50 million euros. But project managers don't calculate exactly how much they want to sell.


Question: The meeting was mainly about the exchange of the preliminary ideas about a new TV remote control project. They first got used to the writeboard and drew some animals with it.Project manager wanted to sell this remote control for twenty five Euro and expected profit will be around fifty million Euro. Afterwards the team raised different opinions about features of the new remote controls and related questions about market potential. Among all the features, having a good look and size were unanimously considered to be the most essential.


Question: In response to the opposition party, the Prime Minister answered that the government rolled out the Canada emergency response benefit extremely quickly, and they had been helping the small businesses with the Canada emergency business account. The opposition party was not very satisfied because he thought that the government did not reach out to as many businesses as possible. Also, the opposition party made a few comments on the rent relief program which was too rigid and hard to apply.


Question: The Prime Minister explained that the government recognized that several organizations and companies were facing difficulties because of COVID-19 and they were supporting people all over the country through that program. Although the opposition party was getting rigorous about the intensity of the question, the Prime Minister kept emphasizing that the government's priority had always been workers in difficulty so that they do not lose their jobs. This applied to all organizations and companies in the country to the extent possible.


Question: The opposition party questioned about sending military groups to provinces in order to fix long-term care. The Prime Minister answered that the government needed to make sure seniors across the country were properly cared for, and they sent in the military to help the provinces. The opposition party also questioned about applying the national standards so that long-term care was governed by the same principles as the Canada Health Act. The Prime Minister elaborated that due the Covid-19, pushing the project had become extremely difficult.


Question: The opposition party questioned that the report was delayed in issuing by the government and was not acted upon. The minister answered that the report was done and given up through the chain of command, and once the government received this report, it was forwarded to the appropriate authorities. The minister denied the fact that the report was released and acted upon late.


Question: The opposition party claimed that the Minister of Digital Government has been promoting a fundraising campaign to sue Global News for their story criticizing the Chinese Communist Party, and the opposition party thought the minister was supporting the Communist Party of China and threatening our media and freedom of expression. The Minister explained that community outreach was a very important part of the work of a member of Parliament and WeChat was one of many social media sites regularly used by members, and the minister did not share any personal views on Wechat.


Question: The minister argued that it was very important to be transparent with our investments and the government would look at the investments and the figures every day and be transparent about it. The minister promised that Canada would have a good economy in the future, and the government would not raise taxes after the crisis to tackle the deficit. Hence, the opposition party demanded a regular economy update.


Question: The opposition party claimed that the government was not cooperating with the UK, its largest trading partner, protecting the viability of their international supply chains and capitalizing on the opportunities. The minister explained that the UK, of course, was a very important trading partner for Canada, and CETA would continue to apply to trade with the U.K. during this period while they went through Brexit.


Question: The opposition party claimed that the supply chain in Canada amidst the pandemic was not stable enough and the government was not doing anything. The minister explained that they would continue to work with countries around the globe to ensure that Canada's supply chains and those global supply chains, particularly for essential goods, for agricultural products, for medical supplies, would continue to remain open.


Question: The opposition party claimed that China was procuring and hoarding PPE during January. And in April, the minister stated there were not enough supplies in the national emergency stockpile. The opposition party was triggered by the fact that the minister approved a donation of 16 tonnes of PPE for China on January 31, claiming it would not compromise the country's supply. The minister explained that the government was doing so because they had multiple complementary supply chains operating at the same time for PPE production.


Question: The opposition party claimed that the government had been providing financial support to companies such as Air Canada, which did not pay a single cent in tax nor did it use the money to reimburse customers. The minister explained that the government did not bias against any company, , and it was thought that it was very important to protect employees in every sector of the economy and across Canada.The fight against tax evasion was a priority for the government. The minister promised that they would continue to target companies that use tax evasion schemes.


Question: The opposition party claimed that people across Canada were appalled by the situation in care homes which left seniors suffering. The minister explained that the government was fully aware of the situation. The minister promised that they would fully play their role federal level with advice, with guidance, with support and with investments. They were going to have those conversations about how best they can improve the care for all seniors.


Question: The opposition party claimed that the seniors care crisis was a national problem, and the federal government was not taking immediate response. The opposition party pointed out that these failures were the product of systemic neglect.The minister replied that they were fully aware that in long-term care facilities both seniors and persons living with a disability face unique challenges. And considering the severity of this report, the federal government promptly shared it with the Province of Ontario, and the Province of Ontario has initiated an investigation based on the report's findings.


Question: The meeting basically discussed the crisis across Canada amidst the pandemic. The opposition party questioned the ministers for responding late to the situation, and the financial support was not given to those who were really in need. The ministers promised that they were trying to reach out to as many companies as possible and the opposition party was not very satisfied with the answer. Canada's economy was heavily stricken by the pandemic and the opposition party was prompting the ministers to roll out several measures. Last but not least, they stressed on the long-term care issue, and the ministers promised that they were paying attention to it.


Question: The professor told the team that the TORRENT chip schedule kept getting pushed. Then, Grad F talked about his proposal, in which he was done with the section on intermediate categories. Including features from intermediate categories was a potential way of reducing error.


Question: Grad F explained that he was focusing on writing his proposal for his qualification exams, which was on the 25th of July. He had to write a paper and pass it around before that date.


Question: Grad F informed the team that he was building a system that classified intermediate categories with multi-band techniques. Then, to reduce error for phoneme recognition, the intermediate categories could be added to improve performance. The method could be replicated for large vocabulary tasks like switchboard.


Question: The team got an improvement on the SRI system for TI- digits and Meeting Recorder digits but near mic performance worsened. The team explored the reasons for this difference. The professor suggested getting rid of low energy sections. The team also discussed how more nuanced normalization approaches could improve task performance.


Question: The professor thought it was possible to reduce the effects of reverberation by removing the low-energy segments. He thought a VAD-like approach would work. This would make it so that the model was more likely to keep an echo than throw out speech.


Question: PhD C was skeptical of why the signal was louder after processing. PhD C suggested that the system is not too dependent on the signal level, agreeing with the professor that improvement in the model was more likely dependent on the ratio.


Question: The meeting began with a discussion on the TORRENT project completion being pushed for two years. Grad F then introduced intermediate categorization, which was his topic for his qualification exams. The team then discussed mean subtraction from SRI. Using it had led to an improvement in Meeting Recorder digits though near mic performance worsened. The professor points to pre-echoes as the culprit. The team continued to study differences between SRI and Aurora. The team thought it would be interesting to do the Aurora tests with the SRI system instead of the HTK. The team was also exploring the Wiener filter and VTS. The professor did not seem too excited about the VTS.


Question: The Industrial Designer introduced the prototype of the product. It had not only the round basic shape which was made of hard plastics and titanium using different colors, but also the channel and volume buttons and so on. Basically , bright colours but not black were used, and the lower part of the device was made of titanium. On the side view, the product had the titanium colour and the logo was in the upper corner. Then the buttons like "okay", "volumn" and "channel", was with kind of arrow shapes, which made it more exciting than basic round or square buttons.


Question: The User Interface Designer thought it might be in the middle of the product because the way users hold the product wouldn't influence the view to the screen, but the Project Manager and the Marketing thought the screen might be covered when held by hands, so the users couldn't figure out what happened on the screen. Then the Project Manager proposed that it was totally unusable, still needing marketing research.


Question: The Project Manager thought the prototype was basically the same with the former one, and the thickness was not suitable for the target customers. Then the LCD screen might be covered when held by hands, so the users couldn't figure out what happened on the screen. Therefore from this perspective the screen was totally unusable, still needing marketing research.


Question: The User Interface thought it was reasonable to replace the titanium with titanium-coloured plastic. When discussing how to reduce the cost of the product, the user interface designer insisted that if they could only choose to save the titanium exterior or the LCD screen, it would be a better choice to save the LCD screen and dump the titanium cover but replacing it with hard plastics. The result was the major of the group including Marketing agreeed the suggestion.


Question: The Industrial Designer suggested that the titanium provided the tough look and the strong cover to protect the product. Besides, the older customers would like it much more because it fit their taste. So the titanium was important and shouldn't be replacing by titanium-like plastic or saving the LCD screen but dumping the titanium.


Question: When evaluating the cost of the product, the group discussed some details of the components and made some adjustment on the chip, exterior cover material, curve, button and LCD screen. Then they agreed that it could be better changing the titanium to hard a hard kind of plastic looking like titanium than losing the LCD screen. They finally got an estimate of fourteen point one Euros, which was above the budget.


Question: The group mainly talked about the extra deciding of the product at this meeting including the presentation of the prototype assessment, the discussion of the requirements and trends of marketing and the product cost and quotation. Firstly, the Industrial Designer introduced the prototype of the product. It had not only the round basic shape which was made of hard plastics and titanium using different colors, but also the buttons like channel and volumn. Later, the group discussed some details and changes of redesigning the logo, buttons and screens. Next, the Marketing Expert mentioned the exterior of the product, the material attraction, and how easy it was to learn or use the basic functions of the product. Besides, the group discussed some details of the cost of components and made the product cheaper by replacing the titanium by hard plastics with similar color. They finally got an estimate of fourteen point one Euros, which was above the budget. In the end, they discussed the distinction between the product and other devices, and celebrated the completion of the project.


Question: User Interface introduced to use the power button to switch the television on and off. The mute button to switch the volume on and off. The channels buttons, one to nine, or zero to nine. The volume and channel quadrants, from left to right, and up and down arrows, to control the volume and channel. And last, the menu button to manipulate the LCD display. User Interface also suggested that power buttons are usually at the top left or right and the team should decide to choose the right icons, or letters on the buttons.


Question: User Interface believed that the team should design the case and the whole remote control in the company. And for colors and the logo, User Interface would recommend a yellow case, with round edges and the logo at the bottom. User Interface also suggested a set of buttons with its own color to make it recognizable. But this idea was turned down by Project Manager.


Question: The team believed that there were always large and many buttons on the standard remote control. To design its unique device, they decided on a pure color one with arrows to eliminate the number of buttons used. They also planned to incorporate the company logo. Moreover, User Interface suggested a set of buttons with its own color to make it recognizable. But this idea was turned down by Project Manager.


Question: Industrial Designer said that the younger people fancied soft materials and primary colors. For example, total yellow or totally red could be visible. The shapes could be curved and round,which would be easier to use. It would be better to use the basic battery so everybody could get it at the supermarket, or to use a kinetic battery after shaking it a few times, it could be loaded. Industrial Designer suggested hard plastic material and rubber since the younger people liked that. The survey also discovered that the young favored a scroll push like the mouse to use for channels and volume.


Question: Industrial Designer introduced both simple chips and advanced chips could be used for the mouse. But it would require the use of LCD display, which would highly increase the cost. Project Manager agreed that the LCD was easy when using the scroll buttons and could see the number. But Project Manager argued that young people were less likely to have their own room to afford a LCD TV and decided not to choose the advanced ones.


Question: There were two groups, the young and trendy, and the old and rich. For the first group, they would like fruit and vegetables as a theme for clothes, shoes, and also products. And for the material, a spongy feeling one would be better. But the old and rich would like dark colors, simple, and recognizable shapes as well as familiar material, wood especially.


Question: Project Manager decided to use normal battery and no kinetic.The team would try to incorporate the joystick to solve the scroll chip problem. But if the advanced chips would be used still remained to be discussed. The shape of the design and the use of chips would depend on the LCD display but it should be small.


Question: Firstly, User Interface suggested trendy and one-color cases, good icons on the big buttons since they would be recognizable and excite the young people. Secondly, Industrial Designer introduced that young people favored soft materials and primary colors, but trendy design on the button and the use of LCD display would increase cost since the budget had always been a big problem. Moreover, the team would aim at the younger market based on the decision of the former meeting and agreed that to make the device more profitable they should sell the product for longer than one year. The team also discussed the button function of the remote control but they had not come to an agreement. Lastly, Project Manager decided on a normal battery and no kinetic to control the budget.


Question: Dr David Blaney introduced that the first was the impact of the demographic dip of 18-year-olds and as a result there was an increased pension cost generally. Second, current uncertainty also came as a result of the political environment like the Augar review in England and Brexit. This might deepen the funding gap. Third, due to the political decision to invest in students, universities were faced with challenges of providing more services under limited funding.


Question: Bethan Owen took Cardiff University as an example and he believed that in the short term, the reserves of Cardiff would appear as though they have significant cash balances. However, the investing was much restricted and it could not be a long-term solution towards the serious financial stress. To help with this process as well as monitoring the regulated approaches, the government received forecasts, around five-year forecasts which indicated that, for 2018-19, there would be a sector that was roughly in a break-even position, since the income was not increasing, which was the biggest problem. But luckily, they were not likely to lose any of the universities.


Question: Angela Burns AM shared with the findings from multiple representations from students and brought up the concerns of the consistency of funding. Dr David Blaney commented that causing a run was a serious consideration and it was a legal obligation to meet the commitments. So the current structural change would not equal that certain offshoots or divisions might close since the oversight and monitoring, the governments' primary consideration was always the interest of the students. Unless there was a suitable solution to all, material uncertainty for students should not be brought up.


Question: Dr David Blaney introduced that there was proper governance oversight since the estates strategies that institutions operate were overseen by either the full governing body or relevant sub-committees in respect of every institution. The government was content with the fact that the governance machinery within the institutions was structured appropriately and if the universities would like to engage any other things than trivial borrowing, they need to get the government consent as well. To prevent universities from breaking the loan, the government included close monitoring considering the change of borrowing in the system, as well as constant ongoing monitoring.


Question: Dr David Blaney believed that governing bodies were not likely to exhibit as an imprudent risk appetite since they would see the potential risks coming through in forecasts, in requests for borrowings, predominantly and many other ways. Although the government body included a slightly different perspective, divisions were not falling short. Besides, commitments from enthusiastic people and occasionally with a slightly external perspective would also be a help.


Question: Dr David Blaney suggested that machinery of monitoring depended on having a body like HEFCW to connect different parts. Also as Hefin David AM pointed out that people always made the difference in different cultures and external opinions were a plus. Although opinions from student representation, staff representation, and other typically union reps who were included by the governing bodies spilt, they could, in the end, work it out properly.


Question: To answer Hefin David AM's question, Dr David Blaney suggested that the government was seeing an increased risk profile in the sector in Wales, and it was mainly about the financial pressures. Since the amount of funding was always going to be under pressure, as there was a demographic dip and there were the other contextual factors, there would be more universities entering the high-risk category. Dr David Blaney concluded that the government would not guarantee 100 per cent accuracy of the process.


Question: Bethan Owen suggested that maintaining the attractiveness of Welsh universities to students would be a key driven for solving the financial stress. Also, the research portfolio should be heavily invested in, which would also bring economic benefits.


Question: Sian Gwenllian AM pointed out that it was recommended that QR funding should be maintained in real terms, but the sum had not actually increased over a period of nine years. Dr David Blaney explained the reason as there was not enough money to be able to increase it and still meet the obligations to other bits of the HE system. Although it was very clear about the importance of investing in QR research funding but the current capacity would not allow this ambition. However, it would be regarded as a fundamental approach.


Question: Dr David Blaney suggested that the government was relying on expert assessment since sometimes it would be more effective to have external experts making these points than the internal sector.


Question: To start with, Bethan Owen first pointed out that figures showed that the percentage of income that had come from research in Wales was smaller than that in England, so the Welsh universities were receiving less of the money that was available, which was a factor that resulted from having less QR as a percentage. To tackle this issue, the government had provided funding in 2017-18 and 2018-19 to WISERD Education, which was a research collaboration between a number of the Welsh universities, specifically looking at educational issues. However, it was still early to see how allocation for 2019-20 would work.


Question: Dr David Blaney suggested that the main challenge was finding the money. Although there was an additional £6.6 million allocated for research very recently by the Government, that was not sustainable and certainly not enough. Also, the Welsh government had recently issued their own vision for research and innovation and more investment in the Welsh research base would make the Welsh universities be more competitive in accessing funding at a UK level.


Question: The meeting between Children, Young People and Education Committee and the Welsh Government was considered as an evidence session on the higher education new academic year allocations. To start with, Dr David Blaney introduced three main causes for the financial challenges facing the universities and the financial elements were diverse but were closely monitored by the government. Although the universities were under a significant degree of financial stress, they were able to secure funding for investing in their estates. Moreover, a structural change was also considered but the future plan was unclear. Besides, the government body tried to see a consistent minimum set of expectations of each university and would try to eliminate culture differences across divisions. When it comes to the risk, the government admitted that there would be more names in the high-risk category. Later, the meeting discussed a target at improving and increasing collaboration between HE and FE. In the end, the government assured that there would be no significant increase in funding for part-time students and funding for research and innovation would be consistent with efforts by both the universities themselves and other institutions.


Question: With a working prototype, the user interface designer displayed the appearance and the texture of the product, which was fruit-like and spongy. As for the material, they still wanted to use titanium because it was the most modern material that they could select. Then the industrial designer gave some technical specifications on the product, including instructions on buttons, LCD display, speech recognition and location finder.


Question: According to the technical specifications given by the industrial designer, the product was very flexible because users could add buttons. Users could use the jog wheel to select whichever option on the LCD and do the power control. There was also an LCD control, so users could switch on the LCD display if they wanted to use LCD and use a normal button if they didn't want to use LCD. What's more, the controller had the functions of speech recognition and location finder.


Question: The industrial designer recommended to design several simple and perfect shapes so that users could choose the design they like. Also, they should make the colour of the LCD screen changeable to enable users to choose colours for each day depending on their mood.


Question: The marketing thought they needed to evaluate whether it made sense to do the project and whether the product could fulfil their requirement. So the group started to judge the design on a scale of one to seven, one being true and seven being false. The criteria were fanciness, technology, robustness, usefulness, size and weight, colour and shape, and adaptiveness. The product got an average score of two point one seven, which implied it was good.


Question: The basic mode of the product had only two directional buttons with which people could control the volume and change channels. Except for the two main functions, other functions were on the LCD screen and there was a jog dial controlling the cursor on the LCD screen. Therefore, the controller was very easy to use.


Question: The project manager didn't like the strawberry-like sensors on the top because they were not useful. Even though the marketing reminded the manager that fanciness was more important than usefulness, the manager still believed that it would be fancier if the fruit-like thing was useful.


Question: At first, the product components included a battery, a simple chip, a speech sensor, a single curve, titanium, two push buttons, a scroll wheel, and an LCD screen. These would cost seventeen dot eight dollars in total, which was apparently too expensive. After some discussions about battery and operations on the calculator, the group finally cut the cost down to under twelve dollars.


Question: The user interface designer recommended adding a hand dynamo which could produce electricity from mechanical energy so that it could provide enough energy for the device when users took the controller and pushed the buttons. The proposal was accepted by the group.


Question: It was the last meeting of the group and focused on detail design. First, the user interface designer displayed the appearance and the texture of the product with a working prototype. After that, the industrial designer gave some technical specifications on the product. In the product evaluation that included several criteria, the controller got an average score of two point one seven, which implied it was good. When it came to the quotation of product components, the original one was seventeen dot eight dollars, which was apparently over budget. After some discussions about battery and operations on the calculator, the group finally cut the cost down to under twelve dollars. Finally, they did some self-assessment and celebrated the completion of the project.


Question: Marketing talks about the adoption of some latest trends and latest fashion updates on the remote control. She thought it important that the control looks fancy for targeted young users, like having the LCD screen, vivid colors, and cool shape, and the last model of the company is comparatively functional.


Question: He talks about something on the components design after having put up the specification properties. As for materials, he used to suggest using hard plastic in order to make the control hard and solid, but at this conference, he thinks that their target audience, young people, love soft colors and materials, like rubber. And he also suggests a shape of a double curved case. As for the buttons, he suggests simple push buttons, without difficult scroll things that makes the control more complex and expensive. And he suggests not using a speaker or a sensor or speech controlled device.


Question: User Interface talked about the method of including the buttons and the implementation of LCD screens. And he mentioned there are new developments in speech recognition systems as they are already being used on uh coffee machines; and since they're cheap, so he thinks they could use them now, as a small gimmick. As for mic and speaker, User Interface thinks that they are the same little hole things.


Question: As for the LCD screen, the Project Manager considers colored ones are a bit too expensive, so they can just do normal ones, and the shape of the control can be in a bridge shape. As for the materials, Industrial Designers think that a solid and strong appearance is necessary, and Marketing agrees that plastics don't create a strong touching feeling, and as a combination, they decide to have hard plastic for the front and then titanium for the back. As for colors, the group decides to use basic colors with some special patterns.


Question: They decide that they shall implement the feeling from our company into the remote so they have to implement a logo, a slogan or a sign. Industrial Designer thinks that to make it more recognisable, next to the logo they should have the slogan. And the project manager decided that the slogan from the company should be put on the back with a logo, and the logo also is also on the front when changing fronts.


Question: Marketing thinks that if they don't have a bit of titanium between the two fronts, users may get problems with the LCD screen, like some dust in it — because people have always all kinds of filth between the mobile, when people exchange all the fronts, the control is open. And the group decides to have a bit of titanium in between, and with the curved edge.


Question: This meeting is about some final decisions on the design of the remote control. It started with presentations on the conceptual design from Marketing, Industrial Designer, and User Interface, and had a discussion on the decisions about the control. The Project Manager put a file in his folder to place the kind of decisions they should take.


Question: The group hoped that it can be applied to children, in particular to ensure their safety during use. Besides, it should be colourful and beautiful to attract the attention of children. The price also should be reasonable and affordable, not too expensive, but the profit can be guaranteed. In terms of function design, unnecessary functions and switches should be removed to enhance their applicability.


Question: It may require more than three millimetres with three buttons, and since there are not as many buttons, each button should be fully functional so that the basic requirements of the user can be met and the operation can be simple, or at least not too complicated, while they enjoy the function.


Question: The point of this discussion is that the group should optimize buttons and switch designs, adjust the number and size of buttons and their functions, filter out unnecessary functions, reduce the number of buttons and replace them with screens to enhance the applicability of remote controls, just like mobile phones.


Question: The group thought remote controls should keep children safe while using them. At the same time, the remote control should be brightly coloured. Even if it is not colourful, it should also choose a monochrome colour that children like to attract them.


Question: The team ultimately decided that the remote control should be designed to be waterproof, and it should be too powerful for a baby to eat. In addition, its function should also allow children to use their own voice control, in case the child is not tall enough to use. And it would be better to be able to have a child lock.


Question: He suggested that the remote control must look good and be brightly coloured. Although not colourful, they could choose a variety of monochrome to meet the aesthetic needs of children, thus improving the suitability of the remote control for children.