A Boxology of Design Patterns for Hybrid Learning and Reasoning Systems

We propose a set of compositional design patterns to describe a large variety of systems that combine statistical techniques from machine learning with symbolic techniques from knowledge representation. As in other areas of computer science (knowledge engineering, software engineering, ontology engineering, process mining and others), such design patterns help to systematize the literature, clarify which combinations of techniques serve which purposes, and encourage re-use of software components. We have validated our set of compositional design patterns against a large body of recent literature.Comment: 12 pages,55 reference

Mapping customer needs to engineering characteristics: an aerospace perspective for conceptual design

Designing complex engineering systems, such as an aircraft or an aero-engine, is immensely challenging. Formal Systems Engineering (SE) practices are widely used in the aerospace industry throughout the overall design process to minimise the overall design effort, corrective re-work, and ultimately overall development and manufacturing costs. Incorporating the needs and requirements from customers and other stakeholders into the conceptual and early design process is vital for the success and viability of any development programme. This paper presents a formal methodology, the Value-Driven Design (VDD) methodology that has been developed for collaborative and iterative use in the Extended Enterprise (EE) within the aerospace industry, and that has been applied using the Concept Design Analysis (CODA) method to map captured Customer Needs (CNs) into Engineering Characteristics (ECs) and to model an overall ‘design merit’ metric to be used in design assessments, sensitivity analyses, and engineering design optimisation studies. Two different case studies with increasing complexity are presented to elucidate the application areas of the CODA method in the context of the VDD methodology for the EE within the aerospace secto

A Survey of Requirements Engineering Methods for Pervasive Services

Designing and deploying ubiquitous computing systems, such as those delivering large-scale mobile services, still requires large-scale investments in both development effort as well as infrastructure costs. Therefore, in order to develop the right system, the design process merits a thorough investigation of the wishes of the foreseen user base. Such investigations are studied in the area of requirements engineering (RE). In this report, we describe and compare three requirements engineering methods that belong to one specific form of RE, namely Goal-Oriented Requirements Engineering. By mapping these methods to a common framework, we assess their applicability in the field of ubiquitous computing systems

REGIONAL DATA AND KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT FOR THE DESIGN OF NEW E-GOVERNMENT SERVICES

The paper introduces an innovative approach related to the sustainable regional strategy design and implementation, suggesting the process re-engineering according to the new knowledge management and citizen-oriented governance paradigm. The solutions proposed rely on the potential of the information and communication technologies (ICT) for knowledge management, inclusion, democracy and development, and represent the results of a Romanian research project: “Knowledge management architecture in environmental, social and economic areas, designed to support the sustainable regional development strategy”, financed under the national research budget (Research and Development National Program – Ideas, National Council for Research and Higher Education). The research was structured in three main steps: the first step was oriented to the identification of the main characteristics of the regional strategy design process, the second step focused on the critical analysis of the existing procedures in order to identify the strengths and the weakness of the process and to propose improved solutions, and the third one consists in the ICT-led process re-engineering. The first phase of the project involves desk research, direct observations, carrying out specific surveys in the framework of the strategy development in the Bucharest-Ilfov region. The SWOT analysis of the actual strategy design process emphasized the specific needed improvements of the process, especially a deeper analysis using various sustainable development models and benchmarking. Other important issue is represented by the lack of the citizens’ involvement in the consultative and decision making processes. The proposed solution of the process re-engineering involves the use of specific ICT tools integrated in a virtual regional platform aiming at offering a complete and realistic picture of the region and collecting the regional stakeholders’ opinions concerning the strategic regional development priorities.regional knowledge management, e-Government, e-Consultation, e-Participation, sustainable regional strategy

Robust optimization of cardiovascular stents: A comparison of methods

This is the post-print version of the Article. The official published version can be accssed from the links below. Copyright @ 2004 Taylor & FrancisModern engineering design contains both creative and analytic components. This paper discusses the design process and illustrates links between design optimization and conceptual design through the re-design of a cardiovascular stent. A comparison is presented of two methods for design improvement: genetic algorithms (GA) and model-based robust engineering design (RED). Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models are used to generate measurements of the quality of competing designs based on the concept of dissipated power. Alternative performance measures are also discussed. Environmental noise is introduced into the analysis and consideration is given to the treatment of discrete and continuous design parameters. Improved designs are identified using both methods and verified with further CFD analyses, and the benefits of each method are discussed

Value-oriented process modeling - towards a financial perspective on business process redesign

To date, typical process modeling approaches put a strong emphasis on describing behavioral aspects of business operations. However, they often neglect value-related information. Yet, such information is of key importance to strategic decisionmaking, for instance in the context of process improvement or business engineering. In this paper we propose a valueoriented approach to business process modeling based on key concepts and metrics from operations and financial management. A simple case study suggests that our approach facilitates managerial decision-making in the context of process re-design

Construction procurement systems : a linkage with project organisational models

This paper constitutes a literature review undertaken at the start of a two and a half year EPSRC funded research project. As such, its purpose is to present the details of the ‘re-search’concerning construction procurement and project organizational design. The paper shows that the ‘post -Latham’construction industry provides several new developments (client power, partnering, concurrent engineering etc) which are altering the construction project process, and therefore prove worthy vehicles for investigation into project organizational structures