Labelings for Decreasing Diagrams

This article is concerned with automating the decreasing diagrams technique of van Oostrom for establishing confluence of term rewrite systems. We study abstract criteria that allow to lexicographically combine labelings to show local diagrams decreasing. This approach has two immediate benefits. First, it allows to use labelings for linear rewrite systems also for left-linear ones, provided some mild conditions are satisfied. Second, it admits an incremental method for proving confluence which subsumes recent developments in automating decreasing diagrams. The techniques proposed in the article have been implemented and experimental results demonstrate how, e.g., the rule labeling benefits from our contributions

Design Research and Domain Representation

While diverse theories about the nature of design research have been proposed, they are rarely considered in relation to one another across the broader disciplinary field. Discussions of design research paradigms have tended to use overarching binary models for understanding differing knowledge frameworks. This paper focuses on an analysis of theories of design research and the use of Web 3 and open content systems to explore the potential of building more relational modes of conceptual representation. The nature of this project is synthetic, building upon the work of other design theorists and researchers. A number of theoretical frameworks will be discussed and examples of the analysis and modelling of key concepts and information relationships, using concept mapping software, collaborative ontology building systems and semantic wiki technologies will be presented. The potential of building information structures from content relationships that are identified by domain specialists rather than the imposition of formal, top-down, information hierarchies developed by information scientists, will be considered. In particular the opportunity for users to engage with resources through their own knowledge frameworks, rather than through logically rigorous but largely incomprehensible ontological systems, will be explored in relation to building resources for emerging design researchers. The motivation behind this endeavour is not to create a totalising meta-theory or impose order on the ‘ill structured’ and ‘undisciplined’, domain of design. Nor is it to use machine intelligence to ‘solve design problems’. It seeks to create dynamic systems that might help researchers explore design research theories and their various relationships with one another. It is hoped such tools could help novice researchers to better locate their own projects, find reference material, identify knowledge gaps and make new linkages between bodies of knowledge by enabling forms of data-poesis - the freeing of data for different trajectories. Keywords: Design research; Design theory; Methodology; Knowledge systems; Semantic web technologies.</p

The Digital Cultural Atlas Project: Design Research and Cultural Narratives. An Experiential Approach for Design Education.

This paper outlines an approach developed for teaching research methods in a graphic design program, working in an interdisciplinary context with cultural researchers. Initially, the Digital Cultural Atlas (DCA) is introduced, as a 'work-in-progress' web site, which locates a diversity of geographic and place-based cultural resources across Greater Western Sydney. The initial information architecture consists of ‘bird’s eye view’ cartographic maps and cultural project resources. Through a teaching project in design research, students consider ways in which experiential ‘on the ground’ visual stories can be included. Initial student research identifies a diversity of observed cultural community contexts and situations. This is followed by a second smaller scale study of fewer sites, using an understanding of participatory design research. In this stage, each student researches an individual community context using two 'voices' of the self - as participant, and as observer. These engagements with the self as 'actor' are recorded in a journal format across a specific time period, with reference to reflections prior to, during, and after 'action'. These provide the basis for the new visual stories in the DCA. This paper describes and critiques this approach to teaching design research in visual communication, based on the DCA. In so doing, it links design research with human experiences of community and culture to engage with wider debates about the design of digital mapping spaces as information systems. The paper concludes with some reflections about the project's possible future as an ongoing participatory community resource which engages with both geographic and experiential web content and form. Keywords: Design Education; Participatory Design; Visual Narrative; Digital Mapping Systems; Community Identity; Designer As Actor</p

Translating HOL to Dedukti

Dedukti is a logical framework based on the lambda-Pi-calculus modulo rewriting, which extends the lambda-Pi-calculus with rewrite rules. In this paper, we show how to translate the proofs of a family of HOL proof assistants to Dedukti. The translation preserves binding, typing, and reduction. We implemented this translation in an automated tool and used it to successfully translate the OpenTheory standard library.Comment: In Proceedings PxTP 2015, arXiv:1507.0837