Modelling and Simulation Based Design (COMP 762B)
Winter Term 2003

The course

Goals: the purpose of this course is to look at the State of The Art in Modelling and Simulation on the one hand and Software (and to a far lesser extent Hardware) Design on the other hand. The goal is to get some insight into the development of truly complex systems. The focus will be on the use of multiple modelling formalisms and their interrelationships to study and design such complex systems. We will study meta-modelling extensively in this context. In the software realm, we will study the recent evolutions of the Unified Modelling Language (UML) and how the UML fits in the broader context of multi-paradigm modelling and simulation.

Method : the course will study research publications in the literature. You should be capable of independent, critical reading. Students will be expected to give presentation(s), and to evaluate the other presentations. The presentations should also be prepared in an electronic form that can be used to create an online resource. Furthermore, you are required to suggest and implement a small research project which builds on the material you have studied.
You will be evaluated on your presentation, your presentation evaluations (how well you understood other presentations), and your project.
Warning: you will have to learn Python on your own and use the AToM3 meta-modelling tool.

Topics: Candidate subjects (you're welcome to suggest your own though !) are given in the tentative topics list. You are expected to choose a topic as soon as possible !

Practical Issues

• Lecturer: Prof. Hans Vangheluwe
• Office hours: McConnell 328, Monday 16:00 - 18:00.
• Course venue: McConnell 320, Monday and Wednesday 11:30 - 13:00.
• Prerequisites: COMP 522 " Modelling and Simulation".
  For those who have not taken this course, a test will be given in-class on Monday 13 January on Petri Nets and Statecharts. Also, on Tuesday 14 January at noon, a GPSS assignment is due. For information on how to use the GPSSWorld tool, see the COMP 522A pages (look for the GPSS assignment).

Announcements

Presentations

Presentation evaluation form [pdf] [txt].

Resources

Multi-Paradigm Modelling

• Hans L. Vangheluwe, Juan de Lara, and Pieter J. Mosterman. An introduction to multi-paradigm modelling and simulation. In Fernando Barros and Norbert Giambiasi, editors, Proceedings of the AIS'2002 Conference (AI, Simulation and Planning in High Autonomy Systems), pages 9 -- 20, April 2002. Lisboa, Portugal. [paper (pdf)].
• Hans L. Vangheluwe, Juan de Lara, and Ghislain C. Vansteenkiste. A software architecture for multi-paradigm modelling. 4th Middle East Symposium on Simulation and Modelling. Society for Computer Simulation International, September 2002. Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. [keynote presentation (pdf)].
• ACM Transactions on Modeling and Computer Simulation (TOMACS). Special Issue on Computer Automated Multi-paradigm Modeling.

The Unified Modeling Language UML

• Perdita Stevens. The Unified Modelling Language. ETAPS 2000 tutorial [pdf].

Graph Transformation

• Baresi, L. and Heckel. R, Tutorial Introduction to Graph Transformation: A Software Engineering Perspective In Corradini, A.,H. Ehrig, H.-J. Kreowski und G. Rozenberg (Editors): Proc. 1st Int. Conference on Graph Transformation (ICGT 02), Barcelona, Spain, Volume 2505 of Lecture Notes in Comp. Science. Springer-Verlag, Oktober 2002. [paper (pdf)].
• Baresi, L. and Heckel. R, Foundations and Applications of Graph Transformation: An introduction from a software engineering perspective. [presentation (pdf)].

Meta-modelling and Graph Transformatin in AToM³

• AToM³, A Tool for Multi-formalism, Meta-Modelling.
• PacMan.tgz

Model Driven Architecture

• Bran Selic's presentation (Montreal, 7 March 2003)
  "Preview of UML 2.0 and MDA". [pdf]
• A report on "Executable UML" by Geir Melby of Agder University College. [pdf]
• Mapping a UML Platform Independent Model onto an ASP.NET web application. Presentation (McGill, 9 April 2003) by Michel Brassard from Codagen. [pdf]

Miscellaneous interesting links

• student project reports from Agder University College.
• <<UML 2002>> workshop on Consistency Problems in UML-based Software Development.

Maintained by Hans Vangheluwe. January 2003.