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The present work describes an approach to simplify the development of scientific applications. The approach aims at hiding accidental complexities encountered when developing this kind of applications. This work focuses on the development of tools using concepts of domain engineering and domain-specific modeling which are modern software engineering methods for automating the development of software. As a proof of concept a tool that automates the development of Grid applications is presented as well as lessons learned from the initial development of the tool. This work is an attempt to contribute to the long term research goal of empowering users to create complex scientific applications without depending on the expertise of support teams or on hand-crafted solutions.

In the past years, modeling and simulation of hybrid dynamic systems (HDS) have attracted much attention. However, since simultaneously dealing with the discrete and continuous variables is very difficult, most of the models result in a unified, but more complicated and unnatural format. Moreover, design engineers cannot be allowed to use their preferred domain models. Based on the multi-paradigm modeling (MPaM) concept, this paper proposed a Petri net (PN) framework with associated state equations to model the HDS. In the presented approach, modeling schemes of the hybrid systems are separated, but combined in a hierarchical way through specified interfaces. Designers can still work in their familiar domain-specific modeling paradigms and the heterogeneity is hidden when composing large systems. An application to a rapid thermal process (RTP) in semiconductor manufacturing is provided to demonstrate the practicability of the developed approach

Assuring quality of service (QoS) requirements is critical when assembling a distributed real-time and embedded (DRE) system from a repository of existing software and hardware components. This paper presents a two-level approach for assuring satisfaction of QoS requirements in the context of a reduced design space for DRE systems. Techniques from artificial intelligence and statistics are used to fulfill these collective objectives at system assembly time. The result not only lessens the overhead of validation of QoS requirements at run-time, but also reduces the development and integration cost of DRE systems.

The German health care system increasingly encounters an enormous cost pressure. Preventive medicine opens the possibility to avoid cost for the treatment of chronically sick persons and, especially, for the highly expensive hospitalization. Since with screenings, a special discipline of preventive medicine, a large number of persons are to be examined, information technology plays an important role to reduce cost and to increase treatment quality. We introduce a generic process based platform for distributed screenings for the early detection and diagnosis of the glaucoma disease. Thereby, glaucoma is merely one disease pattern which can be covered with the generic process based platform. Methods and concepts for the enactment of different screening processes and the integration of various modalities are in the center of our interest.

This workshop will investigate the application of Domain Specific Languages within Agile development. A Domain Specific Language (DSL) is designed to express the requirements and solutions of a particular business or architectural domain. SQL, GUI designers, workflow languages and regular expressions are familiar examples. In recent years, Domain-Specific Modeling has yielded spectacular productivity improvements in domains such as telephony and embedded systems. By creating graphical or textual languages specific to the needs of an individual project or product line within one company, DSM offers maximum agility. With current tools, creating a language and related tool support is fast enough to make DSM a realistic possibility for projects of all sizes.

After 10 years of UML we have still not overcome the problems of the CASE tools of the 1980ś. Imposing a ”one size fits all” modeling language and generators has not significantly increased developers' productivity. Domain-Specific Modeling (DSM) provides a viable solution for improving development productivity by moving the focus from implementation concepts to problem domain concepts. With DSM, a new modeling language is created for each problem domain, with elements representing concepts from the domain world, not the code world. The DSM language follows domain abstractions and rules, guiding developers and allowing them to perceive themselves as working directly with domain concepts. When the domain is narrowed down to fit a single company's needs, domain-specific code generators can automatically produce full code straight from the models. Industrial experiences of this approach have consistently shown productivity increasing by a factor of 5-10.

The present work describes an approach to simplifying the development and deployment of applications for the Grid. Our approach aims at hiding accidental complexities (e.g., low-level Grid technologies) met when developing these kinds of applications. To realize this goal, the work focuses on the development of end-user tools using concepts of domain engineering and domain-specific modeling which are modern software engineering methods for automating the development of software. This work is an attempt to contribute to the long term research goal of empowering users, to create complex applications for the Grid without depending on the expertise of support teams or on hand-crafted solutions.

Domain-Specific Modeling offers a language-based approach to raise the level of abstraction in order to speed up development work and set variation space already at specification and design phase. In this paper we identify approaches that are applied for defining languages that enable automated variant derivation. This categorization is based on analyzing over 20 industrial cases of DSM language definition.

Assuring quality of service (QoS) requirements is critical when assembling a distributed real-time and embedded (DRE) system from a repository of existing software and hardware components. This paper presents a two-level approach for assuring satisfaction of QoS requirements in the context of a reduced design space for DRE systems. Techniques from arti¯cial intelligence and statistics are used to ful¯ll these collective objectives at system assembly time. The result not only lessens the overhead of validation of QoS require- ments at run-time, but also reduces the development and integration cost of DRE systems.

The Modeling paradigm for Integrated Modular Avionics Design (MIMAD) is an extensible component-oriented framework that enables high level models of systems designed on integrated modular avionics architectures. It relies on the generic modeling environment (GME), a configurable object-oriented toolkit that supports the creation of domain-specific modeling and program synthesis environments. MIMAD is built upon component models dedicated to avionic applications design, which are defined within the POLYCHRONY platform. Hence, its descriptions can be transformed into POLYCHRONY's models in order to access the available formal tools and techniques for validation. Users do not need to be experts of formal methods (in particular, of the synchronous approach) to be able to manipulate the proposed concepts. This contributes to satisfying the present industrial demand on the use of general-purpose modeling formalisms for system design. This paper first presents the main features of MIMAD V0. Then, it illustrates the use of the paradigm to design a simple application example within GME. \\ Le paradigme de modélisation pour la conception de l'avionique modulaire intégrée (MIMAD) offre un cadre extensible orienté composant, permettant des descriptions de haut niveau de systèmes conçus sur des architectures avioniques modulaires intégrées. Il est basé sur l'environnement générique de modélisation (GME) qui est orienté objet. GME fournit un ensemble configurable d'outils permettant la création d'environnements aussi bien de modélisation pour des domaines spécifiques que de synthèse de programmes. MIMAD est construit au-dessus de modèles de composants dédiés à la conception d'applications avioniques, définis dans la plate-forme POLYCHRONY. Ainsi, ses descriptions peuvent être transformées en modèles polychrones dans le but d'accéder aux outils et techniques formels disponibles pour la validation. Les utilisateurs n'ont pas besoin d'être experts en méthodes formelles (en particulier, en approche synchrone) pour être capable de manipuler les concepts proposés. Cela contribue à la satisfaction de la demande industrielle présente par rapport à l'utilisation de formalismes généraux de modélisation pour la conception de systèmes. Ce rapport présente d'abord les principales caractéristiques de MIMAD V0. Ensuite, il illustre l'utilisation de ce dernier pour concevoir un exemple simple d'application dans GME.

Domain-Specific Modeling (DSM) raises the level of abstraction beyond programming by specifying the solution directly using domain concepts. In many cases, the final products can be generated from these high-level specifications. This automation is possible because both the language and generators need fit the requirements of only one company and domain.This demonstration illustrates DSM by showing real world cases from various fields of software development. These cases describe how DSM, giving first class support for modeling, can prevent incorrect or unwanted designs at the early stages of development, and how full code can be generated from the modeler's point of view. Second part of the demonstration will show in an interactive manner both the design side and the use side of DSM languages and generators. Using MetaEdit+ tool for metamodeling, we define a DSM for a given domain and apply it to generate full code from high-level models.

This work is part of a larger effort to define a modeling approach suitable for complex embedded control systems for which modeling techniques are in the progress of maturing. Modeling constitutes an indispensable part of engineering, forming an important basis for documentation, communication, and design automation. In order to describe and compare different modeling techniques, a framework has been developed. The current state of the framework is presented together with lessons learned. We will illustrate the framework with an automotive application. The framework combines a generic concept of systems and the modeling concepts that have been extracted from a study of 12 modeling approaches covering different levels of design and disciplines. Future work will refine the framework by studying additional modeling techniques and by considering more domain specific modeling needs in automotive systems.

MetaEdit+ is an environment that allows building modeling tools and generators fitting to application domains, without having to write a single line of code. The capability to define modeling tools and generators is relevant as it provides the ability to raise the abstraction of design work from code to domain concepts, and a raise in abstraction leads to an imminent raise in productivity, as illustrated by the past years' experiences.In domain-specific modeling and MetaEdit+, one expert defines a domain-specific language as a metamodel containing the domain concepts and rules, and specifies the mapping from that to code in a domain-specific code generator. For the method implementation, MetaEdit+ provides a metamodeling language and tool suite for defining the method concepts, their properties, associated rules, symbols, checking reports, and generators. Once the expert defines a modeling method, or even a partial prototype, the rest of the team can start to use it in MetaEdit+ to make models with the modeling language and the required code is automatically generated from those models. Based on the metamodel, MetaEdit+ automatically provides CASE tool functionality: diagramming editors, browsers, generators, multi-user/project/platform support, etc.The MetaEdit+ demo will focus on showing how the domain-specific languages and generators are made; complete with several examples of domain-specific methods and related code generators.

Presents a methodology to design energy-efficient data paths using FPGAs. Our methodology integrates domain specific modeling, coarse-grained performance evaluation, design space exploration, and low level simulation to understand the tradeoffs between energy, latency, and area. The domain specific modeling technique defines a high-level model by identifying various components and parameters specific to a domain that affect the system-wide energy dissipation. A domain is a family of architectures and corresponding algorithms for a given application kernel. The high-level model also consists of functions for estimating energy, latency, and area that facilitate tradeoff analysis. Design space exploration (DSE) analyzes the design space defined by the domain and selects a set of designs. Low-level simulations are used for accurate performance estimation for the designs selected by the DSE and also for final design selection. We illustrate our methodology using a family of architectures and algorithms for matrix multiplication. The designs identified by our methodology demonstrate tradeoffs among energy, latency, and area.

In this paper, we present a knowledge based approach to automated modeling of dynamic systems based on equation discovery. The approach allows for integration of domain specific modeling knowledge in the process of modeling. A formalism for encoding knowledge is proposed that is accessible to mathematical modelers from the domain of use. Given a specification of an observed system, the encoded knowledge can be easily transformed into an operational form of grammar that specifies the space of candidate models of the observed system. Then, equation discovery method Lagramge is used to search the space of candidate models and find the one that fits measured data best. The use of the automated modeling framework is illustrated on the example domain of population dynamics. The performance and robustness of the framework is evaluated on the task of reconstructing known models of a simple aquatic ecosystem.

Recent studies claim that domain-specific modeling may highly increase development productivity in specific well-defined domains. Domain-specific modeling is most often used only in the design phase of software development process, while general-purpose modeling techniques are used in the other phases. Integrating general-purpose modeling techniques with domain-specific modeling might be problematic, which is why in this paper we consider if it is feasible to extend domain-specific modeling to cover analysis phase activities in addition to design phase activities. Essentially, we discuss the different activities in analysis phase and consider whether or not domain-specific techniques can be used in them and is it possible to gain any benefits in doing so.

The integration of configuration systems to support supply chain integration of configurable products is still an open research issue. Current configurator approaches are designed for solving local configuration problems but there is no support for the integration of multiple configuration systems. In order to facilitate distributed configuration of customizable products we employ cooperating configuration agents capable of managing requests and posting configuration subtasks to remote configuration agents. For integrating different knowledge representation formalisms of configuration agents we apply broadly used configuration domain specific modeling concepts to design shareable ontologies which can be interpreted by other agents. These concepts are defined as UML (Unified Modeling Language) stereotypes which can be automatically translated into a configuration agent's knowledge representation.

To enhance efficiency in FPGA based rapid prototyping of digital telecommunication applications, we incorporated modeling and synthesis facilities of the Protocol Compiler into a proved design flow. This paper focuses on domain specific modeling styles and synthesis strategies aiming at design improvement, changeability and reuse. We discuss design and implementation of a DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting) Test Data Generator which produces hierarchical structured data streams according to the DAB protocol. Summarizing the results, we improved design quality and efficiency.

Domain specific modeling methodology employed in this solution provides abstractions in the problem domain that expresses designs in terms of concepts in the application domain. Presented in this paper therefore is a metamodelling tool, an integrated platform which offers layered collections of reusable software primitives whose semantics are familiar only to engineering design mechanisms. It is intended to eliminate the complexities associated with the domain of computing technologies such as CAD systems where the focus is solely on engineering designs expertise in the software systems logic. This tool which was built on the DSL processor engine that compiles the DSL Builder files at the core will enable non design experts to be able to evolve designs specific to their domains of operations and reflecting their view points. At the Development Interface, the templates are created for every transformation added to our model that can be applicable in the physical design of objects in the engineering industry. It will in line remove hassles and complexities of expertise centric design platforms to produce artifacts that will help engineers manage very complex design concepts.

Metamodels can be used to specify languages that capture the concepts and constraints of an area of interest. We describe a case and experiences on applying metamodeling for the development of medical devices. Metamodels are used to define Domain-Specific Modeling languages raising the level of abstraction in models close to the problem domain and producing formal specifications. Generators then read the models and produce executable code running in medical devices. The novel part of our approach, and particularly useful for device development, is extending the generation approach to model debugging and synchronization between a state of a model and a state of a program executed in a target runtime-system. This enables quick iterative feedback from the running code back to models, supports verification of the developed control logic, and helps to optimize the use of hardware resources.

MDA proposes a new paradigm for software development in general. We claim that MDA could be beneficial for embedded software development, especially if it is extended to address the special needs of embedded systems. The paper consists of two sections: the first is a brief synopsis on how MDA ought to be extended to handle embedded software development, while the second illustrates the concepts in practice using a prototype modeling language and tool chain designed for developing mission computing software.

Model-driven engineering methodologies are often used for the design and integration of the software and hardware components in automated production systems. Architecture models in general purpose or domain specific modeling languages allow the modular and systematic construction of formal analysis models for the evaluation of dependability and performability. The on-line reconfiguration and fault handling actions in the system introduce changes in the architecture and parameters, and thus result in a multi-phased operation. We propose a mission automaton formalism to describe reconfigurations, fault handling and parameter changes over architecture models. By maintaining the architecture model, which is modified by the reconfigurations, along with the corresponding analysis models, a stochastic phased-mission system (PMS) is obtained and solved for dependability.