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The exchange of design models in the design and construction industry is evolving away from 2-dimensional computer-aided design (CAD) and paper towards semantically-rich 3-dimensional digital models. This approach, known as Building Information Modelling (BIM), is anticipated to become the primary means of information exchange between the various parties involved in construction projects. From a technical perspective, the domain represents an interesting study in model-based interoperability, since the models are large and complex, and the industry is one in which collaboration is a vital part of business. In this paper, we present our experiences with issues of model-based interoperability in exchanging building information models between various tools, and in implementing tools which consume BIM models, particularly using the industry standard IFC data modelling format. We report on the successes and challenges in these endeavours, as the industry endeavours to move further towards fully digitised information exchange.

A precise definition of interaction behavior between services is a prerequisite for successful business-to-business integration. Service choreographies provide a view on message exchanges and their ordering constraints from a global perspective. Assuming message sending and receiving as one atomic step allows to reduce the modelers’ effort. As downside, problematic race conditions resulting in deadlocks might appear when realizing the choreography using services that exchange messages asynchronously. This paper presents typical issues when desynchronizing service choreographies. Solutions from practice are discussed and a formal approach based on Petri nets is introduced for identifying desynchronizable choreographies.

There are now more than 7 million internet banking users in Australia. Despite this substantial uptake in Australia, Australian banks continue to concentrate their respective security efforts upon internal mechanisms. Education of bank customers has not for the most part solved the fundamental flaws existent in internet banking. It is widely accepted that the weakest link in internet banking facilities is not with the banks’ internal mechanisms but with customer PC. This paper analyses the research opportunities available to improve internet banking in Australia, which research could be exported to other jurisdictions where internet banking is available.

Traffic engineering can be viewed as the mechanisms that are used to reoptimise network performance on traffic variation time scales. The traffic engineering process involves measurements, detection of performance problems, and the adjustment of routes and various quality of service mechanisms in order to restore the desired performance. Traffic engineering models are essential in this feedback loop. In this paper we provide an overview of our recent contributions to analytical models for traffic engineering of elastic traffic in internets, and discuss the role that such models could play in automated or intelligent traffic engineering.

The expert process of engineering involves application of knowledge fundamental to the engineering process at one end, and of compiled knowledge in the form of heuristics gained through many years of experience at the other. Developments in Artificial Intelligence have made the process of computer aided engineering richer by enabling the simulation of this human process of engineering, which until now has been difficult to capture. Knowledge Based Expert Systems (KBES) in engineering developed so far have addressed only narrow domains of the entire process of engineering. This paper discusses a KBES shell (IES) that integrates various AI technologies, which makes it possible to implement new problem-solving strategies required for efficient handling of the entire engineering process. Issues in the integrated process of engineering are discussed first, in order to evolve a specification for the shell. The blackboard architecture is shown to be the ideal backbone for such a shell. The details of inference techniques, the knowledge based backtracking mechanism and the DBMS used in the IES are presented. The application of the IES is demonstrated using the domain of integrated engineering of steel industrial structures as an example. This application encompasses the engineering activities of conceptual design, detailed design, documentation and construction planning. ? 1993 Springer-Verlag London Limited.

This paper considers the reliability of a system which consists of n components connected in series, the ithcomponent being supported by (mi - 1) units in parallel and obtains the optimal policy of replacement by dynamic programming. In the case of a system consisting of identical pairs, the decision depends on the number of operable pairs. For this case sample calculations are presented. ? 1984 Springer-Verlag.