A context for collaboration: The institutional selection of an infrastructure for learning

This paper discusses the role of institutional issues in the deployment of infrastructures for learning and the ways in which they can impact on the range of choices and opportunities for collaboration in university education. The paper is based on interviews with 12 key informants selected from relevant staff categories during the deployment of a new institutional infrastructure in a large UK based distance learning university. It is supplemented by participant observation by the author who was part of a group of advisors tasked with working with the project team developing and deploying the new infrastructure. The paper investigates the development and deployment of the infrastructure as a meso level phenomena and relates this feature to the discussion of emergence and supervenience as features of social interactions in education

Man and Machine: Questions of Risk, Trust and Accountability in Today's AI Technology

Artificial Intelligence began as a field probing some of the most fundamental questions of science - the nature of intelligence and the design of intelligent artifacts. But it has grown into a discipline that is deeply entwined with commerce and society. Today's AI technology, such as expert systems and intelligent assistants, pose some difficult questions of risk, trust and accountability. In this paper, we present these concerns, examining them in the context of historical developments that have shaped the nature and direction of AI research. We also suggest the exploration and further development of two paradigms, human intelligence-machine cooperation, and a sociological view of intelligence, which might help address some of these concerns.Comment: Preprin

Reliability Analysis of Complex NASA Systems with Model-Based Engineering

The emergence of model-based engineering, with Model- Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) leading the way, is transforming design and analysis methodologies. The recognized benefits to systems development include moving from document-centric information systems and document-centric project communication to a model-centric environment in which control of design changes in the life cycles is facilitated. In addition, a single source of truth about the system, that is up-to-date in all respects of the design, becomes the authoritative source of data and information about the system. This promotes consistency and efficiency in regard to integration of the system elements as the design emerges and thereby may further optimize the design. Therefore Reliability Engineers (REs) supporting NASA missions must be integrated into model-based engineering to ensure the outputs of their analyses are relevant and value-needed to the design, development, and operational processes for failure risks assessment and communication

Team-oriented process programming

Team-oriented process programming promises to provide significant support for the planning, directing, and controlling of software engineering projects. In this paper we apply process programming to software engineering teams and show how this can provide powerful new capabilities for the management of software projects. We identify key issues which must be addressed to apply process programming to teams, and present our vision for team-oriented process programming

Software and systems traceability for safety-critical projects: report from Dagstuhl Seminar 15162

This report documents the program and the outcomes of Dagstuhl Seminar 15162 on “Software and Systems Traceability for Safety-Critical Projects”. The event brought together researchers and industrial practitioners working in the field of safety critical software to explore the needs, challenges, and solutions for Software and Systems Traceability in this domain. The goal was to explore the gap between the traceability prescribed by guidelines and that delivered by manufacturers, and starting from a clean slate, to clearly articulate traceability needs for safety-critical software systems, to identify challenges, explore solutions, and to propose a set of principles and domain-specific exemplars for achieving traceability in safety critical systems