Reviewing the curriculum of computer science undergraduate courses to incorporate communication and interpersonal skills teaching

The major problems of software development projects are not so much technical as sociological in nature. The industry seems to agree very much with this statement while the university seems to give it little importance. The article begins analyzing some related work and proposes change in the computer science undergraduate course to accommodate new ways of teaching and to incorporate professional skills teaching. lt also describes a course on extreme programming where some techniques will be used and evaluated

A survey and taxonomy of layout compaction algorithms

This paper presents a survey and a taxonomy of layout compaction algorithms, which are an essential part of modern symbolic layout tools employed in VLSI circuit design. Layout compaction techniques are also used in the low-end stages of silicon compilation tools and module generators. The paper addresses the main algorithms used in compaction, focusing on their implementation characteristics, performance, advantages and drawbacks. Compaction is a highly important operation to optimize the use of silicon area, achieve higher speed through wire length minimization, support technology retargeting and also allow the use of legacy layouts. Optimized cells that were developed for a fabrication process with a set of design rules have to be retargeted for a new and more compact process with a different set of design rules

Teaching communication and interpersonal skills in an extreme programming course

The major problems of software development projects are not so much technical as sociological in nature. The industry seems to agree very much with this statement while the university seems to give it little importance. This article analyzes the social problems that affect software development teams with special attention to communication. lt shows that universities and industry have different views about what skills students should develop. The article proposes the introduction of an extreme programming course which can address some of the main concerns expressed by industry

Enhancing UML expressivity towards automatic code generation

UML has turned out to be a great tool to exchange ideas among designers from abstraction to detailed design. When it comes to machine interpretation. UML description lacks fonnalism, coverage and detail to produce a fully fleshed informaúon system. Extensibility and genericity aIready built-in in the language can be exploited to cater for its deficiencies. UML diagrams can be refined and reengineered to cover unattended areas and rnissing information necessary for automatic system generation. GUI design, control logic and persistency can be tracked from robustness analysis diagrams down to generation of extended state, sequence, class and object diagrams. These diagrams are enhanced with new stereotypes and tags to enable machine generation of interchangeable UI paradigms, use case controllers and deployment of server entities. This enhanced UML concept is being tested in the development of a real large system using a custornized set of scripts in a CASE tool

Design and implementation of a distance education system aimed to the teaching of object-oriented technologies

In the new connected and distributed electronic world, the object-orientation (00) paradigm has been recognized as a strategy for software development, based on the idea of producing systems starting from reusable components. Problems of the rea1 world are easier to be dea1t with when 00 developrnent approach is used than when the structured and traditiona1 one is applied. In the software engineering cornmunity, the question of rnanaging changes has been a permanent concern arnong the developers who look forward to flexible and reusable systems. In this paper , we present a description of a flexible framework, aimed to peer-to-peer applications, that can be plugged-in a distance education platform. This framework is the hosting of a remote computerbased learning system (called TOOHELP). TOOHELP aims the learning of object-oriented techniques: it focuses on a faster development of complex software of high quality. Basically, the TOOHELP utilizes a simplified 00 meta model and it follows a process pattem that unifies the most known patterns of process in use today

A tool for test automation with support for remote tests

This paper presents an interactive MS-Windows ®-based tool for high-level specification and analysis of tests on printed circuit boards, using the IEEE 1149.1 standard, and also on integrated circuits using scan design like the LSSD testing methodology. As novel contributions we provide an object-oriented tool for Boundary Scan and LSSD test automation with support for remote tests, including interfaces to circuit description, chip interconnection, test vector analysis and test vector generation. The system is a reasona'.Jly complete CAE test system that includes features like remote testing (using client- server technology), project management computer-aided learning support, menu-based command entry, user-defined configuration and a comprehensive set of commands. Thus, by using this system, a test engineer or a circuit designer are able to specify and verify tests for printed circuit boards or for integrated circuits, either ocally or remotely

Nanotecnologia e neurociência computacional: revisão de literatura

This work is a standardized set of descriptive elements that consolidate this study through the theoretical field and in the search to answer questions about Nanotechnology and Computational Neuroscience in the field of cerebral arteriovenous malformations (AVM). AVM is a congenital disease with invasive treatment methods such as surgery, radio surgery, catheter embolization. In most cases, embolization fails to fully treat the lesion (only in 15% to 20% of cases) and the risk of branching the extraordinary vessels can lead to circulatory theft of normal areas of the brain. Depending on the location of the AVM, the irrigation deficit resulting from the extraordinary branching compromises important cognitive functions, therefore, there is a need for a more efficient and less invasive method to treat malformations. The importance of proposing an alternative for catheter embolization is evident, considering applications involving self-guided nanoparticles. The method for obtaining possible results will be through simulation with artificial intelligence. During the research, investigations will be carried out in the areas of nanotechnology and computational neuroscience, especially in the implementation of computational applications, together with the collection of information and data necessary for research on AVM. The challenge begins to collectively collect a bibliographic study on AVM. To this end, a large compendium of works is exposed that seeks to represent the implications and applications involving self-guided nanoparticles.Este trabalho é um conjunto padronizado de elementos descritivos que consolidam este estudo através do campo teórico e na busca por responder questões sobre Nanotecnologia e Neurociência Computacional no campo das malformações arteriovenosas (MAV) cerebrais. A MAV é uma doença congênita com métodos de tratamento invasivos como cirurgia, rádio cirurgia, embolização via cateter. Na maioria dos casos, a embolização não consegue tratar completamente a lesão (apenas em 15% a 20% dos casos) e o risco de ramificação dos vasos extraordinários pode acarretar roubo circulatório de áreas normais do cérebro. Dependo da localização da MAV, o déficit de irrigação resultado da ramificação extraordinária compromete funções cognitivas importantes, portanto, existe a necessidade de um método mais eficiente e menos invasivo para tratar as malformações. Evidencia-se a importância de propor uma alternativa para a embolização via cateter, considerando aplicações que envolvam nanopartículas autoguiadas. O método para obtenção de possíveis resultados se dará através de simulação dotada de inteligência artificial. Durante a pesquisa serão realizadas investigações nas áreas de nanotecnologia e neurociência computacional especialmente na implementação de aplicações computacionais, conjuntamente com a coleta de informações e dados necessários às pesquisas acerca da MAV. Inicia-se o desafio de reunir coletivamente um estudo bibliográfico sobre a MAV. Para tal, expõe-se um grande compêndio de obras que procuram representar as implicações e aplicações que envolvam as nanopartículas autoguiadas

A distributed object-oriented design rule checker

VLSI algorithms are complex, dynamic, specialized demanding CPU and memory. To support such dynamic computing demands, it is necessary to employ a scalable system. which can be easily adapted and extended to run newer VLSI algorithms. This paper describes the design of a distributed object-oriented Design Rule Checker (DRC). focusing on its implementation methodology. It also proposes the use of XML to describe technology design rues. These rules were executed on a distributed 00 structure. The paper also shows that by using programmable scripts that carry out a modular encapsulated structure, a robust and adaptable system can be obtained

Developing a distributed architecture for design rule checking

This paper describes the design and implementation of a distributed object-oriented Design Rule Checker (DRC). The majn focus is on the methodology employed to implement this distributed application. Code reusability is achieved using an 00 approach, making objects available for other tools, such as circuit extractor. The paper also addresses the application of design pattems, which produce loosely coupled elements, facilitating the jntegration of system modules

Robustness Diagram: a bridge between business modelling and system design

Use case driven development has proven being a good approach for capturing problem semantics in an orderly, structured description. However, it specifies an abstraction beyond practicity to guide system design process. Robustness diagrams are a simple solution for drafting a more formal description for business modelling. This very simplicity may, however, detract its value, falling short of capturing the rich business semantics. Stereotyping is the essence behind its robustness diagram mechanics. Symbols convey the abstraction necessary to catch the model semantics. Increasing the number of stereotypes we can achieve a closer match from model to design. Rules carefully stated for robustness diagram can help to translate highleveI information into well-behaved and predictable symbolic descriptions. This enhancement to robustness diagram helps to patch the gap between abstract model and project into a paved continuum. It has been used to train programmers to extract working and consistent systems out of use case specifications