Experience Using State-Based Simulation Models in Industry to Support Process Improvement

The process of developing software is seldom static. The process changes constantly in response to market demands for the faster, more reliable and cheaper production of software [4]. The process is also driven by rapid evolution of software development and quality standards, as well as advances in processes, methods and tools

TechNews digests: Jan - Nov 2006

TechNews is a technology, news and analysis service aimed at anyone in the education sector keen to stay informed about technology developments, trends and issues. TechNews focuses on emerging technologies and other technology news. TechNews service : digests september 2004 till May 2010 Analysis pieces and News combined publish every 2 to 3 month

Knowledge Society and the flat World of Thomas L. Friedman

The traditional society became lately the knowledge society. As the name states, knowledge is the most important asset of our times. There are different opinions on knowledge society and on globalization, but we will deal in this paper with Thomas Friedman’s flat world. The world got smaller with the developments in information and communication technology. Globalization has three periods and ten flatteners widely described by Friedman in his book. Technology changes the way we communicate, collaborate and share our knowledge.knowledge society, information technology, globalization, flattener

Low cost propulsion systems for the developing world

Space has often been referred to as the final frontier. It is the curiosity of what lies beyond our planet that drives us to turn to the skies. This quest for knowledge and the chance of travelling to the heavens has compelled people to devote their lives to space science, innovation and analysis of our ever-expanding universe. Today the most significant impact of rocketry comes in the form of manned spaceflight. Vehicles like the Space Shuttle and Soyuz began the trend of greater commercialization of manned rocketry, enabling widespread access to space. Whilst the curiosity of what lies beyond may have propelled the development of the space tourism industry, its current operational cost is estimated as $20-$28 million per passenger per flight. Although the vision of providing low cost space travel still exists, its application is hindered by the costs associated with current space vehicles and mission operations. Furthermore, if we are to better understand our universe and are keen on commercializing space, we would require the space tourism industry to operate in a similar fashion to the aviation industry. As most current launch vehicles rely on chemical propulsion, the level of uncertainty in the market drives their fuel costs. In order to reduce the cost per flight, we must effectively increase the load factor per flight and operate multiple flights, enabling a greater number of paying passengers. In order to provide widespread access to space there needs to be a greater emphasis on the research and development of low cost Reusable Launch Vehicles (RLV) which predominantly rely on alternative fuel technologies, thereby reducing the overall cost per flight. Although progress would be slow, we would still be able to witness a boom in space tourism. This paper proposes the use of magnetic levitation and propulsion (Maglev) within a vacuum chamber as a viable low-cost propulsion technology. It aims to prove that such a system is capable of providing adequate thrust to future space vehicles. As Maglev systems allow for horizontal take-off and landing, such a launch system could be used in conjunction with current airports worldwide. Although the inception and creation of such a system may seem expensive, the long-term fiscal costs are relatively lower than current day systems. This is primarily because such a system relies on electrical power, whose supply and generation costs are much lower than that of chemical propellants. Also, the maintenance costs associated with the Maglev track are minimal, as during take-off there is no physical contact between the track and the launch vehicle. Similar to the aviation industry, the success of future space exploration programs and space tourism relies on international cooperation and alliances. This not only ensures that no one country dominates access to space, but also nurtures healthy competition by providing a level playing field. By implementing the afore mentioned system in politically stable developing nations, we ensure employment, innovation and motivation, all achieved through an international alliance. This system would not only ensure a faster urban development within these countries, but would also bring the vision of space science and exploration to a larger global audience. This paper discusses the overall cost analysis for a vacuum operated Maglev system, the various options available for the generation of power required by such a system and how the system’s long term costs can be aligned with the aviation industry

Feedback and time are essential for the optimal control of computing systems

The performance, reliability, cost, size and energy usage of computing systems can be improved by one or more orders of magnitude by the systematic use of modern control and optimization methods. Computing systems rely on the use of feedback algorithms to schedule tasks, data and resources, but the models that are used to design these algorithms are validated using open-loop metrics. By using closed-loop metrics instead, such as the gap metric developed in the control community, it should be possible to develop improved scheduling algorithms and computing systems that have not been over-engineered. Furthermore, scheduling problems are most naturally formulated as constraint satisfaction or mathematical optimization problems, but these are seldom implemented using state of the art numerical methods, nor do they explicitly take into account the fact that the scheduling problem itself takes time to solve. This paper makes the case that recent results in real-time model predictive control, where optimization problems are solved in order to control a process that evolves in time, are likely to form the basis of scheduling algorithms of the future. We therefore outline some of the research problems and opportunities that could arise by explicitly considering feedback and time when designing optimal scheduling algorithms for computing systems

Chief Justice Robots

Say an AI program someday passes a Turing test, because it can con-verse in a way indistinguishable from a human. And say that its develop-ers can then teach it to converse—and even present an extended persua-sive argument—in a way indistinguishable from the sort of human we call a “lawyer.” The program could thus become an AI brief-writer, ca-pable of regularly winning brief-writing competitions against human lawyers. Once that happens (if it ever happens), this Essay argues, the same technology can be used to create AI judges, judges that we should accept as no less reliable (and more cost-effective) than human judges. If the software can create persuasive opinions, capable of regularly winning opinion-writing competitions against human judges—and if it can be adequately protected against hacking and similar attacks—we should in principle accept it as a judge, even if the opinions do not stem from human judgment