Tuesday, September 29, 2009

User Driven Modelling Explanation - Cube

This example was provided to illustrate the structure and process for creating the ontology, model, and visualisation/representation used for translation process from step 1 to step 3, for the User Driven Modelling approach. This also helps to demonstrate how the research provides a solution for generic and reusable engineering modelling, by providing a real but simple demonstration of this modelling approach being used for an engineering model.

The cube model, as for all the engineering/process models is made up of the definition, in this case of the cube, and a colour coded representation of all the processes, materials, tooling, consumables, resources, and rates used for the manufacture of the cube; these are read in from the ontology in response to user choices. This makes it possible to investigate scenarios such as in this case whether to manufacture using welding, or riveting, and different options for use of tooling, consumables, resources, and rates. From investigating different options, different trees are created to represent different paths/options, and from this the production cost tree is created with results and feedback on exactly what made up the process/cost. Figure 1 illustrates how the different sub ontologies/taxonomies are colour coded in order to ensure it is easier to read the meaning of the tree and the interrelationships between the different aspects of the model.



Figure 1 Cube model example - illustrates choice of process etc.

In this example, aluminium was chosen as the material, and riveting was chosen as the process. This example also illustrates how the Vanguard System modelling tool automatically combines units appropriately.

Figure 2 shows the cube translated and visualised using SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics).

Figure 2. Translation to SVG Visualisation
This shows the interactive version of the diagram that works in Internet Explorer using the Adobe SVG viewer 3 http://www.cems.uwe.ac.uk/~phale/SVGCubeExample/CubePartDefinitionwithCosts.htm - SVG Viewer download - http://www.adobe.com/svg/viewer/install/.

Next the implementation of this research was illustrated with the more complex example of an aircraft wingbox, using the same approach.

Friday, September 18, 2009

Collaboration and Process Modelling in Engineering and Business using Visualisation and Semantic Web techniques - Conclusion and Further Research

Conclusion

Test implementations assisted with :-

Providing clarity for process modelling and management, by creating a structured open standard visual modelling environment that is usable by non-programmers.

* Collaboration, dissemination, reuse and sharing of models using web applications and services.

* Enabling people to model at a high level of abstract conceptual modelling, thereby producing better process models using tools that model at domain level, rather than at code level.

* Development of Semantic Web based process modelling to provide the means for visualisation and calculation/sequencing, together with a decision support engine for model creation and retrieval.

* Increased user involvement for model development allows savings in cost and time taken for process modelling.

* Enhanced availability of process models and interactive visualisation of model results using web browser based software, this will also be an important teaching resource.
Identification of improvements to process efficiency and effectiveness.

* Better interoperability of models and ability to identify common problems missed during creation of standalone spreadsheets. Increased model detail and ease of upgrade with layered architecture of open standard languages to eliminate inconsistencies and allow better decision making.

* New ways of enabling end user interaction, with collaborative development of process models that will allow people more scope to solve problems.

*Enabling task based access to Semantic Web information, e.g. by employees and home users who have no knowledge or interest in the Semantic Web, but who will use tools for particular tasks.

This research tested first steps towards helping to solve problems caused by lack of collaborative modelling in process design. This could also bridge the gap between industry and those advocating the use of modelling/programming using Semantic Web techniques, to improve efficiency and effectiveness.

This research has potential benefit for any problem where end user programming using Semantic Web technology is applicable. This is a very broad range, involving most modelling. The particular areas where the research is most transferable are manufacturing and business modelling, e-learning and provision of models for public understanding of science and engineering, and health and science taxonomy/ontology management.

The research in this field has reinforced the view that Semantic Web based process modelling is an appropriate and robust means of achieving end user objectives. If domain experts are not involved in creation of the model, there is no proper way for the knowledge they are encoding to emerge, or for proper collaboration. This is necessary as each expert is best focused on encapsulating the part of the model that they are most expert in. People need to be involved in model creation if they are to understand the model, decision, and how the decision was made. So there is a need for end user modelling/programming to enable this. Full automation hinders user involvement and traceability, so semi-automated systems that interact with end users and assist with all stages of the model decision are better. If a person goes straight to the answer how can it be expected that they fully understood the question?

Breaking complex mathematics into modularised traceable steps eases management of it, and visualisation, and allows modelling of different scenarios, and these scenarios demonstrate the emergent properties of the model, enabling decision support. BiDirectional Traceability is needed, traceability between nodes/sub-models, and between models, and between suppliers and buyers.

The research made some progress towards allowing end users to concentrate on the domain to be modelled rather than on computing technologies. This research can enable collaborative modelling and interaction, via applying end user programming techniques to enable domain experts such as engineers and business people to create and interact with the knowledge representation themselves, and co-operate to ensure the representations are useful for addressing their problems, with less software creation barriers. Software developers need to enable such systems to make this all possible.

Existing ontologies can be extended for modelling of software systems and engineering systems e.g. PSL, STEPML, UML, SysML can be extended/adapted for use in particular problems.

Further Research

An editing facility to model these equations, and constraints, so that errors could be prevented, will improve the usability of visual process modelling systems. This should enable standardisation of the representation of mathematical expressions that relate nodes, and their values and expressions; this requires a user interface that enables complex mathematical structures to be conveyed by language and/or diagrammatic visualisation. The next stage in the research will be provision of constraints to prevent invalid mathematical expressions. Background research has been undertaken into this. Mathematical modelling can help deal with the complex interactions and calculations necessary for process modelling. Miller and Baramidze (2005) examine efforts to develop mathematical semantic representations above the syntactical representations of MathML, and the need for rigorous definitions of mathematical concepts. They also explain ontology languages OWL (Web Ontology Language) and SWRL (Semantic Web Rule Language), which can be used for open standard ontology based process modelling. Miller and Baramidze's DEMO system uses OWL to define a simulation and modelling class hierarchy. Elenius et al. (2005) show how an OWL-S editor can be used for creating process modelling and web service environments.

Further research is needed into modelling based on SWRL, to model conditional statements, and OWL-S Editor (Elenius et al., 2005) with UML style diagrams, together with investigation and use of online search facilities for services and process models. The reusable process architectures and process models held in an ontology, could also be translated as necessary between OWL-S and BPEL (Business Process Execution Language) representations. Also, Meta-Programming and Rule-based languages could be used to develop an interface to an end user programming environment. Models could be encoded and checked via languages such as MathLang (Kamareddine et el., 2005).

References

Elenius D, Denker G, Martin D, Gilham F, Khouri J, Sadaati S, Senanayake R, 2005. The OWL-S Editor - A Development Tool for Semantic Web Services, The Semantic Web: Research and Applications, Springer Berlin / Heidelberg.

Kamareddine F, Maarek M, Wells J B, 2005, Toward an Object-Oriented Structure for Mathematical Text, Mathematical Knowledge Management, 4th Int'l Conf., Proceedings LNCS Springer-Verlag.

Miller J A, Baramidze G, 2005, Simulation and the Semantic Web, 2005 Winter Simulation Conference.

Friday, September 11, 2009

Petition forces No 10 apology to WWII code breaker Alan Turing

"PM apology after Turing petition" - BBC News update - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8249792.stm

Gordon Brown has said he was sorry for the "appalling" way World War II code breaker Alan Turing was treated for being gay.

A petition on the No 10 website had called for a posthumous government apology to the computer pioneer.

In 1952 Turing was prosecuted for gross indecency after admitting a sexual relationship with a man. Two years later he killed himself.

The campaign was the idea of computer scientist John Graham-Cumming.

He was seeking an apology for the way the mathematician was treated after his conviction. He also wrote to the Queen to ask for Turing to be awarded a posthumous knighthood.

The campaign was backed by Ian McEwan, scientist Richard Dawkins and gay-rights campaigner Peter Tatchell. The petition posted on the Downing Street website attracted thousands of signatures.

Mr Brown said: "While Mr Turing was dealt with under the law of the time and we can't put the clock back, his treatment was of course utterly unfair and I am pleased to have the chance to say how deeply sorry I and we all are for what happened to him."

Profile: Alan Turing - BBC - Tortured Genius - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8250592.stm.

Wednesday, September 09, 2009

VoCampBristol 2009 - Thursday 10th, Friday 11th September

These are the details for - The 9th ever VoCamp, and the first in Bristol.

Thursday 10th and Friday 11th September 2009. Note that this date has been changed due to a conflict - http://vocamp.org/wiki/VoCampBristol2009.

WhatIsVoCamp

What's the Problem?

Continued growth of the Web of Data/Semantic Web is heavily dependent on the availability of vocabularies/ontologies that can be used to publish data. While a number of key vocabularies are in widespread use, there are also many areas with little or no vocabulary coverage, hindering the ability to publish data in these domains.

Peter Mika outlines some of the issues he sees with the current state of vocabularies on the Semantic Web in his blog post What’s wrong with vocabularies on the Semantic Web?
What is VoCamp?

VoCamp is a series of informal events where people can spend some dedicated time creating lightweight vocabularies/ontologies for the Semantic Web/Web of Data. The emphasis of the events is not on creating the perfect ontology in a particular domain, but on creating vocabs that are good enough for people to start using for publishing data on the Web. The intention is to follow a "paper first, laptops second" format, where the modelling is done initially on paper and only later committed to code. The VoCamp idea is influenced by BarCamp, although the emphasis is different. Whereas BarCamps are oriented to demos and presentations, VoCamps are oriented to hands-on technical work and practical outputs; any presentations and demos should be short, highly on-topic to the vocabulary development process, and limited in number, to leave plenty of time for hacking on new vocabularies.

What Next?
The first VoCamp event took place in Oxford, UK in September 2008 (VoCampOxford2008), the second took place in Galway, Ireland in November 2008 (VoCampGalway2008), and the third, and first ever in the US took place in Austin, Texas (VoCampAustin2009) followed immediately by another one in Ibiza, Spain in April 2009 (VoCampIbiza2009).

Thursday, September 03, 2009

User Driven Modelling/Programming Definition

User Driven Modelling/Programming - is a technique for combining visualised colour coded and linked equations, into a system which models a whole program, and visualises the entirety of a program that performs modelling/calculation. This system is created via a collaborative ontology/database and translated in an automated way from the information source to the result output, in order to allow computer end-users to create programs/models, and link these, and in order for programmers to create program development systems. This is a human/computer translation and system creation system.

A particular research area I want and need to research is that of developing a modelling/programming user interface further in order to simplify tasks enough that non-programmer engineers can begin to program/model.

My research is described on my Google Sites pages - http://sites.google.com/site/userdrivenmodellingprogramming/.