Working Notes from the 1992 AAAI Workshop on Automating Software Design. Theme: Domain Specific Software Design

The goal of this workshop is to identify different architectural approaches to building domain-specific software design systems and to explore issues unique to domain-specific (vs. general-purpose) software design. Some general issues that cut across the particular software design domain include: (1) knowledge representation, acquisition, and maintenance; (2) specialized software design techniques; and (3) user interaction and user interface

Software design by reusing architectures

Abstraction fosters reuse by providing a class of artifacts that can be instantiated or customized to produce a set of artifacts meeting different specific requirements. It is proposed that significant leverage can be obtained by abstracting software system designs and the design process. The result of such an abstraction is a generic architecture and a set of knowledge-based, customization tools that can be used to instantiate the generic architecture. An approach for designing software systems based on the above idea are described. The approach is illustrated through an implemented example, and the advantages and limitations of the approach are discussed

Software synthesis using generic architectures

A framework for synthesizing software systems based on abstracting software system designs and the design process is described. The result of such an abstraction process is a generic architecture and the process knowledge for customizing the architecture. The customization process knowledge is used to assist a designer in customizing the architecture as opposed to completely automating the design of systems. Our approach using an implemented example of a generic tracking architecture which was customized in two different domains is illustrated. How the designs produced using KASE compare to the original designs of the two systems, and current work and plans for extending KASE to other application areas are described

High-performance Implementations and Large-scale Validation of the Link-wise Artificial Compressibility Method

The link-wise artificial compressibility method (LW-ACM) is a recent formulation of the artificial compressibility method for solving the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations. Two implementations of the LW-ACM in three dimensions on CUDA enabled GPUs are described. The first one is a modified version of a stateof-the-art CUDA implementation of the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM), showing that an existing GPU LBM solver might easily be adapted to LW-ACM. The second one follows a novel approach, which leads to a performance increase of up to 1.8 compared to the LBM implementation considered here, while reducing the memory requirements by a factor of 5.25. Large-scale simulations of the lid-driven cubic cavity at Reynolds number Re = 2000 were performed for both LW-ACM and LBM. Comparison of the simulation results against spectral elements reference data shows that LW-ACM performs almost as well as multiple-relaxation-time LBM in terms of accurac

On the aesthetic significance of imprecision in computational design: Exploring expressive features of imprecision in four digital fabrication approaches

Precision of materialized designs is the conventional goal of digital fabrication in architecture. Recently, however, an alternative concept has emerged which refashions the imprecisions of digital processes into creative opportunities. While the computational design community has embraced this idea, its novelty results in a yet incomplete understanding. Prompted by the challenge of the still missing knowledge, this study explored imprecision in four digital fabrication approaches to establish how it influences the aesthetic attributes of materialized designs. Imprecision occurrences for four different digitally aided materialization processes were characterized. The aesthetic features emerging from these imprecisions were also identified and the possibilities of tampering with them for design exploration purposes were discussed. By considering the aesthetic potentials of deliberate imprecision, the study has sought to challenge the canon of high fidelity in contemporary computational design and to argue for imprecision in computation that shapes a new generation of designs featuring the new aesthetic of computational imperfection

Artificial Intelligence Research Branch future plans

This report contains information on the activities of the Artificial Intelligence Research Branch (FIA) at NASA Ames Research Center (ARC) in 1992, as well as planned work in 1993. These activities span a range from basic scientific research through engineering development to fielded NASA applications, particularly those applications that are enabled by basic research carried out in FIA. Work is conducted in-house and through collaborative partners in academia and industry. All of our work has research themes with a dual commitment to technical excellence and applicability to NASA short, medium, and long-term problems. FIA acts as the Agency's lead organization for research aspects of artificial intelligence, working closely with a second research laboratory at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and AI applications groups throughout all NASA centers. This report is organized along three major research themes: (1) Planning and Scheduling: deciding on a sequence of actions to achieve a set of complex goals and determining when to execute those actions and how to allocate resources to carry them out; (2) Machine Learning: techniques for forming theories about natural and man-made phenomena; and for improving the problem-solving performance of computational systems over time; and (3) Research on the acquisition, representation, and utilization of knowledge in support of diagnosis design of engineered systems and analysis of actual systems

Collected software engineering papers, volume 7

A collection is presented of selected technical papers produced by participants in the Software Engineering Laboratory (SEL) during the period Dec. 1988 to Oct. 1989. The purpose of the document is to make available, in one reference, some results of SEL research that originally appeared in a number of different forums. For the convenience of this presentation, the seven papers contained here are grouped into three major categories: (1) Software Measurement and Technology Studies; (2) Measurement Environment Studies; and (3) Ada Technology Studies. The first category presents experimental research and evaluation of software measurement and technology; the second presents studies on software environments pertaining to measurement. The last category represents Ada technology and includes research, development, and measurement studies

Proposition d'une approche à base de cas pour la réutilisation des unités de programmes

L'amélioration constante de la qualité des logiciels et des processus de développement logiciel est depuis plusieurs décennies, au coeur des préoccupations et de nombreux travaux de recherche dans le domaine de l'ingénierie des systèmes d'information. Parmi les multiples solutions proposées, la réutilisation apparaît pour bien des chercheurs comme l'une des pistes les plus prometteuses pour la réduction du coût de production et l'amélioration de la qualité de systèmes [MILl 1999]. Plusieurs formes de réutilisation ont été introduites: la réutilisation des spécifications, la réutilisation des composants, la réutilisation des codes, la réutilisation des expériences, etc. [R.P. Diaz, 87], [Kruger 92], [NKambou et al. 2003, 2004]. Le but du projet CIAO-SI est de construire et de maintenir une mémoire d'expérience pour l'organisation pouvant supporter tout le cycle de développement. À ce jour, les travaux du projet CIAO-SI [NKambou et al. 2003, 2004] initié par le Groupe Infotel Inc et le laboratoire GDAC se sont limités aux phases d'analyse et de conceptions. Nous nous proposons dans notre travail de recherche d'étendre la réflexion à la phase d'implantation ('codage'). Ce volet vise à doter le système CIAO-SI d'un module permettant de rechercher et d'indexer les unités de programmes éprouvées, validées et stockées dans le but de leur réutilisation pour des nouveaux projets de développement logiciel. La plupart des outils recensés utilisent des approches d'indexation qui se limitent à l'aspect descriptif du problème (caractéristique du problème, le contexte d'élaboration pour filtrer les résultats, utilisation des concepts pour définir les ontologies) et non à l'intégration de la solution proposée; ce qui n'est pas approprié dans la réutilisation des codes. Nous avons proposé et implémenté une approche de réutilisation des unités de programmes basée sur le CBR et la classification à facettes. L'implantation de cette approche dans le contexte de CIAO-SI, une plateforme de réutilisation dans les phases en aval de la réalisation, nous a permis d'obtenir des résultats encourageants. Finalement nous avons effectué une évaluation expérimentale par la méthode de Salton et cela nous a permis d'évaluer la pertinence de nos résultats. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Réutilisation des codes, Développement logiciel, Indexation des codes, Ontologie, CIAO-SI, Raisonnement à base de cas