An Open Core System-on-chip Platform

The design cycle required to produce a System-on-Chip can be reduced by providing pre-designed built-in features and functions such as configurable I/O, power and ground grids, block RAMs, timing generators and other embedded intellectual property (IP) blocks. A basic combination of such built-in features is known as a platform. The major objective of this thesis was to design and implement one such System-on-Chip platform using open IP cores targeting the TSMC-0.18 CMOS process. The integrated System-on-Chip platform, which contains approximately four million transistors, was synthesized using Synopsys - Design Compiler and placed and routed using Cadence - First Encounter, Silicon Ensemble. Design verification was done at the pre-synthesis, post-synthesis and post-layout levels using Mentor Graphics - ModelSim. Final layout was imported into Cadence - Virtuoso to perform design rule check. A tutorial was written to enable others to create derivative designs of this platform quickly

AADLv2, a Domain Specific Language for the Modeling, the Analysis and the Generation of Real-Time Embedded Systems

The Architecture Analysis and Design Language (AADL) is an SAE International Standard dedicated to the precise modeling of complex real-time embedded systems, covering both hardware and software concerns. Its definition relies on a precise set of concepts inherited from industry and academics best practice: clear separation of concerns among layers, rich set of properties to document system metrics and support for many kind of analysis: scheduling, safety and reliability, performance, but also code generation. In this tutorial, we provide an overview of AADLv2 and illustrate how several analyses can be combined on an illustrative example: an ADIRU system. In this tutorial, we focus on safety analyses and also demonstrate the use of AADL to both verify and implement automatically a real-time embedded systems

Software Tools for Technology Transfer manuscript No. (will be inserted by the editor) How to Prove Complex Properties of Hybrid Systems with KeYmaera: A Tutorial

The date of receipt and acceptance will be inserted by the editor Abstract. This paper is a tutorial on how to model and prove complex properties of complex hybrid systems in KeYmaera, an automatic and interactive formal verification tool for hybrid systems implementing differential dynamic logic. Hybrid systems can model highly nontrivial controllers of physical plants, whose behaviors are often safety critical such as trains, cars, airplanes, or medical devices. Formal methods can help design systems that work correctly. This paper illustrates how KeYmaera can be used to systematically model, validate, and verify hybrid systems. We develop tutorial examples that illustrate challenges arising in many realworld systems. In the context of this tutorial, we identify the impact that modeling decisions have on the suitability of the model for verification purposes. We show how the interactive features of KeYmaera can help users understand their system designs better and prove complex properties for which the automatic prover of KeYmaera still takes an impractical amount of time. We hope this paper is a helpful resource for designers of embedded and cyber-physical systems and that it illustrates how to master common practical challenges in hybrid systems verification.

DTorial: An interactive tutorial framework for blind users in a web 2.0

Abstract. Effective tutorial systems can help promote products by reducing barriers of learning new applications. With dynamic web applications becoming as complex as desktop programs, there is a growing need for online tutorial/help systems. For visually impaired users the key limitations of traditional help systems are 1) poor access to help content with assistive technology, and 2) frequent reliance on videos/images to identify parts of web applications and demonstrate functionality. In this paper, we present a new interaction model, targeted towards screen-reader users, that describes how to embed an interactive tutorial within a web application. The interaction model is demonstrated within a system called DTorial, a fully functional dynamic audiobased tutorial with embedded content. While remaining within the web application, users can rapidly access any tutorial content, injected inline near relevant application controls, allowing them to quickly apply what they just heard to the application itself, without ever losing their position or having to shift windows. The model and implementation are grounded in sighted user help-systems literature and an analysis of screen-reader and Web-Application interactions. Lessons learned from the incremental design and evaluations indicate that providing visually impaired users with dynamic, embedded, interactive audio-based tutorial systems can reduce the barriers to new WebApplications

A tool-mediated cognitive apprenticeship approach for a computer engineering course

Teaching database engineers involves a variety of learning activities. A strong focus is on practical problems that go beyond the acquisition of knowledge. Skills and experience are equally important. We propose a virtual apprenticeship model for the knowledge- and skillsoriented Web-based education of database students. We adapt the classical cognitive apprenticeship theory to the Web context utilising scaffolding and activity theory. The choice of educational media and the forms of student interaction with the media are central success criteria

Problems and Promises of Using LMS Learner Analytics for Assessment: Case Study of a First-Year English Program

Learning management systems (LMS) are widely used in education. They offer the potential for assessing student learning, but the reality of using them for this is problematic. This case study chronicles efforts by librarians at Marquette University to use LMS data to assess students’ information literacy knowledge in Marquette’s first-year English program