An Ontology for Software Engineering Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ling, Thong Chee; Jusoh, Yusmadi Yah; Adbullah, Rusli; Alwi, Nor Hayati

2013-01-01

Software agents communicate using ontology. It is important to build an ontology for specific domain such as Software Engineering Education. Building an ontology from scratch is not only hard, but also incur much time and cost. This study aims to propose an ontology through adaptation of the existing ontology which is originally built based on a…

Software engineering ethics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bown, Rodney L.

1991-01-01

Software engineering ethics is reviewed. The following subject areas are covered: lack of a system viewpoint; arrogance of PC DOS software vendors; violation od upward compatibility; internet worm; internet worm revisited; student cheating and company hiring interviews; computing practitioners and the commodity market; new projects and old programming languages; schedule and budget; and recent public domain comments.

The Many Faces of a Software Engineer in a Research Community

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Marinovici, Maria C.; Kirkham, Harold

2013-10-14

The ability to gather, analyze and make decisions based on real world data is changing nearly every field of human endeavor. These changes are particularly challenging for software engineers working in a scientific community, designing and developing large, complex systems. To avoid the creation of a communications gap (almost a language barrier), the software engineers should possess an ‘adaptive’ skill. In the science and engineering research community, the software engineers must be responsible for more than creating mechanisms for storing and analyzing data. They must also develop a fundamental scientific and engineering understanding of the data. This paper looks atmore » the many faces that a software engineer should have: developer, domain expert, business analyst, security expert, project manager, tester, user experience professional, etc. Observations made during work on a power-systems scientific software development are analyzed and extended to describe more generic software development projects.« less

Towards Archetypes-Based Software Development

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Piho, Gunnar; Roost, Mart; Perkins, David; Tepandi, Jaak

We present a framework for the archetypes based engineering of domains, requirements and software (Archetypes-Based Software Development, ABD). An archetype is defined as a primordial object that occurs consistently and universally in business domains and in business software systems. An archetype pattern is a collaboration of archetypes. Archetypes and archetype patterns are used to capture conceptual information into domain specific models that are utilized by ABD. The focus of ABD is on software factories - family-based development artefacts (domain specific languages, patterns, frameworks, tools, micro processes, and others) that can be used to build the family members. We demonstrate the usage of ABD for developing laboratory information management system (LIMS) software for the Clinical and Biomedical Proteomics Group, at the Leeds Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Leeds.

Using a Foundational Ontology for Reengineering a Software Enterprise Ontology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Perini Barcellos, Monalessa; de Almeida Falbo, Ricardo

The knowledge about software organizations is considerably relevant to software engineers. The use of a common vocabulary for representing the useful knowledge about software organizations involved in software projects is important for several reasons, such as to support knowledge reuse and to allow communication and interoperability between tools. Domain ontologies can be used to define a common vocabulary for sharing and reuse of knowledge about some domain. Foundational ontologies can be used for evaluating and re-designing domain ontologies, giving to these real-world semantics. This paper presents an evaluating of a Software Enterprise Ontology that was reengineered using the Unified Foundation Ontology (UFO) as basis.

A Framework for Performing Verification and Validation in Reuse Based Software Engineering

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Addy, Edward A.

1997-01-01

Verification and Validation (V&V) is currently performed during application development for many systems, especially safety-critical and mission- critical systems. The V&V process is intended to discover errors, especially errors related to critical processing, as early as possible during the development process. The system application provides the context under which the software artifacts are validated. This paper describes a framework that extends V&V from an individual application system to a product line of systems that are developed within an architecture-based software engineering environment. This framework includes the activities of traditional application-level V&V, and extends these activities into domain engineering and into the transition between domain engineering and application engineering. The framework includes descriptions of the types of activities to be performed during each of the life-cycle phases, and provides motivation for the activities.

A learning apprentice for software parts composition

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Allen, Bradley P.; Holtzman, Peter L.

1987-01-01

An overview of the knowledge acquisition component of the Bauhaus, a prototype computer aided software engineering (CASE) workstation for the development of domain-specific automatic programming systems (D-SAPS) is given. D-SAPS use domain knowledge in the refinement of a description of an application program into a compilable implementation. The approach to the construction of D-SAPS was to automate the process of refining a description of a program, expressed in an object-oriented domain language, into a configuration of software parts that implement the behavior of the domain objects.

Engineering bioinformatics: building reliability, performance and productivity into bioinformatics software.

PubMed

Lawlor, Brendan; Walsh, Paul

2015-01-01

There is a lack of software engineering skills in bioinformatic contexts. We discuss the consequences of this lack, examine existing explanations and remedies to the problem, point out their shortcomings, and propose alternatives. Previous analyses of the problem have tended to treat the use of software in scientific contexts as categorically different from the general application of software engineering in commercial settings. In contrast, we describe bioinformatic software engineering as a specialization of general software engineering, and examine how it should be practiced. Specifically, we highlight the difference between programming and software engineering, list elements of the latter and present the results of a survey of bioinformatic practitioners which quantifies the extent to which those elements are employed in bioinformatics. We propose that the ideal way to bring engineering values into research projects is to bring engineers themselves. We identify the role of Bioinformatic Engineer and describe how such a role would work within bioinformatic research teams. We conclude by recommending an educational emphasis on cross-training software engineers into life sciences, and propose research on Domain Specific Languages to facilitate collaboration between engineers and bioinformaticians.

Engineering bioinformatics: building reliability, performance and productivity into bioinformatics software

PubMed Central

Lawlor, Brendan; Walsh, Paul

2015-01-01

There is a lack of software engineering skills in bioinformatic contexts. We discuss the consequences of this lack, examine existing explanations and remedies to the problem, point out their shortcomings, and propose alternatives. Previous analyses of the problem have tended to treat the use of software in scientific contexts as categorically different from the general application of software engineering in commercial settings. In contrast, we describe bioinformatic software engineering as a specialization of general software engineering, and examine how it should be practiced. Specifically, we highlight the difference between programming and software engineering, list elements of the latter and present the results of a survey of bioinformatic practitioners which quantifies the extent to which those elements are employed in bioinformatics. We propose that the ideal way to bring engineering values into research projects is to bring engineers themselves. We identify the role of Bioinformatic Engineer and describe how such a role would work within bioinformatic research teams. We conclude by recommending an educational emphasis on cross-training software engineers into life sciences, and propose research on Domain Specific Languages to facilitate collaboration between engineers and bioinformaticians. PMID:25996054

Description of research interests and current work related to automating software design

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kaindl, Hermann

1992-01-01

Enclosed is a list of selected and recent publications. Most of these publications concern applied research in the areas of software engineering and human-computer interaction. It is felt that domain-specific knowledge plays a major role in software development. Additionally, it is believed that improvements in the general software development process (e.g., object-oriented approaches) will have to be combined with the use of large domain-specific knowledge bases.

Model-based software design

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Iscoe, Neil; Liu, Zheng-Yang; Feng, Guohui; Yenne, Britt; Vansickle, Larry; Ballantyne, Michael

1992-01-01

Domain-specific knowledge is required to create specifications, generate code, and understand existing systems. Our approach to automating software design is based on instantiating an application domain model with industry-specific knowledge and then using that model to achieve the operational goals of specification elicitation and verification, reverse engineering, and code generation. Although many different specification models can be created from any particular domain model, each specification model is consistent and correct with respect to the domain model.

Public Domain Generic Tools: An Overview.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Erjavec, Tomaz

This paper presents an introduction to language engineering software, especially for computerized language and text corpora. The focus of the paper is on small and relatively independent pieces of software designed for specific, often low-level language analysis tasks, and on tools in the public domain. Discussion begins with the application of…

Component Provider’s and Tool Developer’s Handbook. Central Archive for Reusable Defense Software (CARDS)

DTIC Science & Technology

1994-03-25

metrics [DISA93b]. " The Software Engineering Institute (SET) has developed a domain analysis process (Feature-Oriented Domain Analysis - FODA ) and is...and expresses the range of variability of these decisions. 3.2.2.3 Feature Oriented Domain Analysis Feature Oriented Domain Analysis ( FODA ) is a domain...documents created in this phase. From a purely profit-oriented business point of view, a company may develop its own analysis of a government or commercial

Incremental Upgrade of Legacy Systems (IULS)

DTIC Science & Technology

2001-04-01

analysis task employed SEI’s Feature-Oriented Domain Analysis methodology (see FODA reference) and included several phases: • Context Analysis • Establish...Legacy, new Host and upgrade system and software. The Feature Oriented Domain Analysis approach ( FODA , see SUM References) was used for this step...Feature-Oriented Domain Analysis ( FODA ) Feasibility Study (CMU/SEI-90-TR- 21, ESD-90-TR-222); Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University

[Development of domain specific search engines].

PubMed

Takai, T; Tokunaga, M; Maeda, K; Kaminuma, T

2000-01-01

As cyber space exploding in a pace that nobody has ever imagined, it becomes very important to search cyber space efficiently and effectively. One solution to this problem is search engines. Already a lot of commercial search engines have been put on the market. However these search engines respond with such cumbersome results that domain specific experts can not tolerate. Using a dedicate hardware and a commercial software called OpenText, we have tried to develop several domain specific search engines. These engines are for our institute's Web contents, drugs, chemical safety, endocrine disruptors, and emergent response for chemical hazard. These engines have been on our Web site for testing.

A Study of the Use of Ontologies for Building Computer-Aided Control Engineering Self-Learning Educational Software

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

García, Isaías; Benavides, Carmen; Alaiz, Héctor; Alonso, Angel

2013-01-01

This paper describes research on the use of knowledge models (ontologies) for building computer-aided educational software in the field of control engineering. Ontologies are able to represent in the computer a very rich conceptual model of a given domain. This model can be used later for a number of purposes in different software applications. In…

The KASE approach to domain-specific software systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bhansali, Sanjay; Nii, H. Penny

1992-01-01

Designing software systems, like all design activities, is a knowledge-intensive task. Several studies have found that the predominant cause of failures among system designers is lack of knowledge: knowledge about the application domain, knowledge about design schemes, knowledge about design processes, etc. The goal of domain-specific software design systems is to explicitly represent knowledge relevant to a class of applications and use it to partially or completely automate various aspects of the designing systems within that domain. The hope is that this would reduce the intellectual burden on the human designers and lead to more efficient software development. In this paper, we present a domain-specific system built on top of KASE, a knowledge-assisted software engineering environment being developed at the Stanford Knowledge Systems Laboratory. We introduce the main ideas underlying the construction of domain specific systems within KASE, illustrate the application of the idea in the synthesis of a system for tracking aircraft from radar signals, and discuss some of the issues in constructing domain-specific systems.

The software-cycle model for re-engineering and reuse

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bailey, John W.; Basili, Victor R.

1992-01-01

This paper reports on the progress of a study which will contribute to our ability to perform high-level, component-based programming by describing means to obtain useful components, methods for the configuration and integration of those components, and an underlying economic model of the costs and benefits associated with this approach to reuse. One goal of the study is to develop and demonstrate methods to recover reusable components from domain-specific software through a combination of tools, to perform the identification, extraction, and re-engineering of components, and domain experts, to direct the applications of those tools. A second goal of the study is to enable the reuse of those components by identifying techniques for configuring and recombining the re-engineered software. This component-recovery or software-cycle model addresses not only the selection and re-engineering of components, but also their recombination into new programs. Once a model of reuse activities has been developed, the quantification of the costs and benefits of various reuse options will enable the development of an adaptable economic model of reuse, which is the principal goal of the overall study. This paper reports on the conception of the software-cycle model and on several supporting techniques of software recovery, measurement, and reuse which will lead to the development of the desired economic model.

Technology Transfer Challenges for High-Assurance Software Engineering Tools

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Koga, Dennis (Technical Monitor); Penix, John; Markosian, Lawrence Z.

2003-01-01

In this paper, we describe our experience with the challenges thar we are currently facing in our effort to develop advanced software verification and validation tools. We categorize these challenges into several areas: cost benefits modeling, tool usability, customer application domain, and organizational issues. We provide examples of challenges in each area and identrfj, open research issues in areas which limit our ability to transfer high-assurance software engineering tools into practice.

A conceptual model for megaprogramming

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tracz, Will

1990-01-01

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.

Advanced engineering software for in-space assembly and manned planetary spacecraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Delaquil, Donald; Mah, Robert

1990-01-01

Meeting the objectives of the Lunar/Mars initiative to establish safe and cost-effective extraterrestrial bases requires an integrated software/hardware approach to operational definitions and systems implementation. This paper begins this process by taking a 'software-first' approach to systems design, for implementing specific mission scenarios in the domains of in-space assembly and operations of the manned Mars spacecraft. The technological barriers facing implementation of robust operational systems within these two domains are discussed, and preliminary software requirements and architectures that resolve these barriers are provided.

Achieving Agility and Stability in Large-Scale Software Development

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-01-16

temporary team is assigned to prepare layers and frameworks for future feature teams. Presentation Layer Domain Layer Data Access Layer...http://www.sei.cmu.edu/training/ elearning ~ Software Engineering Institute CarnegieMellon

Automatic programming of simulation models

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schroer, Bernard J.; Tseng, Fan T.; Zhang, Shou X.; Dwan, Wen S.

1990-01-01

The concepts of software engineering were used to improve the simulation modeling environment. Emphasis was placed on the application of an element of rapid prototyping, or automatic programming, to assist the modeler define the problem specification. Then, once the problem specification has been defined, an automatic code generator is used to write the simulation code. The following two domains were selected for evaluating the concepts of software engineering for discrete event simulation: manufacturing domain and a spacecraft countdown network sequence. The specific tasks were to: (1) define the software requirements for a graphical user interface to the Automatic Manufacturing Programming System (AMPS) system; (2) develop a graphical user interface for AMPS; and (3) compare the AMPS graphical interface with the AMPS interactive user interface.

AMPHION: Specification-based programming for scientific subroutine libraries

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lowry, Michael; Philpot, Andrew; Pressburger, Thomas; Underwood, Ian; Waldinger, Richard; Stickel, Mark

1994-01-01

AMPHION is a knowledge-based software engineering (KBSE) system that guides a user in developing a diagram representing a formal problem specification. It then automatically implements a solution to this specification as a program consisting of calls to subroutines from a library. The diagram provides an intuitive domain oriented notation for creating a specification that also facilitates reuse and modification. AMPHION'S architecture is domain independent. AMPHION is specialized to an application domain by developing a declarative domain theory. Creating a domain theory is an iterative process that currently requires the joint expertise of domain experts and experts in automated formal methods for software development.

Achieving Agility and Stability in Large-Scale Software Development

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-01-16

temporary team is assigned to prepare layers and frameworks for future feature teams. Presentation Layer Domain Layer Data Access Layer Framework...http://www.sei.cmu.edu/training/ elearning ~ Software Engineering Institute CarnegieMellon

Formal Language Design in the Context of Domain Engineering

DTIC Science & Technology

2000-03-28

73 Related Work 75 5.1 Feature oriented domain analysis ( FODA ) 75 5.2 Organizational domain modeling (ODM) 76 5.3 Domain-Specific Software...However there are only a few that are well defined and used repeatedly in practice. These include: Feature oriented domain analysis ( FODA ), Organizational...Feature oriented domain analysis ( FODA ) Feature oriented domain analysis ( FODA ) is a domain analysis method being researched and applied by the SEI

Calculus domains modelled using an original bool algebra based on polygons

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Oanta, E.; Panait, C.; Raicu, A.; Barhalescu, M.; Axinte, T.

2016-08-01

Analytical and numerical computer based models require analytical definitions of the calculus domains. The paper presents a method to model a calculus domain based on a bool algebra which uses solid and hollow polygons. The general calculus relations of the geometrical characteristics that are widely used in mechanical engineering are tested using several shapes of the calculus domain in order to draw conclusions regarding the most effective methods to discretize the domain. The paper also tests the results of several CAD commercial software applications which are able to compute the geometrical characteristics, being drawn interesting conclusions. The tests were also targeting the accuracy of the results vs. the number of nodes on the curved boundary of the cross section. The study required the development of an original software consisting of more than 1700 computer code lines. In comparison with other calculus methods, the discretization using convex polygons is a simpler approach. Moreover, this method doesn't lead to large numbers as the spline approximation did, in that case being required special software packages in order to offer multiple, arbitrary precision. The knowledge resulted from this study may be used to develop complex computer based models in engineering.

From scenarios to domain models: processes and representations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Haddock, Gail; Harbison, Karan

1994-03-01

The domain specific software architectures (DSSA) community has defined a philosophy for the development of complex systems. This philosophy improves productivity and efficiency by increasing the user's role in the definition of requirements, increasing the systems engineer's role in the reuse of components, and decreasing the software engineer's role to the development of new components and component modifications only. The scenario-based engineering process (SEP), the first instantiation of the DSSA philosophy, has been adopted by the next generation controller project. It is also the chosen methodology of the trauma care information management system project, and the surrogate semi-autonomous vehicle project. SEP uses scenarios from the user to create domain models and define the system's requirements. Domain knowledge is obtained from a variety of sources including experts, documents, and videos. This knowledge is analyzed using three techniques: scenario analysis, task analysis, and object-oriented analysis. Scenario analysis results in formal representations of selected scenarios. Task analysis of the scenario representations results in descriptions of tasks necessary for object-oriented analysis and also subtasks necessary for functional system analysis. Object-oriented analysis of task descriptions produces domain models and system requirements. This paper examines the representations that support the DSSA philosophy, including reference requirements, reference architectures, and domain models. The processes used to create and use the representations are explained through use of the scenario-based engineering process. Selected examples are taken from the next generation controller project.

A Study of the Use of Ontologies for Building Computer-Aided Control Engineering Self-Learning Educational Software

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

García, Isaías; Benavides, Carmen; Alaiz, Héctor; Alonso, Angel

2013-08-01

This paper describes research on the use of knowledge models (ontologies) for building computer-aided educational software in the field of control engineering. Ontologies are able to represent in the computer a very rich conceptual model of a given domain. This model can be used later for a number of purposes in different software applications. In this study, domain ontology about the field of lead-lag compensator design has been built and used for automatic exercise generation, graphical user interface population and interaction with the user at any level of detail, including explanations about why things occur. An application called Onto-CELE (ontology-based control engineering learning environment) uses the ontology for implementing a learning environment that can be used for self and lifelong learning purposes. The experience has shown that the use of knowledge models as the basis for educational software applications is capable of showing students the whole complexity of the analysis and design processes at any level of detail. A practical experience with postgraduate students has shown the mentioned benefits and possibilities of the approach.

Knowledge-intensive software design systems: Can too much knowledge be a burden?

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Keller, Richard M.

1992-01-01

While acknowledging the considerable benefits of domain-specific, knowledge-intensive approaches to automated software engineering, it is prudent to carefully examine the costs of such approaches, as well. In adding domain knowledge to a system, a developer makes a commitment to understanding, representing, maintaining, and communicating that knowledge. This substantial overhead is not generally associated with domain-independent approaches. In this paper, I examine the downside of incorporating additional knowledge, and illustrate with examples based on our experience in building the SIGMA system. I also offer some guidelines for developers building domain-specific systems.

Knowledge-intensive software design systems: Can too much knowledge be a burden?

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Keller, Richard M.

1992-01-01

While acknowledging the considerable benefits of domain-specific, knowledge-intensive approaches to automated software engineering, it is prudent to carefully examine the costs of such approaches, as well. In adding domain knowledge to a system, a developer makes a commitment to understanding, representing, maintaining, and communicating that knowledge. This substantial overhead is not generally associated with domain-independent approaches. In this paper, I examine the downside of incorporating additional knowledge, and illustrate with examples based on our experiences building the SIGMA system. I also offer some guidelines for developers building domain-specific systems.

Are Earth System model software engineering practices fit for purpose? A case study.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Easterbrook, S. M.; Johns, T. C.

2009-04-01

We present some analysis and conclusions from a case study of the culture and practices of scientists at the Met Office and Hadley Centre working on the development of software for climate and Earth System models using the MetUM infrastructure. The study examined how scientists think about software correctness, prioritize their requirements in making changes, and develop a shared understanding of the resulting models. We conclude that highly customized techniques driven strongly by scientific research goals have evolved for verification and validation of such models. In a formal software engineering context these represents costly, but invaluable, software integration tests with considerable benefits. The software engineering practices seen also exhibit recognisable features of both agile and open source software development projects - self-organisation of teams consistent with a meritocracy rather than top-down organisation, extensive use of informal communication channels, and software developers who are generally also users and science domain experts. We draw some general conclusions on whether these practices work well, and what new software engineering challenges may lie ahead as Earth System models become ever more complex and petascale computing becomes the norm.

Model Driven Engineering with Ontology Technologies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Staab, Steffen; Walter, Tobias; Gröner, Gerd; Parreiras, Fernando Silva

Ontologies constitute formal models of some aspect of the world that may be used for drawing interesting logical conclusions even for large models. Software models capture relevant characteristics of a software artifact to be developed, yet, most often these software models have limited formal semantics, or the underlying (often graphical) software language varies from case to case in a way that makes it hard if not impossible to fix its semantics. In this contribution, we survey the use of ontology technologies for software modeling in order to carry over advantages from ontology technologies to the software modeling domain. It will turn out that ontology-based metamodels constitute a core means for exploiting expressive ontology reasoning in the software modeling domain while remaining flexible enough to accommodate varying needs of software modelers.

The Cooperate Assistive Teamwork Environment for Software Description Languages.

PubMed

Groenda, Henning; Seifermann, Stephan; Müller, Karin; Jaworek, Gerhard

2015-01-01

Versatile description languages such as the Unified Modeling Language (UML) are commonly used in software engineering across different application domains in theory and practice. They often use graphical notations and leverage visual memory for expressing complex relations. Those notations are hard to access for people with visual impairment and impede their smooth inclusion in an engineering team. Existing approaches provide textual notations but require manual synchronization between the notations. This paper presents requirements for an accessible and language-aware team work environment as well as our plan for the assistive implementation of Cooperate. An industrial software engineering team consisting of people with and without visual impairment will evaluate the implementation.

Managing Variation in Services in a Software Product Line Context

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-05-01

Oriented Domain Analysis ( FODA ) Feasibility Study (CMU/SEI-90-TR-021, ADA235785). Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, 1990...the systems in the product line, and a plan for building the systems. Product line scope and product line analysis define the boundaries and...systems, as well as expected ways in which they may vary. Product line analysis applies established modeling techniques to engineer the common and

Green Turning Brown - Domain Engineering for Social and Health Services in Finland.

PubMed

Suomi, Reima; Nykänen, Pirkko; Vepsäläinen, Tapio; Hiltunen, Riina

2017-01-01

Being able to design information systems to an untouched domain, without the burden of existing information systems, especially legacy systems, is often seen as a dream of most information system professionals. Uncharted domains are anyway scarce, and often such greenfield projects turn into brownfield projects, also to projects where existing structures severely constrain the development of new systems. In this article we discuss the concepts of greenfield and brownfield domain engineering and software development, and reflect their possible messages to the re-engineering of the Finnish health- and social care ecosystem currently under way. In our fieldwork we could identify a lot of need and wish for greenfield domain engineering in the Finnish health and social services delivery. As well we found a lot of brownfield elements inhibiting change. Our proposal for the future is a ecosystem approach, where new and established elements could live together in a self-governed balance.

The Domain-Specific Software Architecture Program

DTIC Science & Technology

1992-06-01

Kang, K.C; Cohen, S.C: Jess, J.A; Novak, W.E; Peterson, A.S. Feature- Oriented Domain Analysis ( FODA ) Feasibility Study. (CMU/SEI-90-TR-21, ADA235785...perspective of a con- trols engineer solving a problem using an iterative process of simulation and analysis . The CMU/SEI-92-SR-9 1 I ~math AnalysislP...for schedulability analysis and Markov processes for the determination of reliability. Software architectures are derived from these formal models. ORA

CrossTalk: The Journal of Defense Software Engineering. Volume 19, Number 12, December 2006

DTIC Science & Technology

2006-12-01

Feature-Oriented Domain Analysis ( FODA ) FODA is a domain analysis and engineer- ing method that focuses on developing reusable assets [9]. By examining...Eliciting Security Requirements This article describes an approach for doing trade-off analysis among requirements elicitation methods. by Dr. Nancy R...high-level requirements are addressed and met in the requirements work products. 3. Unclear requirements Mitigation Perform requirements analysis and

Generating Safety-Critical PLC Code From a High-Level Application Software Specification

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2008-01-01

The benefits of automatic-application code generation are widely accepted within the software engineering community. These benefits include raised abstraction level of application programming, shorter product development time, lower maintenance costs, and increased code quality and consistency. Surprisingly, code generation concepts have not yet found wide acceptance and use in the field of programmable logic controller (PLC) software development. Software engineers at Kennedy Space Center recognized the need for PLC code generation while developing the new ground checkout and launch processing system, called the Launch Control System (LCS). Engineers developed a process and a prototype software tool that automatically translates a high-level representation or specification of application software into ladder logic that executes on a PLC. All the computer hardware in the LCS is planned to be commercial off the shelf (COTS), including industrial controllers or PLCs that are connected to the sensors and end items out in the field. Most of the software in LCS is also planned to be COTS, with only small adapter software modules that must be developed in order to interface between the various COTS software products. A domain-specific language (DSL) is a programming language designed to perform tasks and to solve problems in a particular domain, such as ground processing of launch vehicles. The LCS engineers created a DSL for developing test sequences of ground checkout and launch operations of future launch vehicle and spacecraft elements, and they are developing a tabular specification format that uses the DSL keywords and functions familiar to the ground and flight system users. The tabular specification format, or tabular spec, allows most ground and flight system users to document how the application software is intended to function and requires little or no software programming knowledge or experience. A small sample from a prototype tabular spec application is shown.

Usability engineering: domain analysis activities for augmented-reality systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gabbard, Joseph; Swan, J. E., II; Hix, Deborah; Lanzagorta, Marco O.; Livingston, Mark; Brown, Dennis B.; Julier, Simon J.

2002-05-01

This paper discusses our usability engineering process for the Battlefield Augmented Reality System (BARS). Usability engineering is a structured, iterative, stepwise development process. Like the related disciplines of software and systems engineering, usability engineering is a combination of management principals and techniques, formal and semi- formal evaluation techniques, and computerized tools. BARS is an outdoor augmented reality system that displays heads- up battlefield intelligence information to a dismounted warrior. The paper discusses our general usability engineering process. We originally developed the process in the context of virtual reality applications, but in this work we are adapting the procedures to an augmented reality system. The focus of this paper is our work on domain analysis, the first activity of the usability engineering process. We describe our plans for and our progress to date on our domain analysis for BARS. We give results in terms of a specific urban battlefield use case we have designed.

An overview of very high level software design methods

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Asdjodi, Maryam; Hooper, James W.

1988-01-01

Very High Level design methods emphasize automatic transfer of requirements to formal design specifications, and/or may concentrate on automatic transformation of formal design specifications that include some semantic information of the system into machine executable form. Very high level design methods range from general domain independent methods to approaches implementable for specific applications or domains. Applying AI techniques, abstract programming methods, domain heuristics, software engineering tools, library-based programming and other methods different approaches for higher level software design are being developed. Though one finds that a given approach does not always fall exactly in any specific class, this paper provides a classification for very high level design methods including examples for each class. These methods are analyzed and compared based on their basic approaches, strengths and feasibility for future expansion toward automatic development of software systems.

Transitioning Domain Analysis: An Industry Experience.

DTIC Science & Technology

1996-06-01

References 6 Implementation 6.1 Analysis of Operator Services’ Requirements Process 21 6.2 Preliminary Planning for FODA Training by SEI 21...an academic and industry partnership took feature oriented domain analysis ( FODA ) from a methodology that is still being defined to a well-documented...to pilot the use of the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) domain analysis methodology known as feature-oriented domain analysis ( FODA ). Supported

Using CLIPS in the domain of knowledge-based massively parallel programming

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dvorak, Jiri J.

1994-01-01

The Program Development Environment (PDE) is a tool for massively parallel programming of distributed-memory architectures. Adopting a knowledge-based approach, the PDE eliminates the complexity introduced by parallel hardware with distributed memory and offers complete transparency in respect of parallelism exploitation. The knowledge-based part of the PDE is realized in CLIPS. Its principal task is to find an efficient parallel realization of the application specified by the user in a comfortable, abstract, domain-oriented formalism. A large collection of fine-grain parallel algorithmic skeletons, represented as COOL objects in a tree hierarchy, contains the algorithmic knowledge. A hybrid knowledge base with rule modules and procedural parts, encoding expertise about application domain, parallel programming, software engineering, and parallel hardware, enables a high degree of automation in the software development process. In this paper, important aspects of the implementation of the PDE using CLIPS and COOL are shown, including the embedding of CLIPS with C++-based parts of the PDE. The appropriateness of the chosen approach and of the CLIPS language for knowledge-based software engineering are discussed.

Technical Writing for Software Engineers

DTIC Science & Technology

1991-11-01

3 Analogies: Software Development and Composing 3.1 Art / Science /Design 3.2 General Correspondences Between the Disciplines 3.3 Specific Analogies...domains. The first subsection describes a dialogue common to both fields, one that considers these disciplines as art , science , and design. The second...will find additional similarities between software development and composing in these and other sources. 3.1 Art / Science /Design Ongoing discussions

Generating target system specifications from a domain model using CLIPS

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sugumaran, Vijayan; Gomaa, Hassan; Kerschberg, Larry

1991-01-01

The quest for reuse in software engineering is still being pursued and researchers are actively investigating the domain modeling approach to software construction. There are several domain modeling efforts reported in the literature and they all agree that the components that are generated from domain modeling are more conducive to reuse. Once a domain model is created, several target systems can be generated by tailoring the domain model or by evolving the domain model and then tailoring it according to the specified requirements. This paper presents the Evolutionary Domain Life Cycle (EDLC) paradigm in which a domain model is created using multiple views, namely, aggregation hierarchy, generalization/specialization hierarchies, object communication diagrams and state transition diagrams. The architecture of the Knowledge Based Requirements Elicitation Tool (KBRET) which is used to generate target system specifications is also presented. The preliminary version of KBRET is implemented in the C Language Integrated Production System (CLIPS).

FORMED: Bringing Formal Methods to the Engineering Desktop

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-02-01

integrates formal verification into software design and development by precisely defining semantics for a restricted subset of the Unified Modeling...input-output contract satisfaction and absence of null pointer dereferences. 15. SUBJECT TERMS Formal Methods, Software Verification , Model-Based...Domain specific languages (DSLs) drive both implementation and formal verification

Knowledge-based requirements analysis for automating software development

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Markosian, Lawrence Z.

1988-01-01

We present a new software development paradigm that automates the derivation of implementations from requirements. In this paradigm, informally-stated requirements are expressed in a domain-specific requirements specification language. This language is machine-understable and requirements expressed in it are captured in a knowledge base. Once the requirements are captured, more detailed specifications and eventually implementations are derived by the system using transformational synthesis. A key characteristic of the process is that the required human intervention is in the form of providing problem- and domain-specific engineering knowledge, not in writing detailed implementations. We describe a prototype system that applies the paradigm in the realm of communication engineering: the prototype automatically generates implementations of buffers following analysis of the requirements on each buffer.

Working with the HL7 metamodel in a Model Driven Engineering context.

PubMed

Martínez-García, A; García-García, J A; Escalona, M J; Parra-Calderón, C L

2015-10-01

HL7 (Health Level 7) International is an organization that defines health information standards. Most HL7 domain information models have been designed according to a proprietary graphic language whose domain models are based on the HL7 metamodel. Many researchers have considered using HL7 in the MDE (Model-Driven Engineering) context. A limitation has been identified: all MDE tools support UML (Unified Modeling Language), which is a standard model language, but most do not support the HL7 proprietary model language. We want to support software engineers without HL7 experience, thus real-world problems would be modeled by them by defining system requirements in UML that are compliant with HL7 domain models transparently. The objective of the present research is to connect HL7 with software analysis using a generic model-based approach. This paper introduces a first approach to an HL7 MDE solution that considers the MIF (Model Interchange Format) metamodel proposed by HL7 by making use of a plug-in developed in the EA (Enterprise Architect) tool. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Theory and Practice Meets in Industrial Process Design -Educational Perspective-

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aramo-Immonen, Heli; Toikka, Tarja

Software engineer should see himself as a business process designer in enterprise resource planning system (ERP) re-engineering project. Software engineers and managers should have design dialogue. The objective of this paper is to discuss the motives to study the design research in connection of management education in order to envision and understand the soft human issues in the management context. Second goal is to develop means of practicing social skills between designers and managers. This article explores the affective components of design thinking in industrial management domain. In the conceptual part of this paper are discussed concepts of network and project economy, creativity, communication, use of metaphors, and design thinking. Finally is introduced empirical research plan and first empirical results from design method experiments among the multi-disciplined groups of the master-level students of industrial engineering and management and software engineering.

Software Development in the Water Sciences: a view from the divide (Invited)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miles, B.; Band, L. E.

2013-12-01

While training in statistical methods is an important part of many earth scientists' training, these scientists often learn the bulk of their software development skills in an ad hoc, just-in-time manner. Yet to carry out contemporary research scientists are spending more and more time developing software. Here I present perspectives - as an earth sciences graduate student with professional software engineering experience - on the challenges scientists face adopting software engineering practices, with an emphasis on areas of the science software development lifecycle that could benefit most from improved engineering. This work builds on experience gained as part of the NSF-funded Water Science Software Institute (WSSI) conceptualization award (NSF Award # 1216817). Throughout 2013, the WSSI team held a series of software scoping and development sprints with the goals of: (1) adding features to better model green infrastructure within the Regional Hydro-Ecological Simulation System (RHESSys); and (2) infusing test-driven agile software development practices into the processes employed by the RHESSys team. The goal of efforts such as the WSSI is to ensure that investments by current and future scientists in software engineering training will enable transformative science by improving both scientific reproducibility and researcher productivity. Experience with the WSSI indicates: (1) the potential for achieving this goal; and (2) while scientists are willing to adopt some software engineering practices, transformative science will require continued collaboration between domain scientists and cyberinfrastructure experts for the foreseeable future.

Automated Translation of Safety Critical Application Software Specifications into PLC Ladder Logic

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Leucht, Kurt W.; Semmel, Glenn S.

2008-01-01

The numerous benefits of automatic application code generation are widely accepted within the software engineering community. A few of these benefits include raising the abstraction level of application programming, shorter product development time, lower maintenance costs, and increased code quality and consistency. Surprisingly, code generation concepts have not yet found wide acceptance and use in the field of programmable logic controller (PLC) software development. Software engineers at the NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC) recognized the need for PLC code generation while developing their new ground checkout and launch processing system. They developed a process and a prototype software tool that automatically translates a high-level representation or specification of safety critical application software into ladder logic that executes on a PLC. This process and tool are expected to increase the reliability of the PLC code over that which is written manually, and may even lower life-cycle costs and shorten the development schedule of the new control system at KSC. This paper examines the problem domain and discusses the process and software tool that were prototyped by the KSC software engineers.

Practical Application of Model-based Programming and State-based Architecture to Space Missions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Horvath, Gregory A.; Ingham, Michel D.; Chung, Seung; Martin, Oliver; Williams, Brian

2006-01-01

Innovative systems and software engineering solutions are required to meet the increasingly challenging demands of deep-space robotic missions. While recent advances in the development of an integrated systems and software engineering approach have begun to address some of these issues, they are still at the core highly manual and, therefore, error-prone. This paper describes a task aimed at infusing MIT's model-based executive, Titan, into JPL's Mission Data System (MDS), a unified state-based architecture, systems engineering process, and supporting software framework. Results of the task are presented, including a discussion of the benefits and challenges associated with integrating mature model-based programming techniques and technologies into a rigorously-defined domain specific architecture.

Toward domain-specific design environments: Some representation ideas from the telecommunications domain

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Greenspan, Sol; Feblowitz, Mark

1992-01-01

ACME is an experimental environment for investigating new approaches to modeling and analysis of system requirements and designs. ACME is built on and extends object-oriented conceptual modeling techniques and knowledge representation and reasoning (KRR) tools. The most immediate intended use for ACME is to help represent, understand, and communicate system designs during the early stages of system planning and requirements engineering. While our research is ostensibly aimed at software systems in general, we are particularly motivated to make an impact in the telecommunications domain, especially in the area referred to as Intelligent Networks (IN's). IN systems contain the software to provide services to users of a telecommunications network (e.g., call processing services, information services, etc.) as well as the software that provides the internal infrastructure for providing the services (e.g., resource management, billing, etc.). The software includes not only systems developed by the network proprietors but also by a growing group of independent service software providers.

Post-Modern Software Development

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Filman, Robert E.

2005-01-01

The history of software development includes elements of art, science, engineering, and fashion(though very little manufacturing). In all domains, old ideas give way or evolve to new ones: in the fine arts, the baroque gave way to rococo, romanticism, modernism, postmodernism, and so forth. What is the postmodern programming equivalent? That is, what comes after object orientation?

Issues in Requirements Elicitation

DTIC Science & Technology

1992-09-01

oriented domain analysis ( FODA ) continues that the re- quirements analyst uses the products of domain analysis when implementing a new system [Kang 90, p...Peterson, A. Spencer. Feature-Oriented Domain Analysis ( FODA ) Feasibility Study. Technical Report CMU/SEI-90-TR-21, ADA235785, Software Engineering...3.3 Problems of Volatility 12 4 Current Elicitation Techniques 15 4.1 Information Gathering 16 4.2 Requirements Expression and Analysis 19 4.3

Automated Reuse of Scientific Subroutine Libraries through Deductive Synthesis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lowry, Michael R.; Pressburger, Thomas; VanBaalen, Jeffrey; Roach, Steven

1997-01-01

Systematic software construction offers the potential of elevating software engineering from an art-form to an engineering discipline. The desired result is more predictable software development leading to better quality and more maintainable software. However, the overhead costs associated with the formalisms, mathematics, and methods of systematic software construction have largely precluded their adoption in real-world software development. In fact, many mainstream software development organizations, such as Microsoft, still maintain a predominantly oral culture for software development projects; which is far removed from a formalism-based culture for software development. An exception is the limited domain of safety-critical software, where the high-assuiance inherent in systematic software construction justifies the additional cost. We believe that systematic software construction will only be adopted by mainstream software development organization when the overhead costs have been greatly reduced. Two approaches to cost mitigation are reuse (amortizing costs over many applications) and automation. For the last four years, NASA Ames has funded the Amphion project, whose objective is to automate software reuse through techniques from systematic software construction. In particular, deductive program synthesis (i.e., program extraction from proofs) is used to derive a composition of software components (e.g., subroutines) that correctly implements a specification. The construction of reuse libraries of software components is the standard software engineering solution for improving software development productivity and quality.

Capturing Requirements for Autonomous Spacecraft with Autonomy Requirements Engineering

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vassev, Emil; Hinchey, Mike

2014-08-01

The Autonomy Requirements Engineering (ARE) approach has been developed by Lero - the Irish Software Engineering Research Center within the mandate of a joint project with ESA, the European Space Agency. The approach is intended to help engineers develop missions for unmanned exploration, often with limited or no human control. Such robotics space missions rely on the most recent advances in automation and robotic technologies where autonomy and autonomic computing principles drive the design and implementation of unmanned spacecraft [1]. To tackle the integration and promotion of autonomy in software-intensive systems, ARE combines generic autonomy requirements (GAR) with goal-oriented requirements engineering (GORE). Using this approach, software engineers can determine what autonomic features to develop for a particular system (e.g., a space mission) as well as what artifacts that process might generate (e.g., goals models, requirements specification, etc.). The inputs required by this approach are the mission goals and the domain-specific GAR reflecting specifics of the mission class (e.g., interplanetary missions).

Software Innovation in a Mission Critical Environment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fredrickson, Steven

2015-01-01

Operating in mission-critical environments requires trusted solutions, and the preference for "tried and true" approaches presents a potential barrier to infusing innovation into mission-critical systems. This presentation explores opportunities to overcome this barrier in the software domain. It outlines specific areas of innovation in software development achieved by the Johnson Space Center (JSC) Engineering Directorate in support of NASA's major human spaceflight programs, including International Space Station, Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (Orion), and Commercial Crew Programs. Software engineering teams at JSC work with hardware developers, mission planners, and system operators to integrate flight vehicles, habitats, robotics, and other spacecraft elements for genuinely mission critical applications. The innovations described, including the use of NASA Core Flight Software and its associated software tool chain, can lead to software that is more affordable, more reliable, better modelled, more flexible, more easily maintained, better tested, and enabling of automation.

Design implications for task-specific search utilities for retrieval and re-engineering of code

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Iqbal, Rahat; Grzywaczewski, Adam; Halloran, John; Doctor, Faiyaz; Iqbal, Kashif

2017-05-01

The importance of information retrieval systems is unquestionable in the modern society and both individuals as well as enterprises recognise the benefits of being able to find information effectively. Current code-focused information retrieval systems such as Google Code Search, Codeplex or Koders produce results based on specific keywords. However, these systems do not take into account developers' context such as development language, technology framework, goal of the project, project complexity and developer's domain expertise. They also impose additional cognitive burden on users in switching between different interfaces and clicking through to find the relevant code. Hence, they are not used by software developers. In this paper, we discuss how software engineers interact with information and general-purpose information retrieval systems (e.g. Google, Yahoo!) and investigate to what extent domain-specific search and recommendation utilities can be developed in order to support their work-related activities. In order to investigate this, we conducted a user study and found that software engineers followed many identifiable and repeatable work tasks and behaviours. These behaviours can be used to develop implicit relevance feedback-based systems based on the observed retention actions. Moreover, we discuss the implications for the development of task-specific search and collaborative recommendation utilities embedded with the Google standard search engine and Microsoft IntelliSense for retrieval and re-engineering of code. Based on implicit relevance feedback, we have implemented a prototype of the proposed collaborative recommendation system, which was evaluated in a controlled environment simulating the real-world situation of professional software engineers. The evaluation has achieved promising initial results on the precision and recall performance of the system.

Marshall Space Flight Center Ground Systems Development and Integration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wade, Gina

2016-01-01

Ground Systems Development and Integration performs a variety of tasks in support of the Mission Operations Laboratory (MOL) and other Center and Agency projects. These tasks include various systems engineering processes such as performing system requirements development, system architecture design, integration, verification and validation, software development, and sustaining engineering of mission operations systems that has evolved the Huntsville Operations Support Center (HOSC) into a leader in remote operations for current and future NASA space projects. The group is also responsible for developing and managing telemetry and command configuration and calibration databases. Personnel are responsible for maintaining and enhancing their disciplinary skills in the areas of project management, software engineering, software development, software process improvement, telecommunications, networking, and systems management. Domain expertise in the ground systems area is also maintained and includes detailed proficiency in the areas of real-time telemetry systems, command systems, voice, video, data networks, and mission planning systems.

Tethered satellite system dynamics and control review panel and related activities, phase 3

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1991-01-01

Two major tests of the Tethered Satellite System (TSS) engineering and flight units were conducted to demonstrate the functionality of the hardware and software. Deficiencies in the hardware/software integration tests (HSIT) led to a recommendation for more testing to be performed. Selected problem areas of tether dynamics were analyzed, including verification of the severity of skip rope oscillations, verification or comparison runs to explore dynamic phenomena observed in other simulations, and data generation runs to explore the performance of the time domain and frequency domain skip rope observers.

Engineer’s Handbook. Central Archive for Reusable Defense Software (CARDS)

DTIC Science & Technology

1994-02-28

benefit frc- this reuse effort? Reuse should be done for a domain rather than just for a program. " Identify relationships between domains to facilitate... benefits to the government and its contractors. " Help provide guidelines to enable domain managers to do a trade-off study on requirements, e.g., does...libraries, if desired or required. This can only occur where the government domain growth matches, or can benefit from, the inclusion or incorporation of the

Software Development Standard Processes (SDSP)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lavin, Milton L.; Wang, James J.; Morillo, Ronald; Mayer, John T.; Jamshidian, Barzia; Shimizu, Kenneth J.; Wilkinson, Belinda M.; Hihn, Jairus M.; Borgen, Rosana B.; Meyer, Kenneth N.;

EOS MLS Level 1B Data Processing Software. Version 3

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Perun, Vincent S.; Jarnot, Robert F.; Wagner, Paul A.; Cofield, Richard E., IV; Nguyen, Honghanh T.; Vuu, Christina

2011-01-01

This software is an improvement on Version 2, which was described in EOS MLS Level 1B Data Processing, Version 2.2, NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 33, No. 5 (May 2009), p. 34. It accepts the EOS MLS Level 0 science/engineering data, and the EOS Aura spacecraft ephemeris/attitude data, and produces calibrated instrument radiances and associated engineering and diagnostic data. This version makes the code more robust, improves calibration, provides more diagnostics outputs, defines the Galactic core more finely, and fixes the equator crossing. The Level 1 processing software manages several different tasks. It qualifies each data quantity using instrument configuration and checksum data, as well as data transmission quality flags. Statistical tests are applied for data quality and reasonableness. The instrument engineering data (e.g., voltages, currents, temperatures, and encoder angles) is calibrated by the software, and the filter channel space reference measurements are interpolated onto the times of each limb measurement with the interpolates being differenced from the measurements. Filter channel calibration target measurements are interpolated onto the times of each limb measurement, and are used to compute radiometric gain. The total signal power is determined and analyzed by each digital autocorrelator spectrometer (DACS) during each data integration. The software converts each DACS data integration from an autocorrelation measurement in the time domain into a spectral measurement in the frequency domain, and estimates separately the spectrally, smoothly varying and spectrally averaged components of the limb port signal arising from antenna emission and scattering effects. Limb radiances are also calibrated.

The study on network security based on software engineering

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jia, Shande; Ao, Qian

2012-04-01

Developing a SP is a sensitive task because the SP itself can lead to security weaknesses if it is not conform to the security properties. Hence, appropriate techniques are necessary to overcome such problems. These techniques must accompany the policy throughout its deployment phases. The main contribution of this paper is then, the proposition of three of these activities: validation, test and multi-SP conflict management. Our techniques are inspired by the well established techniques of the software engineering for which we have found some similarities with the security domain.

Generalized Support Software: Domain Analysis and Implementation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stark, Mike; Seidewitz, Ed

1995-01-01

For the past five years, the Flight Dynamics Division (FDD) at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center has been carrying out a detailed domain analysis effort and is now beginning to implement Generalized Support Software (GSS) based on this analysis. GSS is part of the larger Flight Dynamics Distributed System (FDDS), and is designed to run under the FDDS User Interface / Executive (UIX). The FDD is transitioning from a mainframe based environment to systems running on engineering workstations. The GSS will be a library of highly reusable components that may be configured within the standard FDDS architecture to quickly produce low-cost satellite ground support systems. The estimates for the first release is that this library will contain approximately 200,000 lines of code. The main driver for developing generalized software is development cost and schedule improvement. The goal is to ultimately have at least 80 percent of all software required for a spacecraft mission (within the domain supported by the GSS) to be configured from the generalized components.

Preface to MOST-ONISW 2009

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Doerr, Martin; Freitas, Fred; Guizzardi, Giancarlo; Han, Hyoil

Ontology is a cross-disciplinary field concerned with the study of concepts and theories that can be used for representing shared conceptualizations of specific domains. Ontological Engineering is a discipline in computer and information science concerned with the development of techniques, methods, languages and tools for the systematic construction of concrete artifacts capturing these representations, i.e., models (e.g., domain ontologies) and metamodels (e.g., upper-level ontologies). In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the application of formal ontology and ontological engineering to solve modeling problems in diverse areas in computer science such as software and data engineering, knowledge representation, natural language processing, information science, among many others.

Adapting Rational Unified Process (RUP) approach in designing a secure e-Tendering model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mohd, Haslina; Robie, Muhammad Afdhal Muhammad; Baharom, Fauziah; Darus, Norida Muhd; Saip, Mohamed Ali; Yasin, Azman

2016-08-01

e-Tendering is an electronic processing of the tender document via internet and allow tenderer to publish, communicate, access, receive and submit all tender related information and documentation via internet. This study aims to design the e-Tendering system using Rational Unified Process approach. RUP provides a disciplined approach on how to assign tasks and responsibilities within the software development process. RUP has four phases that can assist researchers to adjust the requirements of various projects with different scope, problem and the size of projects. RUP is characterized as a use case driven, architecture centered, iterative and incremental process model. However the scope of this study only focusing on Inception and Elaboration phases as step to develop the model and perform only three of nine workflows (business modeling, requirements, analysis and design). RUP has a strong focus on documents and the activities in the inception and elaboration phases mainly concern the creation of diagrams and writing of textual descriptions. The UML notation and the software program, Star UML are used to support the design of e-Tendering. The e-Tendering design based on the RUP approach can contribute to e-Tendering developers and researchers in e-Tendering domain. In addition, this study also shows that the RUP is one of the best system development methodology that can be used as one of the research methodology in Software Engineering domain related to secured design of any observed application. This methodology has been tested in various studies in certain domains, such as in Simulation-based Decision Support, Security Requirement Engineering, Business Modeling and Secure System Requirement, and so forth. As a conclusion, these studies showed that the RUP one of a good research methodology that can be adapted in any Software Engineering (SE) research domain that required a few artifacts to be generated such as use case modeling, misuse case modeling, activity diagram, and initial class diagram from a list of requirements as identified earlier by the SE researchers

Using hybrid expert system approaches for engineering applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Allen, R. H.; Boarnet, M. G.; Culbert, C. J.; Savely, R. T.

1987-01-01

In this paper, the use of hybrid expert system shells and hybrid (i.e., algorithmic and heuristic) approaches for solving engineering problems is reported. Aspects of various engineering problem domains are reviewed for a number of examples with specific applications made to recently developed prototype expert systems. Based on this prototyping experience, critical evaluations of and comparisons between commercially available tools, and some research tools, in the United States and Australia, and their underlying problem-solving paradigms are made. Characteristics of the implementation tool and the engineering domain are compared and practical software engineering issues are discussed with respect to hybrid tools and approaches. Finally, guidelines are offered with the hope that expert system development will be less time consuming, more effective, and more cost-effective than it has been in the past.

Proceedings of the Workshop on software tools for distributed intelligent control systems

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Herget, C.J.

1990-09-01

The Workshop on Software Tools for Distributed Intelligent Control Systems was organized by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for the United States Army Headquarters Training and Doctrine Command and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The goals of the workshop were to the identify the current state of the art in tools which support control systems engineering design and implementation, identify research issues associated with writing software tools which would provide a design environment to assist engineers in multidisciplinary control design and implementation, formulate a potential investment strategy to resolve the research issues and develop public domain code which can formmore » the core of more powerful engineering design tools, and recommend test cases to focus the software development process and test associated performance metrics. Recognizing that the development of software tools for distributed intelligent control systems will require a multidisciplinary effort, experts in systems engineering, control systems engineering, and compute science were invited to participate in the workshop. In particular, experts who could address the following topics were selected: operating systems, engineering data representation and manipulation, emerging standards for manufacturing data, mathematical foundations, coupling of symbolic and numerical computation, user interface, system identification, system representation at different levels of abstraction, system specification, system design, verification and validation, automatic code generation, and integration of modular, reusable code.« less

Health care professional workstation: software system construction using DSSA scenario-based engineering process.

PubMed

Hufnagel, S; Harbison, K; Silva, J; Mettala, E

1994-01-01

This paper describes a new method for the evolutionary determination of user requirements and system specifications called scenario-based engineering process (SEP). Health care professional workstations are critical components of large scale health care system architectures. We suggest that domain-specific software architectures (DSSAs) be used to specify standard interfaces and protocols for reusable software components throughout those architectures, including workstations. We encourage the use of engineering principles and abstraction mechanisms. Engineering principles are flexible guidelines, adaptable to particular situations. Abstraction mechanisms are simplifications for management of complexity. We recommend object-oriented design principles, graphical structural specifications, and formal components' behavioral specifications. We give an ambulatory care scenario and associated models to demonstrate SEP. The scenario uses health care terminology and gives patients' and health care providers' system views. Our goal is to have a threefold benefit. (i) Scenario view abstractions provide consistent interdisciplinary communications. (ii) Hierarchical object-oriented structures provide useful abstractions for reuse, understandability, and long term evolution. (iii) SEP and health care DSSA integration into computer aided software engineering (CASE) environments. These environments should support rapid construction and certification of individualized systems, from reuse libraries.

Engineering intelligent tutoring systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Warren, Kimberly C.; Goodman, Bradley A.

1993-01-01

We have defined an object-oriented software architecture for Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS's) to facilitate the rapid development, testing, and fielding of ITS's. This software architecture partitions the functionality of the ITS into a collection of software components with well-defined interfaces and execution concept. The architecture was designed to isolate advanced technology components, partition domain dependencies, take advantage of the increased availability of commercial software packages, and reduce the risks involved in acquiring ITS's. A key component of the architecture, the Executive, is a publish and subscribe message handling component that coordinates all communication between ITS components.

Second International Workshop on Software Engineering and Code Design in Parallel Meteorological and Oceanographic Applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

OKeefe, Matthew (Editor); Kerr, Christopher L. (Editor)

1998-01-01

This report contains the abstracts and technical papers from the Second International Workshop on Software Engineering and Code Design in Parallel Meteorological and Oceanographic Applications, held June 15-18, 1998, in Scottsdale, Arizona. The purpose of the workshop is to bring together software developers in meteorology and oceanography to discuss software engineering and code design issues for parallel architectures, including Massively Parallel Processors (MPP's), Parallel Vector Processors (PVP's), Symmetric Multi-Processors (SMP's), Distributed Shared Memory (DSM) multi-processors, and clusters. Issues to be discussed include: (1) code architectures for current parallel models, including basic data structures, storage allocation, variable naming conventions, coding rules and styles, i/o and pre/post-processing of data; (2) designing modular code; (3) load balancing and domain decomposition; (4) techniques that exploit parallelism efficiently yet hide the machine-related details from the programmer; (5) tools for making the programmer more productive; and (6) the proliferation of programming models (F--, OpenMP, MPI, and HPF).

The significance of requirements engineering for the medical domain.

PubMed

Kossmann, Mario

2014-07-01

This paper aims to raise awareness of the importance of Requirements Engineering (RE) for the successful and efficient development of high-quality systems and products for the medical domain. It does so by providing an introduction to RE from the viewpoints of project and programme management and systems engineering in general and by illustrating the usefulness of a sound RE approach to the development of a local healthcare system in a deprived region in central Africa. The paper concludes that RE is just as crucial for the development of systems and products in the medical domain, as it is for the development of systems in the aerospace industry or software systems in the consumer electronics industry; while the degree of detail and formality of how RE is used has to be tailored to fit the context in question.

Rapid Prototyping of Robotic Systems

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-06-01

Nowak, S. Peterson, “Feature Oriented Domain Analysis ( FODA ) Feasibility Study,” Technical Report, CMU/SEI-90-TR-21, Software Engineering Institute...32 3. Embedded System Control Language..............................................33 viii 4. Architecture Analysis and Design Language...41 5. Analysis

On Roles of Models in Information Systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sølvberg, Arne

The increasing penetration of computers into all aspects of human activity makes it desirable that the interplay among software, data and the domains where computers are applied is made more transparent. An approach to this end is to explicitly relate the modeling concepts of the domains, e.g., natural science, technology and business, to the modeling concepts of software and data. This may make it simpler to build comprehensible integrated models of the interactions between computers and non-computers, e.g., interaction among computers, people, physical processes, biological processes, and administrative processes. This chapter contains an analysis of various facets of the modeling environment for information systems engineering. The lack of satisfactory conceptual modeling tools seems to be central to the unsatisfactory state-of-the-art in establishing information systems. The chapter contains a proposal for defining a concept of information that is relevant to information systems engineering.

Users manual for an expert system (HSPEXP) for calibration of the hydrological simulation program; Fortran

USGS Publications Warehouse

Lumb, A.M.; McCammon, R.B.; Kittle, J.L.

1994-01-01

Expert system software was developed to assist less experienced modelers with calibration of a watershed model and to facilitate the interaction between the modeler and the modeling process not provided by mathematical optimization. A prototype was developed with artificial intelligence software tools, a knowledge engineer, and two domain experts. The manual procedures used by the domain experts were identified and the prototype was then coded by the knowledge engineer. The expert system consists of a set of hierarchical rules designed to guide the calibration of the model through a systematic evaluation of model parameters. When the prototype was completed and tested, it was rewritten for portability and operational use and was named HSPEXP. The watershed model Hydrological Simulation Program--Fortran (HSPF) is used in the expert system. This report is the users manual for HSPEXP and contains a discussion of the concepts and detailed steps and examples for using the software. The system has been tested on watersheds in the States of Washington and Maryland, and the system correctly identified the model parameters to be adjusted and the adjustments led to improved calibration.

Introduction to Flight Test Engineering (Introduction aux techniques des essais en vol)

DTIC Science & Technology

2005-07-01

or aircraft parameters • Calculations in the frequency domain ( Fast Fourier Transform) • Data analysis with dedicated software for: • Signal...density Fast Fourier Transform Transfer function analysis Frequency response analysis Etc. PRESENTATION Color/black & white Display screen...envelope by operating the airplane at increasing ranges - representing increasing risk - of engine operation, airspeeds both fast and slow, altitude

ELISA, a demonstrator environment for information systems architecture design

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Panem, Chantal

1994-01-01

This paper describes an approach of reusability of software engineering technology in the area of ground space system design. System engineers have lots of needs similar to software developers: sharing of a common data base, capitalization of knowledge, definition of a common design process, communication between different technical domains. Moreover system designers need to simulate dynamically their system as early as possible. Software development environments, methods and tools now become operational and widely used. Their architecture is based on a unique object base, a set of common management services and they host a family of tools for each life cycle activity. In late '92, CNES decided to develop a demonstrative software environment supporting some system activities. The design of ground space data processing systems was chosen as the application domain. ELISA (Integrated Software Environment for Architectures Specification) was specified as a 'demonstrator', i.e. a sufficient basis for demonstrations, evaluation and future operational enhancements. A process with three phases was implemented: system requirements definition, design of system architectures models, and selection of physical architectures. Each phase is composed of several activities that can be performed in parallel, with the provision of Commercial Off the Shelves Tools. ELISA has been delivered to CNES in January 94, currently used for demonstrations and evaluations on real projects (e.g. SPOT4 Satellite Control Center). It is on the way of new evolutions.

Toward a Model-Based Approach to Flight System Fault Protection

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Day, John; Murray, Alex; Meakin, Peter

2012-01-01

Fault Protection (FP) is a distinct and separate systems engineering sub-discipline that is concerned with the off-nominal behavior of a system. Flight system fault protection is an important part of the overall flight system systems engineering effort, with its own products and processes. As with other aspects of systems engineering, the FP domain is highly amenable to expression and management in models. However, while there are standards and guidelines for performing FP related analyses, there are not standards or guidelines for formally relating the FP analyses to each other or to the system hardware and software design. As a result, the material generated for these analyses are effectively creating separate models that are only loosely-related to the system being designed. Development of approaches that enable modeling of FP concerns in the same model as the system hardware and software design enables establishment of formal relationships that has great potential for improving the efficiency, correctness, and verification of the implementation of flight system FP. This paper begins with an overview of the FP domain, and then continues with a presentation of a SysML/UML model of the FP domain and the particular analyses that it contains, by way of showing a potential model-based approach to flight system fault protection, and an exposition of the use of the FP models in FSW engineering. The analyses are small examples, inspired by current real-project examples of FP analyses.

Reuse Adoption Guidebook. Version 02.00.05

DTIC Science & Technology

1993-11-01

Oriented Domain Analysis ( FODA ) Feasibiity Study, W Novak, and S. Peterson CMU/SEI-90-TR-21 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Software 1990 Engineering Institute...Mettala and Graham 1992). " SEI has developed domain analysis techniques (Kang et al. 1990) and other reuse technology. Additionally, the SEI is in the...continue to build on your success. Figure 2-1 illustrates the Reuse Adoption process using a Structured Analysis and Design Thchmque (SADT) diagram

SOLE: Applying Semantics and Social Web to Support Technology Enhanced Learning in Software Engineering

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Colomo-Palacios, Ricardo; Jiménez-López, Diego; García-Crespo, Ángel; Blanco-Iglesias, Borja

eLearning educative processes are a challenge for educative institutions and education professionals. In an environment in which learning resources are being produced, catalogued and stored using innovative ways, SOLE provides a platform in which exam questions can be produced supported by Web 2.0 tools, catalogued and labeled via semantic web and stored and distributed using eLearning standards. This paper presents, SOLE, a social network of exam questions sharing particularized for Software Engineering domain, based on semantics and built using semantic web and eLearning standards, such as IMS Question and Test Interoperability specification 2.1.

Software-engineering challenges of building and deploying reusable problem solvers.

PubMed

O'Connor, Martin J; Nyulas, Csongor; Tu, Samson; Buckeridge, David L; Okhmatovskaia, Anna; Musen, Mark A

2009-11-01

Problem solving methods (PSMs) are software components that represent and encode reusable algorithms. They can be combined with representations of domain knowledge to produce intelligent application systems. A goal of research on PSMs is to provide principled methods and tools for composing and reusing algorithms in knowledge-based systems. The ultimate objective is to produce libraries of methods that can be easily adapted for use in these systems. Despite the intuitive appeal of PSMs as conceptual building blocks, in practice, these goals are largely unmet. There are no widely available tools for building applications using PSMs and no public libraries of PSMs available for reuse. This paper analyzes some of the reasons for the lack of widespread adoptions of PSM techniques and illustrate our analysis by describing our experiences developing a complex, high-throughput software system based on PSM principles. We conclude that many fundamental principles in PSM research are useful for building knowledge-based systems. In particular, the task-method decomposition process, which provides a means for structuring knowledge-based tasks, is a powerful abstraction for building systems of analytic methods. However, despite the power of PSMs in the conceptual modeling of knowledge-based systems, software engineering challenges have been seriously underestimated. The complexity of integrating control knowledge modeled by developers using PSMs with the domain knowledge that they model using ontologies creates a barrier to widespread use of PSM-based systems. Nevertheless, the surge of recent interest in ontologies has led to the production of comprehensive domain ontologies and of robust ontology-authoring tools. These developments present new opportunities to leverage the PSM approach.

Software-engineering challenges of building and deploying reusable problem solvers

PubMed Central

O’CONNOR, MARTIN J.; NYULAS, CSONGOR; TU, SAMSON; BUCKERIDGE, DAVID L.; OKHMATOVSKAIA, ANNA; MUSEN, MARK A.

2012-01-01

Problem solving methods (PSMs) are software components that represent and encode reusable algorithms. They can be combined with representations of domain knowledge to produce intelligent application systems. A goal of research on PSMs is to provide principled methods and tools for composing and reusing algorithms in knowledge-based systems. The ultimate objective is to produce libraries of methods that can be easily adapted for use in these systems. Despite the intuitive appeal of PSMs as conceptual building blocks, in practice, these goals are largely unmet. There are no widely available tools for building applications using PSMs and no public libraries of PSMs available for reuse. This paper analyzes some of the reasons for the lack of widespread adoptions of PSM techniques and illustrate our analysis by describing our experiences developing a complex, high-throughput software system based on PSM principles. We conclude that many fundamental principles in PSM research are useful for building knowledge-based systems. In particular, the task–method decomposition process, which provides a means for structuring knowledge-based tasks, is a powerful abstraction for building systems of analytic methods. However, despite the power of PSMs in the conceptual modeling of knowledge-based systems, software engineering challenges have been seriously underestimated. The complexity of integrating control knowledge modeled by developers using PSMs with the domain knowledge that they model using ontologies creates a barrier to widespread use of PSM-based systems. Nevertheless, the surge of recent interest in ontologies has led to the production of comprehensive domain ontologies and of robust ontology-authoring tools. These developments present new opportunities to leverage the PSM approach. PMID:23565031

TriBITS lifecycle model. Version 1.0, a lean/agile software lifecycle model for research-based computational science and engineering and applied mathematical software.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Willenbring, James M.; Bartlett, Roscoe Ainsworth; Heroux, Michael Allen

2012-01-01

Software lifecycles are becoming an increasingly important issue for computational science and engineering (CSE) software. The process by which a piece of CSE software begins life as a set of research requirements and then matures into a trusted high-quality capability is both commonplace and extremely challenging. Although an implicit lifecycle is obviously being used in any effort, the challenges of this process - respecting the competing needs of research vs. production - cannot be overstated. Here we describe a proposal for a well-defined software lifecycle process based on modern Lean/Agile software engineering principles. What we propose is appropriate for manymore » CSE software projects that are initially heavily focused on research but also are expected to eventually produce usable high-quality capabilities. The model is related to TriBITS, a build, integration and testing system, which serves as a strong foundation for this lifecycle model, and aspects of this lifecycle model are ingrained in the TriBITS system. Here, we advocate three to four phases or maturity levels that address the appropriate handling of many issues associated with the transition from research to production software. The goals of this lifecycle model are to better communicate maturity levels with customers and to help to identify and promote Software Engineering (SE) practices that will help to improve productivity and produce better software. An important collection of software in this domain is Trilinos, which is used as the motivation and the initial target for this lifecycle model. However, many other related and similar CSE (and non-CSE) software projects can also make good use of this lifecycle model, especially those that use the TriBITS system. Indeed this lifecycle process, if followed, will enable large-scale sustainable integration of many complex CSE software efforts across several institutions.« less

A Collaborative Knowledge Management Process for Implementing Healthcare Enterprise Information Systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cheng, Po-Hsun; Chen, Sao-Jie; Lai, Jin-Shin; Lai, Feipei

This paper illustrates a feasible health informatics domain knowledge management process which helps gather useful technology information and reduce many knowledge misunderstandings among engineers who have participated in the IBM mainframe rightsizing project at National Taiwan University (NTU) Hospital. We design an asynchronously sharing mechanism to facilitate the knowledge transfer and our health informatics domain knowledge management process can be used to publish and retrieve documents dynamically. It effectively creates an acceptable discussion environment and even lessens the traditional meeting burden among development engineers. An overall description on the current software development status is presented. Then, the knowledge management implementation of health information systems is proposed.

The theory of interface slicing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Beck, Jon

1993-01-01

Interface slicing is a new tool which was developed to facilitate reuse-based software engineering, by addressing the following problems, needs, and issues: (1) size of systems incorporating reused modules; (2) knowledge requirements for program modification; (3) program understanding for reverse engineering; (4) module granularity and domain management; and (5) time and space complexity of conventional slicing. The definition of a form of static program analysis called interface slicing is addressed.

A proven approach for more effective software development and maintenance

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pajerski, Rose; Hall, Dana; Sinclair, Craig

1994-01-01

Modern space flight mission operations and associated ground data systems are increasingly dependent upon reliable, quality software. Critical functions such as command load preparation, health and status monitoring, communications link scheduling and conflict resolution, and transparent gateway protocol conversion are routinely performed by software. Given budget constraints and the ever increasing capabilities of processor technology, the next generation of control centers and data systems will be even more dependent upon software across all aspects of performance. A key challenge now is to implement improved engineering, management, and assurance processes for the development and maintenance of that software; processes that cost less, yield higher quality products, and that self-correct for continual improvement evolution. The NASA Goddard Space Flight Center has a unique experience base that can be readily tapped to help solve the software challenge. Over the past eighteen years, the Software Engineering Laboratory within the code 500 Flight Dynamics Division has evolved a software development and maintenance methodology that accommodates the unique characteristics of an organization while optimizing and continually improving the organization's software capabilities. This methodology relies upon measurement, analysis, and feedback much analogous to that of control loop systems. It is an approach with a time-tested track record proven through repeated applications across a broad range of operational software development and maintenance projects. This paper describes the software improvement methodology employed by the Software Engineering Laboratory, and how it has been exploited within the Flight Dynamics Division with GSFC Code 500. Examples of specific improvement in the software itself and its processes are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the methodology. Finally, the initial findings are given when this methodology was applied across the mission operations and ground data systems software domains throughout Code 500.

Automated Test Environment for a Real-Time Control System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hall, Ronald O.

1994-01-01

An automated environment with hardware-in-the-loop has been developed by Rocketdyne Huntsville for test of a real-time control system. The target system of application is the man-rated real-time system which controls the Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSME). The primary use of the environment is software verification and validation, but it is also useful for evaluation and analysis of SSME avionics hardware and mathematical engine models. It provides a test bed for the integration of software and hardware. The principles and skills upon which it operates may be applied to other target systems, such as those requiring hardware-in-the-loop simulation and control system development. Potential applications are in problem domains demanding highly reliable software systems requiring testing to formal requirements and verifying successful transition to/from off-nominal system states.

Summary of Research 1998, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

DTIC Science & Technology

1999-08-01

Channel Interference," Master’s Thesis, Naval Postgraduate School, December 1998. Erdogan , V, "Time Domain Simulation of MPSK Communications System...1998, several new user interface screens have been designed. Software for reading data from analog tape has been completed and interfaced to the

Ground Operations Autonomous Control and Integrated Health Management

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Daniels, James

2014-01-01

The Ground Operations Autonomous Control and Integrated Health Management plays a key role for future ground operations at NASA. The software that is integrated into this system is called G2 2011 Gensym. The purpose of this report is to describe the Ground Operations Autonomous Control and Integrated Health Management with the use of the G2 Gensym software and the G2 NASA toolkit for Integrated System Health Management (ISHM) which is a Computer Software Configuration Item (CSCI). The decision rationale for the use of the G2 platform is to develop a modular capability for ISHM and AC. Toolkit modules include knowledge bases that are generic and can be applied in any application domain module. That way, there's a maximization of reusability, maintainability, and systematic evolution, portability, and scalability. Engine modules are generic, while application modules represent the domain model of a specific application. Furthermore, the NASA toolkit, developed since 2006 (a set of modules), makes it possible to create application domain models quickly, using pre-defined objects that include sensors and components libraries for typical fluid, electrical, and mechanical systems.

Alternatives for jet engine control

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Leake, R. J.; Sain, M. K.

1978-01-01

General goals of the research were classified into two categories. The first category involves the use of modern multivariable frequency domain methods for control of engine models in the neighborhood of a quiescent point. The second category involves the use of nonlinear modelling and optimization techniques for control of engine models over a more extensive part of the flight envelope. In the frequency domain category, works were published in the areas of low-interaction design, polynomial design, and multiple setpoint studies. A number of these ideas progressed to the point at which they are starting to attract practical interest. In the nonlinear category, advances were made both in engine modelling and in the details associated with software for determination of time optimal controls. Nonlinear models for a two spool turbofan engine were expanded and refined; and a promising new approach to automatic model generation was placed under study. A two time scale scheme was developed to do two-dimensional dynamic programming, and an outward spiral sweep technique has greatly speeded convergence times in time optimal calculations.

A Component Approach to Collaborative Scientific Software Development: Tools and Techniques Utilized by the Quantum Chemistry Science Application Partnership

DOE PAGES

Kenny, Joseph P.; Janssen, Curtis L.; Gordon, Mark S.; ...

2008-01-01

Cutting-edge scientific computing software is complex, increasingly involving the coupling of multiple packages to combine advanced algorithms or simulations at multiple physical scales. Component-based software engineering (CBSE) has been advanced as a technique for managing this complexity, and complex component applications have been created in the quantum chemistry domain, as well as several other simulation areas, using the component model advocated by the Common Component Architecture (CCA) Forum. While programming models do indeed enable sound software engineering practices, the selection of programming model is just one building block in a comprehensive approach to large-scale collaborative development which must also addressmore » interface and data standardization, and language and package interoperability. We provide an overview of the development approach utilized within the Quantum Chemistry Science Application Partnership, identifying design challenges, describing the techniques which we have adopted to address these challenges and highlighting the advantages which the CCA approach offers for collaborative development.« less

RT-Syn: A real-time software system generator

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Setliff, Dorothy E.

1992-01-01

This paper presents research into providing highly reusable and maintainable components by using automatic software synthesis techniques. This proposal uses domain knowledge combined with automatic software synthesis techniques to engineer large-scale mission-critical real-time software. The hypothesis centers on a software synthesis architecture that specifically incorporates application-specific (in this case real-time) knowledge. This architecture synthesizes complex system software to meet a behavioral specification and external interaction design constraints. Some examples of these external constraints are communication protocols, precisions, timing, and space limitations. The incorporation of application-specific knowledge facilitates the generation of mathematical software metrics which are used to narrow the design space, thereby making software synthesis tractable. Success has the potential to dramatically reduce mission-critical system life-cycle costs not only by reducing development time, but more importantly facilitating maintenance, modifications, and extensions of complex mission-critical software systems, which are currently dominating life cycle costs.

Human Centered Autonomous and Assistant Systems Testbed for Exploration Operations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Malin, Jane T.; Mount, Frances; Carreon, Patricia; Torney, Susan E.

2001-01-01

The Engineering and Mission Operations Directorates at NASA Johnson Space Center are combining laboratories and expertise to establish the Human Centered Autonomous and Assistant Systems Testbed for Exploration Operations. This is a testbed for human centered design, development and evaluation of intelligent autonomous and assistant systems that will be needed for human exploration and development of space. This project will improve human-centered analysis, design and evaluation methods for developing intelligent software. This software will support human-machine cognitive and collaborative activities in future interplanetary work environments where distributed computer and human agents cooperate. We are developing and evaluating prototype intelligent systems for distributed multi-agent mixed-initiative operations. The primary target domain is control of life support systems in a planetary base. Technical approaches will be evaluated for use during extended manned tests in the target domain, the Bioregenerative Advanced Life Support Systems Test Complex (BIO-Plex). A spinoff target domain is the International Space Station (ISS) Mission Control Center (MCC). Prodl}cts of this project include human-centered intelligent software technology, innovative human interface designs, and human-centered software development processes, methods and products. The testbed uses adjustable autonomy software and life support systems simulation models from the Adjustable Autonomy Testbed, to represent operations on the remote planet. Ground operations prototypes and concepts will be evaluated in the Exploration Planning and Operations Center (ExPOC) and Jupiter Facility.

Kedalion: NASA's Adaptable and Agile Hardware/Software Integration and Test Lab

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mangieri, Mark L.; Vice, Jason

2011-01-01

NASA fs Kedalion engineering analysis lab at Johnson Space Center is on the forefront of validating and using many contemporary avionics hardware/software development and integration techniques, which represent new paradigms to heritage NASA culture. Kedalion has validated many of the Orion hardware/software engineering techniques borrowed from the adjacent commercial aircraft avionics solution space, with the intention to build upon such techniques to better align with today fs aerospace market. Using agile techniques, commercial products, early rapid prototyping, in-house expertise and tools, and customer collaboration, Kedalion has demonstrated that cost effective contemporary paradigms hold the promise to serve future NASA endeavors within a diverse range of system domains. Kedalion provides a readily adaptable solution for medium/large scale integration projects. The Kedalion lab is currently serving as an in-line resource for the project and the Multipurpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) program.

CASE: A Configurable Argumentation Support Engine

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scheuer, O.; McLaren, B. M.

2013-01-01

One of the main challenges in tapping the full potential of modern educational software is to devise mechanisms to automatically analyze and adaptively support students' problem solving and learning. A number of such approaches have been developed to teach argumentation skills in domains as diverse as science, the Law, and ethics. Yet,…

CrossTalk. The Journal of Defense Software Engineering. Volume 27, Number 2. March/April 2014

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-04-01

Consequently, it is no wonder that we subconsciously and consciously expect that same level of consistency to hold in the cyber domains, though...including: cyber defense, synthetic biology, advanced design tools, AI learning, and quantum compilers. He is currently a co-PI for a DARPA-funded

Composable Framework Support for Software-FMEA Through Model Execution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kocsis, Imre; Patricia, Andras; Brancati, Francesco; Rossi, Francesco

2016-08-01

Performing Failure Modes and Effect Analysis (FMEA) during software architecture design is becoming a basic requirement in an increasing number of domains; however, due to the lack of standardized early design phase model execution, classic SW-FMEA approaches carry significant risks and are human effort-intensive even in processes that use Model-Driven Engineering.Recently, modelling languages with standardized executable semantics have emerged. Building on earlier results, this paper describes framework support for generating executable error propagation models from such models during software architecture design. The approach carries the promise of increased precision, decreased risk and more automated execution for SW-FMEA during dependability- critical system development.

Research Prototype: Automated Analysis of Scientific and Engineering Semantics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stewart, Mark E. M.; Follen, Greg (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

Physical and mathematical formulae and concepts are fundamental elements of scientific and engineering software. These classical equations and methods are time tested, universally accepted, and relatively unambiguous. The existence of this classical ontology suggests an ideal problem for automated comprehension. This problem is further motivated by the pervasive use of scientific code and high code development costs. To investigate code comprehension in this classical knowledge domain, a research prototype has been developed. The prototype incorporates scientific domain knowledge to recognize code properties (including units, physical, and mathematical quantity). Also, the procedure implements programming language semantics to propagate these properties through the code. This prototype's ability to elucidate code and detect errors will be demonstrated with state of the art scientific codes.

Automatic Debugging Support for UML Designs

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schumann, Johann; Swanson, Keith (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

Design of large software systems requires rigorous application of software engineering methods covering all phases of the software process. Debugging during the early design phases is extremely important, because late bug-fixes are expensive. In this paper, we describe an approach which facilitates debugging of UML requirements and designs. The Unified Modeling Language (UML) is a set of notations for object-orient design of a software system. We have developed an algorithm which translates requirement specifications in the form of annotated sequence diagrams into structured statecharts. This algorithm detects conflicts between sequence diagrams and inconsistencies in the domain knowledge. After synthesizing statecharts from sequence diagrams, these statecharts usually are subject to manual modification and refinement. By using the "backward" direction of our synthesis algorithm. we are able to map modifications made to the statechart back into the requirements (sequence diagrams) and check for conflicts there. Fed back to the user conflicts detected by our algorithm are the basis for deductive-based debugging of requirements and domain theory in very early development stages. Our approach allows to generate explanations oil why there is a conflict and which parts of the specifications are affected.

FAST Modularization Framework for Wind Turbine Simulation: Full-System Linearization

DOE PAGES

Jonkman, Jason M.; Jonkman, Bonnie J.

2016-10-03

The wind engineering community relies on multiphysics engineering software to run nonlinear time-domain simulations e.g. for design-standards-based loads analysis. Although most physics involved in wind energy are nonlinear, linearization of the underlying nonlinear system equations is often advantageous to understand the system response and exploit well-established methods and tools for analyzing linear systems. Here, this paper presents the development and verification of the new linearization functionality of the open-source engineering tool FAST v8 for land-based wind turbines, as well as the concepts and mathematical background needed to understand and apply it correctly.

FAST modularization framework for wind turbine simulation: full-system linearization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jonkman, J. M.; Jonkman, B. J.

2016-09-01

The wind engineering community relies on multiphysics engineering software to run nonlinear time-domain simulations e.g. for design-standards-based loads analysis. Although most physics involved in wind energy are nonlinear, linearization of the underlying nonlinear system equations is often advantageous to understand the system response and exploit well- established methods and tools for analyzing linear systems. This paper presents the development and verification of the new linearization functionality of the open-source engineering tool FAST v8 for land-based wind turbines, as well as the concepts and mathematical background needed to understand and apply it correctly.

Training in software used by practising engineers should be included in university curricula

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Silveira, A.; Perdigones, A.; García, J. L.

2009-04-01

Deally, an engineering education should prepare students, i.e., emerging engineers, to use problem-solving processes that synergistically combine creativity and imagination with rigour and discipline. Recently, pressures on curricula have resulted in the development of software-specific courses, often to the detriment of the understanding of theory [1]. However, it is also true that there is a demand for information technology courses by students other than computer science majors [2]. The emphasis on training engineers may be best placed on answering the needs of industry; indeed, many proposals are now being made to try to reduce the gap between the educational and industrial communities [3]. Training in the use of certain computer programs may be one way of better preparing engineering undergraduates for eventual employment in industry. However, industry's needs in this respect must first be known. The aim of this work was to determine which computer programs are used by practising agricultural engineers with the aim of incorporating training in their use into our department's teaching curriculum. The results showed that 72% of their working hours involved the use computer programs. The software packages most commonly used were Microsoft Office (used by 79% of respondents) and CAD (56%), as well as budgeting (27%), statistical (21%), engineering (15%) and GIS (13%) programs. As a result of this survey our university department opened an additional computer suite in order to provide students practical experience in the use of Microsoft Excel, budgeting and engineering software. The results of this survey underline the importance of computer software training in this and perhaps other fields of engineering. [1] D. J. Moore, and D. R. Voltmer, "Curriculum for an engineering renaissance," IEEE Trans. Educ., vol. 46, pp. 452-455, Nov. 2003. [2] N. Kock, R. Aiken, and C. Sandas, "Using complex IT in specific domains: developing and assessing a course for nonmajors," IEEE Trans. Educ., vol. 45, pp. 50- 56, Feb. 2002. [3] I. Vélez, and J. F. Sevillano, "A course to train digital hardware designers for industry," IEEE Trans. Educ., vol. 50, pp. 236-243, Aug. 2007. Acknowledgement: This work was supported in part by the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain.

The SEL Adapts to Meet Changing Times

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pajerski, Rose S.; Basili, Victor R.

1997-01-01

Since 1976, the Software Engineering Laboratory (SEL) has been dedicated to understanding and improving the way in which one NASA organization, the Flight Dynamics Division (FDD) at Goddard Space Flight Center, develops, maintains, and manages complex flight dynamics systems. It has done this by developing and refining a continual process improvement approach that allows an organization such as the FDD to fine-tune its process for its particular domain. Experimental software engineering and measurement play a significant role in this approach. The SEL is a partnership of NASA Goddard, its major software contractor, Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), and the University of Maryland's (LTM) Department of Computer Science. The FDD primarily builds software systems that provide ground-based flight dynamics support for scientific satellites. They fall into two sets: ground systems and simulators. Ground systems are midsize systems that average around 250 thousand source lines of code (KSLOC). Ground system development projects typically last 1 - 2 years. Recent systems have been rehosted to workstations from IBM mainframes, and also contain significant new subsystems written in C and C++. The simulators are smaller systems averaging around 60 KSLOC that provide the test data for the ground systems. Simulator development lasts up to 1 year. Most of the simulators have been built in Ada on workstations. The SEL is responsible for the management and continual improvement of the software engineering processes used on these FDD projects.

Using Decision Structures for Policy Analysis in Software Product-line Evolution - A Case Study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sarang, Nita; Sanglikar, Mukund A.

Project management decisions are the primary basis for project success (or failure). Mostly, such decisions are based on an intuitive understanding of the underlying software engineering and management process and have a likelihood of being misjudged. Our problem domain is product-line evolution. We model the dynamics of the process by incorporating feedback loops appropriate to two decision structures: staffing policy, and the forces of growth associated with long-term software evolution. The model is executable and supports project managers to assess the long-term effects of possible actions. Our work also corroborates results from earlier studies of E-type systems, in particular the FEAST project and the rules for software evolution, planning and management.

User-centered requirements engineering in health information systems: a study in the hemophilia field.

PubMed

Teixeira, Leonor; Ferreira, Carlos; Santos, Beatriz Sousa

2012-06-01

The use of sophisticated information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the health care domain is a way to improve the quality of services. However, there are also hazards associated with the introduction of ICTs in this domain and a great number of projects have failed due to the lack of systematic consideration of human and other non-technology issues throughout the design or implementation process, particularly in the requirements engineering process. This paper presents the methodological approach followed in the design process of a web-based information system (WbIS) for managing the clinical information in hemophilia care, which integrates the values and practices of user-centered design (UCD) activities into the principles of software engineering, particularly in the phase of requirements engineering (RE). This process followed a paradigm that combines a grounded theory for data collection with an evolutionary design based on constant development and refinement of the generic domain model using three well-known methodological approaches: (a) object-oriented system analysis; (b) task analysis; and, (c) prototyping, in a triangulation work. This approach seems to be a good solution for the requirements engineering process in this particular case of the health care domain, since the inherent weaknesses of individual methods are reduced, and emergent requirements are easier to elicit. Moreover, the requirements triangulation matrix gives the opportunity to look across the results of all used methods and decide what requirements are critical for the system success. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Evaluation of a deidentification (De-Id) software engine to share pathology reports and clinical documents for research.

PubMed

Gupta, Dilip; Saul, Melissa; Gilbertson, John

2004-02-01

We evaluated a comprehensive deidentification engine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), Pittsburgh, PA, that uses a complex set of rules, dictionaries, pattern-matching algorithms, and the Unified Medical Language System to identify and replace identifying text in clinical reports while preserving medical information for sharing in research. In our initial data set of 967 surgical pathology reports, the software did not suppress outside (103), UPMC (47), and non-UPMC (56) accession numbers; dates (7); names (9) or initials (25) of case pathologists; or hospital or laboratory names (46). In 150 reports, some clinical information was suppressed inadvertently (overmarking). The engine retained eponymic patient names, eg, Barrett and Gleason. In the second evaluation (1,000 reports), the software did not suppress outside (90) or UPMC (6) accession numbers or names (4) or initials (2) of case pathologists. In the third evaluation, the software removed names of patients, hospitals (297/300), pathologists (297/300), transcriptionists, residents and physicians, dates of procedures, and accession numbers (298/300). By the end of the evaluation, the system was reliably and specifically removing safe-harbor identifiers and producing highly readable deidentified text without removing important clinical information. Collaboration between pathology domain experts and system developers and continuous quality assurance are needed to optimize ongoing deidentification processes.

Analyzing and designing object-oriented missile simulations with concurrency

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Randorf, Jeffrey Allen

2000-11-01

A software object model for the six degree-of-freedom missile modeling domain is presented. As a precursor, a domain analysis of the missile modeling domain was started, based on the Feature-Oriented Domain Analysis (FODA) technique described by the Software Engineering Institute (SEI). It was subsequently determined the FODA methodology is functionally equivalent to the Object Modeling Technique. The analysis used legacy software documentation and code from the ENDOSIM, KDEC, and TFrames 6-DOF modeling tools, including other technical literature. The SEI Object Connection Architecture (OCA) was the template for designing the object model. Three variants of the OCA were considered---a reference structure, a recursive structure, and a reference structure with augmentation for flight vehicle modeling. The reference OCA design option was chosen for maintaining simplicity while not compromising the expressive power of the OMT model. The missile architecture was then analyzed for potential areas of concurrent computing. It was shown how protected objects could be used for data passing between OCA object managers, allowing concurrent access without changing the OCA reference design intent or structure. The implementation language was the 1995 release of Ada. OCA software components were shown how to be expressed as Ada child packages. While acceleration of several low level and other high operations level are possible on proper hardware, there was a 33% degradation of 4th order Runge-Kutta integrator performance of two simultaneous ordinary differential equations using Ada tasking on a single processor machine. The Defense Department's High Level Architecture was introduced and explained in context with the OCA. It was shown the HLA and OCA were not mutually exclusive architectures, but complimentary. HLA was shown as an interoperability solution, with the OCA as an architectural vehicle for software reuse. Further directions for implementing a 6-DOF missile modeling environment are discussed.

Air Force Research Laboratory Technology Milestones 2007

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-01-01

Propulsion Fuel Pumps and Fuel Systems Liquid Rockets and Combustion Gas Generators Micropropulsion Gears Monopropellants High-Cycle Fatigue and Its... Systems Electric Propulsion Engine Health Monitoring Systems High-Energy-Density Matter Exhaust Nozzles Injectors and Spray Measurements Fans Laser...of software models to drive development of component-based systems and lightweight domain-specific specification and verification technology. Highly

Implications of Integrated Computational Materials Engineering with Respect to Export Control

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-09-01

domain. The university also advises its staff to ask for any ECCN that may be associated with a procured software package in order to understand the...industry? • Models can transform input data, which can be of various export control levels, and provide new, transformed data. If EAR ECCN 9E991 data is

Onyx-Advanced Aeropropulsion Simulation Framework Created

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Reed, John A.

2001-01-01

The Numerical Propulsion System Simulation (NPSS) project at the NASA Glenn Research Center is developing a new software environment for analyzing and designing aircraft engines and, eventually, space transportation systems. Its purpose is to dramatically reduce the time, effort, and expense necessary to design and test jet engines by creating sophisticated computer simulations of an aerospace object or system (refs. 1 and 2). Through a university grant as part of that effort, researchers at the University of Toledo have developed Onyx, an extensible Java-based (Sun Micro-systems, Inc.), objectoriented simulation framework, to investigate how advanced software design techniques can be successfully applied to aeropropulsion system simulation (refs. 3 and 4). The design of Onyx's architecture enables users to customize and extend the framework to add new functionality or adapt simulation behavior as required. It exploits object-oriented technologies, such as design patterns, domain frameworks, and software components, to develop a modular system in which users can dynamically replace components with others having different functionality.

Scalable geocomputation: evolving an environmental model building platform from single-core to supercomputers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schmitz, Oliver; de Jong, Kor; Karssenberg, Derek

2017-04-01

There is an increasing demand to run environmental models on a big scale: simulations over large areas at high resolution. The heterogeneity of available computing hardware such as multi-core CPUs, GPUs or supercomputer potentially provides significant computing power to fulfil this demand. However, this requires detailed knowledge of the underlying hardware, parallel algorithm design and the implementation thereof in an efficient system programming language. Domain scientists such as hydrologists or ecologists often lack this specific software engineering knowledge, their emphasis is (and should be) on exploratory building and analysis of simulation models. As a result, models constructed by domain specialists mostly do not take full advantage of the available hardware. A promising solution is to separate the model building activity from software engineering by offering domain specialists a model building framework with pre-programmed building blocks that they combine to construct a model. The model building framework, consequently, needs to have built-in capabilities to make full usage of the available hardware. Developing such a framework providing understandable code for domain scientists and being runtime efficient at the same time poses several challenges on developers of such a framework. For example, optimisations can be performed on individual operations or the whole model, or tasks need to be generated for a well-balanced execution without explicitly knowing the complexity of the domain problem provided by the modeller. Ideally, a modelling framework supports the optimal use of available hardware whichsoever combination of model building blocks scientists use. We demonstrate our ongoing work on developing parallel algorithms for spatio-temporal modelling and demonstrate 1) PCRaster, an environmental software framework (http://www.pcraster.eu) providing spatio-temporal model building blocks and 2) parallelisation of about 50 of these building blocks using the new Fern library (https://github.com/geoneric/fern/), an independent generic raster processing library. Fern is a highly generic software library and its algorithms can be configured according to the configuration of a modelling framework. With manageable programming effort (e.g. matching data types between programming and domain language) we created a binding between Fern and PCRaster. The resulting PCRaster Python multicore module can be used to execute existing PCRaster models without having to make any changes to the model code. We show initial results on synthetic and geoscientific models indicating significant runtime improvements provided by parallel local and focal operations. We further outline challenges in improving remaining algorithms such as flow operations over digital elevation maps and further potential improvements like enhancing disk I/O.

Generic, Type-Safe and Object Oriented Computer Algebra Software

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kredel, Heinz; Jolly, Raphael

Advances in computer science, in particular object oriented programming, and software engineering have had little practical impact on computer algebra systems in the last 30 years. The software design of existing systems is still dominated by ad-hoc memory management, weakly typed algorithm libraries and proprietary domain specific interactive expression interpreters. We discuss a modular approach to computer algebra software: usage of state-of-the-art memory management and run-time systems (e.g. JVM) usage of strongly typed, generic, object oriented programming languages (e.g. Java) and usage of general purpose, dynamic interactive expression interpreters (e.g. Python) To illustrate the workability of this approach, we have implemented and studied computer algebra systems in Java and Scala. In this paper we report on the current state of this work by presenting new examples.

BIOMedical Search Engine Framework: Lightweight and customized implementation of domain-specific biomedical search engines.

PubMed

Jácome, Alberto G; Fdez-Riverola, Florentino; Lourenço, Anália

2016-07-01

Text mining and semantic analysis approaches can be applied to the construction of biomedical domain-specific search engines and provide an attractive alternative to create personalized and enhanced search experiences. Therefore, this work introduces the new open-source BIOMedical Search Engine Framework for the fast and lightweight development of domain-specific search engines. The rationale behind this framework is to incorporate core features typically available in search engine frameworks with flexible and extensible technologies to retrieve biomedical documents, annotate meaningful domain concepts, and develop highly customized Web search interfaces. The BIOMedical Search Engine Framework integrates taggers for major biomedical concepts, such as diseases, drugs, genes, proteins, compounds and organisms, and enables the use of domain-specific controlled vocabulary. Technologies from the Typesafe Reactive Platform, the AngularJS JavaScript framework and the Bootstrap HTML/CSS framework support the customization of the domain-oriented search application. Moreover, the RESTful API of the BIOMedical Search Engine Framework allows the integration of the search engine into existing systems or a complete web interface personalization. The construction of the Smart Drug Search is described as proof-of-concept of the BIOMedical Search Engine Framework. This public search engine catalogs scientific literature about antimicrobial resistance, microbial virulence and topics alike. The keyword-based queries of the users are transformed into concepts and search results are presented and ranked accordingly. The semantic graph view portraits all the concepts found in the results, and the researcher may look into the relevance of different concepts, the strength of direct relations, and non-trivial, indirect relations. The number of occurrences of the concept shows its importance to the query, and the frequency of concept co-occurrence is indicative of biological relations meaningful to that particular scope of research. Conversely, indirect concept associations, i.e. concepts related by other intermediary concepts, can be useful to integrate information from different studies and look into non-trivial relations. The BIOMedical Search Engine Framework supports the development of domain-specific search engines. The key strengths of the framework are modularity and extensibilityin terms of software design, the use of open-source consolidated Web technologies, and the ability to integrate any number of biomedical text mining tools and information resources. Currently, the Smart Drug Search keeps over 1,186,000 documents, containing more than 11,854,000 annotations for 77,200 different concepts. The Smart Drug Search is publicly accessible at http://sing.ei.uvigo.es/sds/. The BIOMedical Search Engine Framework is freely available for non-commercial use at https://github.com/agjacome/biomsef. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Ontology-Driven Information Integration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tissot, Florence; Menzel, Chris

2005-01-01

Ontology-driven information integration (ODII) is a method of computerized, automated sharing of information among specialists who have expertise in different domains and who are members of subdivisions of a large, complex enterprise (e.g., an engineering project, a government agency, or a business). In ODII, one uses rigorous mathematical techniques to develop computational models of engineering and/or business information and processes. These models are then used to develop software tools that support the reliable processing and exchange of information among the subdivisions of this enterprise or between this enterprise and other enterprises.

Integrating NASA's Land Analysis System (LAS) image processing software with an appropriate Geographic Information System (GIS): A review of candidates in the public domain

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rochon, Gilbert L.

1989-01-01

A user requirements analysis (URA) was undertaken to determine and appropriate public domain Geographic Information System (GIS) software package for potential integration with NASA's LAS (Land Analysis System) 5.0 image processing system. The necessity for a public domain system was underscored due to the perceived need for source code access and flexibility in tailoring the GIS system to the needs of a heterogenous group of end-users, and to specific constraints imposed by LAS and its user interface, Transportable Applications Executive (TAE). Subsequently, a review was conducted of a variety of public domain GIS candidates, including GRASS 3.0, MOSS, IEMIS, and two university-based packages, IDRISI and KBGIS. The review method was a modified version of the GIS evaluation process, development by the Federal Interagency Coordinating Committee on Digital Cartography. One IEMIS-derivative product, the ALBE (AirLand Battlefield Environment) GIS, emerged as the most promising candidate for integration with LAS. IEMIS (Integrated Emergency Management Information System) was developed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). ALBE GIS is currently under development at the Pacific Northwest Laboratory under contract with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Engineering Topographic Laboratory (ETL). Accordingly, recommendations are offered with respect to a potential LAS/ALBE GIS linkage and with respect to further system enhancements, including coordination with the development of the Spatial Analysis and Modeling System (SAMS) GIS in Goddard's IDM (Intelligent Data Management) developments in Goddard's National Space Science Data Center.

An open-source software platform for data management, visualisation, model building and model sharing in water, energy and other resource modelling domains.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Knox, S.; Meier, P.; Mohammed, K.; Korteling, B.; Matrosov, E. S.; Hurford, A.; Huskova, I.; Harou, J. J.; Rosenberg, D. E.; Thilmant, A.; Medellin-Azuara, J.; Wicks, J.

2015-12-01

Capacity expansion on resource networks is essential to adapting to economic and population growth and pressures such as climate change. Engineered infrastructure systems such as water, energy, or transport networks require sophisticated and bespoke models to refine management and investment strategies. Successful modeling of such complex systems relies on good data management and advanced methods to visualize and share data.Engineered infrastructure systems are often represented as networks of nodes and links with operating rules describing their interactions. Infrastructure system management and planning can be abstracted to simulating or optimizing new operations and extensions of the network. By separating the data storage of abstract networks from manipulation and modeling we have created a system where infrastructure modeling across various domains is facilitated.We introduce Hydra Platform, a Free Open Source Software designed for analysts and modelers to store, manage and share network topology and data. Hydra Platform is a Python library with a web service layer for remote applications, called Apps, to connect. Apps serve various functions including network or results visualization, data export (e.g. into a proprietary format) or model execution. This Client-Server architecture allows users to manipulate and share centrally stored data. XML templates allow a standardised description of the data structure required for storing network data such that it is compatible with specific models.Hydra Platform represents networks in an abstract way and is therefore not bound to a single modeling domain. It is the Apps that create domain-specific functionality. Using Apps researchers from different domains can incorporate different models within the same network enabling cross-disciplinary modeling while minimizing errors and streamlining data sharing. Separating the Python library from the web layer allows developers to natively expand the software or build web-based apps in other languages for remote functionality. Partner CH2M is developing a commercial user-interface for Hydra Platform however custom interfaces and visualization tools can be built. Hydra Platform is available on GitHub while Apps will be shared on a central repository.

Supporting Safe Content-Inspection of Web Traffic

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-09-01

domain exchanges are cases in point. A number of interception-based func- tions require deep inspection of the traffic, meaning operations that need to...suggestions for reducing this burden, to Washington Headquarters Services, Directorate for Information Operations and Reports, 1215 Jefferson Davis Highway...distribution unlimited 13. SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES CROSSTALK The Journal of Defense Software Engineering September 2008 14. ABSTRACT 15. SUBJECT

A Computer Science Educational Program for Establishing an Entry Point into the Computing Community of Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Haberman, Bruria; Yehezkel, Cecile

2008-01-01

The rapid evolvement of the computing domain has posed challenges in attempting to bridge the gap between school and the contemporary world of computing, which is related to content, learning culture, and professional norms. We believe that the interaction of high-school students who major in computer science or software engineering with leading…

Software Testbed for Developing and Evaluating Integrated Autonomous Systems

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-03-01

EUROPA planning system for plan generation. The adaptive controller executes the new plan, using augmented, hierarchical finite state machines to...using the Internet Communications Engine ( ICE ), an object-oriented toolkit for building distributed applications. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1...ANML model is translated into the New Domain Definition Language (NDDL) and sent to NASA???s EUROPA planning system for plan generation. The adaptive

Experiences of engineering Grid-based medical software.

PubMed

Estrella, F; Hauer, T; McClatchey, R; Odeh, M; Rogulin, D; Solomonides, T

2007-08-01

Grid-based technologies are emerging as potential solutions for managing and collaborating distributed resources in the biomedical domain. Few examples exist, however, of successful implementations of Grid-enabled medical systems and even fewer have been deployed for evaluation in practice. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the use in clinical practice of a Grid-based imaging prototype and to establish directions for engineering future medical Grid developments and their subsequent deployment. The MammoGrid project has deployed a prototype system for clinicians using the Grid as its information infrastructure. To assist in the specification of the system requirements (and for the first time in healthgrid applications), use-case modelling has been carried out in close collaboration with clinicians and radiologists who had no prior experience of this modelling technique. A critical qualitative and, where possible, quantitative analysis of the MammoGrid prototype is presented leading to a set of recommendations from the delivery of the first deployed Grid-based medical imaging application. We report critically on the application of software engineering techniques in the specification and implementation of the MammoGrid project and show that use-case modelling is a suitable vehicle for representing medical requirements and for communicating effectively with the clinical community. This paper also discusses the practical advantages and limitations of applying the Grid to real-life clinical applications and presents the consequent lessons learned. The work presented in this paper demonstrates that given suitable commitment from collaborating radiologists it is practical to deploy in practice medical imaging analysis applications using the Grid but that standardization in and stability of the Grid software is a necessary pre-requisite for successful healthgrids. The MammoGrid prototype has therefore paved the way for further advanced Grid-based deployments in the medical and biomedical domains.

Automatic building information model query generation

DOE PAGES

Jiang, Yufei; Yu, Nan; Ming, Jiang; ...

2015-12-01

Energy efficient building design and construction calls for extensive collaboration between different subfields of the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) community. Performing building design and construction engineering raises challenges on data integration and software interoperability. Using Building Information Modeling (BIM) data hub to host and integrate building models is a promising solution to address those challenges, which can ease building design information management. However, the partial model query mechanism of current BIM data hub collaboration model has several limitations, which prevents designers and engineers to take advantage of BIM. To address this problem, we propose a general and effective approachmore » to generate query code based on a Model View Definition (MVD). This approach is demonstrated through a software prototype called QueryGenerator. In conclusion, by demonstrating a case study using multi-zone air flow analysis, we show how our approach and tool can help domain experts to use BIM to drive building design with less labour and lower overhead cost.« less

Automatic building information model query generation

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Jiang, Yufei; Yu, Nan; Ming, Jiang

Energy efficient building design and construction calls for extensive collaboration between different subfields of the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) community. Performing building design and construction engineering raises challenges on data integration and software interoperability. Using Building Information Modeling (BIM) data hub to host and integrate building models is a promising solution to address those challenges, which can ease building design information management. However, the partial model query mechanism of current BIM data hub collaboration model has several limitations, which prevents designers and engineers to take advantage of BIM. To address this problem, we propose a general and effective approachmore » to generate query code based on a Model View Definition (MVD). This approach is demonstrated through a software prototype called QueryGenerator. In conclusion, by demonstrating a case study using multi-zone air flow analysis, we show how our approach and tool can help domain experts to use BIM to drive building design with less labour and lower overhead cost.« less

Quality Attributes for Mission Flight Software: A Reference for Architects

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wilmot, Jonathan; Fesq, Lorraine; Dvorak, Dan

2016-01-01

In the international standards for architecture descriptions in systems and software engineering (ISO/IEC/IEEE 42010), "concern" is a primary concept that often manifests itself in relation to the quality attributes or "ilities" that a system is expected to exhibit - qualities such as reliability, security and modifiability. One of the main uses of an architecture description is to serve as a basis for analyzing how well the architecture achieves its quality attributes, and that requires architects to be as precise as possible about what they mean in claiming, for example, that an architecture supports "modifiability." This paper describes a table, generated by NASA's Software Architecture Review Board, which lists fourteen key quality attributes, identifies different important aspects of each quality attribute and considers each aspect in terms of requirements, rationale, evidence, and tactics to achieve the aspect. This quality attribute table is intended to serve as a guide to software architects, software developers, and software architecture reviewers in the domain of mission-critical real-time embedded systems, such as space mission flight software.

Mechanistic modelling of cancer: some reflections from software engineering and philosophy of science.

PubMed

Cañete-Valdeón, José M; Wieringa, Roel; Smallbone, Kieran

2012-12-01

There is a growing interest in mathematical mechanistic modelling as a promising strategy for understanding tumour progression. This approach is accompanied by a methodological change of making research, in which models help to actively generate hypotheses instead of waiting for general principles to become apparent once sufficient data are accumulated. This paper applies recent research from philosophy of science to uncover three important problems of mechanistic modelling which may compromise its mainstream application, namely: the dilemma of formal and informal descriptions, the need to express degrees of confidence and the need of an argumentation framework. We report experience and research on similar problems from software engineering and provide evidence that the solutions adopted there can be transferred to the biological domain. We hope this paper can provoke new opportunities for further and profitable interdisciplinary research in the field.

Multidisciplinary model-based-engineering for laser weapon systems: recent progress

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Coy, Steve; Panthaki, Malcolm

2013-09-01

We are working to develop a comprehensive, integrated software framework and toolset to support model-based engineering (MBE) of laser weapons systems. MBE has been identified by the Office of the Director, Defense Science and Engineering as one of four potentially "game-changing" technologies that could bring about revolutionary advances across the entire DoD research and development and procurement cycle. To be effective, however, MBE requires robust underlying modeling and simulation technologies capable of modeling all the pertinent systems, subsystems, components, effects, and interactions at any level of fidelity that may be required in order to support crucial design decisions at any point in the system development lifecycle. Very often the greatest technical challenges are posed by systems involving interactions that cut across two or more distinct scientific or engineering domains; even in cases where there are excellent tools available for modeling each individual domain, generally none of these domain-specific tools can be used to model the cross-domain interactions. In the case of laser weapons systems R&D these tools need to be able to support modeling of systems involving combined interactions among structures, thermal, and optical effects, including both ray optics and wave optics, controls, atmospheric effects, target interaction, computational fluid dynamics, and spatiotemporal interactions between lasing light and the laser gain medium. To address this problem we are working to extend Comet™, to add the addition modeling and simulation capabilities required for this particular application area. In this paper we will describe our progress to date.

Software Carpentry In The Hydrological Sciences

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ahmadia, A. J.; Kees, C. E.

2014-12-01

Scientists are spending an increasing amount of time building and using hydrology software. However, most scientists are never taught how to do this efficiently. As a result, many are unaware of tools and practices that would allow them to write more reliable and maintainable code with less effort. As hydrology models increase in capability and enter use by a growing number of scientists and their communities, it is important that the scientific software development practices scale up to meet the challenges posed by increasing software complexity, lengthening software lifecycles, a growing number of stakeholders and contributers, and a broadened developer base that extends from application domains to high performance computing centers. Many of these challenges in complexity, lifecycles, and developer base have been successfully met by the open source community, and there are many lessons to be learned from their experiences and practices. Additionally, there is much wisdom to be found in the results of research studies conducted on software engineering itself. Software Carpentry aims to bridge the gap between the current state of software development and these known best practices for scientific software development, with a focus on hands-on exercises and practical advice. In 2014, Software Carpentry workshops targeting earth/environmental sciences and hydrological modeling have been organized and run at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the US Army Corps of Engineers, the Community Surface Dynamics Modeling System Annual Meeting, and the Earth Science Information Partners Summer Meeting. In this presentation, we will share some of the successes in teaching this material, as well as discuss and present instructional material specific to hydrological modeling.

Open Source Patient-Controlled Analgesic Pump Requirements Documentation

PubMed Central

Larson, Brian R.; Hatcliff, John; Chalin, Patrice

2014-01-01

The dynamic nature of the medical domain is driving a need for continuous innovation and improvement in techniques for developing and assuring medical devices. Unfortunately, research in academia and communication between academics, industrial engineers, and regulatory authorities is hampered by the lack of realistic non-proprietary development artifacts for medical devices. In this paper, we give an overview of a detailed requirements document for a Patient-Controlled Analgesic (PCA) pump developed under the US NSF’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Scholar-in-Residence (SIR) program. This 60+ page document follows the methodology outlined in the US Federal Aviation Administrations (FAA) Requirements Engineering Management Handbook (REMH) and includes a domain overview, use cases, statements of safety & security requirements, and formal top-level system architectural description. Based on previous experience with release of a requirements document for a cardiac pacemaker that spawned a number of research and pedagogical activities, we believe that the described PCA requirements document can be an important research enabler within the formal methods and software engineering communities. PMID:24931440

Executive control systems in the engineering design environment. M.S. Thesis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hurst, P. W.

1985-01-01

An executive control system (ECS) is a software structure for unifying various applications codes into a comprehensive system. It provides a library of applications, a uniform access method through a cental user interface, and a data management facility. A survey of twenty-four executive control systems designed to unify various CAD/CAE applications for use in diverse engineering design environments within government and industry was conducted. The goals of this research were to establish system requirements to survey state-of-the-art architectural design approaches, and to provide an overview of the historical evolution of these systems. Foundations for design are presented and include environmental settings, system requirements, major architectural components, and a system classification scheme based on knowledge of the supported engineering domain(s). An overview of the design approaches used in developing the major architectural components of an ECS is presented with examples taken from the surveyed systems. Attention is drawn to four major areas of ECS development: interdisciplinary usage; standardization; knowledge utilization; and computer science technology transfer.

Implementation of workflow engine technology to deliver basic clinical decision support functionality.

PubMed

Huser, Vojtech; Rasmussen, Luke V; Oberg, Ryan; Starren, Justin B

2011-04-10

Workflow engine technology represents a new class of software with the ability to graphically model step-based knowledge. We present application of this novel technology to the domain of clinical decision support. Successful implementation of decision support within an electronic health record (EHR) remains an unsolved research challenge. Previous research efforts were mostly based on healthcare-specific representation standards and execution engines and did not reach wide adoption. We focus on two challenges in decision support systems: the ability to test decision logic on retrospective data prior prospective deployment and the challenge of user-friendly representation of clinical logic. We present our implementation of a workflow engine technology that addresses the two above-described challenges in delivering clinical decision support. Our system is based on a cross-industry standard of XML (extensible markup language) process definition language (XPDL). The core components of the system are a workflow editor for modeling clinical scenarios and a workflow engine for execution of those scenarios. We demonstrate, with an open-source and publicly available workflow suite, that clinical decision support logic can be executed on retrospective data. The same flowchart-based representation can also function in a prospective mode where the system can be integrated with an EHR system and respond to real-time clinical events. We limit the scope of our implementation to decision support content generation (which can be EHR system vendor independent). We do not focus on supporting complex decision support content delivery mechanisms due to lack of standardization of EHR systems in this area. We present results of our evaluation of the flowchart-based graphical notation as well as architectural evaluation of our implementation using an established evaluation framework for clinical decision support architecture. We describe an implementation of a free workflow technology software suite (available at http://code.google.com/p/healthflow) and its application in the domain of clinical decision support. Our implementation seamlessly supports clinical logic testing on retrospective data and offers a user-friendly knowledge representation paradigm. With the presented software implementation, we demonstrate that workflow engine technology can provide a decision support platform which evaluates well against an established clinical decision support architecture evaluation framework. Due to cross-industry usage of workflow engine technology, we can expect significant future functionality enhancements that will further improve the technology's capacity to serve as a clinical decision support platform.

IDEAL: Images Across Domains, Experiments, Algorithms and Learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ushizima, Daniela M.; Bale, Hrishikesh A.; Bethel, E. Wes; Ercius, Peter; Helms, Brett A.; Krishnan, Harinarayan; Grinberg, Lea T.; Haranczyk, Maciej; Macdowell, Alastair A.; Odziomek, Katarzyna; Parkinson, Dilworth Y.; Perciano, Talita; Ritchie, Robert O.; Yang, Chao

2016-11-01

Research across science domains is increasingly reliant on image-centric data. Software tools are in high demand to uncover relevant, but hidden, information in digital images, such as those coming from faster next generation high-throughput imaging platforms. The challenge is to analyze the data torrent generated by the advanced instruments efficiently, and provide insights such as measurements for decision-making. In this paper, we overview work performed by an interdisciplinary team of computational and materials scientists, aimed at designing software applications and coordinating research efforts connecting (1) emerging algorithms for dealing with large and complex datasets; (2) data analysis methods with emphasis in pattern recognition and machine learning; and (3) advances in evolving computer architectures. Engineering tools around these efforts accelerate the analyses of image-based recordings, improve reusability and reproducibility, scale scientific procedures by reducing time between experiments, increase efficiency, and open opportunities for more users of the imaging facilities. This paper describes our algorithms and software tools, showing results across image scales, demonstrating how our framework plays a role in improving image understanding for quality control of existent materials and discovery of new compounds.

Requirements for guidelines systems: implementation challenges and lessons from existing software-engineering efforts.

PubMed

Shah, Hemant; Allard, Raymond D; Enberg, Robert; Krishnan, Ganesh; Williams, Patricia; Nadkarni, Prakash M

2012-03-09

A large body of work in the clinical guidelines field has identified requirements for guideline systems, but there are formidable challenges in translating such requirements into production-quality systems that can be used in routine patient care. Detailed analysis of requirements from an implementation perspective can be useful in helping define sub-requirements to the point where they are implementable. Further, additional requirements emerge as a result of such analysis. During such an analysis, study of examples of existing, software-engineering efforts in non-biomedical fields can provide useful signposts to the implementer of a clinical guideline system. In addition to requirements described by guideline-system authors, comparative reviews of such systems, and publications discussing information needs for guideline systems and clinical decision support systems in general, we have incorporated additional requirements related to production-system robustness and functionality from publications in the business workflow domain, in addition to drawing on our own experience in the development of the Proteus guideline system (http://proteme.org). The sub-requirements are discussed by conveniently grouping them into the categories used by the review of Isern and Moreno 2008. We cite previous work under each category and then provide sub-requirements under each category, and provide example of similar work in software-engineering efforts that have addressed a similar problem in a non-biomedical context. When analyzing requirements from the implementation viewpoint, knowledge of successes and failures in related software-engineering efforts can guide implementers in the choice of effective design and development strategies.

Requirements for guidelines systems: implementation challenges and lessons from existing software-engineering efforts

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background A large body of work in the clinical guidelines field has identified requirements for guideline systems, but there are formidable challenges in translating such requirements into production-quality systems that can be used in routine patient care. Detailed analysis of requirements from an implementation perspective can be useful in helping define sub-requirements to the point where they are implementable. Further, additional requirements emerge as a result of such analysis. During such an analysis, study of examples of existing, software-engineering efforts in non-biomedical fields can provide useful signposts to the implementer of a clinical guideline system. Methods In addition to requirements described by guideline-system authors, comparative reviews of such systems, and publications discussing information needs for guideline systems and clinical decision support systems in general, we have incorporated additional requirements related to production-system robustness and functionality from publications in the business workflow domain, in addition to drawing on our own experience in the development of the Proteus guideline system (http://proteme.org). Results The sub-requirements are discussed by conveniently grouping them into the categories used by the review of Isern and Moreno 2008. We cite previous work under each category and then provide sub-requirements under each category, and provide example of similar work in software-engineering efforts that have addressed a similar problem in a non-biomedical context. Conclusions When analyzing requirements from the implementation viewpoint, knowledge of successes and failures in related software-engineering efforts can guide implementers in the choice of effective design and development strategies. PMID:22405400

Working Notes from the 1992 AAAI Workshop on Automating Software Design. Theme: Domain Specific Software Design

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Keller, Richard M. (Editor); Barstow, David; Lowry, Michael R.; Tong, Christopher H.

1992-01-01

The goal of this workshop is to identify different architectural approaches to building domain-specific software design systems and to explore issues unique to domain-specific (vs. general-purpose) software design. Some general issues that cut across the particular software design domain include: (1) knowledge representation, acquisition, and maintenance; (2) specialized software design techniques; and (3) user interaction and user interface.

CrossTalk. The Journal of Defense Software Engineering. Volume 26, Number 5

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-10-01

to a backend domain managed by the cyber criminal. Mobile bots can perform piggybacking on legitimate applications and steal data by controlling...technology infrastructure for managing identities, interfaces (web and/or mobile ), and agreements with service providers. The necessary capabilities and...platforms of unknown or dubious origin, global access by mobile (and largely insecure) devices, eroded trust boundaries, and the possibility of malevolent

Hardware-Assisted Large-Scale Neuroevolution for Multiagent Learning

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-12-30

SECURITY CLASSIFICATION OF: This DURIP equipment award was used to purchase, install, and bring on-line two Berkeley Emulation Engines ( BEEs ) and two...mini- BEE machines to establish an FPGA-based high-performance multiagent training platform and its associated software. This acquisition of BEE4-W...Platform; Probabilistic Domain Transformation; Hardware-Assisted; FPGA; BEE ; Hive Brain; Multiagent. REPORT DOCUMENTATION PAGE 11. SPONSOR/MONITOR’S

Generalized Operations Simulation Environment for Aircraft Maintenance Training

DTIC Science & Technology

2004-04-01

Operations Simulation Environment ( GOSE ) project is a collaborative effort between AETC and AFRL to develop common, cost-effective, generalized VR training...maintenance training domain since it provided an opportunity to build on the VEST architecture. Development of GOSE involves re-engineering VEST as a scalable...modular, immersive VR training system comprised of PC-based hardware and software. GOSE initiatives include: (a) formalize training needs across

User Interface Technology for Formal Specification Development

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lowry, Michael; Philpot, Andrew; Pressburger, Thomas; Underwood, Ian; Lum, Henry, Jr. (Technical Monitor)

1994-01-01

Formal specification development and modification are an essential component of the knowledge-based software life cycle. User interface technology is needed to empower end-users to create their own formal specifications. This paper describes the advanced user interface for AMPHION1 a knowledge-based software engineering system that targets scientific subroutine libraries. AMPHION is a generic, domain-independent architecture that is specialized to an application domain through a declarative domain theory. Formal specification development and reuse is made accessible to end-users through an intuitive graphical interface that provides semantic guidance in creating diagrams denoting formal specifications in an application domain. The diagrams also serve to document the specifications. Automatic deductive program synthesis ensures that end-user specifications are correctly implemented. The tables that drive AMPHION's user interface are automatically compiled from a domain theory; portions of the interface can be customized by the end-user. The user interface facilitates formal specification development by hiding syntactic details, such as logical notation. It also turns some of the barriers for end-user specification development associated with strongly typed formal languages into active sources of guidance, without restricting advanced users. The interface is especially suited for specification modification. AMPHION has been applied to the domain of solar system kinematics through the development of a declarative domain theory. Testing over six months with planetary scientists indicates that AMPHION's interactive specification acquisition paradigm enables users to develop, modify, and reuse specifications at least an order of magnitude more rapidly than manual program development.

Plots, Calculations and Graphics Tools (PCG2). Software Transfer Request Presentation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Richardson, Marilou R.

2010-01-01

This slide presentation reviews the development of the Plots, Calculations and Graphics Tools (PCG2) system. PCG2 is an easy to use tool that provides a single user interface to view data in a pictorial, tabular or graphical format. It allows the user to view the same display and data in the Control Room, engineering office area, or remote sites. PCG2 supports extensive and regular engineering needs that are both planned and unplanned and it supports the ability to compare, contrast and perform ad hoc data mining over the entire domain of a program's test data.

An integrated knowledge system for wind tunnel testing - Project Engineers' Intelligent Assistant

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lo, Ching F.; Shi, George Z.; Hoyt, W. A.; Steinle, Frank W., Jr.

1993-01-01

The Project Engineers' Intelligent Assistant (PEIA) is an integrated knowledge system developed using artificial intelligence technology, including hypertext, expert systems, and dynamic user interfaces. This system integrates documents, engineering codes, databases, and knowledge from domain experts into an enriched hypermedia environment and was designed to assist project engineers in planning and conducting wind tunnel tests. PEIA is a modular system which consists of an intelligent user-interface, seven modules and an integrated tool facility. Hypermedia technology is discussed and the seven PEIA modules are described. System maintenance and updating is very easy due to the modular structure and the integrated tool facility provides user access to commercial software shells for documentation, reporting, or database updating. PEIA is expected to provide project engineers with technical information, increase efficiency and productivity, and provide a realistic tool for personnel training.

Diamond Eye: a distributed architecture for image data mining

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Burl, Michael C.; Fowlkes, Charless; Roden, Joe; Stechert, Andre; Mukhtar, Saleem

1999-02-01

Diamond Eye is a distributed software architecture, which enables users (scientists) to analyze large image collections by interacting with one or more custom data mining servers via a Java applet interface. Each server is coupled with an object-oriented database and a computational engine, such as a network of high-performance workstations. The database provides persistent storage and supports querying of the 'mined' information. The computational engine provides parallel execution of expensive image processing, object recognition, and query-by-content operations. Key benefits of the Diamond Eye architecture are: (1) the design promotes trial evaluation of advanced data mining and machine learning techniques by potential new users (all that is required is to point a web browser to the appropriate URL), (2) software infrastructure that is common across a range of science mining applications is factored out and reused, and (3) the system facilitates closer collaborations between algorithm developers and domain experts.

Introducing Risk Management Techniques Within Project Based Software Engineering Courses

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Port, Daniel; Boehm, Barry

2002-03-01

In 1996, USC switched its core two-semester software engineering course from a hypothetical-project, homework-and-exam course based on the Bloom taxonomy of educational objectives (knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation). The revised course is a real-client team-project course based on the CRESST model of learning objectives (content understanding, problem solving, collaboration, communication, and self-regulation). We used the CRESST cognitive demands analysis to determine the necessary student skills required for software risk management and the other major project activities, and have been refining the approach over the last 5 years of experience, including revised versions for one-semester undergraduate and graduate project course at Columbia. This paper summarizes our experiences in evolving the risk management aspects of the project course. These have helped us mature more general techniques such as risk-driven specifications, domain-specific simplifier and complicator lists, and the schedule as an independent variable (SAIV) process model. The largely positive results in terms of review of pass / fail rates, client evaluations, product adoption rates, and hiring manager feedback are summarized as well.

Goal-Based Domain Modeling as a Basis for Cross-Disciplinary Systems Engineering

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jarke, Matthias; Nissen, Hans W.; Rose, Thomas; Schmitz, Dominik

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are important drivers for innovation. In particular, project-driven SMEs that closely cooperate with their customers have specific needs in regard to information engineering of their development process. They need a fast requirements capture since this is most often included in the (unpaid) offer development phase. At the same time, they need to maintain and reuse the knowledge and experiences they have gathered in previous projects extensively as it is their core asset. The situation is complicated further if the application field crosses disciplinary boundaries. To bridge the gaps and perspectives, we focus on shared goals and dependencies captured in models at a conceptual level. Such a model-based approach also offers a smarter connection to subsequent development stages, including a high share of automated code generation. In the approach presented here, the agent- and goal-oriented formalism i * is therefore extended by domain models to facilitate information organization. This extension permits a domain model-based similarity search, and a model-based transformation towards subsequent development stages. Our approach also addresses the evolution of domain models reflecting the experiences from completed projects. The approach is illustrated with a case study on software-intensive control systems in an SME of the automotive domain.

Model-driven requirements engineering (MDRE) for real-time ultra-wide instantaneous bandwidth signal simulation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chang, Daniel Y.; Rowe, Neil C.

2013-05-01

While conducting a cutting-edge research in a specific domain, we realize that (1) requirements clarity and correctness are crucial to our success [1], (2) hardware is hard to change, most work is in software requirements development, coding and testing [2], (3) requirements are constantly changing, so that configurability, reusability, scalability, adaptability, modularity and testability are important non-functional attributes [3], (4) cross-domain knowledge is necessary for complex systems [4], and (5) if our research is successful, the results could be applied to other domains with similar problems. In this paper, we propose to use model-driven requirements engineering (MDRE) to model and guide our requirements/development, since models are easy to understand, execute, and modify. The domain for our research is Electronic Warfare (EW) real-time ultra-wide instantaneous bandwidth (IBW1) signal simulation. The proposed four MDRE models are (1) Switch-and-Filter architecture, (2) multiple parallel data bit streams alignment, (3) post-ADC and pre-DAC bits re-mapping, and (4) Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) filter bank. This research is unique since the instantaneous bandwidth we are dealing with is in gigahertz range instead of conventional megahertz.

Dynamic software design for clinical exome and genome analyses: insights from bioinformaticians, clinical geneticists, and genetic counselors.

PubMed

Shyr, Casper; Kushniruk, Andre; van Karnebeek, Clara D M; Wasserman, Wyeth W

2016-03-01

The transition of whole-exome and whole-genome sequencing (WES/WGS) from the research setting to routine clinical practice remains challenging. With almost no previous research specifically assessing interface designs and functionalities of WES and WGS software tools, the authors set out to ascertain perspectives from healthcare professionals in distinct domains on optimal clinical genomics user interfaces. A series of semi-scripted focus groups, structured around professional challenges encountered in clinical WES and WGS, were conducted with bioinformaticians (n = 8), clinical geneticists (n = 9), genetic counselors (n = 5), and general physicians (n = 4). Contrary to popular existing system designs, bioinformaticians preferred command line over graphical user interfaces for better software compatibility and customization flexibility. Clinical geneticists and genetic counselors desired an overarching interactive graphical layout to prioritize candidate variants--a "tiered" system where only functionalities relevant to the user domain are made accessible. They favored a system capable of retrieving consistent representations of external genetic information from third-party sources. To streamline collaboration and patient exchanges, the authors identified user requirements toward an automated reporting system capable of summarizing key evidence-based clinical findings among the vast array of technical details. Successful adoption of a clinical WES/WGS system is heavily dependent on its ability to address the diverse necessities and predilections among specialists in distinct healthcare domains. Tailored software interfaces suitable for each group is likely more appropriate than the current popular "one size fits all" generic framework. This study provides interfaces for future intervention studies and software engineering opportunities. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Medical Informatics Association.

Dynamic software design for clinical exome and genome analyses: insights from bioinformaticians, clinical geneticists, and genetic counselors

PubMed Central

Shyr, Casper; Kushniruk, Andre; van Karnebeek, Clara D.M.

2016-01-01

Background The transition of whole-exome and whole-genome sequencing (WES/WGS) from the research setting to routine clinical practice remains challenging. Objectives With almost no previous research specifically assessing interface designs and functionalities of WES and WGS software tools, the authors set out to ascertain perspectives from healthcare professionals in distinct domains on optimal clinical genomics user interfaces. Methods A series of semi-scripted focus groups, structured around professional challenges encountered in clinical WES and WGS, were conducted with bioinformaticians (n = 8), clinical geneticists (n = 9), genetic counselors (n = 5), and general physicians (n = 4). Results Contrary to popular existing system designs, bioinformaticians preferred command line over graphical user interfaces for better software compatibility and customization flexibility. Clinical geneticists and genetic counselors desired an overarching interactive graphical layout to prioritize candidate variants—a “tiered” system where only functionalities relevant to the user domain are made accessible. They favored a system capable of retrieving consistent representations of external genetic information from third-party sources. To streamline collaboration and patient exchanges, the authors identified user requirements toward an automated reporting system capable of summarizing key evidence-based clinical findings among the vast array of technical details. Conclusions Successful adoption of a clinical WES/WGS system is heavily dependent on its ability to address the diverse necessities and predilections among specialists in distinct healthcare domains. Tailored software interfaces suitable for each group is likely more appropriate than the current popular “one size fits all” generic framework. This study provides interfaces for future intervention studies and software engineering opportunities. PMID:26117142

Software Engineering Guidebook

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Connell, John; Wenneson, Greg

1993-01-01

The Software Engineering Guidebook describes SEPG (Software Engineering Process Group) supported processes and techniques for engineering quality software in NASA environments. Three process models are supported: structured, object-oriented, and evolutionary rapid-prototyping. The guidebook covers software life-cycles, engineering, assurance, and configuration management. The guidebook is written for managers and engineers who manage, develop, enhance, and/or maintain software under the Computer Software Services Contract.

A Software Engine to Justify the Conclusions of an Expert System for Detecting Renal Obstruction on 99mTc-MAG3 Scans

PubMed Central

Garcia, Ernest V.; Taylor, Andrew; Manatunga, Daya; Folks, Russell

2013-01-01

The purposes of this study were to describe and evaluate a software engine to justify the conclusions reached by a renal expert system (RENEX) for assessing patients with suspected renal obstruction and to obtain from this evaluation new knowledge that can be incorporated into RENEX to attempt to improve diagnostic performance. Methods RENEX consists of 60 heuristic rules extracted from the rules used by a domain expert to generate the knowledge base and a forward-chaining inference engine to determine obstruction. The justification engine keeps track of the sequence of the rules that are instantiated to reach a conclusion. The interpreter can then request justification by clicking on the specific conclusion. The justification process then reports the English translation of all concatenated rules instantiated to reach that conclusion. The justification engine was evaluated with a prospective group of 60 patients (117 kidneys). After reviewing the standard renal mercaptoacetyltriglycine (MAG3) scans obtained before and after the administration of furosemide, a masked expert determined whether each kidney was obstructed, whether the results were equivocal, or whether the kidney was not obstructed and identified and ranked the main variables associated with each interpretation. Two parameters were then tabulated: the frequency with which the main variables associated with obstruction by the expert were also justified by RENEX and the frequency with which the justification rules provided by RENEX were deemed to be correct by the expert. Only when RENEX and the domain expert agreed on the diagnosis (87 kidneys) were the results used to test the justification. Results RENEX agreed with 91% (184/203) of the rules supplied by the expert for justifying the diagnosis. RENEX provided 103 additional rules justifying the diagnosis; the expert agreed that 102 (99%) were correct, although the rules were considered to be of secondary importance. Conclusion We have described and evaluated a software engine to justify the conclusions of RENEX for detecting renal obstruction with MAG3 renal scans obtained before and after the administration of furosemide. This tool is expected to increase physician confidence in the interpretations provided by RENEX and to assist physicians and trainees in gaining a higher level of expertise. PMID:17332625

A software engine to justify the conclusions of an expert system for detecting renal obstruction on 99mTc-MAG3 scans.

PubMed

Garcia, Ernest V; Taylor, Andrew; Manatunga, Daya; Folks, Russell

2007-03-01

The purposes of this study were to describe and evaluate a software engine to justify the conclusions reached by a renal expert system (RENEX) for assessing patients with suspected renal obstruction and to obtain from this evaluation new knowledge that can be incorporated into RENEX to attempt to improve diagnostic performance. RENEX consists of 60 heuristic rules extracted from the rules used by a domain expert to generate the knowledge base and a forward-chaining inference engine to determine obstruction. The justification engine keeps track of the sequence of the rules that are instantiated to reach a conclusion. The interpreter can then request justification by clicking on the specific conclusion. The justification process then reports the English translation of all concatenated rules instantiated to reach that conclusion. The justification engine was evaluated with a prospective group of 60 patients (117 kidneys). After reviewing the standard renal mercaptoacetyltriglycine (MAG3) scans obtained before and after the administration of furosemide, a masked expert determined whether each kidney was obstructed, whether the results were equivocal, or whether the kidney was not obstructed and identified and ranked the main variables associated with each interpretation. Two parameters were then tabulated: the frequency with which the main variables associated with obstruction by the expert were also justified by RENEX and the frequency with which the justification rules provided by RENEX were deemed to be correct by the expert. Only when RENEX and the domain expert agreed on the diagnosis (87 kidneys) were the results used to test the justification. RENEX agreed with 91% (184/203) of the rules supplied by the expert for justifying the diagnosis. RENEX provided 103 additional rules justifying the diagnosis; the expert agreed that 102 (99%) were correct, although the rules were considered to be of secondary importance. We have described and evaluated a software engine to justify the conclusions of RENEX for detecting renal obstruction with MAG3 renal scans obtained before and after the administration of furosemide. This tool is expected to increase physician confidence in the interpretations provided by RENEX and to assist physicians and trainees in gaining a higher level of expertise.

Adaptive Modeling of the International Space Station Electrical Power System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Thomas, Justin Ray

2007-01-01

Software simulations provide NASA engineers the ability to experiment with spacecraft systems in a computer-imitated environment. Engineers currently develop software models that encapsulate spacecraft system behavior. These models can be inaccurate due to invalid assumptions, erroneous operation, or system evolution. Increasing accuracy requires manual calibration and domain-specific knowledge. This thesis presents a method for automatically learning system models without any assumptions regarding system behavior. Data stream mining techniques are applied to learn models for critical portions of the International Space Station (ISS) Electrical Power System (EPS). We also explore a knowledge fusion approach that uses traditional engineered EPS models to supplement the learned models. We observed that these engineered EPS models provide useful background knowledge to reduce predictive error spikes when confronted with making predictions in situations that are quite different from the training scenarios used when learning the model. Evaluations using ISS sensor data and existing EPS models demonstrate the success of the adaptive approach. Our experimental results show that adaptive modeling provides reductions in model error anywhere from 80% to 96% over these existing models. Final discussions include impending use of adaptive modeling technology for ISS mission operations and the need for adaptive modeling in future NASA lunar and Martian exploration.

Model-Based Development of Automotive Electronic Climate Control Software

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kakade, Rupesh; Murugesan, Mohan; Perugu, Bhupal; Nair, Mohanan

With increasing complexity of software in today's products, writing and maintaining thousands of lines of code is a tedious task. Instead, an alternative methodology must be employed. Model-based development is one candidate that offers several benefits and allows engineers to focus on the domain of their expertise than writing huge codes. In this paper, we discuss the application of model-based development to the electronic climate control software of vehicles. The back-to-back testing approach is presented that ensures flawless and smooth transition from legacy designs to the model-based development. Simulink report generator to create design documents from the models is presented along with its usage to run the simulation model and capture the results into the test report. Test automation using model-based development tool that support the use of unique set of test cases for several testing levels and the test procedure that is independent of software and hardware platform is also presented.

Benchmark Intelligent Agent Systems for Distributed Battle Tracking

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-06-20

services in the military and other domains, each entity in the benchmark system exposes a standard set of Web services. Jess ( Java Expert Shell...System) is a rule engine for the Java platform and is an interpreter for the Jess rule language. It is used here to implement policies that maintain...battle tracking system (DBTS), maintaining distributed situation awareness. The Java Agent DEvelopment (JADE) framework is a software framework

Extreme C2 and Multi-Touch, Multi-User Collaborative User Interfaces

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-06-01

Organization: Office of the Chief Engineer , Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Charleston Address: PO Box 190022 N. Charleston, SC 29419 843...collaborative development technique can increase the adaptability and quality of software, something of high value in the complex domain of enterprise...concept to C2 should be able to produce similar benefits for planning in military operations, particularly complex, multi- faceted operations. This

Experiences in Eliciting Security Requirements

DTIC Science & Technology

2006-12-01

FODA ) FODA is a domain analysis and engineer- ing method that focuses on developing reusable assets [9]. By examining related software systems and...describe a trade-off analysis that we used to select a suitable requirements elici- tation method and present results detailed from a case study of one...disaster planning, and how to improve Medicare. Eventually, technology-oriented problems may emerge from these soft problems, but much more analysis is

CORDETS ( Component Oriented Development Techniques) and DOMENG (Domain Engineering)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rodríquez-Dapena, P.

2008-08-01

This document presents the results of Workshop 2 held on the 28th of May 2008 in Palma de Mallorca as part of the DASIA2008 conference. The workshop is used for the setup and animation of the stakeholders' network intended to bring together the actors in the field of the future generic space on-board software architectures, in order to get a common vision, technical understanding and industrial interests.

Proceedings of the Seventeenth Annual Software Engineering Workshop

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1992-01-01

Proceedings of the Seventeenth Annual Software Engineering Workshop are presented. The software Engineering Laboratory (SEL) is an organization sponsored by NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center and created to investigate the effectiveness of software engineering technologies when applied to the development of applications software. Topics covered include: the Software Engineering Laboratory; process measurement; software reuse; software quality; lessons learned; and is Ada dying.

Software Past, Present, and Future: Views from Government, Industry and Academia

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Holcomb, Lee; Page, Jerry; Evangelist, Michael

2000-01-01

Views from the NASA CIO NASA Software Engineering Workshop on software development from the past, present, and future are presented. The topics include: 1) Software Past; 2) Software Present; 3) NASA's Largest Software Challenges; 4) 8330 Software Projects in Industry Standish Groups 1994 Report; 5) Software Future; 6) Capability Maturity Model (CMM): Software Engineering Institute (SEI) levels; 7) System Engineering Quality Also Part of the Problem; 8) University Environment Trends Will Increase the Problem in Software Engineering; and 9) NASA Software Engineering Goals.

Maintaining Quality and Confidence in Open-Source, Evolving Software: Lessons Learned with PFLOTRAN

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Frederick, J. M.; Hammond, G. E.

2017-12-01

Software evolution in an open-source framework poses a major challenge to a geoscientific simulator, but when properly managed, the pay-off can be enormous for both the developers and the community at large. Developers must juggle implementing new scientific process models, adopting increasingly efficient numerical methods and programming paradigms, changing funding sources (or total lack of funding), while also ensuring that legacy code remains functional and reported bugs are fixed in a timely manner. With robust software engineering and a plan for long-term maintenance, a simulator can evolve over time incorporating and leveraging many advances in the computational and domain sciences. In this positive light, what practices in software engineering and code maintenance can be employed within open-source development to maximize the positive aspects of software evolution and community contributions while minimizing its negative side effects? This presentation will discusses steps taken in the development of PFLOTRAN (www.pflotran.org), an open source, massively parallel subsurface simulator for multiphase, multicomponent, and multiscale reactive flow and transport processes in porous media. As PFLOTRAN's user base and development team continues to grow, it has become increasingly important to implement strategies which ensure sustainable software development while maintaining software quality and community confidence. In this presentation, we will share our experiences and "lessons learned" within the context of our open-source development framework and community engagement efforts. Topics discussed will include how we've leveraged both standard software engineering principles, such as coding standards, version control, and automated testing, as well unique advantages of object-oriented design in process model coupling, to ensure software quality and confidence. We will also be prepared to discuss the major challenges faced by most open-source software teams, such as on-boarding new developers or one-time contributions, dealing with competitors or lookie-loos, and other downsides of complete transparency, as well as our approach to community engagement, including a user group email list, hosting short courses and workshops for new users, and maintaining a website. SAND2017-8174A

Experience report: Using formal methods for requirements analysis of critical spacecraft software

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lutz, Robyn R.; Ampo, Yoko

1994-01-01

Formal specification and analysis of requirements continues to gain support as a method for producing more reliable software. However, the introduction of formal methods to a large software project is difficult, due in part to the unfamiliarity of the specification languages and the lack of graphics. This paper reports results of an investigation into the effectiveness of formal methods as an aid to the requirements analysis of critical, system-level fault-protection software on a spacecraft currently under development. Our experience indicates that formal specification and analysis can enhance the accuracy of the requirements and add assurance prior to design development in this domain. The work described here is part of a larger, NASA-funded research project whose purpose is to use formal-methods techniques to improve the quality of software in space applications. The demonstration project described here is part of the effort to evaluate experimentally the effectiveness of supplementing traditional engineering approaches to requirements specification with the more rigorous specification and analysis available with formal methods.

Software to Control and Monitor Gas Streams

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Arkin, C.; Curley, Charles; Gore, Eric; Floyd, David; Lucas, Damion

2012-01-01

This software package interfaces with various gas stream devices such as pressure transducers, flow meters, flow controllers, valves, and analyzers such as a mass spectrometer. The software provides excellent user interfacing with various windows that provide time-domain graphs, valve state buttons, priority- colored messages, and warning icons. The user can configure the software to save as much or as little data as needed to a comma-delimited file. The software also includes an intuitive scripting language for automated processing. The configuration allows for the assignment of measured values or calibration so that raw signals can be viewed as usable pressures, flows, or concentrations in real time. The software is based on those used in two safety systems for shuttle processing and one volcanic gas analysis system. Mass analyzers typically have very unique applications and vary from job to job. As such, software available on the market is usually inadequate or targeted on a specific application (such as EPA methods). The goal was to develop powerful software that could be used with prototype systems. The key problem was to generalize the software to be easily and quickly reconfigurable. At Kennedy Space Center (KSC), the prior art consists of two primary methods. The first method was to utilize Lab- VIEW and a commercial data acquisition system. This method required rewriting code for each different application and only provided raw data. To obtain data in engineering units, manual calculations were required. The second method was to utilize one of the embedded computer systems developed for another system. This second method had the benefit of providing data in engineering units, but was limited in the number of control parameters.

Software engineering as an engineering discipline

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gibbs, Norman

1988-01-01

The goals of the Software Engineering Institute's Education Program are as follows: to increase the number of highly qualified software engineers--new software engineers and existing practitioners; and to be the leading center of expertise for software engineering education and training. A discussion of these goals is presented in vugraph form.

Software engineering as an engineering discipline

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Berard, Edward V.

1988-01-01

The following topics are discussed in the context of software engineering: early use of the term; the 1968 NATO conference; Barry Boehm's definition; four requirements fo software engineering; and additional criteria for software engineering. Additionally, the four major requirements for software engineering--computer science, mathematics, engineering disciplines, and excellent communication skills--are discussed. The presentation is given in vugraph form.

The EOSDIS software challenge

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jaworski, Allan

1993-08-01

The Earth Observing System (EOS) Data and Information System (EOSDIS) will serve as a major resource for the earth science community, supporting both command and control of complex instruments onboard the EOS spacecraft and the archiving, distribution, and analysis of data. The scale of EOSDIS and the volume of multidisciplinary research to be conducted using EOSDIS resources will produce unparalleled needs for technology transparency, data integration, and system interoperability. The scale of this effort far outscopes any previous scientific data system in its breadth or operational and performance needs. Modern hardware technology can meet the EOSDIS technical challenge. Multiprocessing speeds of many giga-flops are being realized by modern computers. Online storage disk, optical disk, and videocassette libraries with storage capacities of many terabytes are now commercially available. Radio frequency and fiber optics communications networks with gigabit rates are demonstrable today. It remains, of course, to perform the system engineering to establish the requirements, architectures, and designs that will implement the EOSDIS systems. Software technology, however, has not enjoyed the price/performance advances of hardware. Although we have learned to engineer hardware systems which have several orders of magnitude greater complexity and performance than those built in the 1960's, we have not made comparable progress in dramatically reducing the cost of software development. This lack of progress may significantly reduce our capabilities to achieve economically the types of highly interoperable, responsive, integraded, and productive environments which are needed by the earth science community. This paper describes some of the EOSDIS software requirements and current activities in the software community which are applicable to meeting the EOSDIS challenge. Some of these areas include intelligent user interfaces, software reuse libraries, and domain engineering. Also included are discussions of applicable standards in the areas of operating systems interfaces, user interfaces, communications interfaces, data transport, and science algorithm support, and their role in supporting the software development process.

Co-design in synthetic biology: a system-level analysis of the development of an environmental sensing device.

PubMed

Ball, David A; Lux, Matthew W; Graef, Russell R; Peterson, Matthew W; Valenti, Jane D; Dileo, John; Peccoud, Jean

2010-01-01

The concept of co-design is common in engineering, where it is necessary, for example, to determine the optimal partitioning between hardware and software of the implementation of a system features. Here we propose to adapt co-design methodologies for synthetic biology. As a test case, we have designed an environmental sensing device that detects the presence of three chemicals, and returns an output only if at least two of the three chemicals are present. We show that the logical operations can be implemented in three different design domains: (1) the transcriptional domain using synthetically designed hybrid promoters, (2) the protein domain using bi-molecular fluorescence complementation, and (3) the fluorescence domain using spectral unmixing and relying on electronic processing. We discuss how these heterogeneous design strategies could be formalized to develop co-design algorithms capable of identifying optimal designs meeting user specifications.

Annotated bibliography of Software Engineering Laboratory literature

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Morusiewicz, Linda; Valett, Jon D.

1991-01-01

An annotated bibliography of technical papers, documents, and memorandums produced by or related to the Software Engineering Laboratory is given. More than 100 publications are summarized. These publications cover many areas of software engineering and range from research reports to software documentation. All materials have been grouped into eight general subject areas for easy reference: The Software Engineering Laboratory; The Software Engineering Laboratory: Software Development Documents; Software Tools; Software Models; Software Measurement; Technology Evaluations; Ada Technology; and Data Collection. Subject and author indexes further classify these documents by specific topic and individual author.

Implementation of workflow engine technology to deliver basic clinical decision support functionality

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Background Workflow engine technology represents a new class of software with the ability to graphically model step-based knowledge. We present application of this novel technology to the domain of clinical decision support. Successful implementation of decision support within an electronic health record (EHR) remains an unsolved research challenge. Previous research efforts were mostly based on healthcare-specific representation standards and execution engines and did not reach wide adoption. We focus on two challenges in decision support systems: the ability to test decision logic on retrospective data prior prospective deployment and the challenge of user-friendly representation of clinical logic. Results We present our implementation of a workflow engine technology that addresses the two above-described challenges in delivering clinical decision support. Our system is based on a cross-industry standard of XML (extensible markup language) process definition language (XPDL). The core components of the system are a workflow editor for modeling clinical scenarios and a workflow engine for execution of those scenarios. We demonstrate, with an open-source and publicly available workflow suite, that clinical decision support logic can be executed on retrospective data. The same flowchart-based representation can also function in a prospective mode where the system can be integrated with an EHR system and respond to real-time clinical events. We limit the scope of our implementation to decision support content generation (which can be EHR system vendor independent). We do not focus on supporting complex decision support content delivery mechanisms due to lack of standardization of EHR systems in this area. We present results of our evaluation of the flowchart-based graphical notation as well as architectural evaluation of our implementation using an established evaluation framework for clinical decision support architecture. Conclusions We describe an implementation of a free workflow technology software suite (available at http://code.google.com/p/healthflow) and its application in the domain of clinical decision support. Our implementation seamlessly supports clinical logic testing on retrospective data and offers a user-friendly knowledge representation paradigm. With the presented software implementation, we demonstrate that workflow engine technology can provide a decision support platform which evaluates well against an established clinical decision support architecture evaluation framework. Due to cross-industry usage of workflow engine technology, we can expect significant future functionality enhancements that will further improve the technology's capacity to serve as a clinical decision support platform. PMID:21477364

Activity-Centered Domain Characterization for Problem-Driven Scientific Visualization

PubMed Central

Marai, G. Elisabeta

2018-01-01

Although visualization design models exist in the literature in the form of higher-level methodological frameworks, these models do not present a clear methodological prescription for the domain characterization step. This work presents a framework and end-to-end model for requirements engineering in problem-driven visualization application design. The framework and model are based on the activity-centered design paradigm, which is an enhancement of human-centered design. The proposed activity-centered approach focuses on user tasks and activities, and allows an explicit link between the requirements engineering process with the abstraction stage—and its evaluation—of existing, higher-level visualization design models. In a departure from existing visualization design models, the resulting model: assigns value to a visualization based on user activities; ranks user tasks before the user data; partitions requirements in activity-related capabilities and nonfunctional characteristics and constraints; and explicitly incorporates the user workflows into the requirements process. A further merit of this model is its explicit integration of functional specifications, a concept this work adapts from the software engineering literature, into the visualization design nested model. A quantitative evaluation using two sets of interdisciplinary projects supports the merits of the activity-centered model. The result is a practical roadmap to the domain characterization step of visualization design for problem-driven data visualization. Following this domain characterization model can help remove a number of pitfalls that have been identified multiple times in the visualization design literature. PMID:28866550

Software Engineering Laboratory Series: Proceedings of the Twentieth Annual Software Engineering Workshop

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1995-01-01

The Software Engineering Laboratory (SEL) is an organization sponsored by NASA/GSFC and created to investigate the effectiveness of software engineering technologies when applied to the development of application software. The activities, findings, and recommendations of the SEL are recorded in the Software Engineering Laboratory Series, a continuing series of reports that includes this document.

Software Engineering Laboratory Series: Collected Software Engineering Papers. Volume 15

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1997-01-01

The Software Engineering Laboratory (SEL) is an organization sponsored by NASA/GSFC and created to investigate the effectiveness of software engineering technologies when applied to the development of application software. The activities, findings, and recommendations of the SEL are recorded in the Software Engineering Laboratory Series, a continuing series of reports that includes this document.

Software Engineering Laboratory Series: Collected Software Engineering Papers. Volume 14

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1996-01-01

The Software Engineering Laboratory (SEL) is an organization sponsored by NASA/GSFC and created to investigate the effectiveness of software engineering technologies when applied to the development of application software. The activities, findings, and recommendations of the SEL are recorded in the Software Engineering Laboratory Series, a continuing series of reports that includes this document.

Software Engineering Laboratory Series: Collected Software Engineering Papers. Volume 13

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1995-01-01

The Software Engineering Laboratory (SEL) is an organization sponsored by NASA/GSFC and created to investigate the effectiveness of software engineering technologies when applied to the development of application software. The activities, findings, and recommendations of the SEL are recorded in the Software Engineering Laboratory Series, a continuing series of reports that includes this document.

Section 5: Adapting Requirements Practices in Different Domains

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Robinson, William

Technology has a tremendous impact on society. In recent years, the Internet, World Wide Web, and Web 2.0 has changed the nature of commerce, government, and of course software development. It affects the practices of producing requirements and as well as the kinds of systems to be designed. The effect of converging technologies on the role of requirements engineering is considered in the first article by Matthias Jarke, while the effect of technology on requirements practices is considered in the second article by Walt Scacchi. Together, they provide theoretical and practical perspective on requirements engineering issues faced in a modern, technology driven world.

Computer-Aided Software Engineering - An approach to real-time software development

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Walker, Carrie K.; Turkovich, John J.

1989-01-01

A new software engineering discipline is Computer-Aided Software Engineering (CASE), a technology aimed at automating the software development process. This paper explores the development of CASE technology, particularly in the area of real-time/scientific/engineering software, and a history of CASE is given. The proposed software development environment for the Advanced Launch System (ALS CASE) is described as an example of an advanced software development system for real-time/scientific/engineering (RT/SE) software. The Automated Programming Subsystem of ALS CASE automatically generates executable code and corresponding documentation from a suitably formatted specification of the software requirements. Software requirements are interactively specified in the form of engineering block diagrams. Several demonstrations of the Automated Programming Subsystem are discussed.

Software engineering laboratory series: Annotated bibliography of software engineering laboratory literature

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Morusiewicz, Linda; Valett, Jon

1992-01-01

This document is an annotated bibliography of technical papers, documents, and memorandums produced by or related to the Software Engineering Laboratory. More than 100 publications are summarized. These publications cover many areas of software engineering and range from research reports to software documentation. This document has been updated and reorganized substantially since the original version (SEL-82-006, November 1982). All materials have been grouped into eight general subject areas for easy reference: (1) the Software Engineering Laboratory; (2) the Software Engineering Laboratory: Software Development Documents; (3) Software Tools; (4) Software Models; (5) Software Measurement; (6) Technology Evaluations; (7) Ada Technology; and (8) Data Collection. This document contains an index of these publications classified by individual author.

Software Engineering Laboratory Series: Proceedings of the Twenty-First Annual Software Engineering Workshop

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1996-01-01

The Software Engineering Laboratory (SEL) is an organization sponsored by NASA/GSFC and created to investigate the effectiveness of software engineering technologies when applied to the development of application software. The activities, findings, and recommendations of the SEL are recorded in the Software Engineering Laboratory Series, a continuing series of reports that includes this document.

Software Engineering Laboratory Series: Proceedings of the Twenty-Second Annual Software Engineering Workshop

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1997-01-01

The Software Engineering Laboratory (SEL) is an organization sponsored by NASA/GSFC and created to investigate the effectiveness of software engineering technologies when applied to the development of application software. The activities, findings, and recommendations of the SEL are recorded in the Software Engineering Laboratory Series, a continuing series of reports that includes this document.

Software engineering and the role of Ada: Executive seminar

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Freedman, Glenn B.

1987-01-01

The objective was to introduce the basic terminology and concepts of software engineering and Ada. The life cycle model is reviewed. The application of the goals and principles of software engineering is applied. An introductory understanding of the features of the Ada language is gained. Topics addressed include: the software crises; the mandate of the Space Station Program; software life cycle model; software engineering; and Ada under the software engineering umbrella.

Assessment of the integration capability of system architectures from a complex and distributed software systems perspective

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Leuchter, S.; Reinert, F.; Müller, W.

2014-06-01

Procurement and design of system architectures capable of network centric operations demand for an assessment scheme in order to compare different alternative realizations. In this contribution an assessment method for system architectures targeted at the C4ISR domain is presented. The method addresses the integration capability of software systems from a complex and distributed software system perspective focusing communication, interfaces and software. The aim is to evaluate the capability to integrate a system or its functions within a system-of-systems network. This method uses approaches from software architecture quality assessment and applies them on the system architecture level. It features a specific goal tree of several dimensions that are relevant for enterprise integration. These dimensions have to be weighed against each other and totalized using methods from the normative decision theory in order to reflect the intention of the particular enterprise integration effort. The indicators and measurements for many of the considered quality features rely on a model based view on systems, networks, and the enterprise. That means it is applicable to System-of-System specifications based on enterprise architectural frameworks relying on defined meta-models or domain ontologies for defining views and viewpoints. In the defense context we use the NATO Architecture Framework (NAF) to ground respective system models. The proposed assessment method allows evaluating and comparing competing system designs regarding their future integration potential. It is a contribution to the system-of-systems engineering methodology.

Machine learning research 1989-90

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Porter, Bruce W.; Souther, Arthur

1990-01-01

Multifunctional knowledge bases offer a significant advance in artificial intelligence because they can support numerous expert tasks within a domain. As a result they amortize the costs of building a knowledge base over multiple expert systems and they reduce the brittleness of each system. Due to the inevitable size and complexity of multifunctional knowledge bases, their construction and maintenance require knowledge engineering and acquisition tools that can automatically identify interactions between new and existing knowledge. Furthermore, their use requires software for accessing those portions of the knowledge base that coherently answer questions. Considerable progress was made in developing software for building and accessing multifunctional knowledge bases. A language was developed for representing knowledge, along with software tools for editing and displaying knowledge, a machine learning program for integrating new information into existing knowledge, and a question answering system for accessing the knowledge base.

DVS-SOFTWARE: An Effective Tool for Applying Highly Parallelized Hardware To Computational Geophysics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Herrera, I.; Herrera, G. S.

2015-12-01

Most geophysical systems are macroscopic physical systems. The behavior prediction of such systems is carried out by means of computational models whose basic models are partial differential equations (PDEs) [1]. Due to the enormous size of the discretized version of such PDEs it is necessary to apply highly parallelized super-computers. For them, at present, the most efficient software is based on non-overlapping domain decomposition methods (DDM). However, a limiting feature of the present state-of-the-art techniques is due to the kind of discretizations used in them. Recently, I. Herrera and co-workers using 'non-overlapping discretizations' have produced the DVS-Software which overcomes this limitation [2]. The DVS-software can be applied to a great variety of geophysical problems and achieves very high parallel efficiencies (90%, or so [3]). It is therefore very suitable for effectively applying the most advanced parallel supercomputers available at present. In a parallel talk, in this AGU Fall Meeting, Graciela Herrera Z. will present how this software is being applied to advance MOD-FLOW. Key Words: Parallel Software for Geophysics, High Performance Computing, HPC, Parallel Computing, Domain Decomposition Methods (DDM)REFERENCES [1]. Herrera Ismael and George F. Pinder, Mathematical Modelling in Science and Engineering: An axiomatic approach", John Wiley, 243p., 2012. [2]. Herrera, I., de la Cruz L.M. and Rosas-Medina A. "Non Overlapping Discretization Methods for Partial, Differential Equations". NUMER METH PART D E, 30: 1427-1454, 2014, DOI 10.1002/num 21852. (Open source) [3]. Herrera, I., & Contreras Iván "An Innovative Tool for Effectively Applying Highly Parallelized Software To Problems of Elasticity". Geofísica Internacional, 2015 (In press)

37 CFR 201.26 - Recordation of documents pertaining to computer shareware and donation of public domain computer...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... pertaining to computer shareware and donation of public domain computer software. 201.26 Section 201.26... public domain computer software. (a) General. This section prescribes the procedures for submission of legal documents pertaining to computer shareware and the deposit of public domain computer software...

37 CFR 201.26 - Recordation of documents pertaining to computer shareware and donation of public domain computer...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... pertaining to computer shareware and donation of public domain computer software. 201.26 Section 201.26... public domain computer software. (a) General. This section prescribes the procedures for submission of legal documents pertaining to computer shareware and the deposit of public domain computer software...

37 CFR 201.26 - Recordation of documents pertaining to computer shareware and donation of public domain computer...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... pertaining to computer shareware and donation of public domain computer software. 201.26 Section 201.26... public domain computer software. (a) General. This section prescribes the procedures for submission of legal documents pertaining to computer shareware and the deposit of public domain computer software...

37 CFR 201.26 - Recordation of documents pertaining to computer shareware and donation of public domain computer...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... pertaining to computer shareware and donation of public domain computer software. 201.26 Section 201.26... public domain computer software. (a) General. This section prescribes the procedures for submission of legal documents pertaining to computer shareware and the deposit of public domain computer software...

Automating U-Pb IDTIMS data reduction and reporting: Cyberinfrastructure meets geochronology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bowring, J. F.; McLean, N.; Walker, J. D.; Ash, J. M.

2009-12-01

We demonstrate the efficacy of an interdisciplinary effort between software engineers and geochemists to produce working cyberinfrastructure for geochronology. This collaboration between CIRDLES, EARTHTIME and EarthChem has produced the software programs Tripoli and U-Pb_Redux as the cyber-backbone for the ID-TIMS community. This initiative incorporates shared isotopic tracers, data-reduction algorithms and the archiving and retrieval of data and results. The resulting system facilitates detailed inter-laboratory comparison and a new generation of cooperative science. The resolving power of geochronological data in the earth sciences is dependent on the precision and accuracy of many isotopic measurements and corrections. Recent advances in U-Pb geochronology have reinvigorated its application to problems such as precise timescale calibration, processes of crustal evolution, and early solar system dynamics. This project provides a heretofore missing common data reduction protocol, thus promoting the interpretation of precise geochronology and enabling inter-laboratory comparison. U-Pb_Redux is an open-source software program that provides end-to-end support for the analysis of uranium-lead geochronological data. The system reduces raw mass spectrometer data to U-Pb dates, allows users to interpret ages from these data, and then provides for the seamless federation of the results, coming from many labs, into a community web-accessible database using standard and open techniques. This EarthChem GeoChron database depends also on keyed references to the SESAR sample database. U-Pb_Redux currently provides interactive concordia and weighted mean plots and uncertainty contribution visualizations; it produces publication-quality concordia and weighted mean plots and customizable data tables. This initiative has achieved the goal of standardizing the data elements of a complete reduction and analysis of uranium-lead data, which are expressed using extensible markup language schema definition (XSD) artifacts. U-Pb_Redux leverages the freeware program Tripoli, which imports raw mass spectrometer data files and supports interactive review and archiving of isotopic data. Tripoli facilitates the visualization of temporal trends and scatter during measurement, statistically rigorous filtering of data and supports oxide and fractionation corrections. The Cyber Infrastructure Research and Development Lab for the Earth Sciences (CIRDLES) collaboratively integrates domain-specific software engineering with the efforts EARTHTIME and Earthchem. The EARTHTIME initiative pursues consensus-based approaches to geochemical data reduction, and the EarthChem initiative pursues the creation of data repositories for all geochemical data. CIRDLES develops software and systems for geochronology. This collaboration benefits the earth sciences by enabling geochemists to focus on their specialties using robust software that produces reliable results. This collaboration benefits software engineering by providing research opportunities to improve process methodologies used in the design and implementation of domain-specific solutions.

Annotated bibliography of software engineering laboratory literature

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Groves, Paula; Valett, Jon

1990-01-01

An annotated bibliography of technical papers, documents, and memorandums produced by or related to the Software Engineering Laboratory is given. More than 100 publications are summarized. These publications cover many areas of software engineering and range from research reports to software documentation. This document has been updated and reorganized substantially since the original version (SEL-82-006, November 1982). All materials have been grouped into eight general subject areas for easy reference: the Software Engineering Laboratory; the Software Engineering Laboratory-software development documents; software tools; software models; software measurement; technology evaluations; Ada technology; and data collection. Subject and author indexes further classify these documents by specific topic and individual author.

Annotated bibliography of Software Engineering Laboratory literature

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Morusiewicz, Linda; Valett, Jon

1993-01-01

This document is an annotated bibliography of technical papers, documents, and memorandums produced by or related to the Software Engineering Laboratory. Nearly 200 publications are summarized. These publications cover many areas of software engineering and range from research reports to software documentation. This document has been updated and reorganized substantially since the original version (SEL-82-006, November 1982). All materials have been grouped into eight general subject areas for easy reference: the Software Engineering Laboratory; the Software Engineering Laboratory: software development documents; software tools; software models; software measurement; technology evaluations; Ada technology; and data collection. This document contains an index of these publications classified by individual author.

Information System Engineering Supporting Observation, Orientation, Decision, and Compliant Action

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Georgakopoulos, Dimitrios

The majority of today's software systems and organizational/business structures have been built on the foundation of solving problems via long-term data collection, analysis, and solution design. This traditional approach of solving problems and building corresponding software systems and business processes, falls short in providing the necessary solutions needed to deal with many problems that require agility as the main ingredient of their solution. For example, such agility is needed in responding to an emergency, in military command control, physical security, price-based competition in business, investing in the stock market, video gaming, network monitoring and self-healing, diagnosis in emergency health care, and many other areas that are too numerous to list here. The concept of Observe, Orient, Decide, and Act (OODA) loops is a guiding principal that captures the fundamental issues and approach for engineering information systems that deal with many of these problem areas. However, there are currently few software systems that are capable of supporting OODA. In this talk, we provide a tour of the research issues and state of the art solutions for supporting OODA. In addition, we provide specific examples of OODA solutions we have developed for the video surveillance and emergency response domains.

Higher-Order Mixed Finite Element Methods for Time Domain Electromagnetics

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

White, D; Stowell, M; Koning, J

This is the final report for LDRD 01-ERD-005. The Principal Investigator was Niel Madsen of the Defense Sciences Engineering Division (DSED). Collaborators included Daniel White, Joe Koning and Nathan Champagne of DSED, Mark Stowell of Center for Applications Development and Software Engineering (CADSE), and Ph.D. students Rob Rieben and Aaron Fisher at the UC Davis Department of Applied Science. It should be noted that the students were partially supported by the LLNL Student-Employee Graduate Research Fellow program. We begin with an Introduction which provides background and motivation for this research effort. Section II contains high-level description of our Approach, andmore » Section III summarizes our key research Accomplishments. A description of the Software deliverables is provided in Section IV, and Section V includes simulation Validation and Results. It should be noted we do not get into the mathematical details in this report, rather these can be found in our publications which are listed in Section III.« less

Vertical Interaction in Open Software Engineering Communities

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-03-01

Program in CASOS (NSF,DGE-9972762), the Office of Naval Research under Dynamic Network Analysis program (N00014-02-1-0973, the Air Force Office of...W91WAW07C0063) for research in the area of dynamic network analysis. Additional support was provided by CASOS - the center for Computational Analysis of Social...methods across the domain. For a given project, de - velopers can choose from dozens of models, tools, platforms, and languages for specification, design

Reuse: A knowledge-based approach

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Iscoe, Neil; Liu, Zheng-Yang; Feng, Guohui

1992-01-01

This paper describes our research in automating the reuse process through the use of application domain models. Application domain models are explicit formal representations of the application knowledge necessary to understand, specify, and generate application programs. Furthermore, they provide a unified repository for the operational structure, rules, policies, and constraints of a specific application area. In our approach, domain models are expressed in terms of a transaction-based meta-modeling language. This paper has described in detail the creation and maintenance of hierarchical structures. These structures are created through a process that includes reverse engineering of data models with supplementary enhancement from application experts. Source code is also reverse engineered but is not a major source of domain model instantiation at this time. In the second phase of the software synthesis process, program specifications are interactively synthesized from an instantiated domain model. These specifications are currently integrated into a manual programming process but will eventually be used to derive executable code with mechanically assisted transformations. This research is performed within the context of programming-in-the-large types of systems. Although our goals are ambitious, we are implementing the synthesis system in an incremental manner through which we can realize tangible results. The client/server architecture is capable of supporting 16 simultaneous X/Motif users and tens of thousands of attributes and classes. Domain models have been partially synthesized from five different application areas. As additional domain models are synthesized and additional knowledge is gathered, we will inevitably add to and modify our representation. However, our current experience indicates that it will scale and expand to meet our modeling needs.

Software Development for EECU Platform of Turbofan Engine

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, Bo Gyoung; Kwak, Dohyup; Kim, Byunghyun; Choi, Hee ju; Kong, Changduk

2017-04-01

The turbofan engine operation consists of a number of hardware and software. The engine is controlled by Electronic Engine Control Unit (EECU). In order to control the engine, EECU communicates with an aircraft system, Actuator Drive Unit (ADU), Engine Power Unit (EPU) and sensors on the engine. This paper tried to investigate the process form starting to taking-off and aims to design the EECU software mode and defined communication data format. The software is implemented according to the designed software mode.

Software engineering methodologies and tools

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wilcox, Lawrence M.

1993-01-01

Over the years many engineering disciplines have developed, including chemical, electronic, etc. Common to all engineering disciplines is the use of rigor, models, metrics, and predefined methodologies. Recently, a new engineering discipline has appeared on the scene, called software engineering. For over thirty years computer software has been developed and the track record has not been good. Software development projects often miss schedules, are over budget, do not give the user what is wanted, and produce defects. One estimate is there are one to three defects per 1000 lines of deployed code. More and more systems are requiring larger and more complex software for support. As this requirement grows, the software development problems grow exponentially. It is believed that software quality can be improved by applying engineering principles. Another compelling reason to bring the engineering disciplines to software development is productivity. It has been estimated that productivity of producing software has only increased one to two percent a year in the last thirty years. Ironically, the computer and its software have contributed significantly to the industry-wide productivity, but computer professionals have done a poor job of using the computer to do their job. Engineering disciplines and methodologies are now emerging supported by software tools that address the problems of software development. This paper addresses some of the current software engineering methodologies as a backdrop for the general evaluation of computer assisted software engineering (CASE) tools from actual installation of and experimentation with some specific tools.

Annotated bibliography of software engineering laboratory literature

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kistler, David; Bristow, John; Smith, Don

1994-01-01

This document is an annotated bibliography of technical papers, documents, and memorandums produced by or related to the Software Engineering Laboratory. Nearly 200 publications are summarized. These publications cover many areas of software engineering and range from research reports to software documentation. This document has been updated and reorganized substantially since the original version (SEL-82-006, November 1982). All materials have been grouped into eight general subject areas for easy reference: (1) The Software Engineering Laboratory; (2) The Software Engineering Laboratory: Software Development Documents; (3) Software Tools; (4) Software Models; (5) Software Measurement; (6) Technology Evaluations; (7) Ada Technology; and (8) Data Collection. This document contains an index of these publications classified by individual author.

Software Engineering Improvement Activities/Plan

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2003-01-01

bd Systems personnel accomplished the technical responsibilities for this reporting period, as planned. A close working relationship was maintained with personnel of the MSFC Avionics Department Software Group (ED14). Work accomplishments included development, evaluation, and enhancement of a software cost model, performing literature search and evaluation of software tools available for code analysis and requirements analysis, and participating in other relevant software engineering activities. Monthly reports were submitted. This support was provided to the Flight Software Group/ED 1 4 in accomplishing the software engineering improvement engineering activities of the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) Software Engineering Improvement Plan.

SHINE Virtual Machine Model for In-flight Updates of Critical Mission Software

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Plesea, Lucian

2008-01-01

This software is a new target for the Spacecraft Health Inference Engine (SHINE) knowledge base that compiles a knowledge base to a language called Tiny C - an interpreted version of C that can be embedded on flight processors. This new target allows portions of a running SHINE knowledge base to be updated on a "live" system without needing to halt and restart the containing SHINE application. This enhancement will directly provide this capability without the risk of software validation problems and can also enable complete integration of BEAM and SHINE into a single application. This innovation enables SHINE deployment in domains where autonomy is used during flight-critical applications that require updates. This capability eliminates the need for halting the application and performing potentially serious total system uploads before resuming the application with the loss of system integrity. This software enables additional applications at JPL (microsensors, embedded mission hardware) and increases the marketability of these applications outside of JPL.

Improved Ant Algorithms for Software Testing Cases Generation

PubMed Central

Yang, Shunkun; Xu, Jiaqi

2014-01-01

Existing ant colony optimization (ACO) for software testing cases generation is a very popular domain in software testing engineering. However, the traditional ACO has flaws, as early search pheromone is relatively scarce, search efficiency is low, search model is too simple, positive feedback mechanism is easy to porduce the phenomenon of stagnation and precocity. This paper introduces improved ACO for software testing cases generation: improved local pheromone update strategy for ant colony optimization, improved pheromone volatilization coefficient for ant colony optimization (IPVACO), and improved the global path pheromone update strategy for ant colony optimization (IGPACO). At last, we put forward a comprehensive improved ant colony optimization (ACIACO), which is based on all the above three methods. The proposed technique will be compared with random algorithm (RND) and genetic algorithm (GA) in terms of both efficiency and coverage. The results indicate that the improved method can effectively improve the search efficiency, restrain precocity, promote case coverage, and reduce the number of iterations. PMID:24883391

Towards a general object-oriented software development methodology

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Seidewitz, ED; Stark, Mike

1986-01-01

An object is an abstract software model of a problem domain entity. Objects are packages of both data and operations of that data (Goldberg 83, Booch 83). The Ada (tm) package construct is representative of this general notion of an object. Object-oriented design is the technique of using objects as the basic unit of modularity in systems design. The Software Engineering Laboratory at the Goddard Space Flight Center is currently involved in a pilot program to develop a flight dynamics simulator in Ada (approximately 40,000 statements) using object-oriented methods. Several authors have applied object-oriented concepts to Ada (e.g., Booch 83, Cherry 85). It was found that these methodologies are limited. As a result a more general approach was synthesized with allows a designer to apply powerful object-oriented principles to a wide range of applications and at all stages of design. An overview is provided of this approach. Further, how object-oriented design fits into the overall software life-cycle is considered.

Automating software design system DESTA

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lovitsky, Vladimir A.; Pearce, Patricia D.

1992-01-01

'DESTA' is the acronym for the Dialogue Evolutionary Synthesizer of Turnkey Algorithms by means of a natural language (Russian or English) functional specification of algorithms or software being developed. DESTA represents the computer-aided and/or automatic artificial intelligence 'forgiving' system which provides users with software tools support for algorithm and/or structured program development. The DESTA system is intended to provide support for the higher levels and earlier stages of engineering design of software in contrast to conventional Computer Aided Design (CAD) systems which provide low level tools for use at a stage when the major planning and structuring decisions have already been taken. DESTA is a knowledge-intensive system. The main features of the knowledge are procedures, functions, modules, operating system commands, batch files, their natural language specifications, and their interlinks. The specific domain for the DESTA system is a high level programming language like Turbo Pascal 6.0. The DESTA system is operational and runs on an IBM PC computer.

Software Engineering for Human Spaceflight

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fredrickson, Steven E.

2014-01-01

The Spacecraft Software Engineering Branch of NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) provides world-class products, leadership, and technical expertise in software engineering, processes, technology, and systems management for human spaceflight. The branch contributes to major NASA programs (e.g. ISS, MPCV/Orion) with in-house software development and prime contractor oversight, and maintains the JSC Engineering Directorate CMMI rating for flight software development. Software engineering teams work with hardware developers, mission planners, and system operators to integrate flight vehicles, habitats, robotics, and other spacecraft elements. They seek to infuse automation and autonomy into missions, and apply new technologies to flight processor and computational architectures. This presentation will provide an overview of key software-related projects, software methodologies and tools, and technology pursuits of interest to the JSC Spacecraft Software Engineering Branch.

Software engineering from a Langley perspective

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Voigt, Susan

1994-01-01

A brief introduction to software engineering is presented. The talk is divided into four sections beginning with the question 'What is software engineering', followed by a brief history of the progression of software engineering at the Langley Research Center in the context of an expanding computing environment. Several basic concepts and terms are introduced, including software development life cycles and maturity levels. Finally, comments are offered on what software engineering means for the Langley Research Center and where to find more information on the subject.

The need for scientific software engineering in the pharmaceutical industry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Luty, Brock; Rose, Peter W.

2017-03-01

Scientific software engineering is a distinct discipline from both computational chemistry project support and research informatics. A scientific software engineer not only has a deep understanding of the science of drug discovery but also the desire, skills and time to apply good software engineering practices. A good team of scientific software engineers can create a software foundation that is maintainable, validated and robust. If done correctly, this foundation enable the organization to investigate new and novel computational ideas with a very high level of efficiency.

The need for scientific software engineering in the pharmaceutical industry.

PubMed

Luty, Brock; Rose, Peter W

2017-03-01

Scientific software engineering is a distinct discipline from both computational chemistry project support and research informatics. A scientific software engineer not only has a deep understanding of the science of drug discovery but also the desire, skills and time to apply good software engineering practices. A good team of scientific software engineers can create a software foundation that is maintainable, validated and robust. If done correctly, this foundation enable the organization to investigate new and novel computational ideas with a very high level of efficiency.

Matriarch: A Python Library for Materials Architecture.

PubMed

Giesa, Tristan; Jagadeesan, Ravi; Spivak, David I; Buehler, Markus J

2015-10-12

Biological materials, such as proteins, often have a hierarchical structure ranging from basic building blocks at the nanoscale (e.g., amino acids) to assembled structures at the macroscale (e.g., fibers). Current software for materials engineering allows the user to specify polypeptide chains and simple secondary structures prior to molecular dynamics simulation, but is not flexible in terms of the geometric arrangement of unequilibrated structures. Given some knowledge of a larger-scale structure, instructing the software to create it can be very difficult and time-intensive. To this end, the present paper reports a mathematical language, using category theory, to describe the architecture of a material, i.e., its set of building blocks and instructions for combining them. While this framework applies to any hierarchical material, here we concentrate on proteins. We implement this mathematical language as an open-source Python library called Matriarch. It is a domain-specific language that gives the user the ability to create almost arbitrary structures with arbitrary amino acid sequences and, from them, generate Protein Data Bank (PDB) files. In this way, Matriarch is more powerful than commercial software now available. Matriarch can be used in tandem with molecular dynamics simulations and helps engineers design and modify biologically inspired materials based on their desired functionality. As a case study, we use our software to alter both building blocks and building instructions for tropocollagen, and determine their effect on its structure and mechanical properties.

Construction of integrated case environments.

PubMed

Losavio, Francisca; Matteo, Alfredo; Pérez, María

2003-01-01

The main goal of Computer-Aided Software Engineering (CASE) technology is to improve the entire software system development process. The CASE approach is not merely a technology; it involves a fundamental change in the process of software development. The tendency of the CASE approach, technically speaking, is the integration of tools that assist in the application of specific methods. In this sense, the environment architecture, which includes the platform and the system's hardware and software, constitutes the base of the CASE environment. The problem of tools integration has been proposed for two decades. Current integration efforts emphasize the interoperability of tools, especially in distributed environments. In this work we use the Brown approach. The environment resulting from the application of this model is called a federative environment, focusing on the fact that this architecture pays special attention to the connections among the components of the environment. This approach is now being used in component-based design. This paper describes a concrete experience in civil engineering and architecture fields, for the construction of an integrated CASE environment. A generic architectural framework based on an intermediary architectural pattern is applied to achieve the integration of the different tools. This intermediary represents the control perspective of the PAC (Presentation-Abstraction-Control) style, which has been implemented as a Mediator pattern and it has been used in the interactive systems domain. In addition, a process is given to construct the integrated CASE.

A distributed version of the NASA Engine Performance Program

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cours, Jeffrey T.; Curlett, Brian P.

1993-01-01

Distributed NEPP, a version of the NASA Engine Performance Program, uses the original NEPP code but executes it in a distributed computer environment. Multiple workstations connected by a network increase the program's speed and, more importantly, the complexity of the cases it can handle in a reasonable time. Distributed NEPP uses the public domain software package, called Parallel Virtual Machine, allowing it to execute on clusters of machines containing many different architectures. It includes the capability to link with other computers, allowing them to process NEPP jobs in parallel. This paper discusses the design issues and granularity considerations that entered into programming Distributed NEPP and presents the results of timing runs.

International Symposium on Numerical Methods in Engineering, 5th, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland, Sept. 11-15, 1989, Proceedings. Volumes 1 & 2

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gruber, Ralph; Periaux, Jaques; Shaw, Richard Paul

Recent advances in computational mechanics are discussed in reviews and reports. Topics addressed include spectral superpositions on finite elements for shear banding problems, strain-based finite plasticity, numerical simulation of hypersonic viscous continuum flow, constitutive laws in solid mechanics, dynamics problems, fracture mechanics and damage tolerance, composite plates and shells, contact and friction, metal forming and solidification, coupling problems, and adaptive FEMs. Consideration is given to chemical flows, convection problems, free boundaries and artificial boundary conditions, domain-decomposition and multigrid methods, combustion and thermal analysis, wave propagation, mixed and hybrid FEMs, integral-equation methods, optimization, software engineering, and vector and parallel computing.

CONFIG: Integrated engineering of systems and their operation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Malin, Jane T.; Ryan, Dan; Fleming, Land

1994-01-01

This article discusses CONFIG 3, a prototype software tool that supports integrated conceptual design evaluation from early in the product life cycle, by supporting isolated or integrated modeling, simulation, and analysis of the function, structure, behavior, failures and operations of system designs. Integration and reuse of models is supported in an object-oriented environment providing capabilities for graph analysis and discrete event simulation. CONFIG supports integration among diverse modeling approaches (component view, configuration or flow path view, and procedure view) and diverse simulation and analysis approaches. CONFIG is designed to support integrated engineering in diverse design domains, including mechanical and electro-mechanical systems, distributed computer systems, and chemical processing and transport systems.

Experimentation in software engineering

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Basili, V. R.; Selby, R. W.; Hutchens, D. H.

1986-01-01

Experimentation in software engineering supports the advancement of the field through an iterative learning process. In this paper, a framework for analyzing most of the experimental work performed in software engineering over the past several years is presented. A variety of experiments in the framework is described and their contribution to the software engineering discipline is discussed. Some useful recommendations for the application of the experimental process in software engineering are included.

SAGA: A project to automate the management of software production systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Campbell, Roy H.; Beckman-Davies, C. S.; Benzinger, L.; Beshers, G.; Laliberte, D.; Render, H.; Sum, R.; Smith, W.; Terwilliger, R.

1986-01-01

Research into software development is required to reduce its production cost and to improve its quality. Modern software systems, such as the embedded software required for NASA's space station initiative, stretch current software engineering techniques. The requirements to build large, reliable, and maintainable software systems increases with time. Much theoretical and practical research is in progress to improve software engineering techniques. One such technique is to build a software system or environment which directly supports the software engineering process, i.e., the SAGA project, comprising the research necessary to design and build a software development which automates the software engineering process. Progress under SAGA is described.

Software development environments: Status and trends

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Duffel, Larry E.

1988-01-01

Currently software engineers are the essential integrating factors tying several components together. The components consist of process, methods, computers, tools, support environments, and software engineers. The engineers today empower the tools versus the tools empowering the engineers. Some of the issues in software engineering are quality, managing the software engineering process, and productivity. A strategy to accomplish this is to promote the evolution of software engineering from an ad hoc, labor intensive activity to a managed, technology supported discipline. This strategy may be implemented by putting the process under management control, adopting appropriate methods, inserting the technology that provides automated support for the process and methods, collecting automated tools into an integrated environment and educating the personnel.

Representation and presentation of requirements knowledge

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Johnson, W. L.; Feather, Martin S.; Harris, David R.

1992-01-01

An approach to representation and presentation of knowledge used in the ARIES, an experimental requirements/specification environment, is described. The approach applies the notion of a representation architecture to the domain of software engineering and incorporates a strong coupling to a transformation system. It is characterized by a single highly expressive underlying representation, interfaced simultaneously to multiple presentations, each with notations of differing degrees of expressivity. This enables analysts to use multiple languages for describing systems and have these descriptions yield a single consistent model of the system.

Ontology or formal ontology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Žáček, Martin

2017-07-01

Ontology or formal ontology? Which word is correct? The aim of this article is to introduce correct terms and explain their basis. Ontology describes a particular area of interest (domain) in a formal way - defines the classes of objects that are in that area, and relationships that may exist between them. Meaning of ontology consists mainly in facilitating communication between people, improve collaboration of software systems and in the improvement of systems engineering. Ontology in all these areas offer the possibility of unification of view, maintaining consistency and unambiguity.

Proceedings of Tenth Annual Software Engineering Workshop

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1985-01-01

Papers are presented on the following topics: measurement of software technology, recent studies of the Software Engineering Lab, software management tools, expert systems, error seeding as a program validation technique, software quality assurance, software engineering environments (including knowledge-based environments), the Distributed Computing Design System, and various Ada experiments.

Annotated bibliography of software engineering laboratory literature

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Buhler, Melanie; Valett, Jon

1989-01-01

An annotated bibliography is presented of technical papers, documents, and memorandums produced by or related to the Software Engineering Laboratory. The bibliography was updated and reorganized substantially since the original version (SEL-82-006, November 1982). All materials were grouped into eight general subject areas for easy reference: (1) The Software Engineering Laboratory; (2) The Software Engineering Laboratory: Software Development Documents; (3) Software Tools; (4) Software Models; (5) Software Measurement; (6) Technology Evaluations; (7) Ada Technology; and (8) Data Collection. Subject and author indexes further classify these documents by specific topic and individual author.

In the soft-to-hard technical spectrum: Where is software engineering?

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Leibfried, Theodore F.; Macdonald, Robert B.

1992-01-01

In the computer journals and tabloids, there have been a plethora of articles written about the software engineering field. But while advocates of the need for an engineering approach to software development, it is impressive how many authors have treated the subject of software engineering without adequately addressing the fundamentals of what engineering as a discipline consists of. A discussion is presented of the various related facets of this issue in a logical framework to advance the thesis that the software development process is necessarily an engineering process. The purpose is to examine more of the details of the issue of whether or not the design and development of software for digital computer processing systems should be both viewed and treated as a legitimate field of professional engineering. Also, the type of academic and professional level education programs that would be required to support a software engineering discipline is examined.

Can your software engineer program your PLC?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Borrowman, Alastair J.; Taylor, Philip

2016-07-01

The use of Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) in the control of large physics experiments is ubiquitous1, 2, 3. The programming of these controllers is normally the domain of engineers with a background in electronics, this paper introduces PLC program development from the software engineer's perspective. PLC programs provide the link between control software running on PC architecture systems and physical hardware controlled and monitored by digital and analog signals. The higher-level software running on the PC is typically responsible for accepting operator input and from this deciding when and how hardware connected to the PLC is controlled. The PLC accepts demands from the PC, considers the current state of its connected hardware and if correct to do so (based upon interlocks or other constraints) adjusts its hardware output signals appropriately for the PC's demands. A published ICD (Interface Control Document) defines the PLC memory locations available to be written and read by the PC to control and monitor the hardware. Historically the method of programming PLCs has been ladder diagrams that closely resemble circuit diagrams, however, PLC manufacturers nowadays also provide, and promote, the use of higher-level programming languages4. Based on techniques used in the development of high-level PC software to control PLCs for multiple telescopes, this paper examines the development of PLC programs to operate the hardware of a medical cyclotron beamline controlled from a PC using the Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System (EPICS), which is also widely used in telescope control5, 6, 7. The PLC used is the new generation Siemens S7-1200 programmed using Siemens Pascal based Structured Control Language (SCL), which is their implementation of Structured Text (ST). The approach described is that from a software engineer's perspective, utilising Siemens Totally Integrated Automation (TIA) Portal integrated development environment (IDE) to create modular PLC programs based upon reusable functions capable of being unit tested without the PLC connected to hardware. Emphasis has been placed on designing an interface between EPICS and SCL that enforces correct operation of hardware through stringent separation of PC accessible PLC memory and hardware I/O addresses used only by the PLC. The paper also introduces the method used to automate the creation, from the same source document, the PLC memory structure (tag) definitions (defining memory used to access hardware I/O and that accessed by the PC) and creation of the PC program data structures (EPICS database records) used to access the permitted PLC addresses. From direct experience this paper demonstrates the advantages of PLC program development being shared between electronic and software engineers, to enable use of the most appropriate processes from both the perspective of the hardware and the higher-level software used to control it.

Software Engineering Education Directory

DTIC Science & Technology

1990-04-01

and Engineering (CMSC 735) Codes: GPEV2 * Textiooks: IEEE Tutoria on Models and Metrics for Software Management and Engameeing by Basi, Victor R...Software Engineering (Comp 227) Codes: GPRY5 Textbooks: IEEE Tutoria on Software Design Techniques by Freeman, Peter and Wasserman, Anthony 1. Software

The research and practice of spacecraft software engineering

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Chengxin; Wang, Jinghua; Xu, Xiaoguang

2017-06-01

In order to ensure the safety and reliability of spacecraft software products, it is necessary to execute engineering management. Firstly, the paper introduces the problems of unsystematic planning, uncertain classified management and uncontinuous improved mechanism in domestic and foreign spacecraft software engineering management. Then, it proposes a solution for software engineering management based on system-integrated ideology in the perspective of spacecraft system. Finally, a application result of spacecraft is given as an example. The research can provides a reference for executing spacecraft software engineering management and improving software product quality.

Software Library for Bruker TopSpin NMR Data Files

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

A software library for parsing and manipulating frequency-domain data files that have been processed using the Bruker TopSpin NMR software package. In the context of NMR, the term "processed" indicates that the end-user of the Bruker TopSpin NMR software package has (a) Fourier transformed the raw, time-domain data (the Free Induction Decay) into the frequency-domain and (b) has extracted the list of NMR peaks.

Adaptive subdomain modeling: A multi-analysis technique for ocean circulation models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Altuntas, Alper; Baugh, John

2017-07-01

Many coastal and ocean processes of interest operate over large temporal and geographical scales and require a substantial amount of computational resources, particularly when engineering design and failure scenarios are also considered. This study presents an adaptive multi-analysis technique that improves the efficiency of these computations when multiple alternatives are being simulated. The technique, called adaptive subdomain modeling, concurrently analyzes any number of child domains, with each instance corresponding to a unique design or failure scenario, in addition to a full-scale parent domain providing the boundary conditions for its children. To contain the altered hydrodynamics originating from the modifications, the spatial extent of each child domain is adaptively adjusted during runtime depending on the response of the model. The technique is incorporated in ADCIRC++, a re-implementation of the popular ADCIRC ocean circulation model with an updated software architecture designed to facilitate this adaptive behavior and to utilize concurrent executions of multiple domains. The results of our case studies confirm that the method substantially reduces computational effort while maintaining accuracy.

Data systems and computer science: Software Engineering Program

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zygielbaum, Arthur I.

1991-01-01

An external review of the Integrated Technology Plan for the Civil Space Program is presented. This review is specifically concerned with the Software Engineering Program. The goals of the Software Engineering Program are as follows: (1) improve NASA's ability to manage development, operation, and maintenance of complex software systems; (2) decrease NASA's cost and risk in engineering complex software systems; and (3) provide technology to assure safety and reliability of software in mission critical applications.

Modular Rocket Engine Control Software (MRECS)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tarrant, C.; Crook, J.

1998-01-01

The Modular Rocket Engine Control Software (MRECS) Program is a technology demonstration effort designed to advance the state-of-the-art in launch vehicle propulsion systems. Its emphasis is on developing and demonstrating a modular software architecture for advanced engine control systems that will result in lower software maintenance (operations) costs. It effectively accommodates software requirement changes that occur due to hardware technology upgrades and engine development testing. Ground rules directed by MSFC were to optimize modularity and implement the software in the Ada programming language. MRECS system software and the software development environment utilize Commercial-Off-the-Shelf (COTS) products. This paper presents the objectives, benefits, and status of the program. The software architecture, design, and development environment are described. MRECS tasks are defined and timing relationships given. Major accomplishments are listed. MRECS offers benefits to a wide variety of advanced technology programs in the areas of modular software architecture, reuse software, and reduced software reverification time related to software changes. MRECS was recently modified to support a Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) hot-fire test. Cold Flow and Flight Readiness Testing were completed before the test was cancelled. Currently, the program is focused on supporting NASA MSFC in accomplishing development testing of the Fastrac Engine, part of NASA's Low Cost Technologies (LCT) Program. MRECS will be used for all engine development testing.

Wasatch: An architecture-proof multiphysics development environment using a Domain Specific Language and graph theory

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Saad, Tony; Sutherland, James C.

To address the coding and software challenges of modern hybrid architectures, we propose an approach to multiphysics code development for high-performance computing. This approach is based on using a Domain Specific Language (DSL) in tandem with a directed acyclic graph (DAG) representation of the problem to be solved that allows runtime algorithm generation. When coupled with a large-scale parallel framework, the result is a portable development framework capable of executing on hybrid platforms and handling the challenges of multiphysics applications. In addition, we share our experience developing a code in such an environment – an effort that spans an interdisciplinarymore » team of engineers and computer scientists.« less

Wasatch: An architecture-proof multiphysics development environment using a Domain Specific Language and graph theory

DOE PAGES

Saad, Tony; Sutherland, James C.

2016-05-04

To address the coding and software challenges of modern hybrid architectures, we propose an approach to multiphysics code development for high-performance computing. This approach is based on using a Domain Specific Language (DSL) in tandem with a directed acyclic graph (DAG) representation of the problem to be solved that allows runtime algorithm generation. When coupled with a large-scale parallel framework, the result is a portable development framework capable of executing on hybrid platforms and handling the challenges of multiphysics applications. In addition, we share our experience developing a code in such an environment – an effort that spans an interdisciplinarymore » team of engineers and computer scientists.« less

Microprocessor-based multichannel flutter monitor using dynamic strain gage signals

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Smalley, R. R.

1976-01-01

Two microprocessor-based multichannel monitors for monitoring strain gage signals during aerodynamic instability (flutter) testing in production type turbojet engines were described. One system monitors strain gage signals in the time domain and gives an output indication whenever the signal amplitude of any gage exceeds a pre-set alarm or abort level for that particular gage. The second system monitors the strain gage signals in the frequency domain and therefore is able to use both the amplitude and frequency information. Thus, an alarm signal is given whenever the spectral content of the strain gage signal exceeds, at any point, its corresponding amplitude vs. frequency limit profiles. Each system design is described with details on design trade-offs, hardware, software, and operating experience.

Teaching Agile Software Engineering Using Problem-Based Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

El-Khalili, Nuha H.

2013-01-01

Many studies have reported the utilization of Problem-Based Learning (PBL) in teaching Software Engineering courses. However, these studies have different views of the effectiveness of PBL. This paper presents the design of an Advanced Software Engineering course for undergraduate Software Engineering students that uses PBL to teach them Agile…

Software Engineering Frameworks: Textbooks vs. Student Perceptions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McMaster, Kirby; Hadfield, Steven; Wolthuis, Stuart; Sambasivam, Samuel

2012-01-01

This research examines the frameworks used by Computer Science and Information Systems students at the conclusion of their first semester of study of Software Engineering. A questionnaire listing 64 Software Engineering concepts was given to students upon completion of their first Software Engineering course. This survey was given to samples of…

37 CFR 201.26 - Recordation of documents pertaining to computer shareware and donation of public domain computer...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... pertaining to computer shareware and donation of public domain computer software. 201.26 Section 201.26... of public domain computer software. (a) General. This section prescribes the procedures for... software under section 805 of Public Law 101-650, 104 Stat. 5089 (1990). Documents recorded in the...

Collected software engineering papers, volume 2

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1983-01-01

Topics addressed include: summaries of the software engineering laboratory (SEL) organization, operation, and research activities; results of specific research projects in the areas of resource models and software measures; and strategies for data collection for software engineering research.

Managing the Software Development Process

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lubelczky, Jeffrey T.; Parra, Amy

1999-01-01

The goal of any software development project is to produce a product that is delivered on time, within the allocated budget, and with the capabilities expected by the customer and unfortunately, this goal is rarely achieved. However, a properly managed project in a mature software engineering environment can consistently achieve this goal. In this paper we provide an introduction to three project success factors, a properly managed project, a competent project manager, and a mature software engineering environment. We will also present an overview of the benefits of a mature software engineering environment based on 24 years of data from the Software Engineering Lab, and suggest some first steps that an organization can take to begin benefiting from this environment. The depth and breadth of software engineering exceeds this paper, various references are cited with a goal of raising awareness and encouraging further investigation into software engineering and project management practices.

Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Software Engineering Workshop

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1983-01-01

The four major topics of discussion included: the NASA Software Engineering Laboratory, software testing, human factors in software engineering and software quality assessment. As in the past years, there were 12 position papers presented (3 for each topic) followed by questions and very heavy participation by the general audience.

Use of Soft Computing Technologies For Rocket Engine Control

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Trevino, Luis C.; Olcmen, Semih; Polites, Michael

2003-01-01

The problem to be addressed in this paper is to explore how the use of Soft Computing Technologies (SCT) could be employed to further improve overall engine system reliability and performance. Specifically, this will be presented by enhancing rocket engine control and engine health management (EHM) using SCT coupled with conventional control technologies, and sound software engineering practices used in Marshall s Flight Software Group. The principle goals are to improve software management, software development time and maintenance, processor execution, fault tolerance and mitigation, and nonlinear control in power level transitions. The intent is not to discuss any shortcomings of existing engine control and EHM methodologies, but to provide alternative design choices for control, EHM, implementation, performance, and sustaining engineering. The approaches outlined in this paper will require knowledge in the fields of rocket engine propulsion, software engineering for embedded systems, and soft computing technologies (i.e., neural networks, fuzzy logic, and Bayesian belief networks), much of which is presented in this paper. The first targeted demonstration rocket engine platform is the MC-1 (formerly FASTRAC Engine) which is simulated with hardware and software in the Marshall Avionics & Software Testbed laboratory that

The new meaning of quality in the information age.

PubMed

Prahalad, C K; Krishnan, M S

1999-01-01

Software applications are now a mission-critical source of competitive advantage for most companies. They are also a source of great risk, as the Y2K bug has made clear. Yet many line managers still haven't confronted software issues--partly because they aren't sure how best to define the quality of the applications in their IT infrastructures. Some companies such as Wal-Mart and the Gap have successfully integrated the software in their networks, but most have accumulated an unwidely number of incompatible applications--all designed to perform the same tasks. The authors provide a framework for measuring the performance of software in a company's IT portfolio. Quality traditionally has been measured according to a product's ability to meet certain specifications; other views of quality have emerged that measure a product's adaptability to customers' needs and a product's ability to encourage innovation. To judge software quality properly, argue the authors, managers must measure applications against all three approaches. Understanding the domain of a software application is an important part of that process. The domain is the body of knowledge about a user's needs and expectations for a product. Software domains change frequently based on how a consumer chooses to use, for example, Microsoft Word or a spreadsheet application. The domain can also be influenced by general changes in technology, such as the development of a new software platform. Thus, applications can't be judged only according to whether they conform to specifications. The authors discuss how to identify domain characteristics and software risks and suggest ways to reduce the variability of software domains.

A Bibliography of Externally Published Works by the SEI Engineering Techniques Program

DTIC Science & Technology

1992-08-01

media, and virtual reality * model- based engineering * programming languages * reuse * software architectures * software engineering as a discipline...Knowledge- Based Engineering Environments." IEEE Expert 3, 2 (May 1988): 18-23, 26-32. Audience: Practitioner [Klein89b] Klein, D.V. "Comparison of...Terms with Software Reuse Terminology: A Model- Based Approach." ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes 16, 2 (April 1991): 45-51. Audience: Practitioner

Quality Assurance in the Presence of Variability

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lauenroth, Kim; Metzger, Andreas; Pohl, Klaus

Software Product Line Engineering (SPLE) is a reuse-driven development paradigm that has been applied successfully in information system engineering and other domains. Quality assurance of the reusable artifacts of the product line (e.g. requirements, design, and code artifacts) is essential for successful product line engineering. As those artifacts are reused in several products, a defect in a reusable artifact can affect several products of the product line. A central challenge for quality assurance in product line engineering is how to consider product line variability. Since the reusable artifacts contain variability, quality assurance techniques from single-system engineering cannot directly be applied to those artifacts. Therefore, different strategies and techniques have been developed for quality assurance in the presence of variability. In this chapter, we describe those strategies and discuss in more detail one of those strategies, the so called comprehensive strategy. The comprehensive strategy aims at checking the quality of all possible products of the product line and thus offers the highest benefits, since it is able to uncover defects in all possible products of the product line. However, the central challenge for applying the comprehensive strategy is the complexity that results from the product line variability and the large number of potential products of a product line. In this chapter, we present one concrete technique that we have developed to implement the comprehensive strategy that addresses this challenge. The technique is based on model checking technology and allows for a comprehensive verification of domain artifacts against temporal logic properties.

A report on NASA software engineering and Ada training requirements

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Legrand, Sue; Freedman, Glenn B.; Svabek, L.

1987-01-01

NASA's software engineering and Ada skill base are assessed and information that may result in new models for software engineering, Ada training plans, and curricula are provided. A quantitative assessment which reflects the requirements for software engineering and Ada training across NASA is provided. A recommended implementation plan including a suggested curriculum with associated duration per course and suggested means of delivery is also provided. The distinction between education and training is made. Although it was directed to focus on NASA's need for the latter, the key relationships to software engineering education are also identified. A rationale and strategy for implementing a life cycle education and training program are detailed in support of improved software engineering practices and the transition to Ada.

A Systematic Comprehensive Computational Model for Stake Estimation in Mission Assurance: Applying Cyber Security Econometrics System (CSES) to Mission Assurance Analysis Protocol (MAAP)

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Abercrombie, Robert K; Sheldon, Frederick T; Grimaila, Michael R

2010-01-01

In earlier works, we presented a computational infrastructure that allows an analyst to estimate the security of a system in terms of the loss that each stakeholder stands to sustain as a result of security breakdowns. In this paper, we discuss how this infrastructure can be used in the subject domain of mission assurance as defined as the full life-cycle engineering process to identify and mitigate design, production, test, and field support deficiencies of mission success. We address the opportunity to apply the Cyberspace Security Econometrics System (CSES) to Carnegie Mellon University and Software Engineering Institute s Mission Assurance Analysismore » Protocol (MAAP) in this context.« less

A unified approach to the design of clinical reporting systems.

PubMed

Gouveia-Oliveira, A; Salgado, N C; Azevedo, A P; Lopes, L; Raposo, V D; Almeida, I; de Melo, F G

1994-12-01

Computer-based Clinical Reporting Systems (CRS) for diagnostic departments that use structured data entry have a number of functional and structural affinities suggesting that a common software architecture for CRS may be defined. Such an architecture should allow easy expandability and reusability of a CRS. We report the development methodology and the architecture of SISCOPE, a CRS originally designed for gastrointestinal endoscopy that is expandable and reusable. Its main components are a patient database, a knowledge base, a reports base, and screen and reporting engines. The knowledge base contains the description of the controlled vocabulary and all the information necessary to control the menu system, and is easily accessed and modified with a conventional text editor. The structure of the controlled vocabulary is formally presented as an entity-relationship diagram. The screen engine drives a dynamic user interface and the reporting engine automatically creates a medical report; both engines operate by following a set of rules and the information contained in the knowledge base. Clinical experience has shown this architecture to be highly flexible and to allow frequent modifications of both the vocabulary and the menu system. This structure provided increased collaboration among development teams, insulating the domain expert from the details of the database, and enabling him to modify the system as necessary and to test the changes immediately. The system has also been reused in several different domains.

Developing the Next Generation of Science Data System Engineers

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Moses, John F.; Behnke, Jeanne; Durachka, Christopher D.

2016-01-01

At Goddard, engineers and scientists with a range of experience in science data systems are needed to employ new technologies and develop advances in capabilities for supporting new Earth and Space science research. Engineers with extensive experience in science data, software engineering and computer-information architectures are needed to lead and perform these activities. The increasing types and complexity of instrument data and emerging computer technologies coupled with the current shortage of computer engineers with backgrounds in science has led the need to develop a career path for science data systems engineers and architects.The current career path, in which undergraduate students studying various disciplines such as Computer Engineering or Physical Scientist, generally begins with serving on a development team in any of the disciplines where they can work in depth on existing Goddard data systems or serve with a specific NASA science team. There they begin to understand the data, infuse technologies, and begin to know the architectures of science data systems. From here the typical career involves peermentoring, on-the-job training or graduate level studies in analytics, computational science and applied science and mathematics. At the most senior level, engineers become subject matter experts and system architect experts, leading discipline-specific data centers and large software development projects. They are recognized as a subject matter expert in a science domain, they have project management expertise, lead standards efforts and lead international projects. A long career development remains necessary not only because of the breadth of knowledge required across physical sciences and engineering disciplines, but also because of the diversity of instrument data being developed today both by NASA and international partner agencies and because multidiscipline science and practitioner communities expect to have access to all types of observational data.This paper describes an approach to defining career-path guidance for college-bound high school and undergraduate engineering students, junior and senior engineers from various disciplines.

Developing the Next Generation of Science Data System Engineers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moses, J. F.; Durachka, C. D.; Behnke, J.

2015-12-01

At Goddard, engineers and scientists with a range of experience in science data systems are needed to employ new technologies and develop advances in capabilities for supporting new Earth and Space science research. Engineers with extensive experience in science data, software engineering and computer-information architectures are needed to lead and perform these activities. The increasing types and complexity of instrument data and emerging computer technologies coupled with the current shortage of computer engineers with backgrounds in science has led the need to develop a career path for science data systems engineers and architects. The current career path, in which undergraduate students studying various disciplines such as Computer Engineering or Physical Scientist, generally begins with serving on a development team in any of the disciplines where they can work in depth on existing Goddard data systems or serve with a specific NASA science team. There they begin to understand the data, infuse technologies, and begin to know the architectures of science data systems. From here the typical career involves peer mentoring, on-the-job training or graduate level studies in analytics, computational science and applied science and mathematics. At the most senior level, engineers become subject matter experts and system architect experts, leading discipline-specific data centers and large software development projects. They are recognized as a subject matter expert in a science domain, they have project management expertise, lead standards efforts and lead international projects. A long career development remains necessary not only because of the breath of knowledge required across physical sciences and engineering disciplines, but also because of the diversity of instrument data being developed today both by NASA and international partner agencies and because multi-discipline science and practitioner communities expect to have access to all types of observational data. This paper describes an approach to defining career-path guidance for college-bound high school and undergraduate engineering students, junior and senior engineers from various disciplines.

SIENA Customer Problem Statement and Requirements

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

L. Sauer; R. Clay; C. Adams

2000-08-01

This document describes the problem domain and functional requirements of the SIENA framework. The software requirements and system architecture of SIENA are specified in separate documents (called SIENA Software Requirement Specification and SIENA Software Architecture, respectively). While currently this version of the document describes the problems and captures the requirements within the Analysis domain (concentrating on finite element models), it is our intention to subsequent y expand this document to describe problems and capture requirements from the Design and Manufacturing domains. In addition, SIENA is designed to be extendible to support and integrate elements from the other domains (see SIENAmore » Software Architecture document).« less

BIT: Biosignal Igniter Toolkit.

PubMed

da Silva, Hugo Plácido; Lourenço, André; Fred, Ana; Martins, Raúl

2014-06-01

The study of biosignals has had a transforming role in multiple aspects of our society, which go well beyond the health sciences domains to which they were traditionally associated with. While biomedical engineering is a classical discipline where the topic is amply covered, today biosignals are a matter of interest for students, researchers and hobbyists in areas including computer science, informatics, electrical engineering, among others. Regardless of the context, the use of biosignals in experimental activities and practical projects is heavily bounded by the cost, and limited access to adequate support materials. In this paper we present an accessible, albeit versatile toolkit, composed of low-cost hardware and software, which was created to reinforce the engagement of different people in the field of biosignals. The hardware consists of a modular wireless biosignal acquisition system that can be used to support classroom activities, interface with other devices, or perform rapid prototyping of end-user applications. The software comprehends a set of programming APIs, a biosignal processing toolbox, and a framework for real time data acquisition and postprocessing. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

An investigation of difficulties experienced by students developing unified modelling language (UML) class and sequence diagrams

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sien, Ven Yu

2011-12-01

Object-oriented analysis and design (OOAD) is not an easy subject to learn. There are many challenges confronting students when studying OOAD. Students have particular difficulty abstracting real-world problems within the context of OOAD. They are unable to effectively build object-oriented (OO) models from the problem domain because they essentially do not know "what" to model. This article investigates the difficulties and misconceptions undergraduate students have with analysing systems using unified modelling language analysis class and sequence diagrams. These models were chosen because they represent important static and dynamic aspects of the software system under development. The results of this study will help students produce effective OO models, and facilitate software engineering lecturers design learning materials and approaches for introductory OOAD courses.

Professional Ethics of Software Engineers: An Ethical Framework.

PubMed

Lurie, Yotam; Mark, Shlomo

2016-04-01

The purpose of this article is to propose an ethical framework for software engineers that connects software developers' ethical responsibilities directly to their professional standards. The implementation of such an ethical framework can overcome the traditional dichotomy between professional skills and ethical skills, which plagues the engineering professions, by proposing an approach to the fundamental tasks of the practitioner, i.e., software development, in which the professional standards are intrinsically connected to the ethical responsibilities. In so doing, the ethical framework improves the practitioner's professionalism and ethics. We call this approach Ethical-Driven Software Development (EDSD), as an approach to software development. EDSD manifests the advantages of an ethical framework as an alternative to the all too familiar approach in professional ethics that advocates "stand-alone codes of ethics". We believe that one outcome of this synergy between professional and ethical skills is simply better engineers. Moreover, since there are often different software solutions, which the engineer can provide to an issue at stake, the ethical framework provides a guiding principle, within the process of software development, that helps the engineer evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of different software solutions. It does not and cannot affect the end-product in and of-itself. However, it can and should, make the software engineer more conscious and aware of the ethical ramifications of certain engineering decisions within the process.

Engineering Complex Embedded Systems with State Analysis and the Mission Data System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ingham, Michel D.; Rasmussen, Robert D.; Bennett, Matthew B.; Moncada, Alex C.

2004-01-01

It has become clear that spacecraft system complexity is reaching a threshold where customary methods of control are no longer affordable or sufficiently reliable. At the heart of this problem are the conventional approaches to systems and software engineering based on subsystem-level functional decomposition, which fail to scale in the tangled web of interactions typically encountered in complex spacecraft designs. Furthermore, there is a fundamental gap between the requirements on software specified by systems engineers and the implementation of these requirements by software engineers. Software engineers must perform the translation of requirements into software code, hoping to accurately capture the systems engineer's understanding of the system behavior, which is not always explicitly specified. This gap opens up the possibility for misinterpretation of the systems engineer s intent, potentially leading to software errors. This problem is addressed by a systems engineering methodology called State Analysis, which provides a process for capturing system and software requirements in the form of explicit models. This paper describes how requirements for complex aerospace systems can be developed using State Analysis and how these requirements inform the design of the system software, using representative spacecraft examples.

Toward full life cycle control: Adding maintenance measurement to the SEL

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rombach, H. Dieter; Ulery, Bradford T.; Valett, Jon D.

1992-01-01

Organization-wide measurement of software products and processes is needed to establish full life cycle control over software products. The Software Engineering Laboratory (SEL)--a joint venture between NASA GSFC, the University of Maryland, and Computer Sciences Corporation--started measurement of software development more than 15 years ago. Recently, the measurement of maintenance was added to the scope of the SEL. In this article, the maintenance measurement program is presented as an addition to the already existing and well-established SEL development measurement program and evaluated in terms of its immediate benefits and long-term improvement potential. Immediate benefits of this program for the SEL include an increased understanding of the maintenance domain, the differences and commonalities between development and maintenance, and the cause-effect relationships between development and maintenance. Initial results from a sample maintenance study are presented to substantiate these benefits. The long-term potential of this program includes the use of maintenance baselines to better plan and manage future projects and to improve development and maintenance practices for future projects wherever warranted.

Research on Visualization Design Method in the Field of New Media Software Engineering

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Deqiang, Hu

2018-03-01

In the new period of increasingly developed science and technology, with the increasingly fierce competition in the market and the increasing demand of the masses, new design and application methods have emerged in the field of new media software engineering, that is, the visualization design method. Applying the visualization design method to the field of new media software engineering can not only improve the actual operation efficiency of new media software engineering but more importantly the quality of software development can be enhanced by means of certain media of communication and transformation; on this basis, the progress and development of new media software engineering in China are also continuously promoted. Therefore, the application of visualization design method in the field of new media software engineering is analysed concretely in this article from the perspective of the overview of visualization design methods and on the basis of systematic analysis of the basic technology.

The ESGF Software Stack: a Configurable and Extensible Framework for Enabling Access to Geospatial Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cinquini, L.; Bell, G. M.; Williams, D.; Harney, J.

2012-12-01

The Earth System Grid Federation (ESGF) is a multi-agency, international collaboration that aims at developing state-of-the-art services for the management and access of Earth system data. ESGF is currently used to serve the totality of the model output used for the forthcoming IPCC 5th assessment report on climate change, as well as supporting observational and reanalysis datasets. Also, it is been adopted by several other projects that focus on global, regional and local climate modeling. The ESGF software stack is composed of several modular applications that cover related but disjoint areas of functionality: data publishing, data search and discovery, data access, user management, security, and federation. Overall, the ESGF infrastructure offers a configurable end-to-end solution to the problem of enabling web-based access to large amounts of geospatial data. This talk will present the architectural and configuration options that are available to a data provider leveraging ESGF to serve their data: which services to expose, how to scale to larger data collections, how to establish access control, how to customize the user interface, and others. Additionally, the framework provides extension points that allow each site to plug in custom functionality such as crawling of specific metadata repositories, exposing domain-specific analysis and visualization services, developing custom access clients that interact with the system APIs. These configuration and extension capabilities are based on simple but effective domain-specific object models, that underpin the software applications: the data model, the security model, and the federation model. The ESGF software stack is developed collaboratively by software engineers at many institutions around the world, and is made freely available to the community under an open source license to promote adoption, reuse, inspection and continuous improvement.

Generic Safety Requirements for Developing Safe Insulin Pump Software

PubMed Central

Zhang, Yi; Jetley, Raoul; Jones, Paul L; Ray, Arnab

2011-01-01

Background The authors previously introduced a highly abstract generic insulin infusion pump (GIIP) model that identified common features and hazards shared by most insulin pumps on the market. The aim of this article is to extend our previous work on the GIIP model by articulating safety requirements that address the identified GIIP hazards. These safety requirements can be validated by manufacturers, and may ultimately serve as a safety reference for insulin pump software. Together, these two publications can serve as a basis for discussing insulin pump safety in the diabetes community. Methods In our previous work, we established a generic insulin pump architecture that abstracts functions common to many insulin pumps currently on the market and near-future pump designs. We then carried out a preliminary hazard analysis based on this architecture that included consultations with many domain experts. Further consultation with domain experts resulted in the safety requirements used in the modeling work presented in this article. Results Generic safety requirements for the GIIP model are presented, as appropriate, in parameterized format to accommodate clinical practices or specific insulin pump criteria important to safe device performance. Conclusions We believe that there is considerable value in having the diabetes, academic, and manufacturing communities consider and discuss these generic safety requirements. We hope that the communities will extend and revise them, make them more representative and comprehensive, experiment with them, and use them as a means for assessing the safety of insulin pump software designs. One potential use of these requirements is to integrate them into model-based engineering (MBE) software development methods. We believe, based on our experiences, that implementing safety requirements using MBE methods holds promise in reducing design/implementation flaws in insulin pump development and evolutionary processes, therefore improving overall safety of insulin pump software. PMID:22226258

Automation of the Environmental Control and Life Support System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dewberry, Brandon S.; Carnes, J. Ray

1990-01-01

The objective of the Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) Advanced Automation Project is to recommend and develop advanced software for the initial and evolutionary Space Station Freedom (SSF) ECLS system which will minimize the crew and ground manpower needed for operations. Another objective includes capturing ECLSS design and development knowledge for future missions. This report summarizes our results from Phase I, the ECLSS domain analysis phase, which we broke down into three steps: 1) Analyze and document the baselined ECLS system, 2) envision as our goal an evolution to a fully automated regenerative life support system, built upon an augmented baseline, and 3) document the augmentations (hooks and scars) and advanced software systems which we see as necessary in achieving minimal manpower support for ECLSS operations. In addition, Phase I included development of an advanced software life cycle testing tools will be used in the development of the software. In this way, we plan in preparation for phase II and III, the development and integration phases, respectively. Automated knowledge acquisition, engineering, verification, and can capture ECLSS development knowledge for future use, develop more robust and complex software, provide feedback to the KBS tool community, and insure proper visibility of our efforts.

State analysis requirements database for engineering complex embedded systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bennett, Matthew B.; Rasmussen, Robert D.; Ingham, Michel D.

2004-01-01

It has become clear that spacecraft system complexity is reaching a threshold where customary methods of control are no longer affordable or sufficiently reliable. At the heart of this problem are the conventional approaches to systems and software engineering based on subsystem-level functional decomposition, which fail to scale in the tangled web of interactions typically encountered in complex spacecraft designs. Furthermore, there is a fundamental gap between the requirements on software specified by systems engineers and the implementation of these requirements by software engineers. Software engineers must perform the translation of requirements into software code, hoping to accurately capture the systems engineer's understanding of the system behavior, which is not always explicitly specified. This gap opens up the possibility for misinterpretation of the systems engineer's intent, potentially leading to software errors. This problem is addressed by a systems engineering tool called the State Analysis Database, which provides a tool for capturing system and software requirements in the form of explicit models. This paper describes how requirements for complex aerospace systems can be developed using the State Analysis Database.

The TAME Project: Towards improvement-oriented software environments

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Basili, Victor R.; Rombach, H. Dieter

1988-01-01

Experience from a dozen years of analyzing software engineering processes and products is summarized as a set of software engineering and measurement principles that argue for software engineering process models that integrate sound planning and analysis into the construction process. In the TAME (Tailoring A Measurement Environment) project at the University of Maryland, such an improvement-oriented software engineering process model was developed that uses the goal/question/metric paradigm to integrate the constructive and analytic aspects of software development. The model provides a mechanism for formalizing the characterization and planning tasks, controlling and improving projects based on quantitative analysis, learning in a deeper and more systematic way about the software process and product, and feeding the appropriate experience back into the current and future projects. The TAME system is an instantiation of the TAME software engineering process model as an ISEE (integrated software engineering environment). The first in a series of TAME system prototypes has been developed. An assessment of experience with this first limited prototype is presented including a reassessment of its initial architecture.

Analysis of key technologies for virtual instruments metrology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Guixiong; Xu, Qingui; Gao, Furong; Guan, Qiuju; Fang, Qiang

2008-12-01

Virtual instruments (VIs) require metrological verification when applied as measuring instruments. Owing to the software-centered architecture, metrological evaluation of VIs includes two aspects: measurement functions and software characteristics. Complexity of software imposes difficulties on metrological testing of VIs. Key approaches and technologies for metrology evaluation of virtual instruments are investigated and analyzed in this paper. The principal issue is evaluation of measurement uncertainty. The nature and regularity of measurement uncertainty caused by software and algorithms can be evaluated by modeling, simulation, analysis, testing and statistics with support of powerful computing capability of PC. Another concern is evaluation of software features like correctness, reliability, stability, security and real-time of VIs. Technologies from software engineering, software testing and computer security domain can be used for these purposes. For example, a variety of black-box testing, white-box testing and modeling approaches can be used to evaluate the reliability of modules, components, applications and the whole VI software. The security of a VI can be assessed by methods like vulnerability scanning and penetration analysis. In order to facilitate metrology institutions to perform metrological verification of VIs efficiently, an automatic metrological tool for the above validation is essential. Based on technologies of numerical simulation, software testing and system benchmarking, a framework for the automatic tool is proposed in this paper. Investigation on implementation of existing automatic tools that perform calculation of measurement uncertainty, software testing and security assessment demonstrates the feasibility of the automatic framework advanced.

A Systematic Approach for Obtaining Performance on Matrix-Like Operations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Veras, Richard Michael

Scientific Computation provides a critical role in the scientific process because it allows us ask complex queries and test predictions that would otherwise be unfeasible to perform experimentally. Because of its power, Scientific Computing has helped drive advances in many fields ranging from Engineering and Physics to Biology and Sociology to Economics and Drug Development and even to Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence. Common among these domains is the desire for timely computational results, thus a considerable amount of human expert effort is spent towards obtaining performance for these scientific codes. However, this is no easy task because each of these domains present their own unique set of challenges to software developers, such as domain specific operations, structurally complex data and ever-growing datasets. Compounding these problems are the myriads of constantly changing, complex and unique hardware platforms that an expert must target. Unfortunately, an expert is typically forced to reproduce their effort across multiple problem domains and hardware platforms. In this thesis, we demonstrate the automatic generation of expert level high-performance scientific codes for Dense Linear Algebra (DLA), Structured Mesh (Stencil), Sparse Linear Algebra and Graph Analytic. In particular, this thesis seeks to address the issue of obtaining performance on many complex platforms for a certain class of matrix-like operations that span across many scientific, engineering and social fields. We do this by automating a method used for obtaining high performance in DLA and extending it to structured, sparse and scale-free domains. We argue that it is through the use of the underlying structure found in the data from these domains that enables this process. Thus, obtaining performance for most operations does not occur in isolation of the data being operated on, but instead depends significantly on the structure of the data.

Data-driven Ontology Development: A Case Study at NASA's Atmospheric Science Data Center

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hertz, J.; Huffer, E.; Kusterer, J.

2012-12-01

Well-founded ontologies are key to enabling transformative semantic technologies and accelerating scientific research. One example is semantically enabled search and discovery, making scientific data accessible and more understandable by accurately modeling a complex domain. The ontology creation process remains a challenge for many anxious to pursue semantic technologies. The key may be that the creation process -- whether formal, community-based, automated or semi-automated -- should encompass not only a foundational core and supplemental resources but also a focus on the purpose or mission the ontology is created to support. Are there tools or processes to de-mystify, assess or enhance the resulting ontology? We suggest that comparison and analysis of a domain-focused ontology can be made using text engineering tools for information extraction, tokenizers, named entity transducers and others. The results are analyzed to ensure the ontology reflects the core purpose of the domain's mission and that the ontology integrates and describes the supporting data in the language of the domain - how the science is analyzed and discussed among all users of the data. Commonalities and relationships among domain resources describing the Clouds and Earth's Radiant Energy (CERES) Bi-Directional Scan (BDS) datasets from NASA's Atmospheric Science Data Center are compared. The domain resources include: a formal ontology created for CERES; scientific works such as papers, conference proceedings and notes; information extracted from the datasets (i.e., header metadata); and BDS scientific documentation (Algorithm Theoretical Basis Documents, collection guides, data quality summaries and others). These resources are analyzed using the open source software General Architecture for Text Engineering, a mature framework for computational tasks involving human language.

Impacts of Technological Changes in the Cyber Environment on Software/Systems Engineering Workforce Development

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-04-01

for decoupled parallel development Ref: Barry Boehm 12 Impacts of Technological Changes in the Cyber Environment on Software/Systems Engineering... Pressman , R.S., Software Engineering: A Practitioner’s Approach, 13 Impacts of Technological Changes in the Cyber Environment on Software/Systems

Creating and Manipulating Formalized Software Architectures to Support a Domain-Oriented Application Composition System

DTIC Science & Technology

1992-12-01

OOD) Paradigm ...... .... 2-7 2.4.3 Feature-Oriented Domain Analysis ( FODA ) ..... 2-7 2.4.4 Hierarchical Software Systems .................. 2-7...domain analysis ( FODA ) is one approach to domain analysis whose primary goal is to make domain products reusable (20:47). A domain model describes 2-5...7), among others. 2.4.3 Feature-Oriented Domain Analysis ( FODA ) Kang and others used the com- plete FODA methodology to successfully develop a window

Research in computer science

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ortega, J. M.

1984-01-01

Several short summaries of the work performed during this reporting period are presented. Topics discussed in this document include: (1) resilient seeded errors via simple techniques; (2) knowledge representation for engineering design; (3) analysis of faults in a multiversion software experiment; (4) implementation of parallel programming environment; (5) symbolic execution of concurrent programs; (6) two computer graphics systems for visualization of pressure distribution and convective density particles; (7) design of a source code management system; (8) vectorizing incomplete conjugate gradient on the Cyber 203/205; (9) extensions of domain testing theory and; (10) performance analyzer for the pisces system.

Scalable and reusable emulator for evaluating the performance of SS7 networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lazar, Aurel A.; Tseng, Kent H.; Lim, Koon Seng; Choe, Winston

1994-04-01

A scalable and reusable emulator was designed and implemented for studying the behavior of SS7 networks. The emulator design was largely based on public domain software. It was developed on top of an environment supported by PVM, the Parallel Virtual Machine, and managed by OSIMIS-the OSI Management Information Service platform. The emulator runs on top of a commercially available ATM LAN interconnecting engineering workstations. As a case study for evaluating the emulator, the behavior of the Singapore National SS7 Network under fault and unbalanced loading conditions was investigated.

Ontology-Based Model Of Firm Competitiveness

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Deliyska, Boryana; Stoenchev, Nikolay

2010-10-01

Competitiveness is important characteristics of each business organization (firm, company, corporation etc). It is of great significance for the organization existence and defines evaluation criteria of business success at microeconomical level. Each criterium comprises set of indicators with specific weight coefficients. In the work an ontology-based model of firm competitiveness is presented as a set of several mutually connected ontologies. It would be useful for knowledge structuring, standardization and sharing among experts and software engineers who develop application in the domain. Then the assessment of the competitiveness of various business organizations could be generated more effectively.

Software And Systems Engineering Risk Management

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-04-01

RSKM 2004 COSO Enterprise RSKM Framework 2006 ISO/IEC 16085 Risk Management Process 2008 ISO/IEC 12207 Software Lifecycle Processes 2009 ISO/IEC...1 Software And Systems Engineering Risk Management John Walz VP Technical and Conferences Activities, IEEE Computer Society Vice-Chair Planning...Software & Systems Engineering Standards Committee, IEEE Computer Society US TAG to ISO TMB Risk Management Working Group Systems and Software

Proceedings of the 19th Annual Software Engineering Workshop

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1994-01-01

The Software Engineering Laboratory (SEL) is an organization sponsored by NASA/GSFC and created to investigate the effectiveness of software engineering technologies when applied to the development of applications software. The goals of the SEL are: (1) to understand the software development process in the GSFC environment; (2) to measure the effects of various methodologies, tools, and models on this process; and (3) to identify and then to apply successful development practices. The activities, findings, and recommendations of the SEL are recorded in the Software Engineering Laboratory Series, a continuing series of reports that include this document.

Data collection procedures for the Software Engineering Laboratory (SEL) database

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Heller, Gerard; Valett, Jon; Wild, Mary

1992-01-01

This document is a guidebook to collecting software engineering data on software development and maintenance efforts, as practiced in the Software Engineering Laboratory (SEL). It supersedes the document entitled Data Collection Procedures for the Rehosted SEL Database, number SEL-87-008 in the SEL series, which was published in October 1987. It presents procedures to be followed on software development and maintenance projects in the Flight Dynamics Division (FDD) of Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) for collecting data in support of SEL software engineering research activities. These procedures include detailed instructions for the completion and submission of SEL data collection forms.

Annotated bibliography of Software Engineering Laboratory literature

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1985-01-01

An annotated bibliography of technical papers, documents, and memorandums produced by or related to the Software Engineering Laboratory is presented. More than 100 publications are summarized. These publications are summarized. These publications cover many areas of software engineering and range from research reports to software documentation. This document has been updated and reorganized substantially since the original version (SEL-82-006, November 1982). All materials are grouped into five general subject areas for easy reference: (1) the software engineering laboratory; (2) software tools; (3) models and measures; (4) technology evaluations; and (5) data collection. An index further classifies these documents by specific topic.

Modular Rocket Engine Control Software (MRECS)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tarrant, Charlie; Crook, Jerry

1997-01-01

The Modular Rocket Engine Control Software (MRECS) Program is a technology demonstration effort designed to advance the state-of-the-art in launch vehicle propulsion systems. Its emphasis is on developing and demonstrating a modular software architecture for a generic, advanced engine control system that will result in lower software maintenance (operations) costs. It effectively accommodates software requirements changes that occur due to hardware. technology upgrades and engine development testing. Ground rules directed by MSFC were to optimize modularity and implement the software in the Ada programming language. MRECS system software and the software development environment utilize Commercial-Off-the-Shelf (COTS) products. This paper presents the objectives and benefits of the program. The software architecture, design, and development environment are described. MRECS tasks are defined and timing relationships given. Major accomplishment are listed. MRECS offers benefits to a wide variety of advanced technology programs in the areas of modular software, architecture, reuse software, and reduced software reverification time related to software changes. Currently, the program is focused on supporting MSFC in accomplishing a Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) hot-fire test at Stennis Space Center and the Low Cost Boost Technology (LCBT) Program.

Software Engineering Improvement Plan

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2006-01-01

In performance of this task order, bd Systems personnel provided support to the Flight Software Branch and the Software Working Group through multiple tasks related to software engineering improvement and to activities of the independent Technical Authority (iTA) Discipline Technical Warrant Holder (DTWH) for software engineering. To ensure that the products, comments, and recommendations complied with customer requirements and the statement of work, bd Systems personnel maintained close coordination with the customer. These personnel performed work in areas such as update of agency requirements and directives database, software effort estimation, software problem reports, a web-based process asset library, miscellaneous documentation review, software system requirements, issue tracking software survey, systems engineering NPR, and project-related reviews. This report contains a summary of the work performed and the accomplishments in each of these areas.

Software engineering as an engineering discipline

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Freedman, Glenn B.

1988-01-01

The purpose of this panel is to explore the emerging field of software engineering from a variety of perspectives: university programs; industry training and definition; government development; and technology transfer. In doing this, the panel will address the issues of distinctions among software engineering, computer science, and computer hardware engineering as they relate to the challenges of large, complex systems.

SmaggIce 2D Version 1.8: Software Toolkit Developed for Aerodynamic Simulation Over Iced Airfoils

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Choo, Yung K.; Vickerman, Mary B.

2005-01-01

SmaggIce 2D version 1.8 is a software toolkit developed at the NASA Glenn Research Center that consists of tools for modeling the geometry of and generating the grids for clean and iced airfoils. Plans call for the completed SmaggIce 2D version 2.0 to streamline the entire aerodynamic simulation process--the characterization and modeling of ice shapes, grid generation, and flow simulation--and to be closely coupled with the public-domain application flow solver, WIND. Grid generated using version 1.8, however, can be used by other flow solvers. SmaggIce 2D will help researchers and engineers study the effects of ice accretion on airfoil performance, which is difficult to do with existing software tools because of complex ice shapes. Using SmaggIce 2D, when fully developed, to simulate flow over an iced airfoil will help to reduce the cost of performing flight and wind-tunnel tests for certifying aircraft in natural and simulated icing conditions.

Knowledge-based processing for aircraft flight control

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Painter, John H.; Glass, Emily; Economides, Gregory; Russell, Paul

1994-01-01

This Contractor Report documents research in Intelligent Control using knowledge-based processing in a manner dual to methods found in the classic stochastic decision, estimation, and control discipline. Such knowledge-based control has also been called Declarative, and Hybid. Software architectures were sought, employing the parallelism inherent in modern object-oriented modeling and programming. The viewpoint adopted was that Intelligent Control employs a class of domain-specific software architectures having features common over a broad variety of implementations, such as management of aircraft flight, power distribution, etc. As much attention was paid to software engineering issues as to artificial intelligence and control issues. This research considered that particular processing methods from the stochastic and knowledge-based worlds are duals, that is, similar in a broad context. They provide architectural design concepts which serve as bridges between the disparate disciplines of decision, estimation, control, and artificial intelligence. This research was applied to the control of a subsonic transport aircraft in the airport terminal area.

Clinical, information and business process modeling to promote development of safe and flexible software.

PubMed

Liaw, Siaw-Teng; Deveny, Elizabeth; Morrison, Iain; Lewis, Bryn

2006-09-01

Using a factorial vignette survey and modeling methodology, we developed clinical and information models - incorporating evidence base, key concepts, relevant terms, decision-making and workflow needed to practice safely and effectively - to guide the development of an integrated rule-based knowledge module to support prescribing decisions in asthma. We identified workflows, decision-making factors, factor use, and clinician information requirements. The Unified Modeling Language (UML) and public domain software and knowledge engineering tools (e.g. Protégé) were used, with the Australian GP Data Model as the starting point for expressing information needs. A Web Services service-oriented architecture approach was adopted within which to express functional needs, and clinical processes and workflows were expressed in the Business Process Execution Language (BPEL). This formal analysis and modeling methodology to define and capture the process and logic of prescribing best practice in a reference implementation is fundamental to tackling deficiencies in prescribing decision support software.

Applying formal methods and object-oriented analysis to existing flight software

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cheng, Betty H. C.; Auernheimer, Brent

1993-01-01

Correctness is paramount for safety-critical software control systems. Critical software failures in medical radiation treatment, communications, and defense are familiar to the public. The significant quantity of software malfunctions regularly reported to the software engineering community, the laws concerning liability, and a recent NRC Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board report additionally motivate the use of error-reducing and defect detection software development techniques. The benefits of formal methods in requirements driven software development ('forward engineering') is well documented. One advantage of rigorously engineering software is that formal notations are precise, verifiable, and facilitate automated processing. This paper describes the application of formal methods to reverse engineering, where formal specifications are developed for a portion of the shuttle on-orbit digital autopilot (DAP). Three objectives of the project were to: demonstrate the use of formal methods on a shuttle application, facilitate the incorporation and validation of new requirements for the system, and verify the safety-critical properties to be exhibited by the software.

Proceedings of the Annual Ada Software Engineering Education and Training Symposium (3rd) Held in Denver, Colorado on June 14-16, 1988

DTIC Science & Technology

1988-06-01

Based Software Engineering Project Course .............. 83 SSoftware Engineering, Software Engineering Concepts: The Importance of Object-Based...quality assurance, and independent system testing . The Chief Programmer is responsible for all software development activities, including prototyping...during the Requirements Analysis phase, the Preliminary Design, the Detailed Design, Coding and Unit Testing , CSC Integration and Testing , and informal

Proceedings of the Fifteenth Annual Software Engineering Workshop

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1990-01-01

The Software Engineering Laboratory (SEL) is an organization sponsored by GSFC and created for the purpose of investigating the effectiveness of software engineering technologies when applied to the development of applications software. The goals of the SEL are: (1) to understand the software development process in the GSFC environment; (2) to measure the effect of various methodologies, tools, and models on this process; and (3) to identify and then to apply successful development practices. Fifteen papers were presented at the Fifteenth Annual Software Engineering Workshop in five sessions: (1) SEL at age fifteen; (2) process improvement; (3) measurement; (4) reuse; and (5) process assessment. The sessions were followed by two panel discussions: (1) experiences in implementing an effective measurement program; and (2) software engineering in the 1980's. A summary of the presentations and panel discussions is given.

A Method for Populating the Knowledge Base of AFIT’s Domain-Oriented Application Composition System

DTIC Science & Technology

1993-12-01

Analysis ( FODA ). The approach identifies prominent features (similarities) and distinctive features (differences) of software systems within an... analysis approaches we have summarized, the re- searchers described FODA in sufficient detail to use on large domain analysis projects (ones with...Software Technology Center, July 1991. 18. Kang, Kyo C. and others. Feature-Oriented Domain Analysis ( FODA ) Feasibility Study. Technical Report, Software

Multidisciplinary and Active/Collaborative Approaches in Teaching Requirements Engineering

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rosca, Daniela

2005-01-01

The requirements engineering course is a core component of the curriculum for the Master's in Software Engineering programme, at Monmouth University (MU). It covers the process, methods and tools specific to this area, together with the corresponding software quality issues. The need to produce software engineers with strong teamwork and…

Questioning the Role of Requirements Engineering in the Causes of Safety-Critical Software Failures

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Johnson, C. W.; Holloway, C. M.

2006-01-01

Many software failures stem from inadequate requirements engineering. This view has been supported both by detailed accident investigations and by a number of empirical studies; however, such investigations can be misleading. It is often difficult to distinguish between failures in requirements engineering and problems elsewhere in the software development lifecycle. Further pitfalls arise from the assumption that inadequate requirements engineering is a cause of all software related accidents for which the system fails to meet its requirements. This paper identifies some of the problems that have arisen from an undue focus on the role of requirements engineering in the causes of major accidents. The intention is to provoke further debate within the emerging field of forensic software engineering.

Computer systems and software engineering

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mckay, Charles W.

1988-01-01

The High Technologies Laboratory (HTL) was established in the fall of 1982 at the University of Houston Clear Lake. Research conducted at the High Tech Lab is focused upon computer systems and software engineering. There is a strong emphasis on the interrelationship of these areas of technology and the United States' space program. In Jan. of 1987, NASA Headquarters announced the formation of its first research center dedicated to software engineering. Operated by the High Tech Lab, the Software Engineering Research Center (SERC) was formed at the University of Houston Clear Lake. The High Tech Lab/Software Engineering Research Center promotes cooperative research among government, industry, and academia to advance the edge-of-knowledge and the state-of-the-practice in key topics of computer systems and software engineering which are critical to NASA. The center also recommends appropriate actions, guidelines, standards, and policies to NASA in matters pertinent to the center's research. Results of the research conducted at the High Tech Lab/Software Engineering Research Center have given direction to many decisions made by NASA concerning the Space Station Program.

Annotated bibliography of Software Engineering Laboratory (SEL) literature

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Card, D.

1982-01-01

An annotated bibliography of technical papers, documents, and memorandums produced by or related to the Software Engineering Laboratory is presented. More than 75 publications are summarized. An index of these publications by subject is also included. These publications cover many areas of software engineering and range from research reports to software documentation.

Towards a Controlled Vocabulary on Software Engineering Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pizard, Sebastián; Vallespir, Diego

2017-01-01

Software engineering is the discipline that develops all the aspects of the production of software. Although there are guidelines about what topics to include in a software engineering curricula, it is usually unclear which are the best methods to teach them. In any science discipline the construction of a classification schema is a common…

AADL and Model-based Engineering

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-10-20

and MBE Feiler, Oct 20, 2014 © 2014 Carnegie Mellon University We Rely on Software for Safe Aircraft Operation Embedded software systems ...D eveloper Compute Platform Runtime Architecture Application Software Embedded SW System Engineer Data Stream Characteristics Latency...confusion Hardware Engineer Why do system level failures still occur despite fault tolerance techniques being deployed in systems ? Embedded software

Intelligent Agents for Design and Synthesis Environments: My Summary

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Norvig, Peter

1999-01-01

This presentation gives a summary of intelligent agents for design synthesis environments. We'll start with the conclusions, and work backwards to justify them. First, an important assumption is that agents (whatever they are) are good for software engineering. This is especially true for software that operates in an uncertain, changing environment. The "real world" of physical artifacts is like that: uncertain in what we can measure, changing in that things are always breaking down, and we must interact with non-software entities. The second point is that software engineering techniques can contribute to good design. There may have been a time when we wanted to build simple artifacts containing little or no software. But modern aircraft and spacecraft are complex, and rely on a great deal of software. So better software engineering leads to better designed artifacts, especially when we are designing a series of related artifacts and can amortize the costs of software development. The third point is that agents are especially useful for design tasks, above and beyond their general usefulness for software engineering, and the usefulness of software engineering to design.

NASA software documentation standard software engineering program

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1991-01-01

The NASA Software Documentation Standard (hereinafter referred to as Standard) can be applied to the documentation of all NASA software. This Standard is limited to documentation format and content requirements. It does not mandate specific management, engineering, or assurance standards or techniques. This Standard defines the format and content of documentation for software acquisition, development, and sustaining engineering. Format requirements address where information shall be recorded and content requirements address what information shall be recorded. This Standard provides a framework to allow consistency of documentation across NASA and visibility into the completeness of project documentation. This basic framework consists of four major sections (or volumes). The Management Plan contains all planning and business aspects of a software project, including engineering and assurance planning. The Product Specification contains all technical engineering information, including software requirements and design. The Assurance and Test Procedures contains all technical assurance information, including Test, Quality Assurance (QA), and Verification and Validation (V&V). The Management, Engineering, and Assurance Reports is the library and/or listing of all project reports.

Improving Software Engineering on NASA Projects

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Crumbley, Tim; Kelly, John C.

2010-01-01

Software Engineering Initiative: Reduces risk of software failure -Increases mission safety. More predictable software cost estimates and delivery schedules. Smarter buyer of contracted out software. More defects found and removed earlier. Reduces duplication of efforts between projects. Increases ability to meet the challenges of evolving software technology.

Preface to RIGiM 2009

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rolland, Colette; Yu, Eric; Salinesi, Camille; Castro, Jaelson

The use of intentional concepts, the notion of "goal" in particular, has been prominent in recent approaches to requirement engineering (RE). Goal-oriented frameworks and methods for requirements engineering (GORE) have been keynote topics in requirements engineering, conceptual modelling, and more generally in software engineering. What are the conceptual modelling foundations in these approaches? RIGiM (Requirements Intentions and Goals in Conceptual Modelling) aims to provide a forum for discussing the interplay between requirements engineering and conceptual modelling, and in particular, to investigate how goal- and intention-driven approaches help in conceptualising purposeful systems. What are the fundamental objectives and premises of requirements engineering and conceptual modelling respectively, and how can they complement each other? What are the demands on conceptual modelling from the standpoint of requirements engineering? What conceptual modelling techniques can be further taken advantage of in requirements engineering? What are the upcoming modelling challenges and issues in GORE? What are the unresolved open questions? What lessons are there to be learnt from industrial experiences? What empirical data are there to support the cost-benefit analysis when adopting GORE methods? Are there application domains or types of project settings for which goals and intentional approaches are particularly suitable or not suitable? What degree of formalization and automation, or interactivity is feasible and appropriate for what types of participants during requirements engineering?

Framework for Development of Object-Oriented Software

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Perez-Poveda, Gus; Ciavarella, Tony; Nieten, Dan

2004-01-01

The Real-Time Control (RTC) Application Framework is a high-level software framework written in C++ that supports the rapid design and implementation of object-oriented application programs. This framework provides built-in functionality that solves common software development problems within distributed client-server, multi-threaded, and embedded programming environments. When using the RTC Framework to develop software for a specific domain, designers and implementers can focus entirely on the details of the domain-specific software rather than on creating custom solutions, utilities, and frameworks for the complexities of the programming environment. The RTC Framework was originally developed as part of a Space Shuttle Launch Processing System (LPS) replacement project called Checkout and Launch Control System (CLCS). As a result of the framework s development, CLCS software development time was reduced by 66 percent. The framework is generic enough for developing applications outside of the launch-processing system domain. Other applicable high-level domains include command and control systems and simulation/ training systems.

A Knowledge-Based System Developer for aerospace applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shi, George Z.; Wu, Kewei; Fensky, Connie S.; Lo, Ching F.

1993-01-01

A prototype Knowledge-Based System Developer (KBSD) has been developed for aerospace applications by utilizing artificial intelligence technology. The KBSD directly acquires knowledge from domain experts through a graphical interface then builds expert systems from that knowledge. This raises the state of the art of knowledge acquisition/expert system technology to a new level by lessening the need for skilled knowledge engineers. The feasibility, applicability , and efficiency of the proposed concept was established, making a continuation which would develop the prototype to a full-scale general-purpose knowledge-based system developer justifiable. The KBSD has great commercial potential. It will provide a marketable software shell which alleviates the need for knowledge engineers and increase productivity in the workplace. The KBSD will therefore make knowledge-based systems available to a large portion of industry.

C4 Software Technology Reference Guide - A Prototype.

DTIC Science & Technology

1997-01-10

domain analysis methods include • Feature-oriented domain analysis ( FODA ) (see pg. 185), a domain analysis method based upon identifying the... Analysis ( FODA ) Feasibility Study (CMU/SEI-90-TR-21, ADA 235785). Pittsburgh, PA: Software En- gineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, 1990. 178...domain analysis ( FODA ) (see pg. 185), in which a feature is a user-visible aspect or char- acteristic of the domain [Kang 90].) The features in a system

Automating Software Design Metrics.

DTIC Science & Technology

1984-02-01

INTRODUCTION 1 ", ... 0..1 1.2 HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE High quality software is of interest to both the software engineering com- munity and its users. As...contributions of many other software engineering efforts, most notably [MCC 77] and [Boe 83b], which have defined and refined a framework for quantifying...AUTOMATION OF DESIGN METRICS Software metrics can be useful within the context of an integrated soft- ware engineering environment. The purpose of this

Use of Soft Computing Technologies for a Qualitative and Reliable Engine Control System for Propulsion Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Trevino, Luis; Brown, Terry; Crumbley, R. T. (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

The problem to be addressed in this paper is to explore how the use of Soft Computing Technologies (SCT) could be employed to improve overall vehicle system safety, reliability, and rocket engine performance by development of a qualitative and reliable engine control system (QRECS). Specifically, this will be addressed by enhancing rocket engine control using SCT, innovative data mining tools, and sound software engineering practices used in Marshall's Flight Software Group (FSG). The principle goals for addressing the issue of quality are to improve software management, software development time, software maintenance, processor execution, fault tolerance and mitigation, and nonlinear control in power level transitions. The intent is not to discuss any shortcomings of existing engine control methodologies, but to provide alternative design choices for control, implementation, performance, and sustaining engineering, all relative to addressing the issue of reliability. The approaches outlined in this paper will require knowledge in the fields of rocket engine propulsion (system level), software engineering for embedded flight software systems, and soft computing technologies (i.e., neural networks, fuzzy logic, data mining, and Bayesian belief networks); some of which are briefed in this paper. For this effort, the targeted demonstration rocket engine testbed is the MC-1 engine (formerly FASTRAC) which is simulated with hardware and software in the Marshall Avionics & Software Testbed (MAST) laboratory that currently resides at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, building 4476, and is managed by the Avionics Department. A brief plan of action for design, development, implementation, and testing a Phase One effort for QRECS is given, along with expected results. Phase One will focus on development of a Smart Start Engine Module and a Mainstage Engine Module for proper engine start and mainstage engine operations. The overall intent is to demonstrate that by employing soft computing technologies, the quality and reliability of the overall scheme to engine controller development is further improved and vehicle safety is further insured. The final product that this paper proposes is an approach to development of an alternative low cost engine controller that would be capable of performing in unique vision spacecraft vehicles requiring low cost advanced avionics architectures for autonomous operations from engine pre-start to engine shutdown.

A Review of the Suitability of Available Computer Aided Software Engineering (CASE) Tools for the Small Software Development Environment

DTIC Science & Technology

1989-07-11

LITERATURE CITED [Boeh73] Boehm, Barry W., "Software and its Impact: A Quantitative Assessment," Datamation, 19, 5, (May 1973), pp 48-59. [Boeh76...Boehm, Barry W., "Software Engineering," IEEE Transactions on Computers, C-25, 12, (December 1976), pp 1226-1241. [Boeh81a] Boehm, Barry W., Software...Engineering Economics, Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, NJ, (1981). [Boeh8lb] Boehm, Barry W., "An Experiment in Small Scale Application Software

Happy software developers solve problems better: psychological measurements in empirical software engineering

PubMed Central

Wang, Xiaofeng; Abrahamsson, Pekka

2014-01-01

For more than thirty years, it has been claimed that a way to improve software developers’ productivity and software quality is to focus on people and to provide incentives to make developers satisfied and happy. This claim has rarely been verified in software engineering research, which faces an additional challenge in comparison to more traditional engineering fields: software development is an intellectual activity and is dominated by often-neglected human factors (called human aspects in software engineering research). Among the many skills required for software development, developers must possess high analytical problem-solving skills and creativity for the software construction process. According to psychology research, affective states—emotions and moods—deeply influence the cognitive processing abilities and performance of workers, including creativity and analytical problem solving. Nonetheless, little research has investigated the correlation between the affective states, creativity, and analytical problem-solving performance of programmers. This article echoes the call to employ psychological measurements in software engineering research. We report a study with 42 participants to investigate the relationship between the affective states, creativity, and analytical problem-solving skills of software developers. The results offer support for the claim that happy developers are indeed better problem solvers in terms of their analytical abilities. The following contributions are made by this study: (1) providing a better understanding of the impact of affective states on the creativity and analytical problem-solving capacities of developers, (2) introducing and validating psychological measurements, theories, and concepts of affective states, creativity, and analytical-problem-solving skills in empirical software engineering, and (3) raising the need for studying the human factors of software engineering by employing a multidisciplinary viewpoint. PMID:24688866

Happy software developers solve problems better: psychological measurements in empirical software engineering.

PubMed

Graziotin, Daniel; Wang, Xiaofeng; Abrahamsson, Pekka

2014-01-01

For more than thirty years, it has been claimed that a way to improve software developers' productivity and software quality is to focus on people and to provide incentives to make developers satisfied and happy. This claim has rarely been verified in software engineering research, which faces an additional challenge in comparison to more traditional engineering fields: software development is an intellectual activity and is dominated by often-neglected human factors (called human aspects in software engineering research). Among the many skills required for software development, developers must possess high analytical problem-solving skills and creativity for the software construction process. According to psychology research, affective states-emotions and moods-deeply influence the cognitive processing abilities and performance of workers, including creativity and analytical problem solving. Nonetheless, little research has investigated the correlation between the affective states, creativity, and analytical problem-solving performance of programmers. This article echoes the call to employ psychological measurements in software engineering research. We report a study with 42 participants to investigate the relationship between the affective states, creativity, and analytical problem-solving skills of software developers. The results offer support for the claim that happy developers are indeed better problem solvers in terms of their analytical abilities. The following contributions are made by this study: (1) providing a better understanding of the impact of affective states on the creativity and analytical problem-solving capacities of developers, (2) introducing and validating psychological measurements, theories, and concepts of affective states, creativity, and analytical-problem-solving skills in empirical software engineering, and (3) raising the need for studying the human factors of software engineering by employing a multidisciplinary viewpoint.

Software technology insertion: A study of success factors

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lydon, Tom

1990-01-01

Managing software development in large organizations has become increasingly difficult due to increasing technical complexity, stricter government standards, a shortage of experienced software engineers, competitive pressure for improved productivity and quality, the need to co-develop hardware and software together, and the rapid changes in both hardware and software technology. The 'software factory' approach to software development minimizes risks while maximizing productivity and quality through standardization, automation, and training. However, in practice, this approach is relatively inflexible when adopting new software technologies. The methods that a large multi-project software engineering organization can use to increase the likelihood of successful software technology insertion (STI), especially in a standardized engineering environment, are described.

Defense AT&L Magazine: A Publication of the Defense Acquisition University. Volume 34, Number 3, DAU 184

DTIC Science & Technology

2005-01-01

developed a partnership with the Defense Acquisition University to in- tegrate DISA’s systems engineering processes, software , and network...in place, with processes being implemented: deployment management; systems engineering ; software engineering ; configuration man- agement; test and...CSS systems engineering is a transition partner with Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Insti- tute and its work on the capability

An expert system prototype for aiding in the development of software functional requirements for NASA Goddard's command management system: A case study and lessons learned

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Liebowitz, Jay

1986-01-01

At NASA Goddard, the role of the command management system (CMS) is to transform general requests for spacecraft opeerations into detailed operational plans to be uplinked to the spacecraft. The CMS is part of the NASA Data System which entails the downlink of science and engineering data from NASA near-earth satellites to the user, and the uplink of command and control data to the spacecraft. Presently, it takes one to three years, with meetings once or twice a week, to determine functional requirements for CMS software design. As an alternative approach to the present technique of developing CMS software functional requirements, an expert system prototype was developed to aid in this function. Specifically, the knowledge base was formulated through interactions with domain experts, and was then linked to an existing expert system application generator called 'Knowledge Engineering System (Version 1.3).' Knowledge base development focused on four major steps: (1) develop the problem-oriented attribute hierachy; (2) determine the knowledge management approach; (3) encode the knowledge base; and (4) validate, test, certify, and evaluate the knowledge base and the expert system prototype as a whole. Backcasting was accomplished for validating and testing the expert system prototype. Knowledge refinement, evaluation, and implementation procedures of the expert system prototype were then transacted.

Shuttle avionics software trials, tribulations and success

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Henderson, O. L.

1985-01-01

The early problems and the solutions developed to provide the required quality software needed to support the space shuttle engine development program are described. The decision to use a programmable digital control system on the space shuttle engine was primarily based upon the need for a flexible control system capable of supporting the total engine mission on a large complex pump fed engine. The mission definition included all control phases from ground checkout through post shutdown propellant dumping. The flexibility of the controller through reprogrammable software allowed the system to respond to the technical challenges and innovation required to develop both the engine and controller hardware. This same flexibility, however, placed a severe strain on the capability of the software development and verification organization. The overall development program required that the software facility accommodate significant growth in both the software requirements and the number of software packages delivered. This challenge was met by reorganization and evolution in the process of developing and verifying software.

FTDD973: A multimedia knowledge-based system and methodology for operator training and diagnostics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hekmatpour, Amir; Brown, Gary; Brault, Randy; Bowen, Greg

1993-01-01

FTDD973 (973 Fabricator Training, Documentation, and Diagnostics) is an interactive multimedia knowledge based system and methodology for computer-aided training and certification of operators, as well as tool and process diagnostics in IBM's CMOS SGP fabrication line (building 973). FTDD973 is an example of what can be achieved with modern multimedia workstations. Knowledge-based systems, hypertext, hypergraphics, high resolution images, audio, motion video, and animation are technologies that in synergy can be far more useful than each by itself. FTDD973's modular and object-oriented architecture is also an example of how improvements in software engineering are finally making it possible to combine many software modules into one application. FTDD973 is developed in ExperMedia/2; and OS/2 multimedia expert system shell for domain experts.

Development of an expert system prototype for determining software functional requirements for command management activities at NASA Goddard

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Liebowitz, J.

1986-01-01

The development of an expert system prototype for software functional requirement determination for NASA Goddard's Command Management System, as part of its process of transforming general requests into specific near-earth satellite commands, is described. The present knowledge base was formulated through interactions with domain experts, and was then linked to the existing Knowledge Engineering Systems (KES) expert system application generator. Steps in the knowledge-base development include problem-oriented attribute hierarchy development, knowledge management approach determination, and knowledge base encoding. The KES Parser and Inspector, in addition to backcasting and analogical mapping, were used to validate the expert system-derived requirements for one of the major functions of a spacecraft, the solar Maximum Mission. Knowledge refinement, evaluation, and implementation procedures of the expert system were then accomplished.

Shaping Software Engineering Curricula Using Open Source Communities: A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bowring, James; Burke, Quinn

2016-01-01

This paper documents four years of a novel approach to teaching a two-course sequence in software engineering as part of the ABET-accredited computer science curriculum at the College of Charleston. This approach is team-based and centers on learning software engineering in the context of open source software projects. In the first course, teams…

Proceedings of the Thirteenth Annual Software Engineering Workshop

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1988-01-01

Topics covered in the workshop included studies and experiments conducted in the Software Engineering Laboratory (SEL), a cooperative effort of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, the University of Maryland, and Computer Sciences Corporation; software models; software products; and software tools.

A cross-disciplinary response to improve test activities: The corporate memory capitalization in Ariane4 test domain

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Vo, Dinh Phuoc; Soler, Christian; Aussenac, N.; Macchion, D.

1993-01-01

The Assembly, Integration, Test, and Validation (AIT/AIV) of the Ariane4 Vehicle Equipment Bay was held at Matra Marconi Space (MMS) site of Toulouse for several years. For this activity, incident interpretation necessitates a great deal of different knowledge. When complex faults occur, particularly those appearing during overall control tests, experts of various domains (EGSE, software, on-board equipment) have to join for investigation sessions. Thus, an assistance tool for the identification of faulty equipment will improve the efficiency of diagnosis and the overall productivity of test activities. As a solution, the Aramiihs laboratory proposed considering the opportunity of a knowledge based system intended to assist the tester in diagnosis. This knowledge based system is, in fact, a short-term achievement of a long-term goal which is the capitalization of corporate memory in the Ariane4 test domain. Aramiihs is a research unit where engineers from MMS and researchers from the IRIT-CNRS cooperate on problems concerning new types of man-system interaction.

A Methodology for Cybercraft Requirement Definition and Initial System Design

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-06-01

the software development concepts of the SDLC , requirements, use cases and domain modeling . It ...collectively as Software Development 5 Life Cycle ( SDLC ) models . While there are numerous models that fit under the SDLC definition, all are based on... developed that provided expanded understanding of the domain, it is necessary to either update an existing domain model or create another domain

Towards an Interoperability Ontology for Software Development Tools

DTIC Science & Technology

2003-03-01

The description of feature models was tied to the introduction of the Feature-Oriented Domain Analysis ( FODA *) [KANG90] approach in the late eighties...Feature-oriented domain analysis ( FODA ) is a domain analysis method developed at the Software...ese obstacles was to construct a “pilot” ontology that is extensible. We applied the Feature-Oriented Domain Analysis approach to capture the

Averting Denver Airports on a Chip

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sullivan, Kevin J.

1995-01-01

As a result of recent advances in software engineering capabilities, we are now in a more stable environment. De-facto hardware and software standards are emerging. Work on software architecture and design patterns signals a consensus on the importance of early system-level design decisions, and agreements on the uses of certain paradigmatic software structures. We now routinely build systems that would have been risky or infeasible a few years ago. Unfortunately, technological developments threaten to destabilize software design again. Systems designed around novel computing and peripheral devices will spark ambitious new projects that will stress current software design and engineering capabilities. Micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) and related technologies provide the physical basis for new systems with the potential to produce this kind of destabilizing effect. One important response to anticipated software engineering and design difficulties is carefully directed engineering-scientific research. Two specific problems meriting substantial research attention are: A lack of sufficient means to build software systems by generating, extending, specializing, and integrating large-scale reusable components; and a lack of adequate computational and analytic tools to extend and aid engineers in maintaining intellectual control over complex software designs.

Software Management Metrics

DTIC Science & Technology

1988-05-01

obtained from Dr. Barry Boehm’s Software 5650, Contract No. F19628-86-C-O001, Engineering Economics [1] and from T. J. ESD/MITRE Software Center Acquisition...of References 1. Boehm, Barry W., SoJtware Engineering 3. Halstead, M. H., Elements of SoJhtare Economics, Englewood Cliffs, New Science, New York...1983, pp. 639-648. 35 35 - Bibliography Beizer, B., Software System Testing and Pressman , Roger S., Software Engineering:QualtyO Assurance, New York: Van

SOFTWARE ENGINEERING INSTITUTE (SEI)

EPA Science Inventory

The Software Engineering Institute (SEI) is a federally funded research and development center established in 1984 by the U.S. Department of Defense and operated by Carnegie Mellon University. SEI has a broad charter to provide leadership in the practice of software engineering t...

7 Processes that Enable NASA Software Engineering Technologies: Value-Added Process Engineering

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Housch, Helen; Godfrey, Sally

2011-01-01

The presentation reviews Agency process requirements and the purpose, benefits, and experiences or seven software engineering processes. The processes include: product integration, configuration management, verification, software assurance, measurement and analysis, requirements management, and planning and monitoring.

Methodology for automating software systems. Task 1 of the foundations for automating software systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Moseley, Warren

1989-01-01

The early stages of a research program designed to establish an experimental research platform for software engineering are described. Major emphasis is placed on Computer Assisted Software Engineering (CASE). The Poor Man's CASE Tool is based on the Apple Macintosh system, employing available software including Focal Point II, Hypercard, XRefText, and Macproject. These programs are functional in themselves, but through advanced linking are available for operation from within the tool being developed. The research platform is intended to merge software engineering technology with artificial intelligence (AI). In the first prototype of the PMCT, however, the sections of AI are not included. CASE tools assist the software engineer in planning goals, routes to those goals, and ways to measure progress. The method described allows software to be synthesized instead of being written or built.

IEEE Conference on Software Engineering Education and Training (CSEE&T 2012) Proceedings (25th, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China, April 17-19, 2012)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

IEEE Conference on Software Engineering Education and Training, Proceedings (MS), 2012

2012-01-01

The Conference on Software Engineering Education and Training (CSEE&T) is the premier international peer-reviewed conference, sponsored by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE) Computer Society, which addresses all major areas related to software engineering education, training, and professionalism. This year, as…

A Public Domain Software Library for Reading and Language Arts.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Balajthy, Ernest

A three-year project carried out by the Microcomputers and Reading Committee of the New Jersey Reading Association involved the collection, improvement, and distribution of free microcomputer software (public domain programs) designed to deal with reading and writing skills. Acknowledging that this free software is not without limitations (poor…

Modelling of diesel engine fuelled with biodiesel using engine simulation software

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Said, Mohd Farid Muhamad; Said, Mazlan; Aziz, Azhar Abdul

2012-06-01

This paper is about modelling of a diesel engine that operates using biodiesel fuels. The model is used to simulate or predict the performance and combustion of the engine by simplified the geometry of engine component in the software. The model is produced using one-dimensional (1D) engine simulation software called GT-Power. The fuel properties library in the software is expanded to include palm oil based biodiesel fuels. Experimental works are performed to investigate the effect of biodiesel fuels on the heat release profiles and the engine performance curves. The model is validated with experimental data and good agreement is observed. The simulation results show that combustion characteristics and engine performances differ when biodiesel fuels are used instead of no. 2 diesel fuel.

Milestones in Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering History: A Comparative Review

PubMed Central

del Águila, Isabel M.; Palma, José; Túnez, Samuel

2014-01-01

We present a review of the historical evolution of software engineering, intertwining it with the history of knowledge engineering because “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” This retrospective represents a further step forward to understanding the current state of both types of engineerings; history has also positive experiences; some of them we would like to remember and to repeat. Two types of engineerings had parallel and divergent evolutions but following a similar pattern. We also define a set of milestones that represent a convergence or divergence of the software development methodologies. These milestones do not appear at the same time in software engineering and knowledge engineering, so lessons learned in one discipline can help in the evolution of the other one. PMID:24624046

Milestones in software engineering and knowledge engineering history: a comparative review.

PubMed

del Águila, Isabel M; Palma, José; Túnez, Samuel

2014-01-01

We present a review of the historical evolution of software engineering, intertwining it with the history of knowledge engineering because "those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." This retrospective represents a further step forward to understanding the current state of both types of engineerings; history has also positive experiences; some of them we would like to remember and to repeat. Two types of engineerings had parallel and divergent evolutions but following a similar pattern. We also define a set of milestones that represent a convergence or divergence of the software development methodologies. These milestones do not appear at the same time in software engineering and knowledge engineering, so lessons learned in one discipline can help in the evolution of the other one.

A software engineering approach to expert system design and verification

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bochsler, Daniel C.; Goodwin, Mary Ann

1988-01-01

Software engineering design and verification methods for developing expert systems are not yet well defined. Integration of expert system technology into software production environments will require effective software engineering methodologies to support the entire life cycle of expert systems. The software engineering methods used to design and verify an expert system, RENEX, is discussed. RENEX demonstrates autonomous rendezvous and proximity operations, including replanning trajectory events and subsystem fault detection, onboard a space vehicle during flight. The RENEX designers utilized a number of software engineering methodologies to deal with the complex problems inherent in this system. An overview is presented of the methods utilized. Details of the verification process receive special emphasis. The benefits and weaknesses of the methods for supporting the development life cycle of expert systems are evaluated, and recommendations are made based on the overall experiences with the methods.

Consistent Evolution of Software Artifacts and Non-Functional Models

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-11-14

induce bad software performance)? 15. SUBJECT TERMS EOARD, Nano particles, Photo-Acoustic Sensors, Model-Driven Engineering ( MDE ), Software Performance...Università degli Studi dell’Aquila, Via Vetoio, 67100 L’Aquila, Italy Email: vittorio.cortellessa@univaq.it Web : http: // www. di. univaq. it/ cortelle/ Phone...Model-Driven Engineering ( MDE ), Software Performance Engineering (SPE), Change Propagation, Performance Antipatterns. For sake of readability of the

A self-referential HOWTO on release engineering

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Galassi, Mark C.

Release engineering is a fundamental part of the software development cycle: it is the point at which quality control is exercised and bug fixes are integrated. The way in which software is released also gives the end user her first experience of a software package, while in scientific computing release engineering can guarantee reproducibility. For these reasons and others, the release process is a good indicator of the maturity and organization of a development team. Software teams often do not put in place a release process at the beginning. This is unfortunate because the team does not have early andmore » continuous execution of test suites, and it does not exercise the software in the same conditions as the end users. I describe an approach to release engineering based on the software tools developed and used by the GNU project, together with several specific proposals related to packaging and distribution. I do this in a step-by-step manner, demonstrating how this very paper is written and built using proper release engineering methods. Because many aspects of release engineering are not exercised in the building of the paper, the accompanying software repository also contains examples of software libraries.« less

The Effect of AOP on Software Engineering, with Particular Attention to OIF and Event Quantification

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Havelund, Klaus; Filman, Robert; Korsmeyer, David (Technical Monitor)

2003-01-01

We consider the impact of Aspect-Oriented Programming on Software Engineering, and, in particular, analyze two AOP systems, one of which does component wrapping and the other, quantification over events, for their software engineering effects.

Collected Software Engineering Papers, Volume 10

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1992-01-01

This document is a collection of selected technical papers produced by participants in the Software Engineering Laboratory (SEL) from Oct. 1991 - Nov. 1992. The purpose of the document is to make available, in one reference, some results of SEL research that originally appeared in a number of different forums. Although these papers cover several topics related to software engineering, they do not encompass the entire scope of SEL activities and interests. Additional information about the SEL and its research efforts may be obtained from the sources listed in the bibliography at the end of this document. For the convenience of this presentation, the 11 papers contained here are grouped into 5 major sections: (1) the Software Engineering Laboratory; (2) software tools studies; (3) software models studies; (4) software measurement studies; and (5) Ada technology studies.

HPC Institutional Computing Project: W15_lesreactiveflow KIVA-hpFE Development: A Robust and Accurate Engine Modeling Software

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Carrington, David Bradley; Waters, Jiajia

KIVA-hpFE is a high performance computer software for solving the physics of multi-species and multiphase turbulent reactive flow in complex geometries having immersed moving parts. The code is written in Fortran 90/95 and can be used on any computer platform with any popular complier. The code is in two versions, a serial version and a parallel version utilizing MPICH2 type Message Passing Interface (MPI or Intel MPI) for solving distributed domains. The parallel version is at least 30x faster than the serial version and much faster than our previous generation of parallel engine modeling software, by many factors. The 5thmore » generation algorithm construction is a Galerkin type Finite Element Method (FEM) solving conservative momentum, species, and energy transport equations along with two-equation turbulent model k-ω Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) model and a Vreman type dynamic Large Eddy Simulation (LES) method. The LES method is capable modeling transitional flow from laminar to fully turbulent; therefore, this LES method does not require special hybrid or blending to walls. The FEM projection method also uses a Petrov-Galerkin (P-G) stabilization along with pressure stabilization. We employ hierarchical basis sets, constructed on the fly with enrichment in areas associated with relatively larger error as determined by error estimation methods. In addition, when not using the hp-adaptive module, the code employs Lagrangian basis or shape functions. The shape functions are constructed for hexahedral, prismatic and tetrahedral elements. The software is designed to solve many types of reactive flow problems, from burners to internal combustion engines and turbines. In addition, the formulation allows for direct integration of solid bodies (conjugate heat transfer), as in heat transfer through housings, parts, cylinders. It can also easily be extended to stress modeling of solids, used in fluid structure interactions problems, solidification, porous media modeling and magneto hydrodynamics.« less

An Architecture, System Engineering, and Acquisition Approach for Space System Software Resiliency

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Phillips, Dewanne Marie

Software intensive space systems can harbor defects and vulnerabilities that may enable external adversaries or malicious insiders to disrupt or disable system functions, risking mission compromise or loss. Mitigating this risk demands a sustained focus on the security and resiliency of the system architecture including software, hardware, and other components. Robust software engineering practices contribute to the foundation of a resilient system so that the system "can take a hit to a critical component and recover in a known, bounded, and generally acceptable period of time". Software resiliency must be a priority and addressed early in the life cycle development to contribute a secure and dependable space system. Those who develop, implement, and operate software intensive space systems must determine the factors and systems engineering practices to address when investing in software resiliency. This dissertation offers methodical approaches for improving space system resiliency through software architecture design, system engineering, increased software security, thereby reducing the risk of latent software defects and vulnerabilities. By providing greater attention to the early life cycle phases of development, we can alter the engineering process to help detect, eliminate, and avoid vulnerabilities before space systems are delivered. To achieve this objective, this dissertation will identify knowledge, techniques, and tools that engineers and managers can utilize to help them recognize how vulnerabilities are produced and discovered so that they can learn to circumvent them in future efforts. We conducted a systematic review of existing architectural practices, standards, security and coding practices, various threats, defects, and vulnerabilities that impact space systems from hundreds of relevant publications and interviews of subject matter experts. We expanded on the system-level body of knowledge for resiliency and identified a new software architecture framework and acquisition methodology to improve the resiliency of space systems from a software perspective with an emphasis on the early phases of the systems engineering life cycle. This methodology involves seven steps: 1) Define technical resiliency requirements, 1a) Identify standards/policy for software resiliency, 2) Develop a request for proposal (RFP)/statement of work (SOW) for resilient space systems software, 3) Define software resiliency goals for space systems, 4) Establish software resiliency quality attributes, 5) Perform architectural tradeoffs and identify risks, 6) Conduct architecture assessments as part of the procurement process, and 7) Ascertain space system software architecture resiliency metrics. Data illustrates that software vulnerabilities can lead to opportunities for malicious cyber activities, which could degrade the space mission capability for the user community. Reducing the number of vulnerabilities by improving architecture and software system engineering practices can contribute to making space systems more resilient. Since cyber-attacks are enabled by shortfalls in software, robust software engineering practices and an architectural design are foundational to resiliency, which is a quality that allows the system to "take a hit to a critical component and recover in a known, bounded, and generally acceptable period of time". To achieve software resiliency for space systems, acquirers and suppliers must identify relevant factors and systems engineering practices to apply across the lifecycle, in software requirements analysis, architecture development, design, implementation, verification and validation, and maintenance phases.

Evan Weaver | NREL

Science.gov Websites

Evan Weaver Photo of Evan Weaver Evan Weaver Researcher III-Software Engineering Evan.Weaver , he works as a software engineer developing whole-building energy modeling tools. Prior to joining NREL, he worked in the biomedical industry as a software engineer, specializing in graphical user

Direct Numerical Simulations of Microstructure Effects During High-Rate Loading of Additively Manufactured Metals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Battaile, Corbett; Owen, Steven; Moore, Nathan

2017-06-01

The properties of most engineering materials depend on the characteristics of internal microstructures and defects. In additively manufactured (AM) metals, these can include polycrystalline grains, impurities, phases, and significant porosity that qualitatively differ from conventional engineering materials. The microscopic details of the interactions between these internal defects, and the propagation of applied loads through the body, act in concert to dictate macro-observable properties like strength and compressibility. In this work, we used Sandia's ALEGRA finite element software to simulate the high-strain-rate loading of AM metals from laser engineered net shaping (LENS) and thermal spraying. The microstructural details of the material were represented explicitly, such that internal features like second phases and pores are captured and meshed as individual entities in the computational domain. We will discuss the dependence of the high-strain-rate mechanical properties on microstructural characteristics such as the shapes, sizes, and volume fractions of second phases and pores. In addition, we will examine how the details of the microstructural representation affect the microscopic material response to dynamic loads, and the effects of using ``stair-step'' versus conformal interfaces smoothed via the SCULPT tool in Sandia's CUBIT software. Sandia is a multiprogram laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a Lockheed Martin Company, for the US DOE NNSA under contract DE-AC04-94AL85000.

Requirements Engineering in Building Climate Science Software

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Batcheller, Archer L.

2011-01-01

Software has an important role in supporting scientific work. This dissertation studies teams that build scientific software, focusing on the way that they determine what the software should do. These requirements engineering processes are investigated through three case studies of climate science software projects. The Earth System Modeling…

Software Technology for Adaptable, Reliable Systems (STARS). Software Architecture Seminar Report: Central Archive for Reusable Defense Software (CARDS)

DTIC Science & Technology

1994-01-29

other processes, but that he arrived at his results in a different manner. Batory didn’t start with idioms; he performed a domain analysis and...abstracted idioms. Through domain analysis and domain modeling, new idioms can be found and the form of architecture can be the same. It was also questioned...Programming 5. Consensus Definition of Architecture 6. Inductive Analysis of Current Exemplars 7. VHDL (Bailor) 8. Ontological Structuring 3.3.3

Analysis of automobile engine cylinder pressure and rotation speed from engine body vibration signal

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Yuhua; Cheng, Xiang; Tan, Haishu

2016-01-01

In order to improve the engine vibration signal process method for the engine cylinder pressure and engine revolution speed measurement instrument, the engine cylinder pressure varying with the engine working cycle process has been regarded as the main exciting force for the engine block forced vibration. The forced vibration caused by the engine cylinder pressure presents as a low frequency waveform which varies with the cylinder pressure synchronously and steadily in time domain and presents as low frequency high energy discrete humorous spectrum lines in frequency domain. The engine cylinder pressure and the rotation speed can been extract form the measured engine block vibration signal by low-pass filtering analysis in time domain or by FFT analysis in frequency domain, the low-pass filtering analysis in time domain is not only suitable for the engine in uniform revolution condition but also suitable for the engine in uneven revolution condition. That provides a practical and convenient way to design motor revolution rate and cylinder pressure measurement instrument.

Glossary of Software Engineering Laboratory terms

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1983-01-01

A glossary of terms used in the Software Engineering Laboratory (SEL) is given. The terms are defined within the context of the software development environment for flight dynamics at the Goddard Space Flight Center. A concise reference for clarifying the language employed in SEL documents and data collection forms is given. Basic software engineering concepts are explained and standard definitions for use by SEL personnel are established.

Software Reporting Metrics. Revision 2.

DTIC Science & Technology

1985-11-01

MITRE Corporation and ESD. Some of the data has been obtained from Dr. Barry Boehm’s Software Engineering Economics (Ref. 1). Thanks are also given to...data level control management " SP = structured programming Barry W. Boehm, Software Engineering Economics, &©1981, p. 122. Reprinted by permission of...investigated and implemented in future prototypes. 43 REFERENCES For further reading: " 1. Boehm, Barry W. Software Engineering Economics; Englewood

Toward Reusable Graphics Components in Ada

DTIC Science & Technology

1993-03-01

Then alternatives for obtaining well- engineered reusable software components were examined. Finally, the alternatives were analyzed, and the most...reusable software components. Chapter 4 describes detailed design and implementation strategies in building a well- engineered reusable set of components in...study. 2.2 The Object-Oriented Paradigm 2.2.1 The Need for Object-Oriented Techniques. Among software engineers the software crisis is a well known

Object oriented development of engineering software using CLIPS

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Yoon, C. John

1991-01-01

Engineering applications involve numeric complexity and manipulations of a large amount of data. Traditionally, numeric computation has been the concern in developing an engineering software. As engineering application software became larger and more complex, management of resources such as data, rather than the numeric complexity, has become the major software design problem. Object oriented design and implementation methodologies can improve the reliability, flexibility, and maintainability of the resulting software; however, some tasks are better solved with the traditional procedural paradigm. The C Language Integrated Production System (CLIPS), with deffunction and defgeneric constructs, supports the procedural paradigm. The natural blending of object oriented and procedural paradigms has been cited as the reason for the popularity of the C++ language. The CLIPS Object Oriented Language's (COOL) object oriented features are more versatile than C++'s. A software design methodology based on object oriented and procedural approaches appropriate for engineering software, and to be implemented in CLIPS was outlined. A method for sensor placement for Space Station Freedom is being implemented in COOL as a sample problem.

Smagglce: Surface Modeling and Grid Generation for Iced Airfoils: Phase 1 Results

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Vickerman, Mary B.; Choo, Yung K.; Braun, Donald C.; Baez, Marivell; Gnepp, Steven

1999-01-01

SmaggIce (Surface Modeling and Grid Generation for Iced Airfoils) is a software toolkit used in the process of aerodynamic performance prediction of iced airfoils with grid-based Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). It includes tools for data probing, boundary smoothing, domain decomposition, and structured grid generation and refinement. SmaggIce provides the underlying computations to perform these functions, a GUI (Graphical User Interface) to control and interact with those functions, and graphical displays of results, it is being developed at NASA Glenn Research Center. This paper discusses the overall design of SmaggIce as well as what has been implemented in Phase 1. Phase 1 results provide two types of software tools: interactive ice shape probing and interactive ice shape control. The ice shape probing tools will provide aircraft icing engineers and scientists with an interactive means to measure the physical characteristics of ice shapes. On the other hand, the ice shape control features of SmaggIce will allow engineers to examine input geometry data, correct or modify any deficiencies in the geometry, and perform controlled systematic smoothing to a level that will make the CFD process manageable.

Revel8or: Model Driven Capacity Planning Tool Suite

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Zhu, Liming; Liu, Yan; Bui, Ngoc B.

2007-05-31

Designing complex multi-tier applications that must meet strict performance requirements is a challenging software engineering problem. Ideally, the application architect could derive accurate performance predictions early in the project life-cycle, leveraging initial application design-level models and a description of the target software and hardware platforms. To this end, we have developed a capacity planning tool suite for component-based applications, called Revel8tor. The tool adheres to the model driven development paradigm and supports benchmarking and performance prediction for J2EE, .Net and Web services platforms. The suite is composed of three different tools: MDAPerf, MDABench and DSLBench. MDAPerf allows annotation of designmore » diagrams and derives performance analysis models. MDABench allows a customized benchmark application to be modeled in the UML 2.0 Testing Profile and automatically generates a deployable application, with measurement automatically conducted. DSLBench allows the same benchmark modeling and generation to be conducted using a simple performance engineering Domain Specific Language (DSL) in Microsoft Visual Studio. DSLBench integrates with Visual Studio and reuses its load testing infrastructure. Together, the tool suite can assist capacity planning across platforms in an automated fashion.« less

Functional specifications for AI software tools for electric power applications. Final report

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Faught, W.S.

1985-08-01

The principle barrier to the introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) technology to the electric power industry has not been a lack of interest or appropriate problems, for the industry abounds in both. Like most others, however, the electric power industry lacks the personnel - knowledge engineers - with the special combination of training and skills AI programming demands. Conversely, very few AI specialists are conversant with electric power industry problems and applications. The recent availability of sophisticated AI programming environments is doing much to alleviate this shortage. These products provide a set of powerful and usable software tools that enablemore » even non-AI scientists to rapidly develop AI applications. The purpose of this project was to develop functional specifications for programming tools that, when integrated with existing general-purpose knowledge engineering tools, would expedite the production of AI applications for the electric power industry. Twelve potential applications, representative of major problem domains within the nuclear power industry, were analyzed in order to identify those tools that would be of greatest value in application development. Eight tools were specified, including facilities for power plant modeling, data base inquiry, simulation and machine-machine interface.« less

Software requirements specification for the GIS-T/ISTEA pooled fund study phase C linear referencing engine

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Amai, W.; Espinoza, J. Jr.; Fletcher, D.R.

1997-06-01

This Software Requirements Specification (SRS) describes the features to be provided by the software for the GIS-T/ISTEA Pooled Fund Study Phase C Linear Referencing Engine project. This document conforms to the recommendations of IEEE Standard 830-1984, IEEE Guide to Software Requirements Specification (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc., 1984). The software specified in this SRS is a proof-of-concept implementation of the Linear Referencing Engine as described in the GIS-T/ISTEA pooled Fund Study Phase B Summary, specifically Sheet 13 of the Phase B object model. The software allows an operator to convert between two linear referencing methods and a datummore » network.« less

Large Scale Portability of Hospital Information System Software

PubMed Central

Munnecke, Thomas H.; Kuhn, Ingeborg M.

1986-01-01

As part of its Decentralized Hospital Computer Program (DHCP) the Veterans Administration installed new hospital information systems in 169 of its facilities during 1984 and 1985. The application software for these systems is based on the ANS MUMPS language, is public domain, and is designed to be operating system and hardware independent. The software, developed by VA employees, is built upon a layered approach, where application packages layer on a common data dictionary which is supported by a Kernel of software. Communications between facilities are based on public domain Department of Defense ARPA net standards for domain naming, mail transfer protocols, and message formats, layered on a variety of communications technologies.

A Software Engineering Approach based on WebML and BPMN to the Mediation Scenario of the SWS Challenge

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brambilla, Marco; Ceri, Stefano; Valle, Emanuele Della; Facca, Federico M.; Tziviskou, Christina

Although Semantic Web Services are expected to produce a revolution in the development of Web-based systems, very few enterprise-wide design experiences are available; one of the main reasons is the lack of sound Software Engineering methods and tools for the deployment of Semantic Web applications. In this chapter, we present an approach to software development for the Semantic Web based on classical Software Engineering methods (i.e., formal business process development, computer-aided and component-based software design, and automatic code generation) and on semantic methods and tools (i.e., ontology engineering, semantic service annotation and discovery).

Software Engineering Education: Some Important Dimensions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mishra, Alok; Cagiltay, Nergiz Ercil; Kilic, Ozkan

2007-01-01

Software engineering education has been emerging as an independent and mature discipline. Accordingly, various studies are being done to provide guidelines for curriculum design. The main focus of these guidelines is around core and foundation courses. This paper summarizes the current problems of software engineering education programs. It also…

Software Engineering Laboratory (SEL) data base reporting software user's guide and system description. Volume 1: Introduction and user's guide

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1983-01-01

Reporting software programs provide formatted listings and summary reports of the Software Engineering Laboratory (SEL) data base contents. The operating procedures and system information for 18 different reporting software programs are described. Sample output reports from each program are provided.

Towards the XML schema measurement based on mapping between XML and OO domain

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rakić, Gordana; Budimac, Zoran; Heričko, Marjan; Pušnik, Maja

2017-07-01

Measuring quality of IT solutions is a priority in software engineering. Although numerous metrics for measuring object-oriented code already exist, measuring quality of UML models or XML Schemas is still developing. One of the research questions in the overall research leaded by ideas described in this paper is whether we can apply already defined object-oriented design metrics on XML schemas based on predefined mappings. In this paper, basic ideas for mentioned mapping are presented. This mapping is prerequisite for setting the future approach to XML schema quality measuring with object-oriented metrics.

A case study of collaborative facilities use in engineering design

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Monroe, Laura; Pugmire, David

2010-01-01

In this paper we describe the use of visualization tools and facilities in the collaborative design of a replacement weapons system, the Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW). We used not only standard collaboration methods but also a range of visualization software and facilities to bring together domain specialists from laboratories across the country to collaborate on the design and integrate this disparate input early in the design. This was the first time in U.S. weapons history that a weapon had been designed in this collaborative manner. Benefits included projected cost savings, design improvements and increased understanding across the project.

Enhanced Faraday rotation in one dimensional magneto-plasmonic structure due to Fano resonance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sadeghi, S.; Hamidi, S. M.

2018-04-01

Enhanced Faraday rotation in a new type of magneto-plasmonic structure with the capability of Fano resonance, has been reported theoretically. A magneto-plasmonic structure composed of a gold corrugated layer deposited on a magneto-optically active layer was studied by means of Lumerical software based on finite-difference time-domain. In our proposed structure, plasmonic Fano resonance and localized surface plasmon have induced enhancement in magneto-optical Faraday rotation. It is shown that the influence of geometrical parameters in gold layer offers a desirable platform for engineering spectral position of Fano resonance and enhancement of Faraday rotation.

Software Engineering Laboratory (SEL) data base reporting software user's guide and system description. Volume 2: Program descriptions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1983-01-01

The structure and functions of each reporting software program for the Software Engineering Laboratory data base are described. Baseline diagrams, module descriptions, and listings of program generation files are included.

Software engineering standards and practices

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Durachka, R. W.

1981-01-01

Guidelines are presented for the preparation of a software development plan. The various phases of a software development project are discussed throughout its life cycle including a general description of the software engineering standards and practices to be followed during each phase.

Domain decomposition: A bridge between nature and parallel computers

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Keyes, David E.

1992-01-01

Domain decomposition is an intuitive organizing principle for a partial differential equation (PDE) computation, both physically and architecturally. However, its significance extends beyond the readily apparent issues of geometry and discretization, on one hand, and of modular software and distributed hardware, on the other. Engineering and computer science aspects are bridged by an old but recently enriched mathematical theory that offers the subject not only unity, but also tools for analysis and generalization. Domain decomposition induces function-space and operator decompositions with valuable properties. Function-space bases and operator splittings that are not derived from domain decompositions generally lack one or more of these properties. The evolution of domain decomposition methods for elliptically dominated problems has linked two major algorithmic developments of the last 15 years: multilevel and Krylov methods. Domain decomposition methods may be considered descendants of both classes with an inheritance from each: they are nearly optimal and at the same time efficiently parallelizable. Many computationally driven application areas are ripe for these developments. A progression is made from a mathematically informal motivation for domain decomposition methods to a specific focus on fluid dynamics applications. To be introductory rather than comprehensive, simple examples are provided while convergence proofs and algorithmic details are left to the original references; however, an attempt is made to convey their most salient features, especially where this leads to algorithmic insight.

Socio-Cultural Challenges in Global Software Engineering Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hoda, Rashina; Babar, Muhammad Ali; Shastri, Yogeshwar; Yaqoob, Humaa

2017-01-01

Global software engineering education (GSEE) is aimed at providing software engineering (SE) students with knowledge, skills, and understanding of working in globally distributed arrangements so they can be prepared for the global SE (GSE) paradigm. It is important to understand the challenges involved in GSEE for improving the quality and…

Experiences with Integrating Simulation into a Software Engineering Curriculum

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bollin, Andreas; Hochmuller, Elke; Mittermeir, Roland; Samuelis, Ladislav

2012-01-01

Software Engineering education must account for a broad spectrum of knowledge and skills software engineers will be required to apply throughout their professional life. Covering all the topics in depth within a university setting is infeasible due to curricular constraints as well as due to the inherent differences between educational…

An Engineering Context for Software Engineering

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-09-01

medium in which I can plant the ideas from this dissertation. I have also written a book on requirements development that is used at NPS by myself and...Addison-Wesley, Anniversary ed., 1995. [Bry00] Bryant, A., “Metaphor, Myth, and Mimicry : The Bases of Software Engineering,” Annals of Software

Selection of software for mechanical engineering undergraduates

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Cheah, C. T.; Yin, C. S.; Halim, T.

A major problem with the undergraduate mechanical course is the limited exposure of students to software packages coupled with the long learning curve on the existing software packages. This work proposes the use of appropriate software packages for the entire mechanical engineering curriculum to ensure students get sufficient exposure real life design problems. A variety of software packages are highlighted as being suitable for undergraduate work in mechanical engineering, e.g. simultaneous non-linear equations; uncertainty analysis; 3-D modeling software with the FEA; analysis tools for the solution of problems in thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, mechanical system design, and solid mechanics.

Proceedings of the Twenty-Fourth Annual Software Engineering Workshop

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2000-01-01

On December 1 and 2, the Software Engineering Laboratory (SEL), a consortium composed of NASA/Goddard, the University of Maryland, and CSC, held the 24th Software Engineering Workshop (SEW), the last of the millennium. Approximately 240 people attended the 2-day workshop. Day 1 was composed of four sessions: International Influence of the Software Engineering Laboratory; Object Oriented Testing and Reading; Software Process Improvement; and Space Software. For the first session, three internationally known software process experts discussed the influence of the SEL with respect to software engineering research. In the Space Software session, prominent representatives from three different NASA sites- GSFC's Marti Szczur, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Rick Doyle, and the Ames Research Center IV&V Facility's Lou Blazy- discussed the future of space software in their respective centers. At the end of the first day, the SEW sponsored a reception at the GSFC Visitors' Center. Day 2 also provided four sessions: Using the Experience Factory; A panel discussion entitled "Software Past, Present, and Future: Views from Government, Industry, and Academia"; Inspections; and COTS. The day started with an excellent talk by CSC's Frank McGarry on "Attaining Level 5 in CMM Process Maturity." Session 2, the panel discussion on software, featured NASA Chief Information Officer Lee Holcomb (Government), our own Jerry Page (Industry), and Mike Evangelist of the National Science Foundation (Academia). Each presented his perspective on the most important developments in software in the past 10 years, in the present, and in the future.

Proceedings of the Ninth Annual Software Engineering Workshop

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1984-01-01

Experiences in measurement, utilization, and evaluation of software methodologies, models, and tools are discussed. NASA's involvement in ever larger and more complex systems, like the space station project, provides a motive for the support of software engineering research and the exchange of ideas in such forums. The topics of current SEL research are software error studies, experiments with software development, and software tools.

FMT (Flight Software Memory Tracker) For Cassini Spacecraft-Software Engineering Using JAVA

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kan, Edwin P.; Uffelman, Hal; Wax, Allan H.

1997-01-01

The software engineering design of the Flight Software Memory Tracker (FMT) Tool is discussed in this paper. FMT is a ground analysis software set, consisting of utilities and procedures, designed to track the flight software, i.e., images of memory load and updatable parameters of the computers on-board Cassini spacecraft. FMT is implemented in Java.

Requirements: Towards an understanding on why software projects fail

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hussain, Azham; Mkpojiogu, Emmanuel O. C.

2016-08-01

Requirement engineering is at the foundation of every successful software project. There are many reasons for software project failures; however, poorly engineered requirements process contributes immensely to the reason why software projects fail. Software project failure is usually costly and risky and could also be life threatening. Projects that undermine requirements engineering suffer or are likely to suffer from failures, challenges and other attending risks. The cost of project failures and overruns when estimated is very huge. Furthermore, software project failures or overruns pose a challenge in today's competitive market environment. It affects the company's image, goodwill, and revenue drive and decreases the perceived satisfaction of customers and clients. In this paper, requirements engineering was discussed. Its role in software projects success was elaborated. The place of software requirements process in relation to software project failure was explored and examined. Also, project success and failure factors were also discussed with emphasis placed on requirements factors as they play a major role in software projects' challenges, successes and failures. The paper relied on secondary data and empirical statistics to explore and examine factors responsible for the successes, challenges and failures of software projects in large, medium and small scaled software companies.

Sandia National Laboratories Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASC) software quality plan. Part 1 : ASC software quality engineering practices version 1.0.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Minana, Molly A.; Sturtevant, Judith E.; Heaphy, Robert

2005-01-01

The purpose of the Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASC) Software Quality Plan is to clearly identify the practices that are the basis for continually improving the quality of ASC software products. Quality is defined in DOE/AL Quality Criteria (QC-1) as conformance to customer requirements and expectations. This quality plan defines the ASC program software quality practices and provides mappings of these practices to the SNL Corporate Process Requirements (CPR 1.3.2 and CPR 1.3.6) and the Department of Energy (DOE) document, ASCI Software Quality Engineering: Goals, Principles, and Guidelines (GP&G). This quality plan identifies ASC management andmore » software project teams' responsibilities for cost-effective software engineering quality practices. The SNL ASC Software Quality Plan establishes the signatories commitment to improving software products by applying cost-effective software engineering quality practices. This document explains the project teams opportunities for tailoring and implementing the practices; enumerates the practices that compose the development of SNL ASC's software products; and includes a sample assessment checklist that was developed based upon the practices in this document.« less

Software Carpentry and the Hydrological Sciences

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ahmadia, A. J.; Kees, C. E.; Farthing, M. W.

2013-12-01

Scientists are spending an increasing amount of time building and using hydrology software. However, most scientists are never taught how to do this efficiently. As a result, many are unaware of tools and practices that would allow them to write more reliable and maintainable code with less effort. As hydrology models increase in capability and enter use by a growing number of scientists and their communities, it is important that the scientific software development practices scale up to meet the challenges posed by increasing software complexity, lengthening software lifecycles, a growing number of stakeholders and contributers, and a broadened developer base that extends from application domains to high performance computing centers. Many of these challenges in complexity, lifecycles, and developer base have been successfully met by the open source community, and there are many lessons to be learned from their experiences and practices. Additionally, there is much wisdom to be found in the results of research studies conducted on software engineering itself. Software Carpentry aims to bridge the gap between the current state of software development and these known best practices for scientific software development, with a focus on hands-on exercises and practical advice based on the following principles: 1. Write programs for people, not computers. 2. Automate repetitive tasks 3. Use the computer to record history 4. Make incremental changes 5. Use version control 6. Don't repeat yourself (or others) 7. Plan for mistakes 8. Optimize software only after it works 9. Document design and purpose, not mechanics 10. Collaborate We discuss how these best practices, arising from solid foundations in research and experience, have been shown to help improve scientist's productivity and the reliability of their software.

PSG-EXPERT. An expert system for the diagnosis of sleep disorders.

PubMed

Fred, A; Filipe, J; Partinen, M; Paiva, T

2000-01-01

This paper describes PSG-EXPERT, an expert system in the domain of sleep disorders exploring polysomnographic data. The developed software tool is addressed from two points of view: (1)--as an integrated environment for the development of diagnosis-oriented expert systems; (2)--as an auxiliary diagnosis tool in the particular domain of sleep disorders. Developed over a Windows platform, this software tool extends one of the most popular shells--CLIPS (C Language Integrated Production System) with the following features: backward chaining engine; graph-based explanation facilities; knowledge editor including a fuzzy fact editor and a rules editor, with facts-rules integrity checking; belief revision mechanism; built-in case generator and validation module. It therefore provides graphical support for knowledge acquisition, edition, explanation and validation. From an application domain point of view, PSG-Expert is an auxiliary diagnosis system for sleep disorders based on polysomnographic data, that aims at assisting the medical expert in his diagnosis task by providing automatic analysis of polysomnographic data, summarising the results of this analysis in terms of a report of major findings and possible diagnosis consistent with the polysomnographic data. Sleep disorders classification follows the International Classification of Sleep Disorders. Major features of the system include: browsing on patients data records; structured navigation on Sleep Disorders descriptions according to ASDA definitions; internet links to related pages; diagnosis consistent with polysomnographic data; graphical user-interface including graph-based explanatory facilities; uncertainty modelling and belief revision; production of reports; connection to remote databases.

Knowledge-acquisition tools for medical knowledge-based systems.

PubMed

Lanzola, G; Quaglini, S; Stefanelli, M

1995-03-01

Knowledge-based systems (KBS) have been proposed to solve a large variety of medical problems. A strategic issue for KBS development and maintenance are the efforts required for both knowledge engineers and domain experts. The proposed solution is building efficient knowledge acquisition (KA) tools. This paper presents a set of KA tools we are developing within a European Project called GAMES II. They have been designed after the formulation of an epistemological model of medical reasoning. The main goal is that of developing a computational framework which allows knowledge engineers and domain experts to interact cooperatively in developing a medical KBS. To this aim, a set of reusable software components is highly recommended. Their design was facilitated by the development of a methodology for KBS construction. It views this process as comprising two activities: the tailoring of the epistemological model to the specific medical task to be executed and the subsequent translation of this model into a computational architecture so that the connections between computational structures and their knowledge level counterparts are maintained. The KA tools we developed are illustrated taking examples from the behavior of a KBS we are building for the management of children with acute myeloid leukemia.

Software Process Improvement through the Removal of Project-Level Knowledge Flow Obstacles: The Perceptions of Software Engineers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mitchell, Susan Marie

2012-01-01

Uncontrollable costs, schedule overruns, and poor end product quality continue to plague the software engineering field. Innovations formulated with the expectation to minimize or eliminate cost, schedule, and quality problems have generally fallen into one of three categories: programming paradigms, software tools, and software process…

RICIS Software Engineering 90 Symposium: Aerospace Applications and Research Directions Proceedings Appendices

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1990-01-01

Papers presented at RICIS Software Engineering Symposium are compiled. The following subject areas are covered: flight critical software; management of real-time Ada; software reuse; megaprogramming software; Ada net; POSIX and Ada integration in the Space Station Freedom Program; and assessment of formal methods for trustworthy computer systems.

Technology transfer in software engineering

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bishop, Peter C.

1989-01-01

The University of Houston-Clear Lake is the prime contractor for the AdaNET Research Project under the direction of NASA Johnson Space Center. AdaNET was established to promote the principles of software engineering to the software development industry. AdaNET will contain not only environments and tools, but also concepts, principles, models, standards, guidelines and practices. Initially, AdaNET will serve clients from the U.S. government and private industry who are working in software development. It will seek new clients from those who have not yet adopted the principles and practices of software engineering. Some of the goals of AdaNET are to become known as an objective, authoritative source of new software engineering information and parts, to provide easy access to information and parts, and to keep abreast of innovations in the field.

A Legal Perspective on Business: Modeling the Impact of Law

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ghanavati, Sepideh; Siena, Alberto; Perini, Anna; Amyot, Daniel; Peyton, Liam; Susi, Angelo

Modern goal-oriented requirements engineering frameworks use modeling as a means of better understanding a domain, leading to an overall improvement in the quality of the requirements. Regulations and laws impose additional context and constraints on software goals and can limit the satisfaction of stakeholder needs. Organizations and software developers need modeling tools that can properly address the potential deep impact legal issues can have on the effectiveness of business strategies. In this paper, we perform a preliminary study into the development of a modeling framework able to support the analysis of legal prescriptions alongside business strategies. We demonstrate, via an example drawn from a case study of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), how models of this law can be built with the GRL modeling language and how they can be evaluated as part of the business goal models.

Automating Mission Scheduling for Space-Based Observatories

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pell, Barney; Muscettola, Nicola; Hansson, Othar; Mohan, Sunil

1998-01-01

In this paper we describe the use of our planning and scheduling framework, HSTS, to reduce the complexity of science mission planning. This work is part of an overall project to enable a small team of scientists to control the operations of a spacecraft. The present process is highly labor intensive. Users (scientists and operators) rely on a non-codified understanding of the different spacecraft subsystems and of their operating constraints. They use a variety of software tools to support their decision making process. This paper considers the types of decision making that need to be supported/automated, the nature of the domain constraints and the capabilities needed to address them successfully, and the nature of external software systems with which the core planning/scheduling engine needs to interact. HSTS has been applied to science scheduling for EUVE and Cassini and is being adapted to support autonomous spacecraft operations in the New Millennium initiative.

Human-Automation Integration: Principle and Method for Design and Evaluation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Billman, Dorrit; Feary, Michael

2012-01-01

Future space missions will increasingly depend on integration of complex engineered systems with their human operators. It is important to ensure that the systems that are designed and developed do a good job of supporting the needs of the work domain. Our research investigates methods for needs analysis. We included analysis of work products (plans for regulation of the space station) as well as work processes (tasks using current software), in a case study of Attitude Determination and Control Officers (ADCO) planning work. This allows comparing how well different designs match the structure of the work to be supported. Redesigned planning software that better matches the structure of work was developed and experimentally assessed. The new prototype enabled substantially faster and more accurate performance in plan revision tasks. This success suggests the approach to needs assessment and use in design and evaluation is promising, and merits investigatation in future research.

Effective Software Engineering Leadership for Development Programs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cagle West, Marsha

2010-01-01

Software is a critical component of systems ranging from simple consumer appliances to complex health, nuclear, and flight control systems. The development of quality, reliable, and effective software solutions requires the incorporation of effective software engineering processes and leadership. Processes, approaches, and methodologies for…

Development of a comprehensive software engineering environment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hartrum, Thomas C.; Lamont, Gary B.

1987-01-01

The generation of a set of tools for software lifecycle is a recurring theme in the software engineering literature. The development of such tools and their integration into a software development environment is a difficult task because of the magnitude (number of variables) and the complexity (combinatorics) of the software lifecycle process. An initial development of a global approach was initiated in 1982 as the Software Development Workbench (SDW). Continuing efforts focus on tool development, tool integration, human interfacing, data dictionaries, and testing algorithms. Current efforts are emphasizing natural language interfaces, expert system software development associates and distributed environments with Ada as the target language. The current implementation of the SDW is on a VAX-11/780. Other software development tools are being networked through engineering workstations.

Software reengineering

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fridge, Ernest M., III

1991-01-01

Today's software systems generally use obsolete technology, are not integrated properly with other software systems, and are difficult and costly to maintain. The discipline of reverse engineering is becoming prominent as organizations try to move their systems up to more modern and maintainable technology in a cost effective manner. JSC created a significant set of tools to develop and maintain FORTRAN and C code during development of the Space Shuttle. This tool set forms the basis for an integrated environment to re-engineer existing code into modern software engineering structures which are then easier and less costly to maintain and which allow a fairly straightforward translation into other target languages. The environment will support these structures and practices even in areas where the language definition and compilers do not enforce good software engineering. The knowledge and data captured using the reverse engineering tools is passed to standard forward engineering tools to redesign or perform major upgrades to software systems in a much more cost effective manner than using older technologies. A beta vision of the environment was released in Mar. 1991. The commercial potential for such re-engineering tools is very great. CASE TRENDS magazine reported it to be the primary concern of over four hundred of the top MIS executives.

A Recommended Framework for the Network-Centric Acquisition Process

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-09-01

ISO /IEC 12207 , Systems and Software Engineering-Software Life-Cycle Processes  ANSI/EIA 632, Processes for Engineering a System. There are...engineering [46]. Some of the process models presented in the DAG are:  ISO /IEC 15288, Systems and Software Engineering-System Life-Cycle Processes...e.g., ISO , IA, Security, etc.). Vetting developers helps ensure that they are using industry best industry practices and maximize the IA compliance

Software Engineering Education Directory. Software Engineering Curriculum Project

DTIC Science & Technology

1991-05-01

1986 with a questionnaire mailed to schools selected from Peterson’s Graduate Programs in Engineering and Applied Sciences 1986. We contacted schools...the publi- cation more complete. To discuss any issues related to this report, please contact: Education Program Software Engineering Institute...considered to be required course reading. How to Use This Section This portion of the directory is organized by state (in the U.S.), province (in

The Impact of Software on Associate Degree Programs in Electronic Engineering Technology.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hata, David M.

1986-01-01

Assesses the range and extent of computer assisted instruction software available in electronic engineering technology education. Examines the need for software skills in four areas: (1) high-level languages; (2) assembly language; (3) computer-aided engineering; and (4) computer-aided instruction. Outlines strategies for the future in three…

Software engineering

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fridge, Ernest M., III; Hiott, Jim; Golej, Jim; Plumb, Allan

1993-01-01

Today's software systems generally use obsolete technology, are not integrated properly with other software systems, and are difficult and costly to maintain. The discipline of reverse engineering is becoming prominent as organizations try to move their systems up to more modern and maintainable technology in a cost effective manner. The Johnson Space Center (JSC) created a significant set of tools to develop and maintain FORTRAN and C code during development of the space shuttle. This tool set forms the basis for an integrated environment to reengineer existing code into modern software engineering structures which are then easier and less costly to maintain and which allow a fairly straightforward translation into other target languages. The environment will support these structures and practices even in areas where the language definition and compilers do not enforce good software engineering. The knowledge and data captured using the reverse engineering tools is passed to standard forward engineering tools to redesign or perform major upgrades to software systems in a much more cost effective manner than using older technologies. The latest release of the environment was in Feb. 1992.

The Personal Software Process (PSPSM): An Empirical Study of the Impact of PSP on Individual Engineers.

DTIC Science & Technology

1997-12-01

Watts Humphrey and is described in his book A Discipline for Software Engineering [ Humphrey 95]. Its intended use is to guide the planning and...Pat; Humphrey , Watts S .; Khajenoori, Soheil; Macke, Susan; & Matvya, Annette. "Introducing the Personal Software Process: Three Industry Case... Humphrey 95] Humphrey , Watts S . A Discipline for Software Engineering. Reading, Ma.: Addison-Wesley, 1995. [Mauchly 40] Mauchly, J.W. "Significance

Training Plan. Central Archive for Reusable Defense Software (CARDS)

DTIC Science & Technology

1994-01-29

Modeling Software Reuse Technology: Feature Oriented Domain Analysis ( FODA ). SEI, Carnegie Mellon University, May 1992. 8. Component Provider’s...events to the services of the domain. 4. Feature Oriented Domain Analysis ( FODA ) [COHEN92] The FODA method produces feature models. Feature models provide...Architecture FODA Feature-Oriented Domain Analysis GOTS Government-Off-The-Shelf Pap A-49 STARS-VC-B003/001/00 29 imaty 1994 MS Master of Science NEC

Benefits of Matching Domain Structure for Planning Software: The Right Stuff

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Billman, Dorrit Owen; Arsintescu, Lucica; Feary, Michael S.; Lee, Jessica Chia-Rong; Smith, Asha Halima; Tiwary, Rachna

2011-01-01

We investigated the role of domain structure in software design. We compared 2 planning applications, for a Mission Control group (International Space Station), and measured users speed and accuracy. Based on our needs analysis, we identified domain structure and used this to develop new prototype software that matched domain structure better than the legacy system. We took a high-fidelity analog of the natural task into the laboratory and found (large) periformance differences, favoring the system that matched domain structure. Our task design enabled us to attribute better periormance to better match of domain structure. We ran through the whole development cycle, in miniature, from needs analysis through design, development, and evaluation. Doing so enabled inferences not just about the particular systems compared, but also provided evidence for the viability of the design process (particularly needs analysis) that we are exploring.

Large-scale visualization projects for teaching software engineering.

PubMed

Müller, Christoph; Reina, Guido; Burch, Michael; Weiskopf, Daniel

2012-01-01

The University of Stuttgart's software engineering major complements the traditional computer science major with more practice-oriented education. Two-semester software projects in various application areas offered by the university's different computer science institutes are a successful building block in the curriculum. With this realistic, complex project setting, students experience the practice of software engineering, including software development processes, technologies, and soft skills. In particular, visualization-based projects are popular with students. Such projects offer them the opportunity to gain profound knowledge that would hardly be possible with only regular lectures and homework assignments.

48 CFR 227.7206 - Contracts for architect-engineer services.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... Rights in Computer Software and Computer Software Documentation 227.7206 Contracts for architect-engineer services. Follow 227.7107 when contracting for architect-engineer services. ...-engineer services. 227.7206 Section 227.7206 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEFENSE ACQUISITION...

48 CFR 227.7206 - Contracts for architect-engineer services.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... Rights in Computer Software and Computer Software Documentation 227.7206 Contracts for architect-engineer services. Follow 227.7107 when contracting for architect-engineer services. ...-engineer services. 227.7206 Section 227.7206 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEFENSE ACQUISITION...

48 CFR 227.7206 - Contracts for architect-engineer services.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... Rights in Computer Software and Computer Software Documentation 227.7206 Contracts for architect-engineer services. Follow 227.7107 when contracting for architect-engineer services. ...-engineer services. 227.7206 Section 227.7206 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEFENSE ACQUISITION...

48 CFR 227.7206 - Contracts for architect-engineer services.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... Rights in Computer Software and Computer Software Documentation 227.7206 Contracts for architect-engineer services. Follow 227.7107 when contracting for architect-engineer services. ...-engineer services. 227.7206 Section 227.7206 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEFENSE ACQUISITION...

48 CFR 227.7206 - Contracts for architect-engineer services.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

...-engineer services. 227.7206 Section 227.7206 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEFENSE ACQUISITION... Rights in Computer Software and Computer Software Documentation 227.7206 Contracts for architect-engineer services. Follow 227.7107 when contracting for architect-engineer services. ...

A Novel Coupling Pattern in Computational Science and Engineering Software

EPA Science Inventory

Computational science and engineering (CSE) software is written by experts of certain area(s). Due to the specialization, existing CSE software may need to integrate other CSE software systems developed by different groups of experts. The coupling problem is one of the challenges...

A Novel Coupling Pattern in Computational Science and Engineering Software

EPA Science Inventory

Computational science and engineering (CSE) software is written by experts of certain area(s). Due to the specialization,existing CSE software may need to integrate other CSE software systems developed by different groups of experts. Thecoupling problem is one of the challenges f...

Modeling a distributed environment for a petroleum reservoir engineering application with software product line

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de Faria Scheidt, Rafael; Vilain, Patrícia; Dantas, M. A. R.

2014-10-01

Petroleum reservoir engineering is a complex and interesting field that requires large amount of computational facilities to achieve successful results. Usually, software environments for this field are developed without taking care out of possible interactions and extensibilities required by reservoir engineers. In this paper, we present a research work which it is characterized by the design and implementation based on a software product line model for a real distributed reservoir engineering environment. Experimental results indicate successfully the utilization of this approach for the design of distributed software architecture. In addition, all components from the proposal provided greater visibility of the organization and processes for the reservoir engineers.

3D Fiber Orientation Simulation for Plastic Injection Molding

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lin, Baojiu; Jin, Xiaoshi; Zheng, Rong; Costa, Franco S.; Fan, Zhiliang

2004-06-01

Glass fiber reinforced polymer is widely used in the products made using injection molding processing. The distribution of fiber orientation inside plastic parts has direct effects on quality of molded parts. Using computer simulation to predict fiber orientation distribution is one of most efficient ways to assist engineers to do warpage analysis and to find a good design solution to produce high quality plastic parts. Fiber orientation simulation software based on 2-1/2D (midplane /Dual domain mesh) techniques has been used in industry for a decade. However, the 2-1/2D technique is based on the planar Hele-Shaw approximation and it is not suitable when the geometry has complex three-dimensional features which cannot be well approximated by 2D shells. Recently, a full 3D simulation software for fiber orientation has been developed and integrated into Moldflow Plastics Insight 3D simulation software. The theory for this new 3D fiber orientation calculation module is described in this paper. Several examples are also presented to show the benefit in using 3D fiber orientation simulation.

Software IV and V Research Priorities and Applied Program Accomplishments Within NASA

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Blazy, Louis J.

2000-01-01

The mission of this research is to be world-class creators and facilitators of innovative, intelligent, high performance, reliable information technologies that enable NASA missions to (1) increase software safety and quality through error avoidance, early detection and resolution of errors, by utilizing and applying empirically based software engineering best practices; (2) ensure customer software risks are identified and/or that requirements are met and/or exceeded; (3) research, develop, apply, verify, and publish software technologies for competitive advantage and the advancement of science; and (4) facilitate the transfer of science and engineering data, methods, and practices to NASA, educational institutions, state agencies, and commercial organizations. The goals are to become a national Center Of Excellence (COE) in software and system independent verification and validation, and to become an international leading force in the field of software engineering for improving the safety, quality, reliability, and cost performance of software systems. This project addresses the following problems: Ensure safety of NASA missions, ensure requirements are met, minimize programmatic and technological risks of software development and operations, improve software quality, reduce costs and time to delivery, and improve the science of software engineering

Implementing large projects in software engineering courses

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Coppit, David

2006-03-01

In software engineering education, large projects are widely recognized as a useful way of exposing students to the real-world difficulties of team software development. But large projects are difficult to put into practice. First, educators rarely have additional time to manage software projects. Second, classrooms have inherent limitations that threaten the realism of large projects. Third, quantitative evaluation of individuals who work in groups is notoriously difficult. As a result, many software engineering courses compromise the project experience by reducing the team sizes, project scope, and risk. In this paper, we present an approach to teaching a one-semester software engineering course in which 20 to 30 students work together to construct a moderately sized (15KLOC) software system. The approach combines carefully coordinated lectures and homeworks, a hierarchical project management structure, modern communication technologies, and a web-based project tracking and individual assessment system. Our approach provides a more realistic project experience for the students, without incurring significant additional overhead for the instructor. We present our experiences using the approach the last 2 years for the software engineering course at The College of William and Mary. Although the approach has some weaknesses, we believe that they are strongly outweighed by the pedagogical benefits.

A Role-Playing Game for a Software Engineering Lab: Developing a Product Line

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zuppiroli, Sara; Ciancarini, Paolo; Gabbrielli, Maurizio

2012-01-01

Software product line development refers to software engineering practices and techniques for creating families of similar software systems from a basic set of reusable components, called shared assets. Teaching how to deal with software product lines in a university lab course is a challenging task, because there are several practical issues that…

On the Prospects and Concerns of Integrating Open Source Software Environment in Software Engineering Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kamthan, Pankaj

2007-01-01

Open Source Software (OSS) has introduced a new dimension in software community. As the development and use of OSS becomes prominent, the question of its integration in education arises. In this paper, the following practices fundamental to projects and processes in software engineering are examined from an OSS perspective: project management;…

Ten recommendations for software engineering in research.

PubMed

Hastings, Janna; Haug, Kenneth; Steinbeck, Christoph

2014-01-01

Research in the context of data-driven science requires a backbone of well-written software, but scientific researchers are typically not trained at length in software engineering, the principles for creating better software products. To address this gap, in particular for young researchers new to programming, we give ten recommendations to ensure the usability, sustainability and practicality of research software.

Model Driven Engineering

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gaševic, Dragan; Djuric, Dragan; Devedžic, Vladan

A relevant initiative from the software engineering community called Model Driven Engineering (MDE) is being developed in parallel with the Semantic Web (Mellor et al. 2003a). The MDE approach to software development suggests that one should first develop a model of the system under study, which is then transformed into the real thing (i.e., an executable software entity). The most important research initiative in this area is the Model Driven Architecture (MDA), which is Model Driven Architecture being developed under the umbrella of the Object Management Group (OMG). This chapter describes the basic concepts of this software engineering effort.

Architecture independent environment for developing engineering software on MIMD computers

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Valimohamed, Karim A.; Lopez, L. A.

1990-01-01

Engineers are constantly faced with solving problems of increasing complexity and detail. Multiple Instruction stream Multiple Data stream (MIMD) computers have been developed to overcome the performance limitations of serial computers. The hardware architectures of MIMD computers vary considerably and are much more sophisticated than serial computers. Developing large scale software for a variety of MIMD computers is difficult and expensive. There is a need to provide tools that facilitate programming these machines. First, the issues that must be considered to develop those tools are examined. The two main areas of concern were architecture independence and data management. Architecture independent software facilitates software portability and improves the longevity and utility of the software product. It provides some form of insurance for the investment of time and effort that goes into developing the software. The management of data is a crucial aspect of solving large engineering problems. It must be considered in light of the new hardware organizations that are available. Second, the functional design and implementation of a software environment that facilitates developing architecture independent software for large engineering applications are described. The topics of discussion include: a description of the model that supports the development of architecture independent software; identifying and exploiting concurrency within the application program; data coherence; engineering data base and memory management.

NASA Software Documentation Standard

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1991-01-01

The NASA Software Documentation Standard (hereinafter referred to as "Standard") is designed to support the documentation of all software developed for NASA; its goal is to provide a framework and model for recording the essential information needed throughout the development life cycle and maintenance of a software system. The NASA Software Documentation Standard can be applied to the documentation of all NASA software. The Standard is limited to documentation format and content requirements. It does not mandate specific management, engineering, or assurance standards or techniques. This Standard defines the format and content of documentation for software acquisition, development, and sustaining engineering. Format requirements address where information shall be recorded and content requirements address what information shall be recorded. This Standard provides a framework to allow consistency of documentation across NASA and visibility into the completeness of project documentation. The basic framework consists of four major sections (or volumes). The Management Plan contains all planning and business aspects of a software project, including engineering and assurance planning. The Product Specification contains all technical engineering information, including software requirements and design. The Assurance and Test Procedures contains all technical assurance information, including Test, Quality Assurance (QA), and Verification and Validation (V&V). The Management, Engineering, and Assurance Reports is the library and/or listing of all project reports.

Training, Quality Assurance Factors, and Tools Investigation: a Work Report and Suggestions on Software Quality Assurance

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lee, Pen-Nan

1991-01-01

Previously, several research tasks have been conducted, some observations were obtained, and several possible suggestions have been contemplated involving software quality assurance engineering at NASA Johnson. These research tasks are briefly described. Also, a brief discussion is given on the role of software quality assurance in software engineering along with some observations and suggestions. A brief discussion on a training program for software quality assurance engineers is provided. A list of assurance factors as well as quality factors are also included. Finally, a process model which can be used for searching and collecting software quality assurance tools is presented.

EngineSim: Turbojet Engine Simulator Adapted for High School Classroom Use

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Petersen, Ruth A.

2001-01-01

EngineSim is an interactive educational computer program that allows users to explore the effect of engine operation on total aircraft performance. The software is supported by a basic propulsion web site called the Beginner's Guide to Propulsion, which includes educator-created, web-based activities for the classroom use of EngineSim. In addition, educators can schedule videoconferencing workshops in which EngineSim's creator demonstrates the software and discusses its use in the educational setting. This software is a product of NASA Glenn Research Center's Learning Technologies Project, an educational outreach initiative within the High Performance Computing and Communications Program.

Evaluating software development characteristics: Assessment of software measures in the Software Engineering Laboratory. [reliability engineering

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Basili, V. R.

1981-01-01

Work on metrics is discussed. Factors that affect software quality are reviewed. Metrics is discussed in terms of criteria achievements, reliability, and fault tolerance. Subjective and objective metrics are distinguished. Product/process and cost/quality metrics are characterized and discussed.

Software engineering and Ada in design

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Oneill, Don

1986-01-01

Modern software engineering promises significant reductions in software costs and improvements in software quality. The Ada language is the focus for these software methodology and tool improvements. The IBM FSD approach, including the software engineering practices that guide the systematic design and development of software products and the management of the software process are examined. The revised Ada design language adaptation is revealed. This four level design methodology is detailed including the purpose of each level, the management strategy that integrates the software design activity with the program milestones, and the technical strategy that maps the Ada constructs to each level of design. A complete description of each design level is provided along with specific design language recording guidelines for each level. Finally, some testimony is offered on education, tools, architecture, and metrics resulting from project use of the four level Ada design language adaptation.

CrossTalk: The Journal of Defense Software Engineering. Volume 20, Number 6, June 2007

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-06-01

California. He has co-authored the book Software Cost Estimation With COCOMO II with Barry Boehm and others. Clark helped define the COCOMO II model...Software Engineering at the University of Southern California. She worked with Barry Boehm and Chris Abts to develop and calibrate a cost-estimation...2003/02/ schorsch.html>. 2. See “Software Engineering, A Practitioners Approach” by Roger Pressman for a good description of coupling, cohesion

Agile Software Teams: How They Engage with Systems Engineering on DoD Acquisition Programs

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-07-01

under Contract No. FA8721-05-C-0003 with Carnegie Mellon University for the operation of the Software Engineer- ing Institute, a federally funded...issues that would preclude or limit the use of Agile methods within the DoD” [Broadus 2013]. As operational tempos increase and programs fight to...environment in which it operates . This makes software different from other disciplines that have toleranc- es, generally resulting in software engineering

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Peck, T; Sparkman, D; Storch, N

''The LLNL Site-Specific Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASCI) Software Quality Engineering Recommended Practices VI.I'' document describes a set of recommended software quality engineering (SQE) practices for ASCI code projects at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). In this context, SQE is defined as the process of building quality into software products by applying the appropriate guiding principles and management practices. Continual code improvement and ongoing process improvement are expected benefits. Certain practices are recommended, although projects may select the specific activities they wish to improve, and the appropriate time lines for such actions. Additionally, projects can rely on the guidance ofmore » this document when generating ASCI Verification and Validation (VSrV) deliverables. ASCI program managers will gather information about their software engineering practices and improvement. This information can be shared to leverage the best SQE practices among development organizations. It will further be used to ensure the currency and vitality of the recommended practices. This Overview is intended to provide basic information to the LLNL ASCI software management and development staff from the ''LLNL Site-Specific ASCI Software Quality Engineering Recommended Practices VI.I'' document. Additionally the Overview provides steps to using the ''LLNL Site-Specific ASCI Software Quality Engineering Recommended Practices VI.I'' document. For definitions of terminology and acronyms, refer to the Glossary and Acronyms sections in the ''LLNL Site-Specific ASCI Software Quality Engineering Recommended Practices VI.I''.« less

The Effective Use of Professional Software in an Undergraduate Mining Engineering Curriculum

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kecojevic, Vladislav; Bise, Christopher; Haight, Joel

2005-01-01

The use of professional software is an integral part of a student's education in the mining engineering curriculum at The Pennsylvania State University. Even though mining engineering represents a limited market across U.S. educational institutions, the goal still exists for using this type of software to enrich the learning environment with…

The Curiosity Mars Rover's Fault Protection Engine

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Benowitz, Ed

2014-01-01

The Curiosity Rover, currently operating on Mars, contains flight software onboard to autonomously handle aspects of system fault protection. Over 1000 monitors and 39 responses are present in the flight software. Orchestrating these behaviors is the flight software's fault protection engine. In this paper, we discuss the engine's design, responsibilities, and present some lessons learned for future missions.

A Guideline of Using Case Method in Software Engineering Courses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zainal, Dzulaiha Aryanee Putri; Razali, Rozilawati; Shukur, Zarina

2014-01-01

Software Engineering (SE) education has been reported to fall short in producing high quality software engineers. In seeking alternative solutions, Case Method (CM) is regarded as having potential to solve the issue. CM is a teaching and learning (T&L) method that has been found to be effective in Social Science education. In principle,…

Success Factors for Using Case Method in Teaching and Learning Software Engineering

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Razali, Rozilawati; Zainal, Dzulaiha Aryanee Putri

2013-01-01

The Case Method (CM) has long been used effectively in Social Science education. Its potential use in Applied Science such as Software Engineering (SE) however has yet to be further explored. SE is an engineering discipline that concerns the principles, methods and tools used throughout the software development lifecycle. In CM, subjects are…

Network Profiling Using Flow

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-08-01

Software Engineering Institute, a federally funded research and development center. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations...CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY AND SOFTWARE ENGINEERING INSTITUTE MATERIAL IS FURNISHED ON AN “AS-IS” BASIS. CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY MAKES NO WARRANTIES OF...required for any other external and/or commercial use. Requests for permission should be directed to the Software Engineering Institute at permission

IPAD project overview

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fulton, R. E.

1980-01-01

To respond to national needs for improved productivity in engineering design and manufacturing, a NASA supported joint industry/government project is underway denoted Integrated Programs for Aerospace-Vehicle Design (IPAD). The objective is to improve engineering productivity through better use of computer technology. It focuses on development of technology and associated software for integrated company-wide management of engineering information. The project has been underway since 1976 under the guidance of an Industry Technical Advisory Board (ITAB) composed of representatives of major engineering and computer companies and in close collaboration with the Air Force Integrated Computer-Aided Manufacturing (ICAM) program. Results to date on the IPAD project include an in-depth documentation of a representative design process for a large engineering project, the definition and design of computer-aided design software needed to support that process, and the release of prototype software to integrate selected design functions. Ongoing work concentrates on development of prototype software to manage engineering information, and initial software is nearing release.

A Discussion of the Software Quality Assurance Role

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kandt, Ronald Kirk

2010-01-01

The basic idea underlying this paper is that the conventional understanding of the role of a Software Quality Assurance (SQA) engineer is unduly limited. This is because few have asked who the customers of a SQA engineer are. Once you do this, you can better define what tasks a SQA engineer should perform, as well as identify the knowledge and skills that such a person should have. The consequence of doing this is that a SQA engineer can provide greater value to his or her customers. It is the position of this paper that a SQA engineer providing significant value to his or her customers must not only assume the role of an auditor, but also that of a software and systems engineer. This is because software engineers and their managers particularly value contributions that directly impact products and their development. These ideas are summarized as lessons learned, based on my experience at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

GEDAE-LaB: A Free Software to Calculate the Energy System Contributions during Exercise

PubMed Central

Bertuzzi, Rômulo; Melegati, Jorge; Bueno, Salomão; Ghiarone, Thaysa; Pasqua, Leonardo A.; Gáspari, Arthur Fernandes; Lima-Silva, Adriano E.; Goldman, Alfredo

2016-01-01

Purpose The aim of the current study is to describe the functionality of free software developed for energy system contributions and energy expenditure calculation during exercise, namely GEDAE-LaB. Methods Eleven participants performed the following tests: 1) a maximal cycling incremental test to measure the ventilatory threshold and maximal oxygen uptake (V˙O2max); 2) a cycling workload constant test at moderate domain (90% ventilatory threshold); 3) a cycling workload constant test at severe domain (110% V˙O2max). Oxygen uptake and plasma lactate were measured during the tests. The contributions of the aerobic (AMET), anaerobic lactic (LAMET), and anaerobic alactic (ALMET) systems were calculated based on the oxygen uptake during exercise, the oxygen energy equivalents provided by lactate accumulation, and the fast component of excess post-exercise oxygen consumption, respectively. In order to assess the intra-investigator variation, four different investigators performed the analyses independently using GEDAE-LaB. A direct comparison with commercial software was also provided. Results All subjects completed 10 min of exercise at moderate domain, while the time to exhaustion at severe domain was 144 ± 65 s. The AMET, LAMET, and ALMET contributions during moderate domain were about 93, 2, and 5%, respectively. The AMET, LAMET, and ALMET contributions during severe domain were about 66, 21, and 13%, respectively. No statistical differences were found between the energy system contributions and energy expenditure obtained by GEDAE-LaB and commercial software for both moderate and severe domains (P > 0.05). The ICC revealed that these estimates were highly reliable among the four investigators for both moderate and severe domains (all ICC ≥ 0.94). Conclusion These findings suggest that GEDAE-LaB is a free software easily comprehended by users minimally familiarized with adopted procedures for calculations of energetic profile using oxygen uptake and lactate accumulation during exercise. By providing availability of the software and its source code we hope to facilitate future related research. PMID:26727499

GEDAE-LaB: A Free Software to Calculate the Energy System Contributions during Exercise.

PubMed

Bertuzzi, Rômulo; Melegati, Jorge; Bueno, Salomão; Ghiarone, Thaysa; Pasqua, Leonardo A; Gáspari, Arthur Fernandes; Lima-Silva, Adriano E; Goldman, Alfredo

2016-01-01

The aim of the current study is to describe the functionality of free software developed for energy system contributions and energy expenditure calculation during exercise, namely GEDAE-LaB. Eleven participants performed the following tests: 1) a maximal cycling incremental test to measure the ventilatory threshold and maximal oxygen uptake (V̇O2max); 2) a cycling workload constant test at moderate domain (90% ventilatory threshold); 3) a cycling workload constant test at severe domain (110% V̇O2max). Oxygen uptake and plasma lactate were measured during the tests. The contributions of the aerobic (AMET), anaerobic lactic (LAMET), and anaerobic alactic (ALMET) systems were calculated based on the oxygen uptake during exercise, the oxygen energy equivalents provided by lactate accumulation, and the fast component of excess post-exercise oxygen consumption, respectively. In order to assess the intra-investigator variation, four different investigators performed the analyses independently using GEDAE-LaB. A direct comparison with commercial software was also provided. All subjects completed 10 min of exercise at moderate domain, while the time to exhaustion at severe domain was 144 ± 65 s. The AMET, LAMET, and ALMET contributions during moderate domain were about 93, 2, and 5%, respectively. The AMET, LAMET, and ALMET contributions during severe domain were about 66, 21, and 13%, respectively. No statistical differences were found between the energy system contributions and energy expenditure obtained by GEDAE-LaB and commercial software for both moderate and severe domains (P > 0.05). The ICC revealed that these estimates were highly reliable among the four investigators for both moderate and severe domains (all ICC ≥ 0.94). These findings suggest that GEDAE-LaB is a free software easily comprehended by users minimally familiarized with adopted procedures for calculations of energetic profile using oxygen uptake and lactate accumulation during exercise. By providing availability of the software and its source code we hope to facilitate future related research.

The integration of the risk management process with the lifecycle of medical device software.

PubMed

Pecoraro, F; Luzi, D

2014-01-01

The application of software in the Medical Device (MD) domain has become central to the improvement of diagnoses and treatments. The new European regulations that specifically address software as an important component of MD, require complex procedures to make software compliant with safety requirements, introducing thereby new challenges in the qualification and classification of MD software as well as in the performance of risk management activities. Under this perspective, the aim of this paper is to propose an integrated framework that combines the activities to be carried out by the manufacturer to develop safe software within the development lifecycle based on the regulatory requirements reported in US and European regulations as well as in the relevant standards and guidelines. A comparative analysis was carried out to identify the main issues related to the application of the current new regulations. In addition, standards and guidelines recently released to harmonise procedures for the validation of MD software have been used to define the risk management activities to be carried out by the manufacturer during the software development process. This paper highlights the main issues related to the qualification and classification of MD software, providing an analysis of the different regulations applied in Europe and the US. A model that integrates the risk management process within the software development lifecycle has been proposed too. It is based on regulatory requirements and considers software risk analysis as a central input to be managed by the manufacturer already at the initial stages of the software design, in order to prevent MD failures. Relevant changes in the process of MD development have been introduced with the recognition of software being an important component of MDs as stated in regulations and standards. This implies the performance of highly iterative processes that have to integrate the risk management in the framework of software development. It also makes it necessary to involve both medical and software engineering competences to safeguard patient and user safety.

Testing Scientific Software: A Systematic Literature Review.

PubMed

Kanewala, Upulee; Bieman, James M

2014-10-01

Scientific software plays an important role in critical decision making, for example making weather predictions based on climate models, and computation of evidence for research publications. Recently, scientists have had to retract publications due to errors caused by software faults. Systematic testing can identify such faults in code. This study aims to identify specific challenges, proposed solutions, and unsolved problems faced when testing scientific software. We conducted a systematic literature survey to identify and analyze relevant literature. We identified 62 studies that provided relevant information about testing scientific software. We found that challenges faced when testing scientific software fall into two main categories: (1) testing challenges that occur due to characteristics of scientific software such as oracle problems and (2) testing challenges that occur due to cultural differences between scientists and the software engineering community such as viewing the code and the model that it implements as inseparable entities. In addition, we identified methods to potentially overcome these challenges and their limitations. Finally we describe unsolved challenges and how software engineering researchers and practitioners can help to overcome them. Scientific software presents special challenges for testing. Specifically, cultural differences between scientist developers and software engineers, along with the characteristics of the scientific software make testing more difficult. Existing techniques such as code clone detection can help to improve the testing process. Software engineers should consider special challenges posed by scientific software such as oracle problems when developing testing techniques.

An Investigation of an Open-Source Software Development Environment in a Software Engineering Graduate Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ge, Xun; Huang, Kun; Dong, Yifei

2010-01-01

A semester-long ethnography study was carried out to investigate project-based learning in a graduate software engineering course through the implementation of an Open-Source Software Development (OSSD) learning environment, which featured authentic projects, learning community, cognitive apprenticeship, and technology affordances. The study…

Implementing Large Projects in Software Engineering Courses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coppit, David

2006-01-01

In software engineering education, large projects are widely recognized as a useful way of exposing students to the real-world difficulties of team software development. But large projects are difficult to put into practice. First, educators rarely have additional time to manage software projects. Second, classrooms have inherent limitations that…

Engineering and Software Engineering

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jackson, Michael

The phrase ‘software engineering' has many meanings. One central meaning is the reliable development of dependable computer-based systems, especially those for critical applications. This is not a solved problem. Failures in software development have played a large part in many fatalities and in huge economic losses. While some of these failures may be attributable to programming errors in the narrowest sense—a program's failure to satisfy a given formal specification—there is good reason to think that most of them have other roots. These roots are located in the problem of software engineering rather than in the problem of program correctness. The famous 1968 conference was motivated by the belief that software development should be based on “the types of theoretical foundations and practical disciplines that are traditional in the established branches of engineering.” Yet after forty years of currency the phrase ‘software engineering' still denotes no more than a vague and largely unfulfilled aspiration. Two major causes of this disappointment are immediately clear. First, too many areas of software development are inadequately specialised, and consequently have not developed the repertoires of normal designs that are the indispensable basis of reliable engineering success. Second, the relationship between structural design and formal analytical techniques for software has rarely been one of fruitful synergy: too often it has defined a boundary between competing dogmas, at which mutual distrust and incomprehension deprive both sides of advantages that should be within their grasp. This paper discusses these causes and their effects. Whether the common practice of software development will eventually satisfy the broad aspiration of 1968 is hard to predict; but an understanding of past failure is surely a prerequisite of future success.

Enhancing requirements engineering for patient registry software systems with evidence-based components.

PubMed

Lindoerfer, Doris; Mansmann, Ulrich

2017-07-01

Patient registries are instrumental for medical research. Often their structures are complex and their implementations use composite software systems to meet the wide spectrum of challenges. Commercial and open-source systems are available for registry implementation, but many research groups develop their own systems. Methodological approaches in the selection of software as well as the construction of proprietary systems are needed. We propose an evidence-based checklist, summarizing essential items for patient registry software systems (CIPROS), to accelerate the requirements engineering process. Requirements engineering activities for software systems follow traditional software requirements elicitation methods, general software requirements specification (SRS) templates, and standards. We performed a multistep procedure to develop a specific evidence-based CIPROS checklist: (1) A systematic literature review to build a comprehensive collection of technical concepts, (2) a qualitative content analysis to define a catalogue of relevant criteria, and (3) a checklist to construct a minimal appraisal standard. CIPROS is based on 64 publications and covers twelve sections with a total of 72 items. CIPROS also defines software requirements. Comparing CIPROS with traditional software requirements elicitation methods, SRS templates and standards show a broad consensus but differences in issues regarding registry-specific aspects. Using an evidence-based approach to requirements engineering for registry software adds aspects to the traditional methods and accelerates the software engineering process for registry software. The method we used to construct CIPROS serves as a potential template for creating evidence-based checklists in other fields. The CIPROS list supports developers in assessing requirements for existing systems and formulating requirements for their own systems, while strengthening the reporting of patient registry software system descriptions. It may be a first step to create standards for patient registry software system assessments. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Proceedings of the Eighteenth Annual Software Engineering Workshop

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1993-01-01

The workshop provided a forum for software practitioners from around the world to exchange information on the measurement, use, and evaluation of software methods, models, and tools. This year, approximately 450 people attended the workshop, which consisted of six sessions on the following topics: the Software Engineering Laboratory, measurement, technology assessment, advanced concepts, process, and software engineering issues in NASA. Three presentations were given in each of the topic areas. The content of those presentations and the research papers detailing the work reported are included in these proceedings. The workshop concluded with a tutorial session on how to start an Experience Factory.

An ontology based trust verification of software license agreement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lu, Wenhuan; Li, Xiaoqing; Gan, Zengqin; Wei, Jianguo

2017-08-01

When we install software or download software, there will show up so big mass document to state the rights and obligations, for which lots of person are not patient to read it or understand it. That would may make users feel distrust for the software. In this paper, we propose an ontology based verification for Software License Agreement. First of all, this work proposed an ontology model for domain of Software License Agreement. The domain ontology is constructed by proposed methodology according to copyright laws and 30 software license agreements. The License Ontology can act as a part of generalized copyright law knowledge model, and also can work as visualization of software licenses. Based on this proposed ontology, a software license oriented text summarization approach is proposed which performances showing that it can improve the accuracy of software licenses summarizing. Based on the summarization, the underline purpose of the software license can be explicitly explored for trust verification.

A Brief Study of Software Engineering Professional Continuing Education in DoD Acquisition

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-04-01

Lifecycle Processes (IEEE 12207 ) (810) 37% 61% 2% Guide to the Software Engineering Body of K l d (SWEBOK) (804) 67% 31% 2% now e ge Software...Engineering-Software Measurement Process ( ISO /IEC 15939) (797) 55% 44% 2% Capability Maturity Model Integration (806) 17% 81% 2% Six Sigma Process...Improvement (804) 7% 91% 1% ISO 9000 Quality Management Systems (803) 10% 89% 1% 28 Conclusions Significant problem areas R i tequ remen s Management Very

Proceedings of the Twenty-Third Annual Software Engineering Workshop

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1999-01-01

The Twenty-third Annual Software Engineering Workshop (SEW) provided 20 presentations designed to further the goals of the Software Engineering Laboratory (SEL) of the NASA-GSFC. The presentations were selected on their creativity. The sessions which were held on 2-3 of December 1998, centered on the SEL, Experimentation, Inspections, Fault Prediction, Verification and Validation, and Embedded Systems and Safety-Critical Systems.

Reverse Engineering and Software Products Reuse to Teach Collaborative Web Portals: A Case Study with Final-Year Computer Science Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Medina-Dominguez, Fuensanta; Sanchez-Segura, Maria-Isabel; Mora-Soto, Arturo; Amescua, Antonio

2010-01-01

The development of collaborative Web applications does not follow a software engineering methodology. This is because when university students study Web applications in general, and collaborative Web portals in particular, they are not being trained in the use of software engineering techniques to develop collaborative Web portals. This paper…

A Structured Approach for Reviewing Architecture Documentation

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-12-01

as those found in ISO 12207 [ ISO /IEC 12207 :2008] (for software engineering), ISO 15288 [ ISO /IEC 15288:2008] (for systems engineering), the Rational...Open Distributed Processing - Reference Model: Foundations ( ISO /IEC 10746-2). 1996. [ ISO /IEC 12207 :2008] International Organization for...Standardization & International Electrotechnical Commission. Sys- tems and software engineering – Software life cycle processes ( ISO /IEC 12207 ). 2008. [ ISO

Changes in Transferable Knowledge Resulting from Study in a Graduate Software Engineering Curriculum

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bareiss, Ray; Sedano, Todd; Katz, Edward

2012-01-01

This paper presents the initial results of a study of the evolution of students' knowledge of software engineering from the beginning to the end of a master's degree curriculum in software engineering. Students were presented with a problem involving the initiation of a complex new project at the beginning of the program and again at the end of…

The Relationship between Job Satisfaction and Intent to Turnover among Software Engineers in the Information Technology Industry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Agada, Chuks N.

2013-01-01

The focus of this study was to examine the relationship between job satisfaction and intent to turnover among software engineers in the information technology (IT) industry. The population that was analyzed in this study was software engineers in the IT industry to determine whether there is a relationship between job satisfaction and intent to…

RICIS Software Engineering 90 Symposium: Aerospace Applications and Research Directions Proceedings

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1990-01-01

Papers presented at RICIS Software Engineering Symposium are compiled. The following subject areas are covered: synthesis - integrating product and process; Serpent - a user interface management system; prototyping distributed simulation networks; and software reuse.

Software Engineering Laboratory (SEL) data and information policy

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mcgarry, Frank

1991-01-01

The policies and overall procedures that are used in distributing and in making available products of the Software Engineering Laboratory (SEL) are discussed. The products include project data and measures, project source code, reports, and software tools.

Modernizing Systems and Software: How Evolving Trends in Future Trends in Systems and Software Technology Bode Well for Advancing the Precision of Technology

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-04-23

of Code Need for increased functionality will be a forcing function to bring the fields of software and systems engineering... of Software-Intensive Systems is Increasing 3 How Evolving Trends in Systems and Software Technologies Bode Well for Advancing the Precision of ...Engineering in Continued Partnership 4 How Evolving Trends in Systems and Software Technologies Bode Well for Advancing the

Assessing students' performance in software requirements engineering education using scoring rubrics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mkpojiogu, Emmanuel O. C.; Hussain, Azham

2017-10-01

The study investigates how helpful the use of scoring rubrics is, in the performance assessment of software requirements engineering students and whether its use can lead to students' performance improvement in the development of software requirements artifacts and models. Scoring rubrics were used by two instructors to assess the cognitive performance of a student in the design and development of software requirements artifacts. The study results indicate that the use of scoring rubrics is very helpful in objectively assessing the performance of software requirements or software engineering students. Furthermore, the results revealed that the use of scoring rubrics can also produce a good achievement assessments direction showing whether a student is either improving or not in a repeated or iterative assessment. In a nutshell, its use leads to the performance improvement of students. The results provided some insights for further investigation and will be beneficial to researchers, requirements engineers, system designers, developers and project managers.

Framework Support For Knowledge-Based Software Development

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huseth, Steve

1988-03-01

The advent of personal engineering workstations has brought substantial information processing power to the individual programmer. Advanced tools and environment capabilities supporting the software lifecycle are just beginning to become generally available. However, many of these tools are addressing only part of the software development problem by focusing on rapid construction of self-contained programs by a small group of talented engineers. Additional capabilities are required to support the development of large programming systems where a high degree of coordination and communication is required among large numbers of software engineers, hardware engineers, and managers. A major player in realizing these capabilities is the framework supporting the software development environment. In this paper we discuss our research toward a Knowledge-Based Software Assistant (KBSA) framework. We propose the development of an advanced framework containing a distributed knowledge base that can support the data representation needs of tools, provide environmental support for the formalization and control of the software development process, and offer a highly interactive and consistent user interface.

Engine Structures Modeling Software System (ESMOSS)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1991-01-01

Engine Structures Modeling Software System (ESMOSS) is the development of a specialized software system for the construction of geometric descriptive and discrete analytical models of engine parts, components, and substructures which can be transferred to finite element analysis programs such as NASTRAN. The NASA Lewis Engine Structures Program is concerned with the development of technology for the rational structural design and analysis of advanced gas turbine engines with emphasis on advanced structural analysis, structural dynamics, structural aspects of aeroelasticity, and life prediction. Fundamental and common to all of these developments is the need for geometric and analytical model descriptions at various engine assembly levels which are generated using ESMOSS.

Increasing the reliability of ecological models using modern software engineering techniques

Treesearch

Robert M. Scheller; Brian R. Sturtevant; Eric J. Gustafson; Brendan C. Ward; David J. Mladenoff

2009-01-01

Modern software development techniques are largely unknown to ecologists. Typically, ecological models and other software tools are developed for limited research purposes, and additional capabilities are added later, usually in an ad hoc manner. Modern software engineering techniques can substantially increase scientific rigor and confidence in ecological models and...

Effects of the Meetings-Flow Approach on Quality Teamwork in the Training of Software Capstone Projects

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Chung-Yang; Hong, Ya-Chun; Chen, Pei-Chi

2014-01-01

Software development relies heavily on teamwork; determining how to streamline this collaborative development is an essential training subject in computer and software engineering education. A team process known as the meetings-flow (MF) approach has recently been introduced in software capstone projects in engineering programs at various…

A Study of Clinically Related Open Source Software Projects

PubMed Central

Hogarth, Michael A.; Turner, Stuart

2005-01-01

Open source software development has recently gained significant interest due to several successful mainstream open source projects. This methodology has been proposed as being similarly viable and beneficial in the clinical application domain as well. However, the clinical software development venue differs significantly from the mainstream software venue. Existing clinical open source projects have not been well characterized nor formally studied so the ‘fit’ of open source in this domain is largely unknown. In order to better understand the open source movement in the clinical application domain, we undertook a study of existing open source clinical projects. In this study we sought to characterize and classify existing clinical open source projects and to determine metrics for their viability. This study revealed several findings which we believe could guide the healthcare community in its quest for successful open source clinical software projects. PMID:16779056

Interpreting CMMI High Maturity for Small Organizations

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-09-01

Stoddard September, 2008 Congreso Internacional en Ingeniería de Software y sus Aplicaciones (International Congress of Software Engineering d...Form 298 (Rev. 8-98) Prescribed by ANSI Std Z39-18 Congreso Internacional en Ingeniería de Software y sus Aplicaciones (International Congress of...de Software y sus Aplicaciones (International Congress of Software Engineering and its Applications) Why This Workshop? CMMI Process Performance

User Interactive Software for Analysis of Human Physiological Data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cowings, Patricia S.; Toscano, William; Taylor, Bruce C.; Acharya, Soumydipta

2006-01-01

Ambulatory physiological monitoring has been used to study human health and performance in space and in a variety of Earth-based environments (e.g., military aircraft, armored vehicles, small groups in isolation, and patients). Large, multi-channel data files are typically recorded in these environments, and these files often require the removal of contaminated data prior to processing and analyses. Physiological data processing can now be performed with user-friendly, interactive software developed by the Ames Psychophysiology Research Laboratory. This software, which runs on a Windows platform, contains various signal-processing routines for both time- and frequency- domain data analyses (e.g., peak detection, differentiation and integration, digital filtering, adaptive thresholds, Fast Fourier Transform power spectrum, auto-correlation, etc.). Data acquired with any ambulatory monitoring system that provides text or binary file format are easily imported to the processing software. The application provides a graphical user interface where one can manually select and correct data artifacts utilizing linear and zero interpolation and adding trigger points for missed peaks. Block and moving average routines are also provided for data reduction. Processed data in numeric and graphic format can be exported to Excel. This software, PostProc (for post-processing) requires the Dadisp engineering spreadsheet (DSP Development Corp), or equivalent, for implementation. Specific processing routines were written for electrocardiography, electroencephalography, electromyography, blood pressure, skin conductance level, impedance cardiography (cardiac output, stroke volume, thoracic fluid volume), temperature, and respiration

Evaluating the Impact of Conceptual Knowledge Engineering on the Design and Usability of a Clinical and Translational Science Collaboration Portal

PubMed Central

Payne, Philip R.O.; Borlawsky, Tara B.; Rice, Robert; Embi, Peter J.

2010-01-01

With the growing prevalence of large-scale, team science endeavors in the biomedical and life science domains, the impetus to implement platforms capable of supporting asynchronous interaction among multidisciplinary groups of collaborators has increased commensurately. However, there is a paucity of literature describing systematic approaches to identifying the information needs of targeted end-users for such platforms, and the translation of such requirements into practicable software component design criteria. In previous studies, we have reported upon the efficacy of employing conceptual knowledge engineering (CKE) techniques to systematically address both of the preceding challenges in the context of complex biomedical applications. In this manuscript we evaluate the impact of CKE approaches relative to the design of a clinical and translational science collaboration portal, and report upon the preliminary qualitative users satisfaction as reported for the resulting system. PMID:21347146

OMOGENIA: A Semantically Driven Collaborative Environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liapis, Aggelos

Ontology creation can be thought of as a social procedure. Indeed the concepts involved in general need to be elicited from communities of domain experts and end-users by teams of knowledge engineers. Many problems in ontology creation appear to resemble certain problems in software design, particularly with respect to the setup of collaborative systems. For instance, the resolution of conceptual conflicts between formalized ontologies is a major engineering problem as ontologies move into widespread use on the semantic web. Such conflict resolution often requires human collaboration and cannot be achieved by automated methods with the exception of simple cases. In this chapter we discuss research in the field of computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW) that focuses on classification and which throws light on ontology building. Furthermore, we present a semantically driven collaborative environment called OMOGENIA as a natural way to display and examine the structure of an evolving ontology in a collaborative setting.

Fast Formal Analysis of Requirements via "Topoi Diagrams"

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Menzies, Tim; Powell, John; Houle, Michael E.; Kelly, John C. (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

Early testing of requirements can decrease the cost of removing errors in software projects. However, unless done carefully, that testing process can significantly add to the cost of requirements analysis. We show here that requirements expressed as topoi diagrams can be built and tested cheaply using our SP2 algorithm, the formal temporal properties of a large class of topoi can be proven very quickly, in time nearly linear in the number of nodes and edges in the diagram. There are two limitations to our approach. Firstly, topoi diagrams cannot express certain complex concepts such as iteration and sub-routine calls. Hence, our approach is more useful for requirements engineering than for traditional model checking domains. Secondly, out approach is better for exploring the temporal occurrence of properties than the temporal ordering of properties. Within these restrictions, we can express a useful range of concepts currently seen in requirements engineering, and a wide range of interesting temporal properties.

Methodology to build medical ontology from textual resources.

PubMed

Baneyx, Audrey; Charlet, Jean; Jaulent, Marie-Christine

2006-01-01

In the medical field, it is now established that the maintenance of unambiguous thesauri goes through ontologies. Our research task is to help pneumologists code acts and diagnoses with a software that represents medical knowledge through a domain ontology. In this paper, we describe our general methodology aimed at knowledge engineers in order to build various types of medical ontologies based on terminology extraction from texts. The hypothesis is to apply natural language processing tools to textual patient discharge summaries to develop the resources needed to build an ontology in pneumology. Results indicate that the joint use of distributional analysis and lexico-syntactic patterns performed satisfactorily for building such ontologies.

Social and Personal Factors in Semantic Infusion Projects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

West, P.; Fox, P. A.; McGuinness, D. L.

2009-12-01

As part of our semantic data framework activities across multiple, diverse disciplines we required the involvement of domain scientists, computer scientists, software engineers, data managers, and often, social scientists. This involvement from a cross-section of disciplines turns out to be a social exercise as much as it is a technical and methodical activity. Each member of the team is used to different modes of working, expectations, vocabularies, levels of participation, and incentive and reward systems. We will examine how both roles and personal responsibilities play in the development of semantic infusion projects, and how an iterative development cycle can contribute to the successful completion of such a project.

OHD/HL - Staff

Science.gov Websites

Laboratory Branches Hydrologic Software Engineering Branch (HSEB) Hydrologic Science and Modeling Branch (HSMB) General Info Publications Documentation Software Standard and Guidelines Contact Us HL Staff resources and services. Staff Directory Chief, Hydrology Laboratory; Chief, Hydrologic Software Engineering

A Scientific Software Product Line for the Bioinformatics domain.

PubMed

Costa, Gabriella Castro B; Braga, Regina; David, José Maria N; Campos, Fernanda

2015-08-01

Most specialized users (scientists) that use bioinformatics applications do not have suitable training on software development. Software Product Line (SPL) employs the concept of reuse considering that it is defined as a set of systems that are developed from a common set of base artifacts. In some contexts, such as in bioinformatics applications, it is advantageous to develop a collection of related software products, using SPL approach. If software products are similar enough, there is the possibility of predicting their commonalities, differences and then reuse these common features to support the development of new applications in the bioinformatics area. This paper presents the PL-Science approach which considers the context of SPL and ontology in order to assist scientists to define a scientific experiment, and to specify a workflow that encompasses bioinformatics applications of a given experiment. This paper also focuses on the use of ontologies to enable the use of Software Product Line in biological domains. In the context of this paper, Scientific Software Product Line (SSPL) differs from the Software Product Line due to the fact that SSPL uses an abstract scientific workflow model. This workflow is defined according to a scientific domain and using this abstract workflow model the products (scientific applications/algorithms) are instantiated. Through the use of ontology as a knowledge representation model, we can provide domain restrictions as well as add semantic aspects in order to facilitate the selection and organization of bioinformatics workflows in a Scientific Software Product Line. The use of ontologies enables not only the expression of formal restrictions but also the inferences on these restrictions, considering that a scientific domain needs a formal specification. This paper presents the development of the PL-Science approach, encompassing a methodology and an infrastructure, and also presents an approach evaluation. This evaluation presents case studies in bioinformatics, which were conducted in two renowned research institutions in Brazil. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

ETICS: the international software engineering service for the grid

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meglio, A. D.; Bégin, M.-E.; Couvares, P.; Ronchieri, E.; Takacs, E.

2008-07-01

The ETICS system is a distributed software configuration, build and test system designed to fulfil the needs of improving the quality, reliability and interoperability of distributed software in general and grid software in particular. The ETICS project is a consortium of five partners (CERN, INFN, Engineering Ingegneria Informatica, 4D Soft and the University of Wisconsin-Madison). The ETICS service consists of a build and test job execution system based on the Metronome software and an integrated set of web services and software engineering tools to design, maintain and control build and test scenarios. The ETICS system allows taking into account complex dependencies among applications and middleware components and provides a rich environment to perform static and dynamic analysis of the software and execute deployment, system and interoperability tests. This paper gives an overview of the system architecture and functionality set and then describes how the EC-funded EGEE, DILIGENT and OMII-Europe projects are using the software engineering services to build, validate and distribute their software. Finally a number of significant use and test cases will be described to show how ETICS can be used in particular to perform interoperability tests of grid middleware using the grid itself.

Testing Scientific Software: A Systematic Literature Review

PubMed Central

Kanewala, Upulee; Bieman, James M.

2014-01-01

Context Scientific software plays an important role in critical decision making, for example making weather predictions based on climate models, and computation of evidence for research publications. Recently, scientists have had to retract publications due to errors caused by software faults. Systematic testing can identify such faults in code. Objective This study aims to identify specific challenges, proposed solutions, and unsolved problems faced when testing scientific software. Method We conducted a systematic literature survey to identify and analyze relevant literature. We identified 62 studies that provided relevant information about testing scientific software. Results We found that challenges faced when testing scientific software fall into two main categories: (1) testing challenges that occur due to characteristics of scientific software such as oracle problems and (2) testing challenges that occur due to cultural differences between scientists and the software engineering community such as viewing the code and the model that it implements as inseparable entities. In addition, we identified methods to potentially overcome these challenges and their limitations. Finally we describe unsolved challenges and how software engineering researchers and practitioners can help to overcome them. Conclusions Scientific software presents special challenges for testing. Specifically, cultural differences between scientist developers and software engineers, along with the characteristics of the scientific software make testing more difficult. Existing techniques such as code clone detection can help to improve the testing process. Software engineers should consider special challenges posed by scientific software such as oracle problems when developing testing techniques. PMID:25125798

The application of domain-driven design in NMS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Jinsong; Chen, Yan; Qin, Shengjun

2011-12-01

In the traditional design approach of data-model-driven, system analysis and design phases are often separated which makes the demand information can not be expressed explicitly. The method is also easy to lead developer to the process-oriented programming, making codes between the modules or between hierarchies disordered. So it is hard to meet requirement of system scalability. The paper proposes a software hiberarchy based on rich domain model according to domain-driven design named FHRDM, then the Webwork + Spring + Hibernate (WSH) framework is determined. Domain-driven design aims to construct a domain model which not only meets the demand of the field where the software exists but also meets the need of software development. In this way, problems in Navigational Maritime System (NMS) development like big system business volumes, difficulty of requirement elicitation, high development costs and long development cycle can be resolved successfully.

Evolving the Reuse Process at the Flight Dynamics Division (FDD) Goddard Space Flight Center

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Condon, S.; Seaman, C.; Basili, Victor; Kraft, S.; Kontio, J.; Kim, Y.

1996-01-01

This paper presents the interim results from the Software Engineering Laboratory's (SEL) Reuse Study. The team conducting this study has, over the past few months, been studying the Generalized Support Software (GSS) domain asset library and architecture, and the various processes associated with it. In particular, we have characterized the process used to configure GSS-based attitude ground support systems (AGSS) to support satellite missions at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. To do this, we built detailed models of the tasks involved, the people who perform these tasks, and the interdependencies and information flows among these people. These models were based on information gleaned from numerous interviews with people involved in this process at various levels. We also analyzed effort data in order to determine the cost savings in moving from actual development of AGSSs to support each mission (which was necessary before GSS was available) to configuring AGSS software from the domain asset library. While characterizing the GSS process, we became aware of several interesting factors which affect the successful continued use of GSS. Many of these issues fall under the subject of evolving technologies, which were not available at the inception of GSS, but are now. Some of these technologies could be incorporated into the GSS process, thus making the whole asset library more usable. Other technologies are being considered as an alternative to the GSS process altogether. In this paper, we outline some of issues we will be considering in our continued study of GSS and the impact of evolving technologies.

Naming in a Programming Support Environment.

DTIC Science & Technology

1984-02-01

and Control, 1974. 10. T. E. Cheatham. An Overview of the Harvard Program Development System. I; Software Engineering Environments, H. Hunke, Ed.. North...Holland Publishing Compary, 1981, pp. 253-266. 11. T. E. Cheatham. Comparing Programming Support Environments. In Software Engineering Environments...Company. 1981. Third Edition 16. F. DeRemer and H Kron Programming -inthe Large Versus Programming -in-theSmall. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering

Data and Analysis Center for Software: An IAC in Transition.

DTIC Science & Technology

1983-06-01

reviewed and is approved for publication. * APPROVEDt Proj ect Engineer . JOHN J. MARCINIAK, Colonel, USAF Chief, Command and Control Division . FOR THE CO...SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES RADC Project Engineer : John Palaimo (COEE) It. KEY WORDS (Conilnuo n rever*e aide if necessary and identify by block numober...Software Engineering Software Technology Information Analysis Center Database Scientific and Technical Information 20. ABSTRACT (Continue on reverse side It

Interoperability in the e-Government Context

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-01-01

Mellon University for the operation of the Software Engineering Institute, a federally funded research and development center. Any opinions...Hanscom AFB, MA 01731-2125 NO WARRANTY THIS CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY AND SOFTWARE ENGINEERING INSTITUTE MATERIAL IS FURNISHED ON AN “AS-IS” BASIS... Software Engineering Institute at permission@sei.cmu.edu. * These restrictions do not apply to U.S. government entities. CMU/SEI-2011-TN-014 | i Table

A Unified Approach to Model-Based Planning and Execution

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Muscettola, Nicola; Dorais, Gregory A.; Fry, Chuck; Levinson, Richard; Plaunt, Christian; Norvig, Peter (Technical Monitor)

2000-01-01

Writing autonomous software is complex, requiring the coordination of functionally and technologically diverse software modules. System and mission engineers must rely on specialists familiar with the different software modules to translate requirements into application software. Also, each module often encodes the same requirement in different forms. The results are high costs and reduced reliability due to the difficulty of tracking discrepancies in these encodings. In this paper we describe a unified approach to planning and execution that we believe provides a unified representational and computational framework for an autonomous agent. We identify the four main components whose interplay provides the basis for the agent's autonomous behavior: the domain model, the plan database, the plan running module, and the planner modules. This representational and problem solving approach can be applied at all levels of the architecture of a complex agent, such as Remote Agent. In the rest of the paper we briefly describe the Remote Agent architecture. The new agent architecture proposed here aims at achieving the full Remote Agent functionality. We then give the fundamental ideas behind the new agent architecture and point out some implication of the structure of the architecture, mainly in the area of reactivity and interaction between reactive and deliberative decision making. We conclude with related work and current status.

Software Safety Risk in Legacy Safety-Critical Computer Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hill, Janice; Baggs, Rhoda

2007-01-01

Safety-critical computer systems must be engineered to meet system and software safety requirements. For legacy safety-critical computer systems, software safety requirements may not have been formally specified during development. When process-oriented software safety requirements are levied on a legacy system after the fact, where software development artifacts don't exist or are incomplete, the question becomes 'how can this be done?' The risks associated with only meeting certain software safety requirements in a legacy safety-critical computer system must be addressed should such systems be selected as candidates for reuse. This paper proposes a method for ascertaining formally, a software safety risk assessment, that provides measurements for software safety for legacy systems which may or may not have a suite of software engineering documentation that is now normally required. It relies upon the NASA Software Safety Standard, risk assessment methods based upon the Taxonomy-Based Questionnaire, and the application of reverse engineering CASE tools to produce original design documents for legacy systems.

Impact of Ada and object-oriented design in the flight dynamics division at Goddard Space Flight Center

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Waligora, Sharon; Bailey, John; Stark, Mike

1995-01-01

The Software Engineering Laboratory (SEL) is an organization sponsored by NASA/GSFC and created to investigate the effectiveness of software engineering technologies when applied to the development of applications software. The goals of the SEL are (1) to understand the software development process in the GSFC environment; (2) to measure the effects of various methodologies, tools, and models on this process; and (3) to identify and then to apply successful development practices. The activities, findings, and recommendations of the SEL are recorded in the Software Engineering Laboratory Series, a continuing series of reports that includes this document.

Software Engineering Research/Developer Collaborations in 2005

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pressburger, Tom

2006-01-01

In CY 2005, three collaborations between software engineering technology providers and NASA software development personnel deployed three software engineering technologies on NASA development projects (a different technology on each project). The main purposes were to benefit the projects, infuse the technologies if beneficial into NASA, and give feedback to the technology providers to improve the technologies. Each collaboration project produced a final report. Section 2 of this report summarizes each project, drawing from the final reports and communications with the software developers and technology providers. Section 3 indicates paths to further infusion of the technologies into NASA practice. Section 4 summarizes some technology transfer lessons learned. Also included is an acronym list.

Certified Binaries for Software Components

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-09-01

is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense. The Software Engineering Institute is a federally funded research and development center sponsored...by the U.S. Department of Defense. Copyright 2007 Carnegie Mellon University. NO WARRANTY THIS CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY AND SOFTWARE ENGINEERING

Collaborative environments for capability-based planning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McQuay, William K.

2005-05-01

Distributed collaboration is an emerging technology for the 21st century that will significantly change how business is conducted in the defense and commercial sectors. Collaboration involves two or more geographically dispersed entities working together to create a "product" by sharing and exchanging data, information, and knowledge. A product is defined broadly to include, for example, writing a report, creating software, designing hardware, or implementing robust systems engineering and capability planning processes in an organization. Collaborative environments provide the framework and integrate models, simulations, domain specific tools, and virtual test beds to facilitate collaboration between the multiple disciplines needed in the enterprise. The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is conducting a leading edge program in developing distributed collaborative technologies targeted to the Air Force's implementation of systems engineering for a simulation-aided acquisition and capability-based planning. The research is focusing on the open systems agent-based framework, product and process modeling, structural architecture, and the integration technologies - the glue to integrate the software components. In past four years, two live assessment events have been conducted to demonstrate the technology in support of research for the Air Force Agile Acquisition initiatives. The AFRL Collaborative Environment concept will foster a major cultural change in how the acquisition, training, and operational communities conduct business.

An information model for use in software management estimation and prediction

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Li, Ningda R.; Zelkowitz, Marvin V.

1993-01-01

This paper describes the use of cluster analysis for determining the information model within collected software engineering development data at the NASA/GSFC Software Engineering Laboratory. We describe the Software Management Environment tool that allows managers to predict development attributes during early phases of a software project and the modifications we propose to allow it to develop dynamic models for better predictions of these attributes.

CrossTalk: The Journal of Defense Software Engineering. Volume 18, Number 9

DTIC Science & Technology

2005-09-01

2004. 12. Humphrey , Watts . Introduction to the Personal Software Process SM. Addison- Wesley 1997. 13. Humphrey , Watts . Introduction to the Team...Personal Software ProcessSM (PSPSM)is a software development process orig- inated by Watts Humphrey at the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) in the...meets its commitments and bring a sense of control and predictability into an apparently chaotic project.u References 1. Humphrey , Watts . Coaching

Sandia National Laboratories Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASC) software quality plan : ASC software quality engineering practices Version 3.0.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Turgeon, Jennifer L.; Minana, Molly A.; Hackney, Patricia

2009-01-01

The purpose of the Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASC) Software Quality Plan is to clearly identify the practices that are the basis for continually improving the quality of ASC software products. Quality is defined in the US Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Agency (DOE/NNSA) Quality Criteria, Revision 10 (QC-1) as 'conformance to customer requirements and expectations'. This quality plan defines the SNL ASC Program software quality engineering (SQE) practices and provides a mapping of these practices to the SNL Corporate Process Requirement (CPR) 001.3.6; 'Corporate Software Engineering Excellence'. This plan also identifies ASC management's and themore » software project teams responsibilities in implementing the software quality practices and in assessing progress towards achieving their software quality goals. This SNL ASC Software Quality Plan establishes the signatories commitments to improving software products by applying cost-effective SQE practices. This plan enumerates the SQE practices that comprise the development of SNL ASC's software products and explains the project teams opportunities for tailoring and implementing the practices.« less

Using UML Modeling to Facilitate Three-Tier Architecture Projects in Software Engineering Courses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mitra, Sandeep

2014-01-01

This article presents the use of a model-centric approach to facilitate software development projects conforming to the three-tier architecture in undergraduate software engineering courses. Many instructors intend that such projects create software applications for use by real-world customers. While it is important that the first version of these…

Survey on Intelligent Assistance for Workplace Learning in Software Engineering

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ras, Eric; Rech, Jörg

Technology-enhanced learning (TEL) systems and intelligent assistance systems aim at supporting software engineers during learning and work. A questionnaire-based survey with 89 responses from industry was conducted to find out what kinds of services should be provided and how, as well as to determine which software engineering phases they should focus on. In this paper, we present the survey results regarding intelligent assistance for workplace learning in software engineering. We analyzed whether specific types of assistance depend on the organization's size, the respondent's role, and the experience level. The results show a demand for TEL that supports short-term problem solving and long-term competence development at the workplace.

Resilience Engineering in Critical Long Term Aerospace Software Systems: A New Approach to Spacecraft Software Safety

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dulo, D. A.

Safety critical software systems permeate spacecraft, and in a long term venture like a starship would be pervasive in every system of the spacecraft. Yet software failure today continues to plague both the systems and the organizations that develop them resulting in the loss of life, time, money, and valuable system platforms. A starship cannot afford this type of software failure in long journeys away from home. A single software failure could have catastrophic results for the spaceship and the crew onboard. This paper will offer a new approach to developing safe reliable software systems through focusing not on the traditional safety/reliability engineering paradigms but rather by focusing on a new paradigm: Resilience and Failure Obviation Engineering. The foremost objective of this approach is the obviation of failure, coupled with the ability of a software system to prevent or adapt to complex changing conditions in real time as a safety valve should failure occur to ensure safe system continuity. Through this approach, safety is ensured through foresight to anticipate failure and to adapt to risk in real time before failure occurs. In a starship, this type of software engineering is vital. Through software developed in a resilient manner, a starship would have reduced or eliminated software failure, and would have the ability to rapidly adapt should a software system become unstable or unsafe. As a result, long term software safety, reliability, and resilience would be present for a successful long term starship mission.

Building information models for astronomy projects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ariño, Javier; Murga, Gaizka; Campo, Ramón; Eletxigerra, Iñigo; Ampuero, Pedro

2012-09-01

A Building Information Model is a digital representation of physical and functional characteristics of a building. BIMs represent the geometrical characteristics of the Building, but also properties like bills of quantities, definition of COTS components, status of material in the different stages of the project, project economic data, etc. The BIM methodology, which is well established in the Architecture Engineering and Construction (AEC) domain for conventional buildings, has been brought one step forward in its application for Astronomical/Scientific facilities. In these facilities steel/concrete structures have high dynamic and seismic requirements, M&E installations are complex and there is a large amount of special equipment and mechanisms involved as a fundamental part of the facility. The detail design definition is typically implemented by different design teams in specialized design software packages. In order to allow the coordinated work of different engineering teams, the overall model, and its associated engineering database, is progressively integrated using a coordination and roaming software which can be used before starting construction phase for checking interferences, planning the construction sequence, studying maintenance operation, reporting to the project office, etc. This integrated design & construction approach will allow to efficiently plan construction sequence (4D). This is a powerful tool to study and analyze in detail alternative construction sequences and ideally coordinate the work of different construction teams. In addition engineering, construction and operational database can be linked to the virtual model (6D), what gives to the end users a invaluable tool for the lifecycle management, as all the facility information can be easily accessed, added or replaced. This paper presents the BIM methodology as implemented by IDOM with the E-ELT and ATST Enclosures as application examples.

Complexity Measure for the Prototype System Description Language (PSDL)

DTIC Science & Technology

2002-06-01

Albrecht, A. and Gaffney , J., Software Function Source Lines of Code and Development Effort Prediction, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering...Through Meausrement”; Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 77, No. 4, April 89. Schach, Stephen, R., Software Engineering, Second Edition, IRWIN, Burr Ridge

The Hidden Job Requirements for a Software Engineer

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Marinovici, Maria C.; Kirkham, Harold; Glass, Kevin A.

In a world increasingly operated by computers, where innovation depends on software, the software engineer’s role is changing continuously and gaining new dimensions. In commercial software development as well as scientific research environments, the way software developers are perceived is changing, because they are more important to the business than ever before. Nowadays, their job requires skills extending beyond the regular job description posted by HR, and more is expected. To advance and thrive in their new roles, the software engineers must embrace change, and practice the themes of the new era (integration, collaboration and optimization). The challenges may bemore » somehow intimidating for freshly graduated software engineers. Through this paper the authors hope to set them on a path for success, by helping them relinquish their fear of the unknown.« less

Further development of the dynamic gas temperature measurement system. Volume 2: Computer program user's manual

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stocks, Dana R.

1986-01-01

The Dynamic Gas Temperature Measurement System compensation software accepts digitized data from two different diameter thermocouples and computes a compensated frequency response spectrum for one of the thermocouples. Detailed discussions of the physical system, analytical model, and computer software are presented in this volume and in Volume 1 of this report under Task 3. Computer program software restrictions and test cases are also presented. Compensated and uncompensated data may be presented in either the time or frequency domain. Time domain data are presented as instantaneous temperature vs time. Frequency domain data may be presented in several forms such as power spectral density vs frequency.

End-to-end observatory software modeling using domain specific languages

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Filgueira, José M.; Bec, Matthieu; Liu, Ning; Peng, Chien; Soto, José

2014-07-01

The Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) is a 25-meter extremely large telescope that is being built by an international consortium of universities and research institutions. Its software and control system is being developed using a set of Domain Specific Languages (DSL) that supports a model driven development methodology integrated with an Agile management process. This approach promotes the use of standardized models that capture the component architecture of the system, that facilitate the construction of technical specifications in a uniform way, that facilitate communication between developers and domain experts and that provide a framework to ensure the successful integration of the software subsystems developed by the GMT partner institutions.

In-Plant Technical Assistance for Software

DTIC Science & Technology

1986-09-29

engineer who has had a few programming courses (or send him to a few), and then he will be your software engineer." ( Pressman , 1982.)* Generally, It...1984. Program Office/AFCMD Interface. AFSCR 800-42, November 1982. Pressman , Roger S., Software Engineering. McGraw-Hill, New York, 1982. Dennis...B.M.C., Norton AFB Darrah Whitlock QA Specialist, Plans & Eval. Branch Rockwell-Anaheim AFPRO Lt. Col. Barry Prins HQ/AFCMD Kirtland AFB Stan

Warfighting Concepts to Future Weapon System Designs (WARCON)

DTIC Science & Technology

2003-09-12

34* Software design documents rise to litigation. "* A Material List "Cost information that may support, or may * Final Engineering Process Maps be...document may include design the system as derived from the engineering design, software development, SRD. MTS Technologies, Inc. 26 FOR OFFICIAL USE...document, early in the development phase. It is software engineers produce the vision of important to establish a standard, formal the design effort. As

Knowledge-based engineering of a PLC controlled telescope

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pessemier, Wim; Raskin, Gert; Saey, Philippe; Van Winckel, Hans; Deconinck, Geert

2016-08-01

As the new control system of the Mercator Telescope is being finalized, we can review some technologies and design methodologies that are advantageous, despite their relative uncommonness in astronomical instrumentation. Particular for the Mercator Telescope is that it is controlled by a single high-end soft-PLC (Programmable Logic Controller). Using off-the-shelf components only, our distributed embedded system controls all subsystems of the telescope such as the pneumatic primary mirror support, the hydrostatic bearing, the telescope axes, the dome, the safety system, and so on. We show how real-time application logic can be written conveniently in typical PLC languages (IEC 61131-3) and in C++ (to implement the pointing kernel) using the commercial TwinCAT 3 programming environment. This software processes the inputs and outputs of the distributed system in real-time via an observatory-wide EtherCAT network, which is synchronized with high precision to an IEEE 1588 (PTP, Precision Time Protocol) time reference clock. Taking full advantage of the ability of soft-PLCs to run both real-time and non real-time software, the same device also hosts the most important user interfaces (HMIs or Human Machine Interfaces) and communication servers (OPC UA for process data, FTP for XML configuration data, and VNC for remote control). To manage the complexity of the system and to streamline the development process, we show how most of the software, electronics and systems engineering aspects of the control system have been modeled as a set of scripts written in a Domain Specific Language (DSL). When executed, these scripts populate a Knowledge Base (KB) which can be queried to retrieve specific information. By feeding the results of those queries to a template system, we were able to generate very detailed "browsable" web-based documentation about the system, but also PLC software code, Python client code, model verification reports, etc. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the added value that technologies such as soft-PLCs and DSL-scripts and design methodologies such as knowledge-based engineering can bring to astronomical instrumentation.

Building Safer Systems With SpecTRM

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2003-01-01

System safety, an integral component in software development, often poses a challenge to engineers designing computer-based systems. While the relaxed constraints on software design allow for increased power and flexibility, this flexibility introduces more possibilities for error. As a result, system engineers must identify the design constraints necessary to maintain safety and ensure that the system and software design enforces them. Safeware Engineering Corporation, of Seattle, Washington, provides the information, tools, and techniques to accomplish this task with its Specification Tools and Requirements Methodology (SpecTRM). NASA assisted in developing this engineering toolset by awarding the company several Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contracts with Ames Research Center and Langley Research Center. The technology benefits NASA through its applications for Space Station rendezvous and docking. SpecTRM aids system and software engineers in developing specifications for large, complex safety critical systems. The product enables engineers to find errors early in development so that they can be fixed with the lowest cost and impact on the system design. SpecTRM traces both the requirements and design rationale (including safety constraints) throughout the system design and documentation, allowing engineers to build required system properties into the design from the beginning, rather than emphasizing assessment at the end of the development process when changes are limited and costly.System safety, an integral component in software development, often poses a challenge to engineers designing computer-based systems. While the relaxed constraints on software design allow for increased power and flexibility, this flexibility introduces more possibilities for error. As a result, system engineers must identify the design constraints necessary to maintain safety and ensure that the system and software design enforces them. Safeware Engineering Corporation, of Seattle, Washington, provides the information, tools, and techniques to accomplish this task with its Specification Tools and Requirements Methodology (SpecTRM). NASA assisted in developing this engineering toolset by awarding the company several Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contracts with Ames Research Center and Langley Research Center. The technology benefits NASA through its applications for Space Station rendezvous and docking. SpecTRM aids system and software engineers in developing specifications for large, complex safety critical systems. The product enables engineers to find errors early in development so that they can be fixed with the lowest cost and impact on the system design. SpecTRM traces both the requirements and design rationale (including safety constraints) throughout the system design and documentation, allowing engineers to build required system properties into the design from the beginning, rather than emphasizing assessment at the end of the development process when changes are limited and costly.

The Use of the Software MATLAB To Improve Chemical Engineering Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Damatto, T.; Maegava, L. M.; Filho, R. Maciel

In all the Brazilian Universities involved with the project "Prodenge-Reenge", the main objective is to improve teaching and learning procedures for the engineering disciplines. The Chemical Engineering College of Campinas State University focused its effort on the use of engineering softwares. The work developed by this project has…

Caltrans WeatherShare Phase II System: An Application of Systems and Software Engineering Process to Project Development

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2009-08-25

In cooperation with the California Department of Transportation, Montana State University's Western Transportation Institute has developed the WeatherShare Phase II system by applying Systems Engineering and Software Engineering processes. The system...

Using the domain identification model to study major and career decision-making processes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tendhar, Chosang; Singh, Kusum; Jones, Brett D.

2018-03-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which (1) a domain identification model could be used to predict students' engineering major and career intentions and (2) the MUSIC Model of Motivation components could be used to predict domain identification. The data for this study were collected from first-year engineering students. We used a structural equation model to test the hypothesised relationship between variables in the partial domain identification model. The findings suggested that engineering identification significantly predicted engineering major intentions and career intentions and had the highest effect on those two variables compared to other motivational constructs. Furthermore, results suggested that success, interest, and caring are plausible contributors to students' engineering identification. Overall, there is strong evidence that the domain identification model can be used as a lens to study career decision-making processes in engineering, and potentially, in other fields as well.

Type Safe Extensible Programming

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chae, Wonseok

2009-10-01

Software products evolve over time. Sometimes they evolve by adding new features, and sometimes by either fixing bugs or replacing outdated implementations with new ones. When software engineers fail to anticipate such evolution during development, they will eventually be forced to re-architect or re-build from scratch. Therefore, it has been common practice to prepare for changes so that software products are extensible over their lifetimes. However, making software extensible is challenging because it is difficult to anticipate successive changes and to provide adequate abstraction mechanisms over potential changes. Such extensibility mechanisms, furthermore, should not compromise any existing functionality during extension. Software engineers would benefit from a tool that provides a way to add extensions in a reliable way. It is natural to expect programming languages to serve this role. Extensible programming is one effort to address these issues. In this thesis, we present type safe extensible programming using the MLPolyR language. MLPolyR is an ML-like functional language whose type system provides type-safe extensibility mechanisms at several levels. After presenting the language, we will show how these extensibility mechanisms can be put to good use in the context of product line engineering. Product line engineering is an emerging software engineering paradigm that aims to manage variations, which originate from successive changes in software.

A Knowledge-Based and Model-Driven Requirements Engineering Approach to Conceptual Satellite Design

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dos Santos, Walter A.; Leonor, Bruno B. F.; Stephany, Stephan

Satellite systems are becoming even more complex, making technical issues a significant cost driver. The increasing complexity of these systems makes requirements engineering activities both more important and difficult. Additionally, today's competitive pressures and other market forces drive manufacturing companies to improve the efficiency with which they design and manufacture space products and systems. This imposes a heavy burden on systems-of-systems engineering skills and particularly on requirements engineering which is an important phase in a system's life cycle. When this is poorly performed, various problems may occur, such as failures, cost overruns and delays. One solution is to underpin the preliminary conceptual satellite design with computer-based information reuse and integration to deal with the interdisciplinary nature of this problem domain. This can be attained by taking a model-driven engineering approach (MDE), in which models are the main artifacts during system development. MDE is an emergent approach that tries to address system complexity by the intense use of models. This work outlines the use of SysML (Systems Modeling Language) and a novel knowledge-based software tool, named SatBudgets, to deal with these and other challenges confronted during the conceptual phase of a university satellite system, called ITASAT, currently being developed by INPE and some Brazilian universities.

Collected software engineering papers, volume 8

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1990-01-01

A collection of selected technical papers produced by participants in the Software Engineering Laboratory (SEL) during the period November 1989 through October 1990 is presented. The purpose of the document is to make available, in one reference, some results of SEL research that originally appeared in a number of different forums. Although these papers cover several topics related to software engineering, they do not encompass the entire scope of SEL activities and interests. Additional information about the SEL and its research efforts may be obtained from the sources listed in the bibliography. The seven presented papers are grouped into four major categories: (1) experimental research and evaluation of software measurement; (2) studies on models for software reuse; (3) a software tool evaluation; and (4) Ada technology and studies in the areas of reuse and specification.

Experimental software engineering: Seventeen years of lessons in the SEL

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mcgarry, Frank E.

1992-01-01

Seven key principles developed by the Software Engineering Laboratory (SEL) at the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) are described. For the past 17 years, the SEL has been experimentally analyzing the development of production software as varying techniques and methodologies are applied in this one environment. The SEL has collected, archived, and studied detailed measures from more than 100 flight dynamics projects, thereby gaining significant insight into the effectiveness of numerous software techniques, as well as extensive experience in the overall effectiveness of 'Experimental Software Engineering'. This experience has helped formulate follow-on studies in the SEL, and it has helped other software organizations better understand just what can be accomplished and what cannot be accomplished through experimentation.

Semantic Service Matchmaking in the ATM Domain Considering Infrastructure Capability Constraints

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moser, Thomas; Mordinyi, Richard; Sunindyo, Wikan Danar; Biffl, Stefan

In a service-oriented environment business processes flexibly build on software services provided by systems in a network. A key design challenge is the semantic matchmaking of business processes and software services in two steps: 1. Find for one business process the software services that meet or exceed the BP requirements; 2. Find for all business processes the software services that can be implemented within the capability constraints of the underlying network, which poses a major problem since even for small scenarios the solution space is typically very large. In this chapter we analyze requirements from mission-critical business processes in the Air Traffic Management (ATM) domain and introduce an approach for semi-automatic semantic matchmaking for software services, the “System-Wide Information Sharing” (SWIS) business process integration framework. A tool-supported semantic matchmaking process like SWIS can provide system designers and integrators with a set of promising software service candidates and therefore strongly reduces the human matching effort by focusing on a much smaller space of matchmaking candidates. We evaluate the feasibility of the SWIS approach in an industry use case from the ATM domain.

Virtual reality as a new trend in mechanical and electrical engineering education

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kamińska, Dorota; Sapiński, Tomasz; Aitken, Nicola; Rocca, Andreas Della; Barańska, Maja; Wietsma, Remco

2017-12-01

In their daily practice, academics frequently face lack of access to modern equipment and devices, which are currently in use on the market. Moreover, many students have problems with understanding issues connected to mechanical and electrical engineering due to the complexity, necessity of abstract thinking and the fact that those concepts are not fully tangible. Many studies indicate that virtual reality can be successfully used as a training tool in various domains, such as development, health-care, the military or school education. In this paper, an interactive training strategy for mechanical and electrical engineering education shall be proposed. The prototype of the software consists of a simple interface, meaning it is easy for comprehension and use. Additionally, the main part of the prototype allows the user to virtually manipulate a 3D object that should be analyzed and studied. Initial studies indicate that the use of virtual reality can contribute to improving the quality and efficiency of higher education, as well as qualifications, competencies and the skills of graduates, and increase their competitiveness in the labour market.

Understanding Innovation Engines: Automated Creativity and Improved Stochastic Optimization via Deep Learning.

PubMed

Nguyen, A; Yosinski, J; Clune, J

2016-01-01

The Achilles Heel of stochastic optimization algorithms is getting trapped on local optima. Novelty Search mitigates this problem by encouraging exploration in all interesting directions by replacing the performance objective with a reward for novel behaviors. This reward for novel behaviors has traditionally required a human-crafted, behavioral distance function. While Novelty Search is a major conceptual breakthrough and outperforms traditional stochastic optimization on certain problems, it is not clear how to apply it to challenging, high-dimensional problems where specifying a useful behavioral distance function is difficult. For example, in the space of images, how do you encourage novelty to produce hawks and heroes instead of endless pixel static? Here we propose a new algorithm, the Innovation Engine, that builds on Novelty Search by replacing the human-crafted behavioral distance with a Deep Neural Network (DNN) that can recognize interesting differences between phenotypes. The key insight is that DNNs can recognize similarities and differences between phenotypes at an abstract level, wherein novelty means interesting novelty. For example, a DNN-based novelty search in the image space does not explore in the low-level pixel space, but instead creates a pressure to create new types of images (e.g., churches, mosques, obelisks, etc.). Here, we describe the long-term vision for the Innovation Engine algorithm, which involves many technical challenges that remain to be solved. We then implement a simplified version of the algorithm that enables us to explore some of the algorithm's key motivations. Our initial results, in the domain of images, suggest that Innovation Engines could ultimately automate the production of endless streams of interesting solutions in any domain: for example, producing intelligent software, robot controllers, optimized physical components, and art.

Publishing Platform for Scientific Software - Lessons Learned

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hammitzsch, Martin; Fritzsch, Bernadette; Reusser, Dominik; Brembs, Björn; Deinzer, Gernot; Loewe, Peter; Fenner, Martin; van Edig, Xenia; Bertelmann, Roland; Pampel, Heinz; Klump, Jens; Wächter, Joachim

2015-04-01

Scientific software has become an indispensable commodity for the production, processing and analysis of empirical data but also for modelling and simulation of complex processes. Software has a significant influence on the quality of research results. For strengthening the recognition of the academic performance of scientific software development, for increasing its visibility and for promoting the reproducibility of research results, concepts for the publication of scientific software have to be developed, tested, evaluated, and then transferred into operations. For this, the publication and citability of scientific software have to fulfil scientific criteria by means of defined processes and the use of persistent identifiers, similar to data publications. The SciForge project is addressing these challenges. Based on interviews a blueprint for a scientific software publishing platform and a systematic implementation plan has been designed. In addition, the potential of journals, software repositories and persistent identifiers have been evaluated to improve the publication and dissemination of reusable software solutions. It is important that procedures for publishing software as well as methods and tools for software engineering are reflected in the architecture of the platform, in order to improve the quality of the software and the results of research. In addition, it is necessary to work continuously on improving specific conditions that promote the adoption and sustainable utilization of scientific software publications. Among others, this would include policies for the development and publication of scientific software in the institutions but also policies for establishing the necessary competencies and skills of scientists and IT personnel. To implement the concepts developed in SciForge a combined bottom-up / top-down approach is considered that will be implemented in parallel in different scientific domains, e.g. in earth sciences, climate research and the life sciences. Based on the developed blueprints a scientific software publishing platform will be iteratively implemented, tested, and evaluated. Thus the platform should be developed continuously on the basis of gained experiences and results. The platform services will be extended one by one corresponding to the requirements of the communities. Thus the implemented platform for the publication of scientific software can be improved and stabilized incrementally as a tool with software, science, publishing, and user oriented features.

Ada Software Engineering Education and Training Requirements Within the U.S. Army

DTIC Science & Technology

1988-12-01

Services and DoD. DoD Directive 3405.1 requires the use of Ada in all applications and DoD Directive 3405.2 establishes the policy of using Ada in...covers DoD structure and procedures, Army policies , and all aspects of software engineering theory, systems engineering, and software development and...acquisition policy , concept development, workload requirements, contracting, and maintenance. The second course covers many of the same areas

Commonality and Variability Analysis for Xenon Family of Separation Virtual Machine Monitors (CVAX)

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-07-18

technical approach is a systematic application of Software Product Line Engineering (SPLE). A systematic application requires describing the family and... engineering Software family September 2016 – October 2016 OSD/OUSD/ATL/ASD(R&E)/RDOffice of Information Systems & Cyber Security RD / ASD(R&E) / AT&L...by the evolving open-source Xen hypervisor. The technical approach is a systematic application of Software Product Line Engineering (SPLE). A