Software Engineering Commons^™

Development Of A Systems Engineering Model Of The Chemical Separations Process, Yitung Chen, Darrell Pepper, Sean Hsieh

Separations Campaign (TRP)

The chemical processing of used nuclear fuel is an integral component of any strategy for the transmutation of nuclear waste. Due to the large volume of material that must be handled in this first step of the transmutation process, the efficiency of the separations process is a key factor in the potential economic viability of transmutation strategies. The ability to optimize the chemical separation systems is vital to ensure the feasibility of the transmutation program.

Systems analysis, or total systems modeling, is one of the strongest tools available to researchers for understanding and optimizing complex systems such as chemical separations …

Development Of Integrated Process Simulation System Model For Spent Fuel Treatment Facility (Sftf) Design: Quarterly Report October 1-December 31, 2004, Yitung Chen, Sean Hsieh

Separations Campaign (TRP)

The Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative (AFCI) and Transmutation Research Program- University Participation Program (TRP-UPP) supported by Department of Energy of the United States have been developing many important technologies for the transmutation of nuclear waste to address long-term disposal issues. While successfully embedding AMUSE module into a dedicated System Engineering Model (TRPSEMPro), developed by the Nevada Center for Advanced Computational Methods (NCACM) at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas collaborating with Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), ANL is interested in further simulating the Light Water Reactor (LWR) Spent Fuel Treatment Facility (SFTF) combining commercial process simulation and analysis packages and core …

The Icdm Development Toolkit: Technical Description, Russell Leighton, Lakshmi Vempati, Alan Davis, Mark Porczak, Jens G. Pohl

Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center

This report provides a technical description of the Integrated Cooperative Decision-Making (ICDM) software toolkit for the development of intelligent decision-support applications. An overview of the transformational forces that have precipitated the need for a development toolkit capable of supporting a distributed, information-centric software environment, and the objectives of ICDM are contained in a companion CDM Technical Report (CDM-16-04) entitled: “The ICDM Development Toolkit: Purpose and Overview”.

ICDM is an application development framework and toolkit for distributed decision-support systems incorporating software agents that collaborate with each other and human users to monitor changes (i.e., events) in the state of problem situations, …

Interoperability And The Need For Intelligent Software, Jens G. Pohl

Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center

In my introduction to this year’s conference I will address six questions that I believe come to the core of our conference theme of interoperability. Do we human beings resist change? Is it in fact a human problem and not a technical problem that we are dealing with? Can non-human intelligence exist? Do we even have a need for intelligent software? How did software, particularly intelligent software (i.e., if we accept that there is such a thing) evolve over the past several decades, and what is all this talk about a Semantic Web environment? And, finally, what does the …

Are Use Case And Class Diagrams Complementary In Requirements Analysis? An Experimental Study On Use Case And Class Diagrams In Uml, Keng Siau, Lihyunn Lee

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Despite the status of united modeling language (UML) as the de facto standard for object oriented modeling, it has received controversial reviews. The most controversial diagram in UML is the use case diagram. Some practitioners claim that use case diagrams are not valuable in requirements analysis and some have even argued that use case diagrams should not be part of UML. This research examined the values of use case diagram in interpreting requirements when use case diagrams are used in conjunction with class diagrams. In other words, the study investigated the possible synergetic values and relationships between the use case …

Informal Animation Sketching: Requirements And Design, Richard C. Davis, James A. Landay

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

We present an interface design for creating informal animations from sketches. Current tools for creating animation are extremely complex. This makes it difficult for designers to prototype animations and nearly impossible for novices to create them at all. Simple animation systems exist but severely restrict the types of motion that can be represented. To guide our design of an animation sketching interface, we conducted field studies into the needs of professional and novice animators. These studies show the wide variety of motions that users desire in informal animations and indicate how to prioritize these types of otion. The interface described …

Design And Analysis Of A Cooperative Medium Access Scheme For Wireless Mesh Networks, Arup Acharya, Archan Misra, Sorav Bansal

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This paper presents the detailed design and performance analysis of MACA-P, a RTS/CTS based MAC protocol, that enables simultaneous transmissions in wireless mesh networks. The IEEE 802.11 DCF MAC prohibits any parallel transmission in the neighborhood of either a sender or a receiver (of an ongoing transmission). MACA-P is a set of enhancements to the 802.11 MAC that allows parallel transmissions in situations when two neighboring nodes are either both receivers or transmitters, but a receiver and a transmitter are not neighbors. The performance of MACA-P in terms of system throughput is obtained through a simulation of the protocol using …

Airconn: A Framework For Tiered Services In Public Wireless Lan Hot Spots, A. Acharya, C. Bisdikian, Archan Misra, Y. Ko

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Access to the data services via wireless LANs at private and public hot spot sites is becoming commonplace. The goal of the airConn project is to define an architecture and a prototype implementation that enable the provision of premium and non-premium service tiers for both transient and nontransient users of wireless hot spots. airConn provides for dynamic renegotiation of service tiers and facilitates various billing modes. Thus, it enables service providers to increase their revenue opportunities via multiple flexibility manageable service offerings.

Development Of A Systems Engineering Model Of The Chemical Separations Process: Final Report, Yitung Chen, Sean Hsieh

Separations Campaign (TRP)

The whole chemical separation process is complex to the point that definitely requires certain level of systematic coordination. To perform smoothly and meet the target extraction rates among those processes, this research proposed a general-purpose systems engineering model.

A general purposed systems engineering model, Transmutation Research Program System Engineering Model Project (TRPSEMPro), was developed based on the above design concept. The system model includes four main parts: System Manager, Model Integration, Study Plan, and Solution Viewer. TRPSEMPro can apply not only to chemical separation process, but also a general system model.

Software engineering and Object Oriented Analysis and Design (OOA&D) …

Development Of A Systems Engineering Model Of The Chemical Separations Process, Yitung Chen, Sean Hsieh

Separations Campaign (TRP)

The whole chemical separation process is complex to the point that definitely requires certain level of systematic coordination. To perform smoothly and meet the target extraction rates among those processes, this research proposed a general-purpose systems engineering model.

A general purposed systems engineering model, Transmutation Research Program System Engineering Model Project (TRPSEMPro), was developed based on the above design concept. The system model includes four main parts: System Manager, Model Integration, Study Plan, and Solution Viewer. System Manager supervises all the case (problem) creation, and functionality definition. Model Integration identifies chemical extraction processes and their execution sequence. Study Plan is …

Interoperability And The Need For Intelligent Software: A Historical Perspective, Jens G. Pohl

Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center

With the objective of defining the interoperability theme of this year’s conference it is the purpose of this paper¹ to trace the evolution of intelligent software from data-centric applications that essentially encapsulate their data environment to ontology-based applications with automated reasoning capabilities. The author draws a distinction between human intelligence and component capabilities within a more general definition of intelligence; - a kind of intelligence that can be embedded in computer software. The primary vehicle in the quest for intelligent software has been the gradual recognition of the central role played by data and information, rather than the logic …

Proceedings Of The 2004 Onr Decision-Support Workshop Series: Interoperability, Collaborative Agent Design Research Center

Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center

In August of 1998 the Collaborative Agent Design Research Center (CADRC) of the California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly), approached Dr. Phillip Abraham of the Office of Naval Research (ONR) with the proposal for an annual workshop focusing on emerging concepts in decision-support systems for military applications. The proposal was considered timely by the ONR Logistics Program Office for at least two reasons. First, rapid advances in information systems technology over the past decade had produced distributed collaborative computer-assistance capabilities with profound potential for providing meaningful support to military decision makers. Indeed, some systems based on …

A Visual Language For Animating Sketches, Richard C. Davis, James A. Landay

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

We present our research into visual languages for animating sketches. Animation is a rich mode of communication that is currently accessible to few. Simple animation systems exist, but severely restrict the types of motion that can be represented. Our field studies are demonstrating that would-be animators need to coordinate many objects moving in a variety of ways. The visual language described here allows a variety of motions to be defined with hand gestures, and gives visual feedback for coordination of events. This may open up computerized communication to users who think in dynamic visual images.

The Tirac™ Development Toolkit: Purpose And Overview, Jens G. Pohl, Kym Jason Pohl, Russell Leighton, Michael Zang, Steven Gollery, Mark Porczak

Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center

This report provides an overview description of the Toolkit for Information Representation and Agent Collaboration (TIRAC™) software framework for the development of intelligent decision-support applications. More technical descriptions of TIRAC™ are contained in a companion CDM Technical Report (CDM-19-03) entitled: ‘The TIRAC™ Development Toolkit: Technical Description’.

TIRAC™ is an application development framework and toolkit for decision-support systems incorporating software agents that collaborate with each other and human users to monitor changes (i.e., events) in the state of problem situations, generate and evaluate alternative plans, and alert human users to immediate and developing resource shortages, failures, threats, and similar adverse conditions. …

Exploiting Information Theory For Adaptive Mobility And Resource Management In Future Cellular Networks, Abhishek Roy, Sajal K. Das, Archan Misra

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

We utilize tools from information theory to develop adaptive algorithms for two key problems in cellular networks: location tracking and resource management. The use of information theory is motivated by the fundamental observation that overheads in many aspects of mobile computing can be traced to the randomness or uncertainty in an individual user's movement behavior. We present a model-independent information-theoretic approach for estimating and managing this uncertainty, and relate it to the entropy or information content of the user's movement process. Information-theoretic mobility management algorithms are very simple, yet reduce overhead by ∼80 percent in simulated scenarios by optimally adapting …

Pre-Conference Proceedings Of The Focus Symposium On Intelligent Software Systems For The New Infostructure: Baden-Baden, Germany, Collaborative Agent Design Research Center

Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center

Over the past several years the papers in this annual series of symposia have increasingly centered on the realization of a human-computer collaboration environment in which computer-based software agents with reasoning capabilities provide meaningful support to human decision makers. It is therefore quite appropriate that the first paper in the 2004 Proceedings should address the historical evolutionary path of ‘intelligent’ software leading to the goal of a semantic Web environment. The realization of this goal is now in sight, driven by public security threats that are increasingly relying on technology for effective countermeasures.

The Evolution Of Intelligent Computer Software And The Semantic Web, Jens G. Pohl

Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center

The purpose of this paper is to trace the evolution of intelligent software from data-centric applications that essentially encapsulate their data environment to ontology-based applications with automated reasoning capabilities. The author draws a distinction between human intelligence and component capabilities within a more general definition of intelligence, which may be embedded in computer software. The primary vehicle in the quest for intelligent software has been the gradual recognition of the central role played by data and information, rather than the logic and functionality of the application. The three milestones in this evolution have been: the separation of data management from …

Knowledge Management Using Semantic Web Languages And Technologies, Steven J. Gollery, Jens G. Pohl

Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center

Each organization of more than a few persons generates a number of documents containing information about the activities of the organization. The sum of these documents provides a kind of organizational memory that can be used both in evaluations of past performance and as the basis of future planning based on previous experience.

Unfortunately, the nature of these documents mitigates against the reuse of information for purposes other than those for which each document was originally intended. To locate all the information about some aspect of the organization, it frequently becomes necessary for human beings to search a mass of …

On The Effects Of Device Mobility Upon Resource-Sharing In A Simulated Wireless Grid Network, Arris Ray

Theses and Dissertations

The primary aim of modern computer networks is to permit simplified sharing of resources (e.g., files and data) or to provide access to remote resources (e.g., printers or remote file-systems). Grid networks aim to provide a more sophisticated framework for securely sharing, selecting and/or aggregating a wide-variety of remote resources, whether logical (e.g., files and data) or physical (e.g., remote sensors, processing power or disk storage space). Provided that circuit design continues to improve at the relatively steady pace that it has for the past decade, in addition to standard desktop systems, miniature and mobile devices will soon become substantially …

Development Of Web Tools For Nlx Simulation Software, Daniel Chai Siriphongs

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Valuable mathematical equations have developed within biology and other sciences (physics, chemistry, etc.) that model various processes, but the complexity of the equations are not easily understood by students, scientists, and those with limited knowledge of the subject area. Simulation software used to visually explain a model is normally proprietary to the specific model equations and cannot be easily adapted to new models by non-programmers. Simulation software needs to be modular and based upon web technologies so that the software can be run on multiple platforms. The NLX simulation software is a group of Java-based objects that can be combined …

Quantifying Software Maintainability On Re-Engineered Translation Of Fortran To C++ Code, Zane Grey Tomlinson Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

Due to the expanding existence of old software, legacy systems, and obsolete platforms with many industries, software re-engineering has become a widespread methodology that assists engineers and software practitioners with translating inflexible, unsupportable legacy software into maintainable software. Many companies today are investing in a variety of re-engineering techniques such as translation of source code to new code structures and target platforms to ensure future software maintenance can be performed in an efficient and effective manner. With sound re-engineering principles, the application of these techniques leverage the knowledge and previous engineering endeavors to mitigate risks and provide adequate performance to …

A Rate-Distortion Framework For Information-Theoretic Mobility Management, Abhishek Roy, Archan Misra, Sajal K. Das

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

A practical information theoretic framework is developed for studying the optimal tradeoff between location update and paging costs in cellular networks. The framework envisions the quantization of location information into a registration area (RA) level granularity, followed by the use of an entropy-coding technique to decrease the location update rate. The rate distortion theory of the lossy quantization is identified as an appropriate measure for capturing the optimal tradeoff between a mobile's update rate and its location uncertainty. Based on LZ-78 compression, two different RA-level location update algorithms (RA-LeZi and LeZi-RA) have been developed, both of which asymptotically approach this …

Toward A Sound Integration Of Isabelle With A Combined Decision Procedure, Tom Harke

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

I present work on a project to integrate Isabelle, an extremely versatile interactive proof assistant, with a combined decision procedure, the Cooperating Validity Checker (CVC). Isabelle is sound and flexible, however it is often tedious to use. CVC is fully automatic, but only handles decision problems expressible over a relatively weak set of theories including linear arithmetic, uninterpreted functions, data types, and firstorder quantifier-free logic. My goal is to increase the amount of automation in Isabelle, by making it use CVC as an oracle for such problems, but without compromising Isabelle’s soundness.

In this paper I report on the progress …

The Icdm Development Toolkit: Purpose And Overview, Jens G. Pohl, Kym Jason Pohl, Russell Leighton, Michael Zang, Steven Gollery, Mark Porczak

Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center

This report provides an overview description of the Integrated Cooperative Decision-Making (ICDM) software toolkit for the development of intelligent decision-support applications. More technical descriptions of ICDM are contained in a companion CDM Technical Report (CDM-18-04) entitled: ‘The ICDM Development Toolkit: Technical Description’.

ICDM is an application development framework and toolkit for decision-support systems incorporating software agents that collaborate with each other and human users to monitor changes (i.e., events) in the state of problem situations, generate and evaluate alternative plans, and alert human users to immediate and developing resource shortages, failures, threats, and similar adverse conditions. A core component of …

Toolglasses, Marking Menus, And Hotkeys: A Comparison Of One And Two-Handed Command Selection Techniques, Daniel L. Odell, Richard C. Davis, Andrew Smith, Paul K. Wright

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This paper introduces a new input technique, bimanual marking menus, and compares its performance with five other techniques: static toolbars, hotkeys, grouped hotkeys, marking menus, and toolglasses. The study builds on previous work by setting the comparison in a commonly encountered task, shape drawing. In this context, grouped hotkeys and bimanual marking menus were found to be the fastest. Subjectively, the most pre-ferred input method was bimanual marking menus. Toolglass performance was unexpectedly slow, which hints at the importance of low-level toolglass imple-mentation choices.

Power Adaptation Based Optimization For Energy Efficient Reliable Wireless Paths, Suman Banerjee, Archan Misra

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

We define a transmission power adaptation-based routing technique that finds optimal paths for minimum energy reliable data transfer in multi-hop wireless networks. This optimal choice of the transmission power depends on the link distance between the two nodes and the channel characteristics. Typical energy efficient routing techniques use a transmission power such that the received signal power at the destination minimally exceeds a desired threshold signal strength level. In this paper we argue that such a choice of the transmission power does not always lead to optimal energy routes, since it does not consider differences in the receiver noise levels.We …

Development Of Integrated Process Simulation System Model For Spent Fuel Treatment Facility (Sftf) Design, Yitung Chen, Sean Hsieh

Separations Campaign (TRP)

The Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative (AFCI) and Transmutation Research Program-University Participation Program (TRP-UPP) supported by Department of Energy of the United States have been developing many important technologies for the transmutation of nuclear waste to address long-term disposal issues. While successfully embedding AMUSE module into a dedicated System Engineering Model (TRPSEMPro), developed by the Nevada Center for Advanced Computational Methods (NCACM) at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas collaborating with Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), ANL is interested in further simulating the Light Water Reactor (LWR) Spent Fuel Treatment Facility (SFTF) combining commercial process simulation and analysis packages and core calculation of …

Generic Performance Evaluation Tool Implementation For An Imaging Fourier Transform Spectrometer, James M. Mengert

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Evaluation software for analyzing general analytical model applications utilizing MATLAB is presented in this thesis. The focus is to provide an interactive environment for the evaluation of model applications relating to an Imaging Fourier Transform Spectrometer. The Generic Performance Evaluation Tool (GPET) was developed by researchers at Old Dominion University and NASA-Langley Research Center and was a NASA-Langley Research Center sponsored project. GPET is capable of producing a multitude of object-oriented input data for any number of individual model applications. The tool is also capable of creating user-defined input interfaces for the purpose of viewing and/or editing input object data, …

Software Development Outsourcing Decision Support Tool With Neural Network Learning, James D. Newberry

Theses and Dissertations

The Air Force (AF) needs an evolving software tool for guiding decision makers through the complexities of software outsourcing. Previous research identified specific outsourcing strategies and linked them to goals and consequences through a variety of relationship rules. These strategies and relationship rules were inserted into a decision support tool. Since that time, more historical data and outsourcing literature has been collected thus necessitating an update to such a tool. As the number of software outsourcing projects are completed, the AF must capture the outsourcing decision experiences which guided the projects and their outcomes. In order to efficiently incorporate this …

An Information-Theoretic Framework For Optimal Location Tracking In Multi-System 4g Wireless Networks, Archan Misra, Abhishek Roy, Sajal K. Das

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

An information-theoretic framework is developed for optimal location management in multisystem, fourth generation (4G) wireless networks. The framework envisions that each individual subsystem operates fairly independently, and does not require public knowledge of individual subnetwork topologies. To capture the variation in paging and location update costs in this heterogeneous environment, the location management problem is formulated in terms of a new concept of weighted entropy. The update process is based on the Lempel-Ziv compression algorithms, which are applied to a vector-valued sequence consisting of both the mobile's movement pattern and its session activity state. Three different tracking strategies which differ …