ISML: an interface specification meta-language

In this paper we present an abstract metaphor model situated within a model-based user interface framework. The inclusion of metaphors in graphical user interfaces is a well established, but mostly craft-based strategy to design. A substantial body of notations and tools can be found within the model-based user interface design literature, however an explicit treatment of metaphor and its mappings to other design views has yet to be addressed. We introduce the Interface Specification Meta-Language (ISML) framework and demonstrate its use in comparing the semantic and syntactic features of an interactive system. Challenges facing this research are outlined and further work proposed

Compiling Quantum Programs

This thesis introduces the quantum compilation problem and develops a prototypical compiler. The problem of quantum compiling is, in essence, converting high-level human expressions of quantum programs into low-level hardware executable code. Compilers that target different hardware platforms enable portable code that can be used to benchmark hardware performance, reduce programming work and speed up development. Because quantum systems are subjected to phenomena such as noise, no-cloning and decoherence, the challenge of quantum compiling is tied to the optimization of program runtimes and the lengths of compiled sequences. For near-term intermediate scale quantum (NISQ) computers with limited hardware resources and without error correction, a well-designed compiler that optimizes hardware usage and circuit fidelity is necessary to running applications and tests. To give an introduction to the problem of quantum compiling, this thesis reviews the universality proof for quantum computation and the Solovay-Kitaev theorem, which are both foundational to the topic. A compilation scheme with two components, one following the universality proof and one inspired by the Solovay-Kitaev theorem, is implemented to demonstrate an approach that solves the quantum compiling problem. Finally, I survey state-of-the-art compilation techniques and discuss how to extend this thesis toward building a practical compiler that will be a part of the broader software stack

Modelling and analyzing adaptive self-assembling strategies with Maude

Building adaptive systems with predictable emergent behavior is a challenging task and it is becoming a critical need. The research community has accepted the challenge by introducing approaches of various nature: from software architectures, to programming paradigms, to analysis techniques. We recently proposed a conceptual framework for adaptation centered around the role of control data. In this paper we show that it can be naturally realized in a reflective logical language like Maude by using the Reflective Russian Dolls model. Moreover, we exploit this model to specify, validate and analyse a prominent example of adaptive system: robot swarms equipped with self-assembly strategies. The analysis exploits the statistical model checker PVeStA

Rethinking affordance

n/a – Critical survey essay retheorising the concept of 'affordance' in digital media context. Lead article in a special issue on the topic, co-edited by the authors for the journal Media Theory

Energy Management for Hypervisor-Based Virtual Machines

Current approaches to power management are based on operating systems with full knowledge of and full control over the underlying hardware; the distributed nature of multi-layered virtual machine environments renders such approaches insufficient. In this paper, we present a novel framework for energy management in modular, multi-layered operating system structures. The framework provides a unified model to partition and distribute energy, and mechanisms for energy-aware resource accounting and allocation. As a key property, the framework explicitly takes the recursive energy consumption into account, which is spent, e.g., in the virtualization layer or subsequent driver components. Our prototypical implementation targets hypervisor- based virtual machine systems and comprises two components: a host-level subsystem, which controls machine-wide energy constraints and enforces them among all guest OSes and service components, and, complementary, an energy-aware guest operating system, capable of fine-grained applicationspecific energy management. Guest level energy management thereby relies on effective virtualization of physical energy effects provided by the virtual machine monitor. Experiments with CPU and disk devices and an external data acquisition system demonstrate that our framework accurately controls and stipulates the power consumption of individual hardware devices, both for energy-aware and energyunaware guest operating systems

Identification of Design Principles

This report identifies those design principles for a (possibly new) query and transformation language for the Web supporting inference that are considered essential. Based upon these design principles an initial strawman is selected. Scenarios for querying the Semantic Web illustrate the design principles and their reflection in the initial strawman, i.e., a first draft of the query language to be designed and implemented by the REWERSE working group I4

Context Aware Adaptable Applications - A global approach

Actual applications (mostly component based) requirements cannot be expressed without a ubiquitous and mobile part for end-users as well as for M2M applications (Machine to Machine). Such an evolution implies context management in order to evaluate the consequences of the mobility and corresponding mechanisms to adapt or to be adapted to the new environment. Applications are then qualified as context aware applications. This first part of this paper presents an overview of context and its management by application adaptation. This part starts by a definition and proposes a model for the context. It also presents various techniques to adapt applications to the context: from self-adaptation to supervised approached. The second part is an overview of architectures for adaptable applications. It focuses on platforms based solutions and shows information flows between application, platform and context. Finally it makes a synthesis proposition with a platform for adaptable context-aware applications called Kalimucho. Then we present implementations tools for software components and a dataflow models in order to implement the Kalimucho platform