Software Engineering Applications Research Articles

The Computational Research and Engineering Acquisition Tools and Environments (CREATE) Program

Physics-based high-performance computing (HPC) engineering software applications are proving to highly effective for the development of complex innovative products such as automobiles, airplanes, and microprocessors. Over the next year and a half, CiSE will feature three issues describing the US Department of Defense (DoD) High Performance Computing Modernization Program (HPCMP) Computational Research and Engineering Acquisition Tools and Environments (CREATE) program. CREATE was launched in 2006 to develop and deploy a set of multiphysics HPC software applications to help the DoD acquisition community (government and industry) develop innovative military air vehicle, naval vessel, and radio frequency antenna systems.

CREATE: Software Engineering Applications for the Design and Analysis of Air Vehicles, Naval Vessels, and Radio Frequency Antennas

Today, rapid product innovation is essential to remain competitive. To help spur innovation in the acquisition of major defense systems and reduce their cost, time, and risks, the US Department of Defense launched the Computational Research and Engineering Acquisition Tools and Environments (CREATE) program in 2006 to develop and deploy physics-based, high-performance computing software applications for the design and analysis of military aircraft, ships, and radio frequency antenna systems (and more recently, ground vehicles) through the construction and analysis of virtual prototypes. Code development began in 2008, and eight years later, CREATE is already beginning to accomplish these goals.

Type-Based Call Graph Construction Algorithms for Scala

Call graphs have many applications in software engineering. For example, they serve as the basis for code navigation features in integrated development environments and are at the foundation of static analyses performed in verification tools. While many call graph construction algorithms have been presented in the literature, we are not aware of any that handle Scala features such as traits and abstract type members. Applying existing algorithms to the JVM bytecodes generated by the Scala compiler produces very imprecise results because type information is lost during compilation. We adapt existing type-based call graph construction algorithms to Scala and present a formalization based on Featherweight Scala. An experimental evaluation shows that our most precise algorithm generates call graphs with 1.1--3.7 times fewer nodes and 1.5--17.3 times fewer edges than a bytecode-based RTA analysis.

Software Ecosystems for the Life Sciences Application Domains

Software ecosystems (SECOs) are gaining importance in and have been applied to different application domains. In this paper we focus on the needs for SECOs for the life science application domains. Similar to other domains the life science application domains also witnesses the emergence and application of an increased application of software engineering. An important trigger for this is the need for an increased need of smart and interconnected systems which is primarily realized through software. In this context, we can observe the need and benefits of the adoption of software ecosystems for the life sciences application domains such as smart logistics, farming technology, smart agro-food production, environmental services, and geoinformation systems. This paper provides a discussion on the state-of-the-practice of SECOs in the life sciences applications domains and identifies selected key problems.

Fast

Tree automata and transducers are used in a wide range of applications in software engineering. While these formalisms are of immense practical use, they can only model finite alphabets. To overcome this problem we augment tree automata and transducers with symbolic alphabets represented as parametric theories. Admitting infinite alphabets makes these models more general and succinct than their classic counterparts. Despite this, we show how the main operations, such as composition and language equivalence, remain computable given a decision procedure for the alphabet theory. We introduce a high-level language called F ast that acts as a front-end for the preceding formalisms.

Blending an Android development course with software engineering concepts

The tremendous popularity of mobile computing and Android in particular has attracted millions of developers who see opportunities for building their own start-ups. As a consequence Computer Science students express an increasing interest into the related technology of Java development for Android applications. Android projects are complex by nature and relatively large software products while their development calls for the application of established software engineering practices and tools. However, most software engineering courses focus on `conventional' software development for desktop or web applications. In this paper we report on the design, implementation and assessment of a novel short course aiming at bridging the gap between software engineering and Android development. The goal is to demonstrate the need for applying software engineering principles on Android development as well as to emphasize that writing software for mobile devices should be regarded as an equally serious programming activity. The proposed course covers design principles, patterns, metrics, refactorings and collaborative software development. The course has been delivered to three groups of undergraduate and postgraduate students at two different institutes. The course has been evaluated: a) by performing a student satisfaction survey, b) through summative assessment of students' performance, c) by investigating whether the proposed course modified the students' career interests and d) by employing assessment by peers based on rubrics. The results indicate that such a short course is capable of increasing student's interest on Android development as well as their awareness of the importance of software engineering concepts on mobile application software development.

Thermal-Structural Analysis for the Optimization of a Low Beam Projector Headlight Design

This paper is to demonstrate the application of modern Engineering Software to improve and advance the mechanical desig processes of a low beam projector headlight. Nowadays, advanced finite element tools are able to run and coupled different physics modules to analyze complex geometries and their material combinations. The particular issue in this study is the light switching mechanism in a headlight structure design. During lighting, the jam of the low beam projector solenoid actuated pivot due to thermal expansions has been distressing the normal operation of the overall headlight structure. A comparison between the original and a new convection enhanced head lamp design is therefore scrutinized. For both cases, heat transfer analysis, where it was included natural convection, conduction, and radiation with a concentrated heat source are proposed in order to obtain the temperature distribution fields at the light switching mechanism. The results were used to run future structural stresses analyses where the average thermal expansion of the crankshaft mechanism was determined.

On Incomplete Bug Fixes in Eclipse and Programmers' Intuition on These

Recent studies indicate that multiple patches to software are found in a hefty portion of resolved bugs. It is also known that bugs that require multiple patches take longer to resolve, that their severity tends to be higher than the average and that they induce programmers to engage more in bug discussions. This work is concerned with the ability of programmers to predict a bug will be of this sort, and in particular that it may require future patches and greater refixing effort at the time the bug is fixed at the first time. A mathematical model is developed for a retrospective analysis of bugs maintenance history. In this model we compute the impact of an array of bug properties on the likelihood that a specific bug is chosen, among all open bugs, to receive its first fix. The studies we conduct on a sizable portion of the history of the Eclipse code base indicate that programmers tend to attend first to bugs which are easier to fix. The results further suggest that some of the criteria that programmers apply (probably unknowingly) to determine whether a bug is easy to fix, is the number of future patches it would require, and the amount of work involved in these patches. This is despite the fact that this information is not supposed to be available to the programmers at the time the first fix is made. It is anticipated that the method of analysis introduced in this work would have other applications in software engineering, but also outside of computer science.

Agile Development of an Attitude-Behaviour Driven Simulation of Alcohol Consumption Dynamics

Whilst there have been several advocates for the application of software engineering (SE) methodologies in the development of agent-based models and simulations in the social sciences, the uptake of these techniques in the research community has been limited – or if authors are using such techniques, their use is underreported. Software engineering provides structured processes and techniques for designing, documenting, implementing and testing computer software. Software processes have many variations, each with their own unique advantages and disadvantages depending on the constraints (such as: human resources, time, finance, quality) facing a project team. This paper sets out the methods of Scrum agile software development, and discusses the experience of using Scrum to organise workflow and guide the development of an agent-based model of alcohol consumption. By employing Scrum in conjunction with another software engineering method, the Unified Modelling Language, this paper represents a case study in SE methods applied to a real world research problem.

Simulation Design: Trans-Paradigm Best-Practice from Software Engineering

There are growing initiatives to apply software engineering (SE) best-practice to computational science, which includes simulation. One area where the simulation literature appears to be particularly light is in the overall structural design of simulations, and what architectures and features are valuable for what reasons. (Part of the problem is that parts of this knowledge are abstracted away in simulation toolkits which are often not easily comparable, and have different conceptual aims.) To address this, I outline three key software properties which embody SE best-practices, and then define an 'idealised' software architecture for simulation—what SE would call a reference architecture—which strongly exhibits them. I show that this is universal to all simulations (largely because modelling-paradigm-specific detail is encapsulated into a 'single black box' layer of functionality) but that simulation toolkits tend to differ in how they map to them; this relates to the aims of the toolkits, which I provide a useful categorisation of. I show that, interestingly, there are several core features of this architecture that are not fully represented in any simulation toolkit that I am aware of. I present a library—JSIT—which provides some proof-of-concept implementations of them for Java-based toolkits. This library, and other ideas in the reference architecture, are put into practice on a published, multi-paradigm model of health and social care which uses the AnyLogic toolkit. I conclude with some thoughts on why this area receives so little focus, how to take it forwards, and some of the related cultural issues.

A Survey on Large Scale Corpora and Emotion Corpora

In this paper we present a survey on natural language corpora, with particular focus on corpora of large scale and those applicable to sentiment analysis. Natural language corpora are crucial for training various Software Engineering applications, from part-of-speech taggers and dependency parsers to dialog systems or sentiment analysis software. We compare several natural language corpora created for different languages, analyze their distinctive features and the amount of additional annotations provided by the developers of those corpora.

NODE MIXING AND GROUP STRUCTURE OF COMPLEX SOFTWARE NETWORKS

Large software projects are among most sophisticated human-made systems consisting of a network of interdependent parts. Past studies of software systems from the perspective of complex networks have already led to notable discoveries with different applications. Nevertheless, our comprehension of the structure of software networks remains to be only partial. Here we investigate correlations or mixing between linked nodes and show that software networks reveal dichotomous node degree mixing similar to that recently observed in biological networks. We further show that software networks also reveal characteristic clustering profiles and mixing. Hence, node mixing in software networks significantly differs from that in, e.g., the Internet or social networks. We explain the observed mixing through the presence of groups of nodes with common linking pattern. More precisely, besides densely linked groups known as communities, software networks also consist of disconnected groups denoted modules, core/periphery structures and other. Moreover, groups coincide with the intrinsic properties of the underlying software projects, which promotes practical applications in software engineering.

Software Engineering Challenges in Multi Platform Mobile Application Development

Mobile application development for smart phones has been increasing in last years as mobile phones have become an essential part of our contemporary life. As with any new phenomena, mobile application development has its own set of challenges, which attracted interested researchers in this new field. Nowadays, mobile applications become more complex, moving beyond inexpensive entertaining applications to more business critical uses, thus, it becomes essential to apply software engineering process to assure the development of secure, high-quality mobile applications. This paper highlights important issues in mobile application development using native development kits and cross-platform frameworks; it also discusses challenges in the software engineering activities for mobile applications development.

Effect of the Application of the CBD Output Management Technique for the Development of Operation Software for a Space Observation System

The application of software engineering is not common in the development of astronomical observation system. While there were component-wise developments in the past, large-scale comprehensive system developments are more common in these days. In this study, current methodologies of development are reviewed to select a proper one for the development of astronomical observation system and the result of the application is presented. As the subject of this study, a project of operation software development for an astronomical observation system which runs on the ground is selected. And the output management technique based on Component Based Development which is one of the relatively recent methodologies has been applied. Since the nature of the system requires lots of arithmetic algorithms and it has great impact on the overall performance of the entire system, a prototype model is developed to verify major functions and performance. Consequently, it was possible to verify the compliance with the product requirements through the requirement tracing table and also it was possible to keep to the schedule. Besides, it was suggested that a few improvements could be possible based on the experience of the application of conventional output management technique. This study is the first application of the software development methodology in the domestic astronomical observation system area. The process and results of this study would contribute to the investigation for a more appropriate methodology in the area of similar system development.

The Encapsulation of Finite Element Analysis Process about Bogie’s Side Frame Based on EASA

Taking into account the problem of plenty repeated works during the operation of engineering application software, the integrated solution of engineering application software based on EASA (the encapsulate tools of software) was proposed for improving the analysis efficiency and ensuring the analysis accuracy of software purpose. Then taking the strength analysis of bogie’s side frame as an example, the integrated analysis interface of strength analysis about side frame was established, realized the remote invocation based on Web, and the efficiency of engineering analysis was improved.

Applying software engineering techniques in the development and management of linear and integer programming applications

AbstractThis work addresses characteristics of software environments for mathematical modeling and proposes a system for developing and managing models of linear and integer programming (IP) problems. The main features of this modeling environment are: version control of models and data; client‐server architecture, which allows the interaction among modelers and decision makers; the use of a database to store information about the models and data scenarios; and the use of remote servers of optimization, which allows the optimization problems to be solved on different machines. The modeling environment proposed in this work was validated using mathematical programming models that exploit different characteristics, such as the treatment of conditions for generating variables and constraints, the use of calculated parameters derived from other parameters, and the use of integer and continuous variables in mixed IP models among others. This validation showed that the proposed environment is able to treat models found in various application areas of operations research and to solve problems with tens of thousands of variables and constraints.

Application Approach: Agent Oriented Engineering and Programming

Agent orientation introduced as a new paradigm of computing paradigm that calls for new approaches in both of software engineering and programming methodologies. In the past twodecade we attested many ideas and methodologies to support agent orientation. Throughout agent related research history, there was a clear gap between agent software engineering approaches and applications to support such approaches through programming. This paper will tackle the application view over agent oriented software system, (Agent Role Locking) ARL theory is used to design and implement agents in software system. The main aim of this paper is to show innovative incorporation relationship between engineering methodologies and programming application in agent orientation technology.

Fast

Tree automata and tree transducers are used in a wide range of applications in software engineering, from XML processing to language type-checking. While these formalisms are of immense practical use, they can only model finite alphabets, and since many real-world applications operate over infinite domains such as integers, this is often a limitation. To overcome this problem we augment tree automata and transducers with symbolic alphabets represented as parametric theories. Admitting infinite alphabets makes these models more general and succinct than their classical counterparts. Despite this, we show how the main operations, such as composition and language equivalence, remain computable given a decision procedure for the alphabet theory. We introduce a high-level language called Fast that acts as a front-end for the above formalisms. Fast supports symbolic alphabets through tight integration with state-of-the-art satisfiability modulo theory (SMT) solvers. We demonstrate our techniques on practical case studies, covering a wide range of applications.

Mechanical Properties Research Based on Snowplow Operation Device

In this paper, combining with the domestic design and application of the snowplow in quality and quantity two aspects, basing on engineering application software ADAMS and CATIA, dynamics for 10t snowplow working device was researched, and the strength of the main stress components was analyzed by finite element method. On the basis of lightweight, strength and structure reasonable design, the snowplow device structure was verified feasibility through the research results. The paper studies could have a certain theoretical reference for the theoretical design and practical application of similar products.

Call for Papers: Advances in simulation-driven modeling and optimization of microwave/RF circuits

Computer-aided modeling and design of microwave/radio frequency (RF) devices and circuits have undergone tremendous developments in the past decade. The complexity of today’s devices and circuits renders electromagnetic (EM) simulation a sine qua non in the microwave design process. That said, EM-driven design poses significant challenges, mostly due to the high computational cost of accurate, high-fidelity simulation. The availability of massive computational resources does not always translate into design speedup because of the need to account for interactions between devices and their surroundings as well as multi-physics (e.g., EM-thermal) effects. Not surprisingly, traditional design optimization procedures that directly utilize EM-simulated responses typically fail or are impractical. As a consequence, there is growing interest in alternative optimization and modeling methodologies, especially ones that exploit computationally cheap surrogate models. This Special Issue focuses on the current state of the art and future directions in microwave and RF design. Papers on software engineering and practical applications aspects are also encouraged. Suitable topics for this Special Issue therefore include but are not limited to