UML Class Editor with Consistency Checking
Motivation
The term configuration describes the arrangement
of functional units according to their nature, number and chief
characteristics. Functional units may be software or hardware
components like computer programs, electronic circuits, or machine parts.
Configuration design deals with
specifying admissible arrangements of such functional units and
with setting them up according to certain criteria of
optimality.
UML class diagrams have turned out to be a convenient formalism
for specifying and maintaining configurations, characterized
by the extensive use of
cardinalities (integer ranges restricting
the connections between objects). Recently, we developed methods
to reason efficiently about such diagrams, by mapping questions
about the consistency of diagrams or about minimal configurations
to problems of integer linear programming (ILP);
for an introductory article see
Solving
practical configuration problems using UML, pages 1-6.
We are now actively looking for advanced master students helping us
to implement a prototype.
Specification
- Develop a graphical interface to create and modify
configurations (basically class diagrams with multiplicities and uniqueness attributes).
- Intuitive interface for interacting with the
diagrams.
- Modular structure so that additional plug-ins can be
inserted (like efficient equation solvers, etc.).
- Efficient, fast and portable implementation in Java.
- The project is to be released as
open
source software under a suitable license.
Requirements
- Interest in formal methods
- Programming skills in Java
- Goal-oriented working style with the commitment
to finish the project within 6 months.
We offer an interesting topic for a master thesis …
- … with a foundational background, but relevant for industrial applications
- … with the prospect of a publication at an international conference
- … with a bonus of € 1.000,- provided by
Siemens Austria and
Institut
für Computersprachen for successful completion of the project.
Contact
If you are interested please contact
Ingo
Feinerer or Gernot
Salzer for further details.