How Ontology and Modelling Tools were chosen for my PhD

The modelling tool Vanguard System was chosen because it handles Units and uncertainty well something that was necessary for the DATUM project with Rolls-Royce as partners (Scanlan et. al, 2006). The same advantage was the case for the PhD because of the need for extensibility such as risk and uncertainty modelling. Other advantages of Vanguard System were ease of installation and use, ease of linking to spreadsheets and databases, facilities for web enabling of models, and the ease with which formulae can be entered and linked with a high level programming language where necessary (similar to spreadsheets but with a tree based user interface). Experimentation with Protégé showed it was possible to translate the Protégé tree into a Vanguard System tree. This fit in well with the stepped translation to be developed. The open standard nature of Protégé made it possible to use this software without being locked in to it. Tools such as TopBraid Composer can provide additional higher level functionality such as an improved user interface and more tools for user interaction and modelling by end-users so is future work.
There was a need for the DATUM project and for the PhD to minimise programming, so Jena was not used, but Leavers' (2008) MSc project used this effectively, and there was regular contact with the developers of ACUITy (Aragones et. al., 2006), to examine how that more software centred approach was used. Given more time that approach could have been used. Metatomix M3t4 was also used effectively as a high level tool to interact with Jena. So results of research with Jena and/or ACUITy and m3t4 would have shown similar results to the approach of using Protégé and Vanguard System.
These types of tools improve with research and development each year so reproducing this research is becoming easier. New ways of modelling at high level with involvement of end-users is thus practical.

References

Jena - A Semantic Web Framework for Java [online]. Available from: http://jena.sourceforge.net/ [Accessed 21 April 2011].

Leaver, N. (2008) Using RDF as an Enabling Technology. MSc. Dissertation, University of the West of England, Bristol.

Metatomix M3t4 Dashboard [online]. Available from: http://wiki.m3t4.com/homepage.action [Accessed 21 April 2011].

Protégé Welcome to Protégé [online]. Available from: http://protege.stanford.edu/
[Accessed 21 April 2011].

Scanlan, J., Rao, A., Bru, C., Hale, P., Marsh, R., 2006. DATUM Project: Cost Estimating Environment for Support of Aerospace Design Decision Making. Journal of Aircraft, 43(4).

TopBraid Composer, The Complete Semantic Modeling Toolset [online]. Available from: http://www.topquadrant.com/products/TB_Composer.html [Accessed 21 April 2011].

Vanguard System [online]. Available from: http://www.vanguardsw.com/solutions/application/modeling-and-simulation/
[Accessed 21 April 2011].

Open Standard Layered Architecture Tools

This diagram examines my thinking for 2009-10. This reflects the need to build up from layers of simpler generic information representation and tools that are generic. For representation of information this is more high level and more customised, less generic from right to left. For modelling this is more high level and less generic from bottom to top. Greater use of computer to human translation increases the modelling capabilities. Good interoperability improves the ease of translation, and the layering of simpler information formats with more complex and less generic layers built on top.

Thus it is possible to build on layers of generic solutions from bottom right, and get as far as possible towards the top left, building re-usable solutions before at some point building a final layer of a more customised less generic solution.

This approach maximises re-use and improves maintenance.

Open Standard Layered Architecture for computer to human translation

This diagram shows a central infrastructure of an open standards layered architecture. This enables interoperability at the Computer to computer layer. This gives advantages to developers for maintenance and re-use. This infrastructure aids translation from computer and developers upwards, to end users. Visualising the model/program structure translated upward from code to a navigable interactive visualisation enables accessibility, thus assisting with modelling and end user programming. This infrastructure that aids computer to computer interoperability thus also aids human to human collaboration. This all aids ease of use and re-use of models/programs also.

So far this translation has been enabled upwards from computer to human. Future research could involve translation from human to computer and interaction to make this an iterative, interactive life-cycle process.