33 research outputs found
Requirements engineering for explainable systems
Information systems are ubiquitous in modern life and are powered by evermore complex algorithms that are often difficult to understand. Moreover, since systems are part of almost every aspect of human life, the quality in interaction and communication between humans and machines has become increasingly important. Hence the importance of explainability as an essential element of human-machine communication; it has also become an important quality requirement for modern information systems.
However, dealing with quality requirements has never been a trivial task. To develop quality systems, software professionals have to understand how to transform abstract quality goals into real-world information system solutions. Requirements engineering provides a structured approach that aids software professionals in better comprehending, evaluating, and operationalizing quality requirements. Explainability has recently regained prominence and been acknowledged and established as a quality requirement; however, there is currently no requirements engineering recommendations specifically focused on explainable systems.
To fill this gap, this thesis investigated explainability as a quality requirement and how it relates to the information systems context, with an emphasis on requirements engineering. To this end, this thesis proposes two theories that delineate the role of explainability and establish guidelines for the requirements engineering process of explainable systems. These theories are modeled and shaped through five artifacts. These theories and artifacts should help software professionals 1) to communicate and achieve a shared understanding of the concept of explainability; 2) to comprehend how explainability affects system quality and what role it plays; 3) in translating abstract quality goals into design and evaluation strategies; and 4) to shape the software development process for the development of explainable systems.
The theories and artifacts were built and evaluated through literature studies, workshops, interviews, and a case study. The findings show that the knowledge made available helps practitioners understand the idea of explainability better, facilitating the creation of explainable systems. These results suggest that the proposed theories and artifacts are plausible, practical, and serve as a strong starting point for further extensions and improvements in the search for high-quality explainable systems
Programming Languages and Systems
This open access book constitutes the proceedings of the 31st European Symposium on Programming, ESOP 2022, which was held during April 5-7, 2022, in Munich, Germany, as part of the European Joint Conferences on Theory and Practice of Software, ETAPS 2022. The 21 regular papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 64 submissions. They deal with fundamental issues in the specification, design, analysis, and implementation of programming languages and systems
Process of stop-motion and motion graphics animation for The Amazing European Bison Journey clip
The Amazing European Bison Journey prototype clip shows an extract of the timeline of this species coming back from their near disappearance. It starts in the Białowieża Forest in Poland in 1919, when they went extinct in the wild. And runs up to 2013 in Zuid-Kennemerland in the Nether-lands, where an initial herd of 6 European bison, translocated in 2007 from Poland, had quadrupled to 24 individuals living in the Dutch dunes. The process of production of this animated documentary is de-scribed starting with the ecological research required. Review of literature, contact with specialist scientists and visitation of Poland and the Netherlands are some of the starting points of the process. Subsequently, the preparation for the animation is described. The initial storyboard was constructed out of the preceding ecological research. Afterwards, the development of the script and its respective narration was recorded. The construction of the sets, props and characters is described; specific emphasis is given to the construction of the European bison. Finally, the assemblage of all the elements is explained and the final results of the animation prototype are revealed. This animation forms part of a broader project, which has research into the effectiveness of a set of visual communication formats at its core, and uses rewilding as its ecological platform. A range of animations, infographics and virtual reality pieces will be eventually compared for their effectiveness using several communication research tools