Federated Embedded Systems – a review of the literature in related fields

This report is concerned with the vision of smart interconnected objects, a vision that has attracted much attention lately. In this paper, embedded, interconnected, open, and heterogeneous control systems are in focus, formally referred to as Federated Embedded Systems. To place FES into a context, a review of some related research directions is presented. This review includes such concepts as systems of systems, cyber-physical systems, ubiquitous computing, internet of things, and multi-agent systems. Interestingly, the reviewed fields seem to overlap with each other in an increasing number of ways

Learning Lessons with Knowledge Audits

{Excerpt} Knowledge from evaluations will not be used effectively if the specific organizational context, knowledge, and relationships of evaluation agencies, and the external environment they face, are not dealt with in an integrated and coherent manner. Knowledge management can shed light on this and related initiatives can catalyze and facilitate identification, creation, storage, sharing, and use of lessons. Most development agencies have committed to become learning organizations. But the use of evaluation for learning may be less important than that of other inputs, such as self evaluation and training, and evaluation results may only marginally support policy, strategy, and operational changes. In 2006, the Independent Evaluation Department in the Asian Development Bank determined to apply knowledge management to lesson learning. In 2007, it formulated a strategic framework to improve the organizational culture, management system, business processes, information technology solutions, community of practice, and external relations and networking for that. These Knowledge Solutions explain the strategic framework. They also describe the knowledge audit methodology developed to tie in with the department’s audiences. The online, questionnaire-based survey of perceptions conducted as a first exercise that year provided ready and multiple entry points against which the department can take measures to that intent, as well as a comprehensive baseline assessment against which to judge progress. Fundamentally, these Knowledge Solutions contend that evaluation agencies should move from “make-and-sell,” at the simplest level, to “sense-and-respond” in ways that are increasingly satisfying to stakeholders. Knowledge from evaluations will not be used effectively if the specific organizational context, knowledge, and relationships of evaluation agencies, and the external environment they face, are not dealt with in an integrated and coherent manner. Knowledge management can shed light on possible operating frameworks for this and knowledge management initiatives can be applied to catalyze and facilitate identification, creation, storage, sharing, and use of lessons. That would be knowledge utilization indeed

Information Technology Adaptation: A Study of Its Determinants and Effects

This paper is one of the first to examine a potentially important yet ignored area of information technology usage research, namely IT adaptation. Integrating adaptive structuration theory with findings from prior IT usage research, we propose a theoretical model of IT adaptation that elaborates the causative drivers, effects, and underlying dynamics of the adaptation process. A longitudinal study is proposed to empirically test the hypothesized model. We present results from a pretest study that validated our choice of constructs and generated initial measurement items for new constructs, and expect to complete and present instrument validation, data collection, and statistical analysis at the conference. Potential contributions of this study for IT usage research and practice are discussed

A conceptual model for megaprogramming

Megaprogramming is component-based software engineering and life-cycle management. Magaprogramming and its relationship to other research initiatives (common prototyping system/common prototyping language, domain specific software architectures, and software understanding) are analyzed. The desirable attributes of megaprogramming software components are identified and a software development model and resulting prototype megaprogramming system (library interconnection language extended by annotated Ada) are described

Modularisation Strategies for Individualised Precast Construction—Conceptual Fundamentals and Research Directions

Modular precast construction is a methodological approach to reduce environmental impacts and increase productivity when building with concrete. Constructions are segmented into similar precast concrete elements, prefabricated with integrated quality control, and assembled just-in-sequence on site. Due to the automatised prefabrication, inaccuracies are minimised and the use of high-performance materials is enabled. As a result, the construction process is accelerated, and the modules can be designed to be lightweight and resource-efficient. This contribution presents the fundamentals of modular constructions made from precast concrete components. Then, to elaborate the requirements of a contemporary modular precast construction, the historic developments are described. Further, concepts and technical processes–comprehensible to non-expert readers–are introduced to formalise the discussion about the current state-of-the-art methods. Three case studies treating ongoing research are introduced and related to the conceptual fundamentals. The research is evaluated with regard to current barriers and future directions. In conclusion, modular precast construction is able to reduce emissions and increase productivity in the sector if researchers and firms coordinate the development of suitable technologies that bring value to critical stakeholders

Initiating organizational memories using ontology network analysis

One of the important problems in organizational memories is their initial set-up. It is difficult to choose the right information to include in an organizational memory, and the right information is also a prerequisite for maximizing the uptake and relevance of the memory content. To tackle this problem, most developers adopt heavy-weight solutions and rely on a faithful continuous interaction with users to create and improve its content. In this paper, we explore the use of an automatic, light-weight solution, drawn from the underlying ingredients of an organizational memory: ontologies. We have developed an ontology-based network analysis method which we applied to tackle the problem of identifying communities of practice in an organization. We use ontology-based network analysis as a means to provide content automatically for the initial set up of an organizational memory

Real-time scheduling in multicore : time- and space-partitioned architectures

Tese de doutoramento, Informática (Engenharia Informática), Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências, 2014The evolution of computing systems to address size, weight and power consumption (SWaP) has led to the trend of integrating functions (otherwise provided by separate systems) as subsystems of a single system. To cope with the added complexity of developing and validating such a system, these functions are maintained and analyzed as components with clear boundaries and interfaces. In the case of real-time systems, the adopted component-based approach should maintain the timeliness properties of the function inside each individual component, regardless of the remaining components. One approach to this issue is time and space partitioning (TSP)—enforcing strict separation between components in the time and space domains. This allows heterogeneous components (different real-time requirements, criticality, developed by different teams and/or with different technologies) to safely coexist. The concepts of TSP have been adopted in the civil aviation, aerospace, and (to some extent) automotive industries. These industries are also embracing multiprocessor (or multicore) platforms, either with identical or nonidentical processors, but are not taking full advantage thereof because of a lack of support in terms of verification and certification. Furthermore, due to the use of the TSP in those domains, compatibility between TSP and multiprocessor is highly desired. This is not the present case, as the reference TSP-related specifications in the aforementioned industries show limited support to multiprocessor. In this dissertation, we defend that the active exploitation of multiple (possibly non-identical) processor cores can augment the processing capacity of the time- and space-partitioned (TSP) systems, while maintaining a compromise with size, weight and power consumption (SWaP), and open room for supporting self-adaptive behavior. To allow applying our results to a more general class of systems, we analyze TSP systems as a special case of hierarchical scheduling and adopt a compositional analysis methodology.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT, SFRH/BD/60193/2009, programa PESSOA, projeto SAPIENT); the European Space Agency Innovation (ESA) Triangle Initiative program through ESTEC Contract 21217/07/NL/CB, Project AIR-II; the European Commission Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) through project KARYON (IST-FP7-STREP-288195)