A Web-Integrated Environment for Component-Based Software Reasoning

This thesis presents the Web IDE, a web-integrated environment for component-based software reasoning. The Web IDE is specifically tailored to emphasize the relationships among various components in component-based software engineering (CBSE) and to facilitate reasoning. It allows students to use RESOLVE, a component-based, integrated specification and programming language, to build components and systems, providing real-time feedback that can be used to reason about the correctness of their component implementations. Real-time interaction and relationship focused component presentation reinforces CBSE and reasoning principles in a way not possible with traditional programming exercises and file management systems. The Web IDE has gone through several stages of development, getting feedback from users and adding new functionality at each step. It has kept pace with web browser development by incorporating bowser features, such as the file API and local storage, to provide enhanced functionality to users. Several undergraduate software engineering courses at Clemson and elsewhere have successfully used the Web IDE for both reasoning and team-based component development exercises, demonstrating the robust and useful nature of the Web IDE

Enhancing Dependability of Component-based Systems

International audienceWe present a method to add dependability features to component-based software systems. The method is applicable if the dependability features add new behavior to the system, but do not change its basic functionality. The idea is to start with a software architecture whose central component is an application component that implements the behavior of the system in the normal case. The application component is connected to other components, possibly through adapters. It is then possible to enhance the system by adding dependability features in such a way that the central application component remains untouched. Adding dependability features necessitates to evolve the overall system architecture by replacing or newly introducing hardware or software components. The adapters contained in the initial software architecture have to be modified, whereas the other software components need not to be changed. Thus, the dependability of a component-based system can be enhanced in an incremental way

Feature-based interaction: an identification and classification methodology

Features are an established means of adding non-geometric information and extra geometric semantics to conventional computer aided design (CAD) systems. For some time it has been realized that, although feature-based modelling is necessary for the next generation of integrated design and manufacturing systems, the inherent feature interactions pose a difficulty in representing and manipulating geometric designs. This paper presents a structured geometric spatial feature interaction identification method based on a broad multilevel classification. Feature interaction definitions and classifications have been surveyed and it is evident that, although many feature interaction classifications have been proposed, there is a lack of a general framework. The classification presented here encompasses existing feature interference cases found in the literature and defines a singular framework that leads to a general classification structure. The framework is presented and applied at three different levels and each interaction case is defined by feature parameters rather than just geometric entities. The restrictions often found in other research concerning contact:non-contact and concave:convex situations are avoided. The resulting classification is easy to understand and implement because it uses simple rules based on commonly available Boolean operators. Finally, an example component is presented and the advantages, uses and applications of the classification scheme are discussed

Visualization for Verification Driven Learning in Database Studies

This thesis aims at developing a data visualization tool to enhance database learning based on the Verification Driven Learning (VDL) model. The goal of the VDL model is to present abstract concepts in the contexts of real-world systems to students in the early stages of computer science program. In this project, a personnel/training management system has been turned into a learning platform by adding a number of features for visualization and quizzing. We have implemented various tactics to visualize the data manipulation and data retrieval operations in database, as well as the message contents in data messaging channels. The results of our development have been utilized in eight learning cases illustrating the applications of our visualization tool. Each of these learning cases were made by systematically implanting bugs in a functioning component; the students are assigned to identify the bugs and at the same time to learn the structure of the software system activ

Visualization for Verification Driven Learning in Database Studies

This thesis aims at developing a data visualization tool to enhance database learning based on the Verification Driven Learning (VDL) model. The goal of the VDL model is to present abstract concepts in the contexts of real-world systems to students in the early stages of computer science program. In this project, a personnel/training management system has been turned into a learning platform by adding a number of features for visualization and quizzing. We have implemented various tactics to visualize the data manipulation and data retrieval operations in database, as well as the message contents in data messaging channels. The results of our development have been utilized in eight learning cases illustrating the applications of our visualization tool. Each of these learning cases were made by systematically implanting bugs in a functioning component; the students are assigned to identify the bugs and at the same time to learn the structure of the software system activ

A MDE-based process for the design, implementation and validation of safety critical systems

Distributed Real-Time Embedded (DRE) systems have critical requirements that need to be verified. They are either related to functional (e.g. stability of a furnace controller) or non-functional (e.g. meeting deadlines) aspects. Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) tools have emerged to ease DRE systems design. These tools are also capable of generating code. However, these tools either focus on the functional aspects or on the runtime architecture. Hence, the development cycle is partitioned into pieces with heterogeneous modeling notations and poor coordination. In this paper, we propose a MDE-based process to create DRE systems without manual coding. We show how to integrate functional and architecture concerns in a unified process. We use industry-proven modeling languages to design functional elements of the system, and automatically integrate them using our AADL toolchain

A comparative survey of integrated learning systems

This paper presents the duction framework for unifying the three basic forms of inference - deduction, abduction, and induction - by specifying the possible relationships and influences among them in the context of integrated learning. Special assumptive forms of inference are defined that extend the use of these inference methods, and the properties of these forms are explored. A comparison to a related inference-based learning frame work is made. Finally several existing integrated learning programs are examined in the perspective of the duction framework