Accepted Papers

About

Following the tradition of previous conferences, MODELS 2021 will host tutorials as part of its satellite events on Sun 10 - Fri 15 October 2021.

Tutorials provide intensive overviews on topics in the area of model-based software and systems engineering ranging from modeling methodologies and research methods through new modeling tools and technologies to thoughts on the past, current, and future development of the modeling discipline.

Audience

Tutorials target an audience of practitioners, researchers (academic and industrial), students, and developers familiar with, and already working with, modeling techniques. The target audience typically has a strong interest in Model-Driven Engineering (MDE), including work on improving and evolving modeling languages (such as UML and DSLs), developing sophisticated MDE tool support, and using MDE to develop / test / reverse / maintain complex systems. Potential attendees may also be interested in how modeling has been applied effectively in specialized domains (e.g., in the automotive industry), and in learning about successful uses of MDE methods in real-world applications.

Topics

The following themes are examples of what is considered relevant for tutorials:

• Modeling techniques for specific domains (e.g., automobile, cyber-physical and hybrid systems, Industry 4.0, Internet of Things )
• Modeling methodologies and model-oriented processes (e.g., for agile modelling or modelling at scale)
• AI in modelling (including search*based approaches, machine learning, planning, or flexible modelling)
• Presentation of new tools or new versions of old tools (e.g., modeling tools, language workbenches, model transformation languages, model verification tools, model execution tools)
• Dissemination of project results from industry-related projects
• Teaching of model-driven software development
• Research methods in MD* (Model-Driven Development (MDD), Model Driven Engineering (MDE), Model Driven Software Development (MDSD), etc.)
• Modeling for re-engineering and legacy evolution
• Empirical studies in the context of modeling
• User experience in model-based software engineering
• Practical experiences of general interest
• General topics of interest to young researchers, like presentation skills or research methodologies

Tutorials are intended to provide independent instructions on a topic of relevance to the audience described above. Therefore, no sales-oriented presentations will be accepted. Tutorials relating to commercial tools or involving the use of commercial tools may be accepted, but will be subject to closer scrutiny, including possible approval of presentation slides. Potential presenters should keep in mind that there may be quite a varied audience, including novice graduate students, seasoned practitioners, and specialized researchers. Tutorial speakers should be prepared to cope with this diversity.

EasyChair Link: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=tutorialsmodels2021

Proposal Contents

All submissions must be in English and adhere to the IEEE formatting instructions. The submission must include the following information in the indicated order:

• Title
• Presenters: Name, affiliation, contact information, and short bio.
• Authors of the proposal or tutorial material, who are not going to be presenting, may be listed, but must be listed last with a footnote “Author only; will not be presenting”.
• Abstract (maximum of 200 words) If accepted, the abstract will be used to advertise the tutorial. Thus, the abstract should clearly highlight the goals of the tutorial and the skills that participants will acquire.
• Keywords (at least 5 keywords)
• Proposed length (suggestion: up to 1.5-2 hours)
• Level of the tutorial: beginner/introduction or advanced Target audience and any prerequisite background required by attendees to be able to follow the tutorial (beyond average modeling skills)
• Description of the tutorial and intended outline (maximum of 4 pages)
• Novelty of the tutorial
• List offerings of similar tutorials at previous editions of the MODELS conference or other conferences, and discuss the differences with respect to the current proposal.
• Required infrastructure: Explicitly specify the adaptations and actions you intend to do in order to make the tutorial suitable for a virtual environment.
• Sample slides (minimum of 6 slides, maximum of 25 slides)
• Supplementary material (optional)

Proposals must be submitted electronically in PDF format through the MODELS 2021 Tutorials EasyChair submission page (To be available).

Review Process

The Tutorials Selection Committee will review each submitted proposal to ensure high quality, and select tutorials based on their anticipated benefit for prospective participants and their fit within the tutorial program as a whole. Factors to be considered also include: relevance, timeliness, importance, and audience appeal; effectiveness of teaching methods; and past experience and qualifications of the instructors. The goal will be to provide a diverse set of tutorials that attracts a high level of interest among broad segments of the MODELS participants.

Note that, as per previous policy, tutorials are not included in the proceedings of the conference companion.

Compensation

As in previous years, participants will pay a single satellite fee, which will cover both tutorials and workshops. This permits unifying the treatment of workshops and tutorials, and it makes tutorials more attractive to attendees. Under this scheme, tutorial presenters will not receive monetary compensation, and will have to pay their own registration to the satellite events. By submitting a tutorial proposal, the presenter accepts that there will be no compensation for giving the tutorial if accepted and that the registration fees for the instructors have to be funded by the instructors themselves. The benefit to the presenter is the opportunity to extend their sphere of influence to the MODELS community.

[T1] E-CARGO and Role-Based Collaboration

ORGANIZER

Haibin Zhu (PhD, Professor, Department of Computer Science and Mathematics, Nipissing University)

ABSTRACT

Role-Based Collaboration (RBC) is a computational methodology that uses roles as the primary underlying mechanism to facilitate collaboration activities. It consists of a set of concepts, principles, models, processes, and algorithms.

RBC and its Environments - Classes, Agents, Roles, Groups, and Objects (E-CARGO) model have been developed to a powerful tool for investigating collaboration and complex systems. Related research has brought and will bring in exciting improvements to the development, evaluation, and management of systems including collaboration, services, clouds, productions, and administration systems. RBC and E-CARGO grow gradually into a strong fundamental methodology and model for exploring solutions to problems of complex systems including Collective Intelligence, Sensor Networking, Scheduling, Smart Cities, Internet of Things, Cyber-Physical Systems, and Social Simulation Systems.

Different from most modeling technologies discussed in the modeling community, E-CARGO is not a programming language. E-CARGO assists scientists and engineering to formalize abstract problems, which originally are taken as complex problems, and finally points out solutions to such problems including programming. Developing E-CARGO into a programming language is a long-term goal.

The E-CARGO model possesses all the preferred properties of a computational model. It has been verified by formalizing and solving significant problems in collaboration and complex systems, e.g., Group Role Assignment (GRA). With the help of E-CARGO, the methodology of RBC can be applied to solving various real-world problems. On the other hand, the details of each E-CARGO component are still open for revisions and renovations for specific fields to make the model easily applied. For example, in programming, we need to specify the primitive elements for each component of E-CARGO. When these primitive elements are well-specified, a new type of programming language can be developed and applied to solving general problems with software design and implementations.

In this tutorial, we examine the requirement of research on collaboration systems and technologies, discuss RBC and its model E-CARGO; review the related research achievements on RBC and E-CARGO in the past years; discuss those problems that have not yet been solved satisfactorily; present the fundamental methods to conduct research related to RBC and E-CRAGO and discover related problems; and analyze their connections with other cutting-edge fields. This tutorial aims at informing the research community of models that E-CARGO is a well-developed model and has been investigated and applied in many ways. The author welcome queries, reviews, studies, applications, and criticisms about E-CARGO.

As case studies of E-CARGO, GRA and its related problem models are inspired by delving into the details of the E-CARGO components and the RBC process. GRA can help solving related collaboration problems with the help of programming and optimization platforms. All the related Java codes are posted on Github.com: https://github.com/haibinnipissing/E-CARGO-Codes. The author welcomes interested researchers and practitioners to use these codes in their research and practice and contact the author if there are any questions about them.

Slides

[T2] Modeling and checking state-based component interfaces with CommaSuite

ORGANIZERS

Jozef Hooman, Ivan Kurtev

ABSTRACT

Given the importance of interfaces for component-based development, this tutorial introduces a modeling approach for state-based software interfaces. Interface models include the signature, a protocol state machine and constraints on timing and data. Also, constraints on relations between component interfaces can be specified in the context of a component model. Based on these models, a state diagram, a Word document, a monitor (based on runtime verification techniques), and test cases can be generated. The monitor and the test cases are used to check if a software implementation complies with the behavior specified in the model. The approach is supported by open-source tooling called CommaSuite, see https://www.eclipse.org/comma/. After an introduction to the approach and the modeling language, the participants will be asked to download the tool and perform a few exercises to get hands-on experience with the tool. Finally, we discuss how the method is used in a few high-tech companies for specifying and monitoring interfaces of reactive components.

Participants of the course are kindly requested to install the CommaSuite tool before the start of the tutorial, see https://www.eclipse.org/comma/site/download.html (the easiest way is to download the product).