<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//NLM//DTD JATS (Z39.96) Journal Publishing DTD v1.0 20120330//EN" "JATS-journalpublishing1.dtd"><article xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" article-type="article">
<front>
    <journal-meta>
        <journal-id journal-id-type="publisher-id">INFEDU</journal-id>
        <journal-title-group>
            <journal-title>Informatics in Education</journal-title>
        </journal-title-group>
        <issn pub-type="epub">1648-5831</issn>
        <issn pub-type="ppub">1648-5831</issn>
        <publisher>
            <publisher-name>VU</publisher-name>
        </publisher>
    </journal-meta>
    <article-meta>
                <article-id pub-id-type="publisher-id">INFE186</article-id>
                        <article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.15388/infedu.2011.15</article-id>
                        <article-categories>
            <subj-group subj-group-type="heading">
                <subject>Article</subject>
            </subj-group>
        </article-categories>
                        <title-group>
            <article-title>Visual NNet: An Educational ANN&#039;s Simulation Environment Reusing Matlab Neural Networks Toolbox</article-title>
        </title-group>
                        <contrib-group>
                                        <contrib contrib-type="author">
                                                <name>
                    <surname>GARCÍA-ROSELLÓ</surname>
                    <given-names>Emilio</given-names>
                </name>
                                <email xlink:href="mailto:erosello@uvigo.es">erosello@uvigo.es</email>
                                                <xref ref-type="aff" rid="j_INFEDU_aff_000"/>
                                            </contrib>
                        <aff id="j_INFEDU_aff_000">Faculty of Computer Sciences of University of Vigo Campus As Lagoas, s/n. 32004 Ourense, Spain</aff>
                                                    <contrib contrib-type="author">
                                                <name>
                    <surname>GONZÁLEZ-DACOSTA</surname>
                    <given-names>Jacinto</given-names>
                </name>
                                <email xlink:href="mailto:jdacosta@uvigo.es">jdacosta@uvigo.es</email>
                                                <xref ref-type="aff" rid="j_INFEDU_aff_001"/>
                                            </contrib>
                        <aff id="j_INFEDU_aff_001">Faculty of Computer Sciences of University of Vigo Campus As Lagoas, s/n. 32004 Ourense, Spain</aff>
                                                    <contrib contrib-type="author">
                                                <name>
                    <surname>LADO</surname>
                    <given-names>María J.</given-names>
                </name>
                                                <xref ref-type="aff" rid="j_INFEDU_aff_002"/>
                                            </contrib>
                        <aff id="j_INFEDU_aff_002">Faculty of Computer Sciences of University of Vigo Campus As Lagoas, s/n. 32004 Ourense, Spain</aff>
                                                    <contrib contrib-type="author">
                                                <name>
                    <surname>MÉNDEZ</surname>
                    <given-names>Arturo J.</given-names>
                </name>
                                                <xref ref-type="aff" rid="j_INFEDU_aff_003"/>
                                            </contrib>
                        <aff id="j_INFEDU_aff_003">Faculty of Computer Sciences of University of Vigo Campus As Lagoas, s/n. 32004 Ourense, Spain</aff>
                                                    <contrib contrib-type="author">
                                                <name>
                    <surname>GARCÍA PÉREZ-SCHOFIELD</surname>
                    <given-names>Baltasar</given-names>
                </name>
                                                <xref ref-type="aff" rid="j_INFEDU_aff_004"/>
                                            </contrib>
                        <aff id="j_INFEDU_aff_004">Faculty of Computer Sciences of University of Vigo Campus As Lagoas, s/n. 32004 Ourense, Spain</aff>
                                                    <contrib contrib-type="author">
                                                <name>
                    <surname>FERRER</surname>
                    <given-names>Fátima</given-names>
                </name>
                                                <xref ref-type="aff" rid="j_INFEDU_aff_005"/>
                                            </contrib>
                        <aff id="j_INFEDU_aff_005">Faculty of Computer Sciences of University of Vigo Campus As Lagoas, s/n. 32004 Ourense, Spain</aff>
                                </contrib-group>
                                                                                                                                                                                                                        <volume>10</volume>
                                <issue>2</issue>
                                    <fpage>225</fpage>
                        <lpage>232</lpage>
						<pub-date pub-type="epub">
                        <day>15</day>
                                    <month>10</month>
                        <year>2011</year>
        </pub-date>
                                                        <abstract>
                        <p>Artificial Neural Networks (ANN&#039;s) are nowadays a common subject in different curricula of graduate and postgraduate studies. Due to the complex algorithms involved and the dynamic nature of ANN&#039;s, simulation software has been commonly used to teach this subject. This software has usually been developed specifically for learning purposes, because the existing general packages often lack of a convenient user interface, and are too complex or inadequate for these goals. Since ANN&#039;s algorithms, types and applications grow regularly, this solution becomes more and more complex and inefficient. In this paper, we present Visual NNet, a learning-oriented ANN&#039;s simulation environment, which overcomes this problem by reusing Matlab Neural Networks Toolbox (MNNT), a well-known, comprehensive and robust ANN implementation. Visual NNet combines an on-purpose learning oriented design with the advantages of an ANN&#039;s implementation like MNNT. Furthermore, reusing MNNT has done Visual NNet development more cost-effective, fast and reliable.</p>
                    </abstract>
                <kwd-group>
            <label>Keywords</label>
                        <kwd>artificial neural networks</kwd>
                        <kwd>simulation software</kwd>
                        <kwd>reusability</kwd>
                    </kwd-group>
    </article-meta>
</front>
</article>
