Keywords: model-driven engineering, executable models, functional properties, testing, UML, fUML, activity diagrams
Astract: Software industry is constantly looking for ways to improve the productivity of the software development process, as well as the quality and durability of the developed software product. A significant factor behind the difficulty of developing complex software is the wide conceptual gap between the problem and the implementation domain of a developed solution. Model Driven Software Engineering (MDSE) is an approach to software development whose aim is the automation of the development process through the specification of models containing domain specific knowledge of the system under development, and transformation of such models into the implementation of the system. Based on the premise that the implementation code is not the main result of the development process, but rather the system knowledge encoded inside the models, starting point in MDSE are the conceptual and implementation independent models of the domain knowledge which are then transformed, according to some formal rules, into implementations on selected target environments. One of the important issues when using the MDSE approach is that once the implementation artifacts are produced from the models, any existing defects at the model level get transferred to the implementation level, where it is more expensive, in terms of time and effort, to detect and correct them. To improve the development process when using a model driven approach, adequate means for detecting and correcting defects already on the model level are necessary. One of the most popular modeling languages in MDSE is the Unified Modeling Language (UML), a standard by the Object Management Group (OMG). UML is composed of thirteen diagram types, which can be used for specifying structural and behavioral aspects of a software system. In order to support the execution of models defined with UML, OMG introduced a standard called Semantics of a Foundational Subset for Executable UML Models (fUML), which defines the operational semantics for a subset of UML. Furthermore, a reference implementation of an interpreter that can execute fUML compliant models exists. The goal of this thesis is to utilize this precise and standardized specification of the semantics and the interpreter of fUML in order to address the lack of testing facilities for fUML models,

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Astract: Starting point/Motivation Studies show that there is significant potential for efficiency gain in energy systems encompassing not just a single building but entire building complexes. However, the expectations of building developers, operators and residents regarding performance (incl. energy cost, comfort, etc.) could not be met. The difficulties in the planning and construction process and the unexpected effects on energy supply systems can generally be traced back to the lack of insight and understanding of complex resource and energy efficient systems and to communication problems among the involved stakeholders. Contents and Objectives Currently, there is a shortage of appropriate tools that support planers during the renovation process of existing buildings or the planning of new buildings. Such tools should enable the development of consistent scenarios encompassing both the energy supply system and the typical behaviour of energy end-consumers. Energy suppliers on the other hand need tools that can take technological innovations in the building sector into account to determine a load and supply behaviour consistent with that of the end-consumers. The project aims to provide support for the optimisation of the planning process both of buildings and of energy supply networks within the context of the entire urban system. Methods The method for classification of energy end-consumer behaviour in an urban environment developed in project Simultan determines the spatial distribution of typical behaviours by means of a survey and by subsequently aggregating the findings according to region, residential unit and net living space area. Significant parameters of the various behaviour types were evaluated and compared within their urban context. Subsequently those parameters were analysed and their significance with regard to the "resident-sensitive" modelling of the energy end-consumer in urban areas was determined. This analysis provided the foundation for the definition of multiple development scenarios for the urban energy supply systems considering the potential of building technology. The impact of the various tariff models on the total cost of heat supply for single residential buildings in three categories as well as the resulting designs of new tariff models were tested. The requirement for support of an integral, simultaneous planning process of optimised building complexes resulted in the development of a tool for decision support on the level of a single building as well as on the level of a building complex. The design process was iterative and ran in cooperation with specialist planers in the areas of architecture, building physics and building services. This resulted in the design of data models and algorithms for comparative evaluation and analysis of technical measures for increasing the resiliency and efficiency of buildings while staying within the limits of pre-defined cost parameters. The interactive aspect of the planning process was tested within the context of several scenarios and optimized for efficiency and for compliance with the liability and warranty regulations. One residential and one office building were the main use cases for evaluating the tool in regard to the design of a ventilation system, the display and editing of geometry, the placement of components, the calculation of various system parameters (e.g. U value, pressure loss, shading, thermal loads, etc.), as well as the translation to external data models. Results The main result of project Simultan is the development of a decision support system for simultaneous integrated multi-disciplinary planning of highly energy efficient building complexes, which can be utilised additionally as an analysis and fine-tuning tool for energy supply network planning. The simulations on an urban level generated as part of the project were used as the basis for the design of multiple urban energy supply network development scenarios. These contributed to the improved understanding of the urban energy landscape and, consequently, to the development of new tariff models serving as additional motivation for finding efficient energy solutions in building development. Novel metrics for detecting malware in networks and a list of corresponding countermeasures were devised in the area of cyber security. The resulting complex informational landscape is presented in a web based information visualisation tool that incorporates multiple levels of detail - from a single building to an entire urban district. Furthermore, a tool for interactive integrated planning was implemented. It uses the geometry as one of the main interfaces for information exchange between different components of the data model belonging to the various stakeholders. Neighbourhood relationships, aggregation, limited-by or contained-in relationships are thus automatically translated into data structures. The tool enables the definition of calculations based on component parameters, network topology, zone, building or building complex groups. Those can be based on elementary mathematical functions, graph evaluations within networks, or on complex web based simulations. The tool uses its own data model. It is a linked hierarchical component collection - a component can have parameters, calculations and sub-components and an arbitrary number of other components can reference each component. The tools offers an upgradable translation service that enables the user to define a mapping between (parts of) this internal data model and (parts of) external data models of varying complexity. This facilitates the communication with external specialized tools. An interface to an individually configurable GIT server allows version control and support of project data managed by multiple stakeholders. Prospects / Suggestions for future research The tools developed in the context of project Simultan have a multitude of interfaces. Their number can be further expanded by implementing current and future communication and data exchange standards - e.g. BIM. This should enable loss- and distortion-free information exchange with other tools, developed for various other aspects of the planning and management process. Another open question is the timely detection and informative display of conflicts (e.g. several users working on the same wall) and the support of a real-time expert solution by providing appropriate procedures, visualisation and management methods. It is one of the most significant aspects of an efficient interactive planning tool. There are two follow-up projects based on the knowledge gained in project Simultan - one in cooperation with Flughafen Wien Schwechat and a Smart City FFG project. As part of those the interfaces to external tools and the usability of the Simultan tool are being developed further.

Keywords: transfer montioring, knowledge measurement, framework, innovation course
Astract: The measurement of the knowledge change of employees as well as the transfer is discussed in this thesis. Although these two terms are often used synonymously, there is a difference between them. Learning is adapting to a situation whereas transfer is applying the knowledge to similar situations. There are many approaches to measuring learning success or transfer, most of which originate in educational science. In this thesis we consider the special case of innovation courses, where there are further requirements that must be met. Unfortunately, the existing frameworks are not designed for these requirements and are therefore not sufficient. An innovation course is a long-term course in which employees of companies are taught in a certain topic. Such an innovation course consists of several modules for which both the measurement of learning success and knowledge transfer for the participants must take place. To achieve this and to make the measurements repeatable and objective, we have developed a framework. We use the Design Science Approach to develop the framework. However, the goal is not to create a static artefact that can only be applied to the course of our case study, but to design a framework that is also easily adaptable and applicable in other innovation courses or in a similar environment. To test and improve the framework, we use it in four modules of the DigiTrans 4.0 innovation course. For three of the four modules of our case study, the difference between the knowledge before the module and at the end is statistically significant. We also create linear models to explain or predict the transfer. The models are created with and without heteroscedasticity adjustment. The results of the models are slightly different, but show a common trend, which originates from the same background formula. Since these characteristics are known in the literature of knowledge transfer, the framework created is well suited for measuring the transfer.

Keywords: Ruby, EMF Profiles, UML Profiles, Transformations
Astract: Model Engineering gets more important in software development because of the increasing use of models. At the same it is important the adapt and extend existing models. But this is sometimes not possible. For example the model was developed from somebody else or the model is used in another project and it is necessary to keep the compatibility. Therefore several lightweight extension mechanism have been developed. For example UML profile for UML diagrams or EMF profiles for standard diagrams of the Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF). They allow to extend an already existing model without changing the original one. But unfortunately they have some drawbacks. Only a few transformation languages have a support for lightweight extensions and if they do only very basic. ATL can only access the profile with the underlying Java API. With RubyTL it is not possible to process profiles at all. This thesis covers the development of an extension which enables RubyTL to process EMF and UML profiles. Thereby should the extension be not integrated into the RubyTL code. This will be done with model processors. They integrate the profile into the existing model. Due to the circumstance that the profile is now a complete part of the diagram it is possible that the transformation language can access the stereotypes. Furthermore should it be possible to use the model processors for other transformation languages, like ATL. The goal is to enable the use of UML and EMF profiles also for other transformation languages. But they do not get integrated into the language. The model processors are used from a command line interface (CLI). The feasibility of the approach is demonstrated by using transformations to apply and read profile information in RubyTL and ATL. The resulting ATL transformations are also compared with ATL transformations using the basic ATL support based on the Java API for UML.

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Astract: OPC Unified Architecture (UA) is a powerful and versatile platform for hosting information from a large variety of domains. In some cases, the domain-specific information models provide overlapping information, such as (i) different views on a specific entity or (ii) different levels of detail of a single entity. Emerging from a multi-disciplinary engineering process, these different views can stem from various tools that have been used to deal with that entity, or from different stages in an engineering process, e.g., from requirements engineering over system design and implementation to operations. In this work, we provide a small but expressive set of OPC UA reference types that unobtrusively allow the persistent instantiation of additional knowledge with respect to relations between OPC UA nodes. We will show the application of these reference types on the basis of a rendezvous of AutomationML and ISA-95 in an OPC UA server.

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Astract: IEC 62264-2 and AutomationML can co-exist as separate views on the same production system, but there is some overlap with respect to the definitions of the entities in IEC 62264-2 and AutomationML. Therefore, a semantic alignment of entities as well as two methods for integration are proposed: (i) tagging AutomationML elements with IEC 622664-2 roles and (ii) referencing external IEC 62264-2 data.

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Astract: A key challenge for elastic business processes is the resource-efficient scheduling of cloud resources in such a way that Quality-of-Service levels are met. So far, this has been difficult, since existing approaches use a coarse-granular resource allocation based on virtual machines. In this paper, we present a technique that provides fine-granular resource scheduling for elastic processes based on containers. In order to address the increased complexity of the respective scheduling problem, we develop a novel technique called GeCo based on genetic algorithms. Our evaluation demonstrates that in comparison to a baseline that follows an ad hoc approach a cost saving between 32.90% and 47.45% is achieved by GeCo while considering a high service level.

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Astract: Matchmaking and cooperation are interactions widely available within internet-based platforms. However, to start using such functionality, one must first become a member of the platform. In an effort to push matchmaking and cooperation into the protocol stack of the Web, we demonstrate how an existing taxi service is integrated with a decentralized Web based infrastructure, the Web of Needs (WoN), using a chatbot that can be programmed declaratively to enter into certain types of agreements with users. The bot mediates between an existing Web service and users of the RDF-based WoN network.