Software development: A paradigm for the future

A new paradigm for software development that treats software development as an experimental activity is presented. It provides built-in mechanisms for learning how to develop software better and reusing previous experience in the forms of knowledge, processes, and products. It uses models and measures to aid in the tasks of characterization, evaluation and motivation. An organization scheme is proposed for separating the project-specific focus from the organization's learning and reuse focuses of software development. The implications of this approach for corporations, research and education are discussed and some research activities currently underway at the University of Maryland that support this approach are presented

An improved approach for automatic process plan generation of complex borings

The authors are grateful for funding provided to this project by the French Ministry of Industry, Dassault Aviation, Dassault Systemes, and F. Vernadat for his review and recommendations.The research concerns automated generation of process plans using knowledge formalization and capitalization. Tools allowing designers to deal with issues and specifications of the machining domain are taken into account. The main objective of the current work is to prevent designers from designing solutions that would be expensive and difficult to machine. Among all available solutions to achieve this goal, two are distinguished: the generative approach and the analogy approach. The generative approach is more adapted to generate the machining plans of parts composed of numerous boring operations in interaction. However, generative systems have two major problems: proposed solutions are often too numerous and are only geometrically but not technologically relevant. In order to overcome these drawbacks, two new concepts of feature and three control algorithms are developed. The paper presents the two new features: the Machining Enabled Geometrical Feature (MEGF) and the Machinable Features (MbF). This development is the result of the separation of the geometrical and the technological data contained in one machining feature. The second objective of the paper is to improve the current Process Ascending Generation (PAG) system with control algorithms in order to limit the combinatorial explosion and disable the generation of unusable or not machinable solutions

Telescience Testbed Pilot Program

The Telescience Testbed Pilot Program is developing initial recommendations for requirements and design approaches for the information systems of the Space Station era. During this quarter, drafting of the final reports of the various participants was initiated. Several drafts are included in this report as the University technical reports

Mobile Broadband Possibilities considering the Arrival of IEEE 802.16m & LTE with an Emphasis on South Asia

This paper intends to look deeper into finding an ideal mobile broadband solution. Special stress has been put in the South Asian region through some comparative analysis. Proving their competency in numerous aspects, WiMAX and LTE already have already made a strong position in telecommunication industry. Both WiMAX and LTE are 4G technologies designed to move data rather than voice having IP networks based on OFDM technology. So, they aren't like typical technological rivals as of GSM and CDMA. But still a gesture of hostility seems to outburst long before the stable commercial launch of LTE. In this paper various aspects of WiMAX and LTE for deployment have been analyzed. Again, we tried to make every possible consideration with respect to south Asia i.e. how mass people of this region may be benefited. As a result, it might be regarded as a good source in case of making major BWA deployment decisions in this region. Besides these, it also opens the path for further research and in depth thinking in this issue.Comment: IEEE Publication format, ISSN 1947 5500, http://sites.google.com/site/ijcsis

Rolling Up Our Sleeves: Building an Oregon that Works for Working Families

Working families in Oregon, as in the rest of the nation, faced a tough economic environment even before the onset of the current recession. Prior to the downturn, Oregon experienced a seven-year stretch in which its economy and productivity grew faster than that of the nation as a whole. And yet Oregon working families emerged from that seemingly favorable period with stagnant or shrunken wages and less health care coverage. The percentage of families stuck in poverty despite their work effort remained unchanged. How did it come to pass that the economy grew but most working families gained nothing or fell behind? The answer is simply that the rules of the economy have not been guided by a goal of shared prosperity and opportunity for all. The economic benefits mostly flowed upward, swelling the incomes of those at the very top. Toward the end of the economic expansion, income inequality had reached record levels. Now, with a recession battering the state and the nation, the economic condition of working families has become more precarious. History shows, however, that in tough economic times we can summon the will to accomplish great things. Seven decades ago, a generation of Americans rose up from the depths of the Great Depression and together built a strong nation and economy. This achievement rested on a foundation of broadly shared prosperity and opportunity for all. The benefits of economic growth flowed to typical working families. It is time for Oregonians to learn from history and build a new foundation. Action now can help alleviate some of the pain of the current downturn. But more importantly, our work today will help usher in a new era of broadly shared prosperity and opportunity. In this report, we outline strategies for building an Oregon that works for working families. The specific recommendations fall under three broad categories: policies that strengthen the public sector's role in promoting shared prosperity, policies that secure the incomes of working families and reforms to the tax system that make it fairer for working families and generate revenue for public systems that create opportunity. This report is not a comprehensive plan for achieving an economy of shared prosperity, but it presents a broad policy framework and a range of specific proposals that point the way forward. So let's roll up our sleeves and begin building an Oregon that works for working families

Fiscal Update, September 15, 2003

The Fiscal Division newsletter, published weekly during session and periodically during the interim

Requirements for building information modeling based lean production management systems for construction

Smooth flow of production in construction is hampered by disparity between individual trade teams' goals and the goals of stable production flow for the project as a whole. This is exacerbated by the difficulty of visualizing the flow of work in a construction project. While the addresses some of the issues in Building information modeling provides a powerful platform for visualizing work flow in control systems that also enable pull flow and deeper collaboration between teams on and off site. The requirements for implementation of a BIM-enabled pull flow construction management software system based on the Last Planner System™, called ‘KanBIM’, have been specified, and a set of functional mock-ups of the proposed system has been implemented and evaluated in a series of three focus group workshops. The requirements cover the areas of maintenance of work flow stability, enabling negotiation and commitment between teams, lean production planning with sophisticated pull flow control, and effective communication and visualization of flow. The evaluation results show that the system holds the potential to improve work flow and reduce waste by providing both process and product visualization at the work face