Capturing flight system test engineering expertise: Lessons learned

Within a few years, JPL will be challenged by the most active mission set in history. Concurrently, flight systems are increasingly more complex. Presently, the knowledge to conduct integration and test of spacecraft and large instruments is held by a few key people, each with many years of experience. JPL is in danger of losing a significant amount of this critical expertise, through retirement, during a period when demand for this expertise is rapidly increasing. The most critical issue at hand is to collect and retain this expertise and develop tools that would ensure the ability to successfully perform the integration and test of future spacecraft and large instruments. The proposed solution was to capture and codity a subset of existing knowledge, and to utilize this captured expertise in knowledge-based systems. First year results and activities planned for the second year of this on-going effort are described. Topics discussed include lessons learned in knowledge acquisition and elicitation techniques, life-cycle paradigms, and rapid prototyping of a knowledge-based advisor (Spacecraft Test Assistant) and a hypermedia browser (Test Engineering Browser). The prototype Spacecraft Test Assistant supports a subset of integration and test activities for flight systems. Browser is a hypermedia tool that allows users easy perusal of spacecraft test topics. A knowledge acquisition tool called ConceptFinder which was developed to search through large volumes of data for related concepts is also described and is modified to semi-automate the process of creating hypertext links

Evaluation of Web applications through simulation of Web designs

University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Engineering.The development of Web applications continues to pose numerous difficulties for Web developers due to the inherent complexity of the projects. Although methodologies have been proposed to tackle the development of these projects, they are especially concerned with setting guidelines and defining tasks to better structure the design phase. For this purpose, several design models have been developed and used in the design of Web applications, providing a suitable level of abstraction and independence from a specific implementation. However, the other phases of the Software Development Cycle have not received the same level of attention from researchers. In particular, the test phase is lacking in theory and tools to effectively and efficiently verify the project requirements. Evaluation of the functional requirements of a system under development is commonly done by its partial implementation and test. This requires the development and coding of a prototype of the system to be able to verify the design. Furthermore, this prototyping effort could be partially or totally in vain if tests find that the design does not meet the intended requirements. This research argues that it is possible to simulate Web application design models for the verification of functional requirements. Furthermore, it claims that simulation is able to provide as much functional information as an implementation would. The research proposes a multi-layer Web-design Simulation Model, which was developed to enable simulation of Web application designs and takes into consideration developers’ key design concerns. Furthermore, a Web-design Description Language was especially developed to provide meaningful simulation of design models. It borrows concepts from the hardware engineering field where simulation is extensively used for design verification. By performing simulation directly on the designs, the need for prototyping for functional evaluation is reduced or no longer necessary and verification of the requirements can be performed as soon as a design is available. This has the potential to contribute to a faster Software Development Cycle of Web applications. To prove the feasibility of the simulation and the meaningfulness of its application, an experiment on a selected Web application design was conducted. This entailed a comparison between the implementation and simulation results for the functional requirements evaluation. The comparison was performed by assessing the functional content and information of the results that both methods provided. The comparison showed that, although both are suitable for verification of functional requirements, the proposed Simulation Model provides additional functional information and a more intuitive analysis for the evaluation of Web application designs

Scenarios as springboards in design of CSCW

Our point of departure is that the relationship between social science, cooperative working and technology is not as much a matter of differences in understanding, as it is a matter of how to accomplish change. This chapter outlines an approach to design of CSCW where change is addressed in terms of ''expansion of the work practice''. To facilitate the change process as a process of expansion, scenarios are used as springboards. Creation and use of scenarios are supported by a conceptual ''toolbox''. The foundation for this toolbox is an understanding of the design process as ``abductive thinking'' consisting of idea generation and systematic reflection, and an understanding of design tools inspired from activity theory. As design processes may involve different communities of practice, we discuss the role of scenarios as boundary objects

Arabic Language Learning (ALL) for Kids

Arabic Language has an exceptional position in Islam. It is the language of Quran, thus the need to learn and understand Arabic amongst Muslims is of paramount importance. For countries where their native language is not Arabic, the language is only taught in special schools. Arabic language needs to be introduced to children at early ages such as in the kindergarten. With the advent of computer technology, various kind of multimedia tools have been developed for the purpose of language learning. Since children are attracted to computer applications especially those that involve multimedia,there is a need to develop Arabic language learning applications for them. Even though there are few applications available in the market for that purpose, most of them do not fully utilize the multimedia elements. The prime objective of this study was to propose an Arabic Language Learning (ALL) for kids of ages between 4 to 6 years old that enable them to learn the language. In the process, an interactive field-tested ALL for kids has been developed as an alternative to the traditional learning tools. The results of user evaluation on the ALL indicate that it has good usability in terms of Learnability,Usefulness, Ease of Use and Outcome/Future Use. The results also indicate that there is a significant difference between novice and expert users for Usefulness and Ease of Use,while no significant difference for learnability and Outcome/Future Use

Factors shaping the evolution of electronic documentation systems

The main goal is to prepare the space station technical and managerial structure for likely changes in the creation, capture, transfer, and utilization of knowledge. By anticipating advances, the design of Space Station Project (SSP) information systems can be tailored to facilitate a progression of increasingly sophisticated strategies as the space station evolves. Future generations of advanced information systems will use increases in power to deliver environmentally meaningful, contextually targeted, interconnected data (knowledge). The concept of a Knowledge Base Management System is emerging when the problem is focused on how information systems can perform such a conversion of raw data. Such a system would include traditional management functions for large space databases. Added artificial intelligence features might encompass co-existing knowledge representation schemes; effective control structures for deductive, plausible, and inductive reasoning; means for knowledge acquisition, refinement, and validation; explanation facilities; and dynamic human intervention. The major areas covered include: alternative knowledge representation approaches; advanced user interface capabilities; computer-supported cooperative work; the evolution of information system hardware; standardization, compatibility, and connectivity; and organizational impacts of information intensive environments

Experimental Object-Oriented Modelling

This thesis examines object-oriented modelling in experimental system development. Object-oriented modelling aims at representing concepts and phenomena of a problem domain in terms of classes and objects. Experimental system development seeks active experimentation in a system development project through, e.g., technical prototyping and active user involvement. We introduce and examine "experimental object-oriented modelling" as the intersection of these practices