Automatic generation of user interfaces from rigorous domain and use case models

Tese de doutoramento. Engenharia Informática. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 201

Incorporating the elements of the mase methodology into agent open

Enterprise-wide, web-based systems can be assisted in their construction by the use of agents and an agent-oriented methodology. As part of an extensive research programme to create such an AO methodology by combining the benefits of method engineering and existing object-oriented frameworks (notably the OPF), we have analysed here contributions to the OPF repository of process components from the MASE agent-oriented methodology, identifying three new Tasks, one additional Technique and two new Work Products

Modelling Of A Microgrid Using Z Notation

A Microgrid is a group of electrical sources and connected loads that operate energy grids in grid-connected or islanded mode. Microgrid usage has increased recently due to improved technology andthe effectiveness of renewable energy sources. To produce a balanced and stable power supply frommicrogrids and meet the load demand is a challenging research area in both the electrical engineering and software engineering fields. This work presents a formal model for representing the microgrid system to prevent failure or inconsistencies in the power generation and usage. A methodology for creating a formal model for a microgrid is a critical approach to overcoming the challenges of microgrid management and is examined in this work. The work was studied in two parts. The first part assessed the microgrid’s existing class diagram that is then transformed into a precise representation in the Z notation. The Z notation is a mathematical specification language used for describing system properties, and to reason about possible refinements of a design. The second part involved verifying and validation of the microgrid system through the creation of a structured specification using Z. The research addressed class diagram faults in model-based testing. Hence, the class diagrams are analyzed, recreated, and then designed using the formal notation in an iterative process, resulting in a precise description of the microgrid structure in a formal, unambiguous, and effective manner. This description can then be analyzed to determine the correctness of the UML description that will be used to design a microgrid power management system

Supporting process reuse in PROMENADE

Process reuse (the ability to construct new processes by assembling already built ones) and process harvesting (the ability to build generic processes that may be further reused, from existing ones) are two crucial issues in process technology. Both activities involve defining a set of mechanisms, like abstraction, adaptation, composition, etc. which are appropriate to achieve their goals. In this report, we define a general framework to process reuse and harvesting that proposes a complete set of mechanisms to deal with both activities. This general framework is particularized to the context of a process modelling language to model software processes, called PROMENADE. A definition of the identified reuse and harvesting mecha-nisms is proposed in the context of PROMENADE. Finally, two process reuse case studies which composes various reuse mechanisms are presented.Postprint (published version

Water and environmental issues

Water is a precious and finite part of the environment which is vital for socioeconomic development, sustainability of the environment and survival. Malaysia is fortunate that it is located in a humid tropical area rich in rainfall and water resources. The rapid economic growth of Malaysia in the past decades is also mainly attributed to its ability to exploit abundant natural resources including water. The exploitation of water resources is an important catalyst of economic growth but continuous exploitation without proper management and conservation may cause the depletion of water supplies, rendering water resources unsustainable. In recent years, water problems have escalated in Malaysia due to climate change, urbanization and population explosion. Therefore, effective water conservation, efficient waste water and sewage management integrated with recent technologies are important for fostering the tandem development of economic growth and the sustainability of environmental resources

Comparative evaluation of NLP approaches for requirements formalisation

Many approaches have been proposed for the automated formalisation of software requirements from semi-formal or informal requirements documents. However this research field lacks established case studies upon which different approaches can be compared, and there is also a lack of accepted criteria for comparing the results of formalisation approaches. As a consequence, it is difficult to determine which approaches are more appropriate for different kinds of formalisation task. In this paper we define benchmark case studies and a framework for comparative evaluation of requirements formalisation approaches, thus contributing to improving the rigour of this research field. We apply the approach to compare four example requirements formalisation methods

Action semantics of unified modeling language

The Uni ed Modeling Language or UML, as a visual and general purpose modeling language, has been around for more than a decade, gaining increasingly wide application and becoming the de-facto industrial standard for modeling software systems. However, the dynamic semantics of UML behaviours are only described in natural languages. Speci cation in natural languages inevitably involves vagueness, lacks reasonability and discourages mechanical language implementation. Such semi-formality of UML causes wide concern for researchers, including us. The formal semantics of UML demands more readability and extensibility due to its fast evolution and a wider range of users. Therefore we adopt Action Semantics (AS), mainly created by Peter Mosses, to formalize the dynamic semantics of UML, because AS can satisfy these needs advantageously compared to other frameworks. Instead of de ning UML directly, we design an action language, called ALx, and use it as the intermediary between a typical executable UML and its action semantics. ALx is highly heterogeneous, combining the features of Object Oriented Programming Languages, Object Query Languages, Model Description Languages and more complex behaviours like state machines. Adopting AS to formalize such a heterogeneous language is in turn of signi cance in exploring the adequacy and applicability of AS. In order to give assurance of the validity of the action semantics of ALx, a prototype ALx-to-Java translator is implemented, underpinned by our formal semantic description of the action language and using the Model Driven Approach (MDA). We argue that MDA is a feasible way of implementing this source-to-source language translator because the cornerstone of MDA, UML, is adequate to specify the static aspect of programming languages, and MDA provides executable transformation languages to model mapping rules between languages. We also construct a translator using a commonly-used conventional approach, in i which a tool is employed to generate the lexical scanner and the parser, and then other components including the type checker, symbol table constructor, intermediate representation producer and code generator, are coded manually. Then we compare the conventional approach with the MDA. The result shows that MDA has advantages over the conventional method in the aspect of code quality but is inferior to the latter in terms of system performance