Master of Science (MS), Wright State University, 2011, Computer Science

AFIT Wide Spectrum Object Modeling Environment (AWSOME) is built on an Abstract Syntax Tree (AST) which is the meta-model of AWSOME. Transformations happen internally in AWSOME to transform anything in abstract to concrete. Earlier efforts in AWSOME were focused on developing tools to work on the AST. The goal of this thesis is to make AWSOME interoperable with other available tools. To achieve this goal, the Model Driven Architecture (MDA) concept is used. MDA is a framework aimed at portability, interoperability and reusability among different tools. Among many tools that use MDA context, EclipseUML 2008 and Dresden OCL Toolkit were considered to make interoperable with AWSOME. This thesis focuses on making a model generated by AWSOME to be loaded in to EclipseUML 2008 and a model generated by EclipseUML 2008 to be parsed in to AWSOME. Also the Object Constraints Language (OCL) file generated by AWSOME should be able to be loaded in Dresden OCL Toolkit. The model to model mapping between these tools and the level of interoperability achieved between these tools is discussed in detail. Understanding the different functionalities of these tools and deciding the level of interoperability between the tools played a vital role in the design decisions made. All together three translation or transformation tools were developed to interface EclipseUML 2008 and Dresden OCL Toolkit with AWSOME.

Committee: Thomas Hartrum PhD (Advisor); Mateen Rizki PhD (Advisor); Yong Pei PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Computer Science

PHD, Kent State University, 2010, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Computer Science

The dissertation presents a suite of empirical studies that investigate the effectiveness of different layout techniques for Unified Modeling Language (UML) class diagrams. Three different layout schemes are examined. The architectural importance of classes is used to guide each layout technique. Architectural importance in a UML class diagram is defined by stereotype information, in this case the control, boundary and entity class stereotypes. Stereotypes are an extension mechanism provided by the UML that allow users to define semantics for the notation. The premise is that layout techniques for UML class diagrams significantly impact comprehension.The experiments use traditional questionnaire-based methods as well as eye-tracking equipment to quantitatively measure the performance of subjects solving specific software maintenance tasks. Both high-level and low-level software engineering tasks are examined. The layout techniques are also applied to design pattern comprehension in class diagrams. Two of the experiments are replicated using an alternate method of data collection to support and verify the findings. In addition, the effect of identifier styles (camel case and underscore) on the readability of UML class diagrams are also examined and is viewed as complementary to layout schemes used. The main contribution is a detailed empirical validation of a set of layout techniques with respect to a variety of software maintenance tasks. Results indicate that layout plays a significant role in the comprehension of UML class diagrams. In particular, there is a significant improvement in accuracy, time, and visual effort for one particular layout scheme, namely multi-cluster. In addition, a set of quantifiable eye-tracking measures are presented that provide an objective metric to measure the visual effort for class diagram layouts. The ultimate purpose of the research is to determine effective ways to adjust the layout of existing UML class diagrams to support progr (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Jonathan Maletic PhD (Advisor); L. Gwenn Volkert PhD (Committee Member); Robert Walker PhD (Committee Member); Michael Collard PhD (Committee Member); Jocelyn Folk PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Computer Science; Education; Experiments

Master of Computer Science (M.C.S.), University of Dayton, 2023, Computer Science

In recent years microservices architecture (MSA) has been widely adopted as an alternative to the traditional monolithic architecture in most of the commercial applications because of the need for the extensibility of a wide variety of services and deployability. Monolithic software architectures include Data-Centered Architectures, Data-Flow Architectures, Call and Return Architectures, Object-Oriented Architectures, and Layered Architectures. The monolithic approach included where all the logic and data requirements are bundled together. In recent years large scale software applications by Amazon, Netflix, Uber, and other organizations have felt a need to partition the functionalities into independently deployable units which are called microservices. In this thesis we also explore using the essential concepts of coupling, cohesion, and topdown decomposition that are used for monolithic architectures to microservices also. One of the major requirements for an independently deployable microservice is embedding data components in that microservice unit. We identify use cases with data components for any task and define them using use case descriptions, input/output designs, activity diagram, entity descriptions for the inputs/outputs and a system sequence diagram. The system sequence diagram triggers the logical aspects of the system with the domain classes and data access and view classes. The completeness of the various classes is examined using Class Responsibility Collaboration (CRC) cards informally or through detailed sequence diagrams. Resulting refined design class diagrams are packaged into monolithic or microservices architecture. We illustrate and implement the microservice architecture for a Farm Produce Procurement and Sales System.

Committee: Raghava Gowda Ph.D. (Advisor); Mehdi R. Zargham Ph.D. (Committee Member); James Buckley Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Computer Science; Systems Design

Master of Science, Miami University, 2023, Computer Science and Software Engineering

Traditionally, software modeling has relied on conventional input devices such as keyboards and mice. However, as new interaction methods become more popular, development environments must adapt to these evolving needs. Moreover, nontraditional interfaces offer the potential for improved accessibility. This thesis introduces an innovative framework for intelligent voice-driven software modeling. The framework leverages advanced technologies, including speech-to-text conversion, natural language processing, and domain-specific input commands. By combining these elements, this research presents a powerful and intuitive system that allows users to create software models through voice commands. The framework's effectiveness has been evaluated primarily via two different user studies and secondarily using cross-validation to evaluate trained machine learning models. The evaluation of the final implementation of the framework resulted in an average command accuracy of 79.4% and an average overall rating of 7.85 out of 10 from the participants. Overall, this study demonstrates the viability and potential of voice commands as an effective interface for software modeling. By embracing voice-driven interactions, this thesis aims to improve accessibility, user experience, and overall efficiency in software engineering.

Committee: Eric Rapos (Advisor); Christopher Vendome (Committee Member); Xianglong Feng (Committee Member) Subjects: Computer Science; Engineering

Master of Science, Miami University, 2023, Computer Science and Software Engineering

Software models are used to analyze and understand the properties of the system, providing stakeholders with an overview of how the system should work before actually implementing it. Such models are usually created informally, such as drawing sketches on a whiteboard or paper, especially during the early design phase, because these methods foster communication and collaboration among stakeholders. However, these informal sketches must be formalized to be useful in later applications, such as analysis, code generation, and documentation. This formalization process is often tedious, error-prone, and time-consuming. In an effort to avoid recreating formal models from scratch, this thesis presents SkeMo, a sketch-based software modeling tool. SkeMo is built on a CNN-based image classifier using 3000 input sketches of class diagram components and integrated into the functionality of an existing web-based model editor, the Instructional Modeling Language (IML), with a newly implemented touch interface. SkeMo was evaluated using a ten-fold cross-validation to assess the image classifier and through a user study involving 20 participants to collect metrics and feedback. The results demonstrate the promising potential of sketch-based modeling as an intuitive and efficient modeling practice, allowing users to quickly and easily create models to design complex software systems.

Committee: Eric Rapos (Advisor); Christopher Vendome (Committee Member); Xianglong Feng (Committee Member); Douglas Troy (Committee Member) Subjects: Computer Science; Engineering

BS, Kent State University, 2019, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Computer Science

This thesis investigates and implements mechanisms to render and layout software design models that are reverse engineered from software systems. The software design models are represented as Unified Modeling Language (UML) class diagrams. UML diagrams are widely used by software developers to document the design of software systems. The work presented here extends a software system (srcUML) that takes source code as input and generates a graphical picture of the UML class diagram. The system is built on top of the srcML infrastructure. This infrastructure parses the source code and provides access to the abstract syntax for the analysis necessary to generate the UML class diagram. The main contribution of the work presented is extending the system to support various layout algorithms for the class diagrams. The extension allows users to provide their own customized layout algorithms to the system. This directly supports research in software comprehension by allowing comparison between different layout algorithms. No current UML rendering tools allow different/custom layout algorithms to be used. The system is open source and available at www.srcML.org.

Committee: Jonathan Maletic Ph.D (Advisor); Mikhail Nesterenko Ph.D (Committee Member); Robin Selinger Ph.D (Committee Member); Alexander Seed Ph.D (Committee Member) Subjects: Computer Science

Master of Science, University of Toledo, 2016, Electrical Engineering

This thesis demonstrates development of a complete suite of path planning, elevator scheduling and resource allocation algorithms to manage multiple concurrent requests, in real time and in a dynamic context, for storage and retrieval of vehicles loaded onto robotic carts for a robotic, fully-automated, multi-story and driving-free parking structure. The objective is to utilize, for parking, the available spaces across the floors of a parking structure that does not have any driving lanes at a much higher percentage rate which is greater than or equal to 80% in all cases while keeping the customer waiting times at minimum. Path search and planning employs the incremental informed search algorithm D* Lite with domain-specific heuristics, and the uninformed search algorithm Uniform Cost Search in a completely-automated framework. An optimization algorithm based on nested partitions and genetic algorithm is adapted for scheduling of a group of elevators in the multi-story parking structure environment. A small percentage of parking spots are reserved as “blank cells” to facilitate movement of roller beds carrying a vehicle to its storage or retrieval destination. Resource allocation and management is accomplished using statistical models employing queueing theory for structural resources such as blank cells and elevators while minimizing customer waiting time. Lower bounds on the number of elevators needed for a specific floor count and number of parking spaces per floor are derived using statistical modeling. Multiple vehicles are considered to be potentially moving from one parking space to another by roller bed pallets moving along tracks mounted on the surface of each storage cell. A software simulator based on multi-threaded Java code and unified modeling language was developed to perform empirical testing and validation of the performance of the proposed integration framework for the set of path search, elevator scheduling and resource management algorithm (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Gursel Serpen (Committee Chair); Kevin Xu (Committee Member); Ahmad Javaid (Committee Member) Subjects: Artificial Intelligence

MS, University of Cincinnati, 2014, Engineering and Applied Science: Computer Engineering

Today embedded systems are found in all areas of our lives and have many different applications. They differ in their uses and properties as well as employing both software and hardware components in their implementations. This has made the design and development process for them much more complicated. Learning to use such a process is especially difficult for electrical engineering students, who have not been introduced to the systematic design and testing methodologies familiar to students trained in computer science and computer engineering. In this thesis, we illustrate the similarities and differences in the design and development design processes in for software systems and for software/hardware embedded systems. We give details for every stage for both types of systems and we develop detailed examples for example embedded systems, using a design process which extends the standard UML-based process used for software. In addition, we include details about project management. The examples and additional exercises and questions provide a set of tutorials which will assist students unfamiliar with complex design procedures in mastering the necessary skills to become well-trained embedded system developers.

Committee: Carla Purdy Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Raj Bhatnagar Ph.D. (Committee Member); George Purdy Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Computer Engineering

MS, University of Cincinnati, 2012, Engineering and Applied Science: Computer Engineering

An important facet of embedded system design today is hardware software co-design. And another important trend is that the Unified Modeling Language (UML) is increasingly being considered for modeling embedded systems due to the number of advantages this language offers. But there are a few drawbacks with UML that act as a hindrance for efficient embedded system design. Overcoming these drawbacks is a challenging task. In this work, we attempt to develop a complete specification of the system under design at the design phase of the process using UML that could directly be used to implement the system efficiently. In this thesis, this is achieved by proposing a few new extensions to the sequence and state chart diagrams in UML that define the dynamic behavior of the system under consideration. The extensions are demonstrated and the highlights and usefulness of the extensions explained through a few example designs.

Committee: Carla Purdy PhD (Committee Chair); Wen Ben Jone PhD (Committee Member); George Purdy PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Computer Engineering

MS, University of Cincinnati, 2011, Engineering and Applied Science: Computer Engineering

Embedded systems are ubiquitous and have a large number of applications. The requirements for embedded systems are not restricted to functionality but also include a lot of non-functional properties such as cost, reliability, safety, ease of use etc. This makes developing a standard design methodology for embedded systems challenging. In this thesis, we are attempting to include the non-traditional, non-functional constraints of embedded systems in the design process by weighting them in the order of their importance. We propose developing UML models for a system and annotating them with the non-functional constraints by using standard profile extensions and weighted constraint charts. We demonstrate the application of this design technique by developing a few example systems. One of the systems is implemented on Altera UP3 platform and demonstrates how the design technique leads us to choose the implementation that satisfies all the requirements, including the ones that are non-functional.

Committee: Carla Purdy, PhD (Committee Chair); Philip Wilsey PhD (Committee Member); Xuefu Zhou PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Computer Engineering

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2004, Food, Agricultural, and Biological Engineering

The cantilever-based BioMEMS sensor represents one instance from many competing ideas of biosensor technology based on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems. The advancement of BioMEMS from laboratory - scale experiments to applications in the field will require standardization of their components and manufacturing procedures as well as frameworks to evaluate their performance. Reliability, the likelihood with which a system performs its intended task, is a compact mathematical description of its performance. The mathematical and statistical foundation of systems-reliability has been applied to the cantilever-based BioMEMS sensor. The sensor is designed to detect one aspect of human ovarian cancer, namely the over-expression of the folate receptor surface protein (FR – α). Even as the application chosen is clinically motivated, the objective of this study was to demonstrate the underlying systems-based methodology used to design, develop and evaluate the sensor. The framework development can be readily extended to other BioMEMS-based devices for disease detection and will have an impact in the rapidly growing $30 bn industry. The Unified Modeling Language (UML) is a systems-based framework for design and development of object-oriented information systems which has potential application for use in systems designed to interact with biological environments. The UML has been used to abstract and describe the application of the biosensor, to identify key components of the biosensor, and the technology needed to link them together in a coherent manner. The use of the framework is also demonstrated in computation of system reliability from first principles as a function of the structure and materials of the biosensor. The outcomes of applying the systems-based framework to the study are the following: Characterizing the cantilever-based MEMS device for disease (cell) detection. Development of a novel chemical interface between the analyte and the sensor that provides a degree o (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Alfred Soboyejo (Advisor) Subjects:

MS, Kent State University, 2007, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Computer Science

In this thesis, eye-tracking equipment is used to assess how well a subject comprehends UML class diagrams. The goal of the study is to identify specific characteristics of UML class diagram, such as layout, color, and stereotype usage that are most effective for supporting a given task. Prior investigations in the software visualization and program comprehension communities have primarily focused on effective layout schemes and key aesthetics criteria with the goal of enhancing the cognitive process. A number of usability studies have been reported that evaluate UML class diagrams, including those with additional semantic information (e.g., class stereotypes), for an effective representation in addressing various software evolution tasks. These studies typically form conjectures and/or draw conclusions from the data explicitly collected from subjects' via a combination of questionnaires, experience reports, and feedback comments after a designated task is completed. This raises a potential threat to the validity of the study namely: How well the subjects' responses on completion of a task match the “reality” they observed while performing that task? That is, a subject may forget to report (or misreport) an observation after a lengthy task for example. Here we take a different approach to assess UML class diagrams. Results indicate subjects have a variation in the eye movements (i.e., how the subjects navigate the diagram) depending on their UML expertise and software-design ability to solve the given task. Layouts with additional semantic information about the design were found to be most effective and the use of class stereotypes seems to play a substantial role in comprehension of these diagrams.

Committee: Jonathan Maletic (Advisor) Subjects: Computer Science