A Web-Based Distributed Virtual Educational Laboratory

Evolution and cost of measurement equipment, continuous training, and distance learning make it difficult to provide a complete set of updated workbenches to every student. For a preliminary familiarization and experimentation with instrumentation and measurement procedures, the use of virtual equipment is often considered more than sufficient from the didactic point of view, while the hands-on approach with real instrumentation and measurement systems still remains necessary to complete and refine the student's practical expertise. Creation and distribution of workbenches in networked computer laboratories therefore becomes attractive and convenient. This paper describes specification and design of a geographically distributed system based on commercially standard components

MDE in Practice for Computational Science

International audienceThe complex problems that computational science addresses are more and more benefiting from the progress of computing facilities (simulators, librairies, accessible languages,. . .). Nevertheless , the actual solutions call for several improvements. Among those, we address in this paper the needs for leveraging on knowledge and expertise by focusing on Domain-Specific Mod-eling Languages application. In this vision paper we illustrate, through concrete experiments, how the last DSML research help getting closer the problem and implementation spaces

A Web-Based Distributed Virtual Educational Laboratory

Evolution and cost of measurement equipment, continuous training, and distance learning make it difficult to provide a complete set of updated workbenches to every student. For a preliminary familiarization and experimentation with instrumentation and measurement procedures, the use of virtual equipment is often considered more than sufficient from the didactic point of view, while the hands-on approach with real instrumentation and measurement systems still remains necessary to complete and refine the student's practical expertise. Creation and distribution of workbenches in networked computer laboratories therefore becomes attractive and convenient. This paper describes specification and design of a geographically distributed system based on commercially standard components

Remote laboratories extending access to science and engineering curricular

This paper draws on research, development, and deployment of remote laboratories undertaken by the authors since 2000. They jointly worked on the PEARL project (http://iet.open.ac.uk/pearl/) from 2000 to 2003 and have worked on further projects within their own institutions (the Open University, United Kingdom, and the University of Porto, Portugal, respectively) since then. The paper begins with a statement of the rationale for remote experiments, then offers a review of past work of the authors and highlights the key lessons for remote labs drawn from this. These lessons include 1) the importance of removing accessibility barriers, 2) the importance of a pedagogic strategy, 3) evaluation of pedagogic effectiveness, 4) the ease of automation or remote control, and 5) learning objectives and design decisions. The paper then discusses key topics including assessment issues, instructional design, pedagogical strategies, relations to industry, and cost benefits. A conclusion summarizes key points from the paper within a review of the current status of remote labs in education

A computer integrated unified modelling approach to responsive manufacturing

Computer modelling approaches have significant potential to enable decision-making about various aspects of responsive manufacturing. In order to understand the system prior to the selection of any responsiveness strategy, multiple process segments of organisations need to be modelled. The article presents a novel systematic approach for creating coherent sets of unified enterprise, simulation and other supporting models that collectively facilitate responsiveness. In this approach, enterprise models are used to explicitly define relatively enduring relationships between (i) production planning and control (PPC) processes, that implement a particular strategy and (ii) process-oriented elements of production systems, that are work loaded by the PPC processes. Coherent simulation models, can in part be derived from the enterprise models, so that they computer execute production system behaviours. In this way, time-based performance outcomes can be simulated; so that the impacts of alternative PPC strategies on the planning and controlling historical or forecasted patterns of workflow, through (current and possible future) production system models, can be analysed. The article describes the unified modelling approach conceived and its application in a furniture industry case study small and medium enterprise (SME)

LOW-COST 4D BIM MODELLING: A COMPARISON BETWEEN FREECAD AND COMMERCIAL SOFTWARE

Abstract. The paper aims to investigate the potential inherent in a FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) approach for the 4D BIM modelling using Freecad. In order to reach this goal it shows a comparison of Freecad features with those of commercial software, considering the evaluation of the effective application of this Open Source software in the professional environment, and highlighting the progress in the FOSS BIM area, that still represents an unexplored study field if compared to the vast publications related to BIM modelling that occurred in the last two decades. To this end, the study has been carried out on a singular case study, a steel canopy which has been designed for the urban renewal of a public space in Teramo. Despite its size, the canopy required the definition of complex details. Its structural system has addressed the study to compare Freecad with some software dedicated to steel structures or particularly suitable for the modelling of this specific structural typology: Tekla Structures and Sketchup. Starting from a concise historical reconstruction of the FOSS spread, the paper introduces a brief overview of the potential of Freecad in terms of BIM modelling - also proposing an operational modality to facilitate the drawing of BIM elements within the software - and finally reaching to the examination of three simulations which has been carried. This comparison can be useful to establish the current state of development of Freecad in the field of 4D BIM

Exploiting persistence in CASE technology

Bibliography: pages 102-107.A Design Workbench has been built for Napier88 [MBC+94] as part of the natural progression towards developing better product systems and improving software construction tools. The system includes a Metamodeller (enabling users to specify the data and process models they prefer), a Model Builder which supports multiple coexisting models and a Target System Generator. Experience using the Workbench has shown that it is easy to use, increases productivity, improves programming standards and facilitates code sharing. This thesis demonstrates the benefits of orthogonal persistence for Computer-Aided Software Engineering by describing an initial design environment and its subsequent extension to include support for multiple co-existing models

Designing for learning: e-Learning@greenwich post-conference reflections and abstracts

The e-learning@greenwich/conference 2007, Designing for Learning, was the fifth conference in the series and has developed from its original focus on local institutional issues to a conference that focuses on global themes in e-learning attracting international participation. Our conferences are characterised by being practitioner focused and sector inclusive. Conference evaluations suggest that its intimate and friendly atmosphere, within the grounds of the world heritage site at Greenwich, allows practitioner-delegates to freely mix with delegates of international research repute and have an influence on practice, whether in the classroom or in educational software development. We felt it was now time to produce a series of publications to share the important work being captured and disseminated at the conferences to a wider public in the form of post-conference reflective proceedings

Bacatá:Notebooks for DSLs, Almost for Free

Context: Computational notebooks are a contemporary style of literate programming, in which users can communicate and transfer knowledge by interleaving executable code, output, and prose in a single rich document. A Domain-Specific Language (DSL) is an artificial software language tailored for a particular application domain. Usually, DSL users are domain experts that may not have a software engineering background. As a consequence, they might not be familiar with Integrated Development Environments (IDEs). Thus, the development of tools that offer different interfaces for interacting with a DSL is relevant. Inquiry: However, resources available to DSL designers are limited. We would like to leverage tools used to interact with general purpose languages in the context of DSLs. Computational notebooks are an example of such tools. Then, our main question is: What is an efficient and effective method of designing and implementing notebook interfaces for DSLs? By addressing this question we might be able to speed up the development of DSL tools, and ease the interaction between end-users and DSLs. Approach: In this paper, we present Bacat\'a, a mechanism for generating notebook interfaces for DSLs in a language parametric fashion. We designed this mechanism in a way in which language engineers can reuse as many language components (e.g., language processors, type checkers, code generators) as possible. Knowledge: Our results show that notebook interfaces generated by Bacat\'a can be automatically generated with little manual configuration. There are few considerations and caveats that should be addressed by language engineers that rely on language design aspects. The creation of a notebook for a DSL with Bacat\'a becomes a matter of writing the code that wires existing language components in the Rascal language workbench with the Jupyter platform. Grounding: We evaluate Bacat\'a by generating functional computational notebook interfaces for three different non-trivial DSLs, namely: a small subset of Halide (a DSL for digital image processing), SweeterJS (an extended version of JavaScript), and QL (a DSL for questionnaires). Additionally, it is relevant to generate notebook implementations rather than implementing them manually. We measured and compared the number of Source Lines of Code (SLOCs) that we reused from existing implementations of those languages. Importance: The adoption of notebooks by novice-programmers and end-users has made them very popular in several domains such as exploratory programming, data science, data journalism, and machine learning. Why are they popular? In (data) science, it is essential to make results reproducible as well as understandable. However, notebooks are only available for GPLs. This paper opens up the notebook metaphor for DSLs to improve the end-user experience when interacting with code and to increase DSLs adoption