6,419 research outputs found
On the customization of model management systems for file-centric IDEs
International audienceModel-based solutions are becoming more sophisticated because of the advent of new types of models, languages, and editors. To deal with this complexity, some of the current Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) offer Model Management Systems (MMSs) that provide functionalities to visualize, navigate, and search the modeling artifacts existing in a workspace. Each MMS defines the types of modeling artifacts that it supports and, commonly, furnish extensibility mechanisms for including new ones. However, the use of those mechanisms usually requires a big implementation effort. As a result, when an MMS does not support all the types of modeling artifacts that a model-driven engineer uses, he/she discards it and ends up manipulating his/her solution through file system views which is not appropriate when projects become larger. In this paper we present some of our preliminary results towards the construction of MoMS-DL, a domain-specific language to define (and automatically generate) customized Eclipse-based MMSs improv- ing the daily work of model-driven engineers
Modern Trends in the Automatic Generation of Content for Video Games
Attractive and realistic content has always played a crucial
role in the penetration and popularity of digital games, virtual
environments, and other multimedia applications. Procedural content
generation enables the automatization of production of any type of game
content including not only landscapes and narratives but also game
mechanics and generation of whole games. The article offers a
comparative analysis of the approaches to automatic generation of
content for video games proposed in last five years. It suggests a new
typology of the use of procedurally generated game content comprising of
categories structured in three groups: content nature, generation process,
and game dependence. Together with two other taxonomies – one of
content type and the other of methods for content generation – this
typology is used for comparing and discussing some specific approaches to
procedural content generation in three promising research directions
based on applying personalization and adaptation, descriptive languages,
and semantic specifications
Using Graph Properties to Speed-up GPU-based Graph Traversal: A Model-driven Approach
While it is well-known and acknowledged that the performance of graph
algorithms is heavily dependent on the input data, there has been surprisingly
little research to quantify and predict the impact the graph structure has on
performance. Parallel graph algorithms, running on many-core systems such as
GPUs, are no exception: most research has focused on how to efficiently
implement and tune different graph operations on a specific GPU. However, the
performance impact of the input graph has only been taken into account
indirectly as a result of the graphs used to benchmark the system.
In this work, we present a case study investigating how to use the properties
of the input graph to improve the performance of the breadth-first search (BFS)
graph traversal. To do so, we first study the performance variation of 15
different BFS implementations across 248 graphs. Using this performance data,
we show that significant speed-up can be achieved by combining the best
implementation for each level of the traversal. To make use of this
data-dependent optimization, we must correctly predict the relative performance
of algorithms per graph level, and enable dynamic switching to the optimal
algorithm for each level at runtime.
We use the collected performance data to train a binary decision tree, to
enable high-accuracy predictions and fast switching. We demonstrate empirically
that our decision tree is both fast enough to allow dynamic switching between
implementations, without noticeable overhead, and accurate enough in its
prediction to enable significant BFS speedup. We conclude that our model-driven
approach (1) enables BFS to outperform state of the art GPU algorithms, and (2)
can be adapted for other BFS variants, other algorithms, or more specific
datasets
Pathways to Fragmentation:User Flows and Web Distribution Infrastructures
This study analyzes how web audiences flow across online digital features. We
construct a directed network of user flows based on sequential user
clickstreams for all popular websites (n=1761), using traffic data obtained
from a panel of a million web users in the United States. We analyze these data
to identify constellations of websites that are frequently browsed together in
temporal sequences, both by similar user groups in different browsing sessions
as well as by disparate users. Our analyses thus render visible previously
hidden online collectives and generate insight into the varied roles that
curatorial infrastructures may play in shaping audience fragmentation on the
web
Printed Circuit Board (PCB) design process and fabrication
This module describes main characteristics of Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs). A brief history of PCBs is introduced in the first chapter. Then, the design processes and the fabrication of PCBs are addressed and finally a study case is presented in the last chapter of the module.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version
Experiences Teaching an FPGA-based Embedded Systems Class
I describe a two-year-old embedded systems design course I teach at Columbia University. In it, the students learn low-level C programming and VHDL coding to design and implement a project of their own choosing. The students implement their projects using Xilinx FPGAs and tools running on Linux workstations. The main challenges the students face are understanding and complying with complex and often poorly-documented interfaces and protocols, personal time management, and teamwork. While all real-world challenges, this class is often the first time the students encounter them, which makes the class quite challenging, but very practical. In this paper, I describe the structure of the class, the configuration of our teaching laboratory, some of the more successful projects, and give suggestions to instructors wishing to implement the class elsewhere
Searching for surprise
Inspired by the notion of surprise for unconventional discovery
in computational creativity, we introduce a general
search algorithm we name surprise search. Surprise search is
grounded in the divergent search paradigm and is fabricated
within the principles of metaheuristic (evolutionary) search.
The algorithm mimics the self-surprise cognitive process of
creativity and equips computational creators with the ability
to search for outcomes that deviate from the algorithm’s expected
behavior. The predictive model of expected outcomes
is based on historical trails of where the search has been and
some local information about the search space. We showcase
the basic steps of the algorithm via a problem solving (maze
navigation) and a generative art task. What distinguishes surprise
search from other forms of divergent search, such as the
search for novelty, is its ability to diverge not from earlier and
seen outcomes but rather from predicted and unseen points in
the creative domain considered.This work has been supported in part by the FP7 Marie Curie
CIG project AutoGameDesign (project no: 630665).peer-reviewe
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