Using domain specific languages to capture design knowledge for model-based systems engineering

Design synthesis is a fundamental engineering task that involves the creation of structure from a desired functional specification; it involves both creating a system topology as well as sizing the system's components. Although the use of computer tools is common throughout the design process, design synthesis is often a task left to the designer. At the synthesis stage of the design process, designers have an extensive choice of design alternatives that need to be considered and evaluated. Designers can benefit from computational synthesis methods in the creative phase of the design process. Recent increases in computational power allow automated synthesis methods for rapidly generating a large number of design solutions. Combining an automated synthesis method with an evaluation framework allows for a more thorough exploration of the design space as well as for a reduction of the time and cost needed to design a system. To facilitate computational synthesis, knowledge about feasible system configurations must be captured. Since it is difficult to capture such synthesis knowledge about any possible system, a design domain must be chosen. In this thesis, the design domain is hydraulic systems. In this thesis, Model-Driven Software Development concepts are leveraged to create a framework to automate the synthesis of hydraulic systems will be presented and demonstrated. This includes the presentation of a domain specific language to describe the function and structure of hydraulic systems as well as a framework for synthesizing hydraulic systems using graph grammars to generate system topologies. Also, a method using graph grammars for generating analysis models from the described structural system representations is presented. This approach fits in the context of Model-Based Systems Engineering where a variety of formal models are used to represent knowledge about a system. It uses the Systems Modeling Language developed by The Object Management Group (OMG SysML™) as a unifying language for model definition.M.S.Committee Chair: Paredis, Chris; Committee Member: McGinnis, Leon; Committee Member: Schaefer, Dir

Characterizing and evaluating the quality of software process modeling language: Comparison of ten representative model-based languages

Software organizations are very conscious that deployments of well-defined software processes improve software product development and its quality. Over last decade, many Software Process Modeling Languages (SPMLs) have been proposed to describe and manage software processes. However, each one presents advantages and disadvantages. The main challenge for an organization is to choose the best and most suitable SPML to meet its requirements. This paper proposes a Quality Model (QM) which has been defined conforms to QuEF (Quality Evaluation Framework). This QM allows to compare model-based SPMLs and it could be used by organizations to choose the most useful model-based SPML for their particular requirements. This paper also instances our QM to evaluate and compare 10 representative SPMLs of the various alternative approaches (metamodel-level approaches; SPML based on UML and approaches based on standards). Finally, this paper concludes there are many model-based proposals for SPM, but it is very difficult to establish with could be the commitment to follow. Some non-considered aspects until now have been identified (e.g., validation within enterprise environments, friendly support tools, mechanisms to carry out continuous improvement, mechanisms to establish business rules and elements for software process orchestrating).Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TIN2016-76956-C3-2-R (POLOLAS

Digital Maturity of Higher Education Institution: A meta model of the Analytical Network Process (ANP) and Decision EXpert (DEX)

Digital maturity of higher education institutions (HEI) becomes more and more important as the influence of ICT grows. In this paper, the methods Analytic Network Process (ANP) and Decision EXpert (DEX) are presented and demonstrated in the example of domains for digital maturity of HEIs. The ANP is a quantitative method, DEX is a qualitative method and digital maturity level (DML) is a two-component combination of results for the two methods’ application. Additionally, the ERA model of those methods combined to calculate two-component DML of HEIs is designed, and its process will be specified and evaluated in future researc

Digital Maturity of Higher Education Institution: A meta model of the Analytical Network Process (ANP) and Decision EXpert (DEX)

Digital maturity of higher education institutions (HEI) becomes more and more important as the influence of ICT grows. In this paper, the methods Analytic Network Process (ANP) and Decision EXpert (DEX) are presented and demonstrated in the example of domains for digital maturity of HEIs. The ANP is a quantitative method, DEX is a qualitative method and digital maturity level (DML) is a two-component combination of results for the two methods’ application. Additionally, the ERA model of those methods combined to calculate two-component DML of HEIs is designed, and its process will be specified and evaluated in future researc

Protocol for a Systematic Literature Review on Design Decisions for UML-based DSMLs

Series: Technical Reports / Institute for Information Systems and New Medi

Definition of a Type System for Generic and Reflective Graph Transformations

This thesis presents the extension of the graph transformation language SDM (Story Driven Modeling) with generic and reflective features as well as the definition of type checking rules for this language. The generic and reflective features aim at improving the reusability and expressiveness of SDM, whereas the type checking rules will ensure the type-safety of graph transformations. This thesis starts with an explanation of the relevant concepts as well as a description of the context in order to provide the reader with a better understanding of our approach. The model driven development of software, today considered as the standard paradigm, is generally based on the use of domain-specific languages such as MATLAB Simulink and Stateflow. To increase the quality, the reliability,and the efficiency of models and the generated code, checking and elimination of detected guideline violations defined in huge catalogues has become an essential, but error-prone and time-consuming task in the development process. The MATE/MAJA projects, which are based on the use of the SDM language, aim at an automation of this task for MATLAB Simulink/Stateflow models. Modeling guidelines can be specified on a very high level of abstraction by means of graph transformations. Moreover, these specifications allow for the generation of guideline checking tools. Unfortunately, most graph transformation languages do not offer appropriate concepts for reuse of specification fragments - a MUST, when we deal with hundreds of guidelines. As a consequence we present an extension of the SDM language which supports the definition of generic rewrite rules and combines them with the reflective programming mechanisms of Java and the model repository interface standard JMI. Reusability and expressiveness are not the only aspects we want to improve. Another fundamental aspect of graph transformations must be ensured: their correctness in order to prevent type errors while executing the transformations. Checking and testing the graph transformations manually would ruin the benefit obtained by the automation of the guideline checking and by the generic and reflective features. Therefore, we propose in this work a type-checking method for graph transformations. We introduce a new notation for rules of inference and define a type system for SDM. We also proposed an algorithm to apply this type system. We illustrate and evaluate both contributions of our work by applying them on running examples. Proposals for other additional SDM features as well as for possible improvements of our type checking open new perspectives and future research to pursue our work

Multi-layer syntactical model transformation for model based systems engineering

This dissertation develops a new model transformation approach that supports engineering model integration, which is essential to support contemporary interdisciplinary system design processes. We extend traditional model transformation, which has been primarily used for software engineering, to enable model-based systems engineering (MBSE) so that the model transformation can handle more general engineering models. We identify two issues that arise when applying the traditional model transformation to general engineering modeling domains. The first is instance data integration: the traditional model transformation theory does not deal with instance data, which is essential for executing engineering models in engineering tools. The second is syntactical inconsistency: various engineering tools represent engineering models in a proprietary syntax. However, the traditional model transformation cannot handle this syntactic diversity. In order to address these two issues, we propose a new multi-layer syntactical model transformation approach. For the instance integration issue, this approach generates model transformation rules for instance data from the result of a model transformation that is developed for user model integration, which is the normal purpose of traditional model transformation. For the syntactical inconsistency issue, we introduce the concept of the complete meta-model for defining how to represent a model syntactically as well as semantically. Our approach addresses the syntactical inconsistency issue by generating necessary complete meta-models using a special type of model transformation.PhDCommittee Chair: Leon F. McGinnis; Committee Member: Charles Eastman; Committee Member: Chris Paredis; Committee Member: Joel Sokol; Committee Member: Marc Goetschalck

Special Topics in Solid State Diffusion: I. Grain Boundary Variability II. Fluid in Deformable Solid

In the first part of this study, we investigate the impact of grain-boundary variability on mass transport behavior in a polycrystal. More specifically, we perform both numerical and analytical studies of steady-state diffusion in prototypical microstructures in which there is either a discrete spectrum of grain-boundary activation energies or else a complex distribution of grain-boundary character, and hence a continuous spectrum of boundary activation energies. An effective diffusivity is calculated for these structures using simplified multi-state models and, in some cases, employing experimentally obtained grain-boundary energy data in conjunction with the Borisov assumption. For some condition, we find marked deviations from Arrhenius behavior, and we are able to quantify these deviations analytically.The second part of this work is devoted to fluid imbibition via diffusion in deformable solid which results in solid stresses that may, in turn, alter subsequent fluid uptake. To examine this interplay between diffusional and elastic fields, we employ a hybrid Monte Carlo-molecular dynamics scheme to model the coupling of a fluid reservoir to a deformable solid, and then simulate the resulting fluid permeation into the solid. By monitoring the instantaneous structure factor and solid dimensions, we are able to determine the compositional strain associated with imbibition, and the diffusion coefficient in the Fickian regime is obtained from the time dependence of the fluid uptake. Finally, for large, mobile fluid atoms, a non-Fickian regime is highlighted and possible mechanisms for this behavior are identified

Model Transformation Languages with Modular Information Hiding

Model transformations, together with models, form the principal artifacts in model-driven software development. Industrial practitioners report that transformations on larger models quickly get sufficiently large and complex themselves. To alleviate entailed maintenance efforts, this thesis presents a modularity concept with explicit interfaces, complemented by software visualization and clustering techniques. All three approaches are tailored to the specific needs of the transformation domain

Model Transformation Languages with Modular Information Hiding

Model transformations, together with models, form the principal artifacts in model-driven software development. Industrial practitioners report that transformations on larger models quickly get sufficiently large and complex themselves. To alleviate entailed maintenance efforts, this thesis presents a modularity concept with explicit interfaces, complemented by software visualization and clustering techniques. All three approaches are tailored to the specific needs of the transformation domain