Understanding the redundancy of software systems

Our research aims to study and characterize the redundancy of software systems. Intuitively, a software is redundant when it can perform the same functionality in different ways. Researches have successfully defined several techniques that exploit various form of redundancy, for example for tolerating failures at runtime and for testing purposes. We aim to formalize and study the redundancy of software systems in general. In particular, we are interested in the intrinsic redundancy of software systems, that is a form of undocumented redundancy present in software systems as consequence of various design and implementation decisions. In this thesis we will formalize the intuitive notion of redun-dancy. On the basis of such formalization, we will investigate the pervasiveness and the fundamental characteristics of the intrinsic redundancy of software systems. We will study the nature, the origin, and various forms of such redundancy. We will also develop techniques to automatically identify the intrinsic redundancy of software systems

Rascal: A domain specific language for source code analysis and manipulation

Many automated software engineering tools require tight integration of techniques for source code analysis and manipulation. State-of-the-art tools exist for both, but the domains have remained notoriously separate because different computational paradigms fit each domain best. This impedance mismatch hampers the development of each new problem solution since desired functionality and scalability can only be achieved by repeated, ad hoc, integration of different techniques. Rascal is a domain-specific language that takes away most of this boilerplate by providing high-level integration of source code analysis and manipulation on the conceptual, syntactic, semantic and technical level. We give an overview of the language and assess its merits by implementing a complex refactoring

Boundary objects, social meanings and the success of new technologies

Boundary objects are entities that enhance the capacity of an idea, theory or practice to translate across culturally defined boundaries, for example, between communities of knowledge or practice. This concept thus has potential to both explain and predict technology adoption; however, it remains sociologically under-theorized. This article assesses, by recourse to a historical case study of innovations in surgical sterility, how boundary objects work and their relationship to social meanings within communities of practice. It is concluded that not only are there positive and negative boundary objects, but that technological devices or processes may themselves act as facilitative or inhibitory boundary objects during innovation. The approach set out here has potential as a sociologically informed model of improving adoption of technologies and policies by managing the positive and negative social meanings of technology objects

Similarity in Programs

Abstract. An overview of the concept of program similarity is presented. It divides similarity into two types—syntactic and semantic— and provides a review of eight categories of methods that may be used to measure program similarity. A summary of some applications of these methods is included. The paper is intended to be a starting point for a more comprehensive analysis of the subject of similarity in programs, which is critical to understand if progress is to be made in fields such as clone detection

Digitalizing Occupational Health, Safety and Productivity for the Operator 4.0

Part 7: Industry 4.0 – Collaborative Cyber-physical Production and Human SystemsInternational audienceIndustry 4.0 technologies, such as enterprise wearables, can foster better industrial hygiene to keep operators healthy, safe, and motivated within emerging cyber-physical production systems. This paper provides an optimistic perspective on opportunities evolving from wearable devices in an Industry 4.0 workplace environment to support occupational health, safety and productivity for the Operator 4.0. Examples of technical solutions, and their associated application scenarios, are presented showcasing how enterprise wearables may foster detection of situations that involve potential occupational risks before they actually occur at smart shopfloors