A Process Framework for Semantics-aware Tourism Information Systems

The growing sophistication of user requirements in tourism due to the advent of new technologies such as the Semantic Web and mobile computing has imposed new possibilities for improved intelligence in Tourism Information Systems (TIS). Traditional software engineering and web engineering approaches cannot suffice, hence the need to find new product development approaches that would sufficiently enable the next generation of TIS. The next generation of TIS are expected among other things to: enable semantics-based information processing, exhibit natural language capabilities, facilitate inter-organization exchange of information in a seamless way, and evolve proactively in tandem with dynamic user requirements. In this paper, a product development approach called Product Line for Ontology-based Semantics-Aware Tourism Information Systems (PLOSATIS) which is a novel hybridization of software product line engineering, and Semantic Web engineering concepts is proposed. PLOSATIS is presented as potentially effective, predictable and amenable to software process improvement initiatives

A Run-Time Approach of Combining Ontologies to Enhance Interactive Requirements Elicitation for Software Customization

This thesis highlights the recent developments in Requirements Engineering for Software Product Line Engineering, with a focus on the use of ontology in interactive Requirements Elicitation and the existing techniques of ontology operations. Recent research done in Requirements Elicitation has been towards using ontologies as a modeling basis for gathering requirements. A new algorithm has been developed to allow ontologies to be combined at run-time when gathering the requirements of software clients. By harnessing knowledge in other ontologies, a more refined set of requirements can be generated. A scenario illustrating the use of ontology combination towards acquiring requirements for mobile platforms is also provided. The proposed method further enhances the capability of interactive software customization, thus helping to make Software Product Line Engineering a new practice in software development

A Software Product Line Approach to Ontology-based Recommendations in E-Tourism Systems

This study tackles two concerns of developers of Tourism Information Systems (TIS). First is the need for more dependable recommendation services due to the intangible nature of the tourism product where it is impossible for customers to physically evaluate the services on offer prior to practical experience. Second is the need to manage dynamic user requirements in tourism due to the advent of new technologies such as the semantic web and mobile computing such that etourism systems (TIS) can evolve proactively with emerging user needs at minimal time and development cost without performance tradeoffs. However, TIS have very predictable characteristics and are functionally identical in most cases with minimal variations which make them attractive for software product line development. The Software Product Line Engineering (SPLE) paradigm enables the strategic and systematic reuse of common core assets in the development of a family of software products that share some degree of commonality in order to realise a significant improvement in the cost and time of development. Hence, this thesis introduces a novel and systematic approach, called Product Line for Ontology-based Tourism Recommendation (PLONTOREC), a special approach focusing on the creation of variants of TIS products within a product line. PLONTOREC tackles the aforementioned problems in an engineering-like way by hybridizing concepts from ontology engineering and software product line engineering. The approach is a systematic process model consisting of product line management, ontology engineering, domain engineering, and application engineering. The unique feature of PLONTOREC is that it allows common TIS product requirements to be defined, commonalities and differences of content in TIS product variants to be planned and limited in advance using a conceptual model, and variant TIS products to be created according to a construction specification. We demonstrated the novelty in this approach using a case study of product line development of e-tourism systems for three countries in the West-African Region of Africa

KNOWLEDGE BASE REPRESENTATION WITH AXIOMATIC DESIGN RULES FOR CONCEPT LEVEL UP IMPLEMENT IN ONTOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK

Axiomatic Design has been applied and developed as a tool, offering a scientific basis for design and improving design activities. Axiomatic Design has been used in various fields such as software system design, structure design, and product design. However, several challenges and limitations exist in Axiomatic Design including: the inconsistency in identifying design parameters, existence of coupled design, and multiple groups of functional requirements and design parameters. Aimed at using Axiomatic Design to generate conceptual solutions in engineering design while overcoming its limitations, a formal ontology is developed. The ontology defines functional requirements, design parameters, concepts, components and variables and their relationships. Axioms and rules of the Axiomatic Design ontology are discussed and summarized, which helps users understand the design issue deeply. The Axiomatic Design ontology is demonstrated to the car seat design as an example. Specific axioms and rules are generated and analyzed while the classes of concepts and components are built. With the help of the Axiomatic Design ontology and its axioms and rules, several example concepts are generated and then compared and analyzed. The Axiomatic Design ontology provides numerous design concepts and potentially helps users increase their creativity. The Axiomatic Design ontology allows coupling system to exist as the possible solutions. Besides, other factors need to be considered and other tools are necessary for evaluating design solutions

A systematic review of protocol studies on conceptual design cognition: design as search and exploration

This paper reports findings from the first systematic review of protocol studies focusing specifically on conceptual design cognition, aiming to answer the following research question: What is our current understanding of the cognitive processes involved in conceptual design tasks carried out by individual designers? We reviewed 47 studies on architectural design, engineering design and product design engineering. This paper reports 24 cognitive processes investigated in a subset of 33 studies aligning with two viewpoints on the nature of designing: (V1) design as search (10 processes, 41.7%); and (V2) design as exploration (14 processes, 58.3%). Studies on search focused on solution search and problem structuring, involving: long-term memory retrieval; working memory; operators and reasoning processes. Studies on exploration investigated: co-evolutionary design; visual reasoning; cognitive actions; and unexpected discovery and situated requirements invention. Overall, considerable conceptual and terminological differences were observed among the studies. Nonetheless, a common focus on memory, semantic, associative, visual perceptual and mental imagery processes was observed to an extent. We suggest three challenges for future research to advance the field: (i) developing general models/theories; (ii) testing protocol study findings using objective methods conducive to larger samples and (iii) developing a shared ontology of cognitive processes in design

Beyond Inspec - Building a Semantic Enrichment Service to Explore How the IET can Better Support Academic and Commercial Researchers

As the amount of content in the engineering space is constantly growing it is becoming more and more difficult to retrieve relevant information. In this context the IET has commissioned a project to evaluate the feasibility of providing a semantic enrichment service based on the terms contained in the Inspec Thesaurus. The possibility of automated tagging of a variety of content types including traditional academic publishing data (e.g. journal abstracts), commercial product information (e.g. product catalogues) and social media (e.g. twitter feeds) has been explored as well as the auto generation of new terms for the Inspec thesaurus. We have used recognized semantic data modelling techniques to create a working ontology for a subset of the Inspec thesaurus and then used this ontology to entity extract and tag the names of people, organisations and their locations, along with Inspec thesaurus terms themselves, on all items of content run through the system. In addition we have built a number of applications to test the validity and accuracy of this approach as well as to explore how such a system would cope with the volume of future indexing requirements. We are continually evaluating our approach via on-going market research and user testing

An ontology framework for developing platform-independent knowledge-based engineering systems in the aerospace industry

This paper presents the development of a novel knowledge-based engineering (KBE) framework for implementing platform-independent knowledge-enabled product design systems within the aerospace industry. The aim of the KBE framework is to strengthen the structure, reuse and portability of knowledge consumed within KBE systems in view of supporting the cost-effective and long-term preservation of knowledge within such systems. The proposed KBE framework uses an ontology-based approach for semantic knowledge management and adopts a model-driven architecture style from the software engineering discipline. Its phases are mainly (1) Capture knowledge required for KBE system; (2) Ontology model construct of KBE system; (3) Platform-independent model (PIM) technology selection and implementation and (4) Integration of PIM KBE knowledge with computer-aided design system. A rigorous methodology is employed which is comprised of five qualitative phases namely, requirement analysis for the KBE framework, identifying software and ontological engineering elements, integration of both elements, proof of concept prototype demonstrator and finally experts validation. A case study investigating four primitive three-dimensional geometry shapes is used to quantify the applicability of the KBE framework in the aerospace industry. Additionally, experts within the aerospace and software engineering sector validated the strengths/benefits and limitations of the KBE framework. The major benefits of the developed approach are in the reduction of man-hours required for developing KBE systems within the aerospace industry and the maintainability and abstraction of the knowledge required for developing KBE systems. This approach strengthens knowledge reuse and eliminates platform-specific approaches to developing KBE systems ensuring the preservation of KBE knowledge for the long term