By Teodor Ghetiu
Imaginary dialog with a normal(ised) scientist:
Q: Do you respect Nature?
A: Respect? Nature? I work based on academic principles! I follow an academic conduct and the rules of common sense. Full stop.
Q: Do you know Nature?
A: That’s a question without an answer. I don’t think there is such a thing. We study it, we uncover it step by step… Look, I can certainly speak to you all day about this and that. I can read to you a whole enciclopedia… There will probably never be a definitive answer.
Q: Do you learn from Nature?
A: What do you mean? You mean, to learn something for my own benefit? What, you see me looking like a plant? Has my IQ dropped to that of a beaver? We study Nature, we find out interesting things, we make technological improvements, but still… it is not intelligent. Let’s keep this dialogue within academic confines!
Q: Why do you invest time studying it?
Q: How does it help you? …No, I mean You… Again, that is an indirect benefit; you are not a community, nor a potential user, neither a company.
To be continued (and explained).
By Teodor Ghetiu
Several groups in the Department of Computer Science, University of York, use argumentation structures to document a quality related case. In NSC, the CoSMoS project is developing the infrastructure and processes needed for modelling and simulating complex systems: argumentation structures are being used to record the rationale for simulation and the basis of believing that the simulation is adequate for its purpose. In HISE, argumentation has been used for many years in the presentation and analysis of safety cases. Both groups use the Goal Structuring Notation (GSN) to represent arguments.
Currently, GSN argumentation is supported by either commercial tools, or a flaky Microsoft Visio plug-in. The tools are notation-only, and do not provide any supporting material about the argument. There is at least one metamodel for the argumentation concepts.
 Example of GSN argument A summer intern is required to undertake a feasibility study to review existing argumentation tools and to initiate development of a new open-source argumentation-environment tool that supports GSN argument summaries and supporting material. One possible approach to the tool, which the intern would investigate and possibly start work on, is to use model-driven-engineering techniques to derive a tool from the metamodels, and to use a wiki (or similar) as the basis for supporting material. Linking the wiki and the notation tool, and the extent to which any syntactic and semantic checking could, or should, be applied to the arguments, would be areas that the intern could also address.
Applicants should ideally have completed two years of a degree in computer science, electronics, or a related subject (or three years of an MEng). The post is for up to 10 weeks over summer 2010 and is paid at the standard University rate (approximately £230 per week).
The intern must be willing and able to do independent research (reading, review) on argumentation tools and techniques and would need to initiate interaction with researchers using GSN in the Department, to identify and critique other argumentation tools and techniques, and to identify requirements and a development plan for the argumentation framework. An ideal outcome would include development of the argumentation environment, which requires either a knowledge of model-driven engineering (e.g. Computer Science modules in “modelling and design of systems”, “object-oriented design” or equivalent software engineering with a modelling orientation; industrial experience of model-driven engineering), or alternatively a strong knowledge of Java and the Eclipse programming environments.
Successful applicants will be good at problem solving and will be driven/ motivated to succeed. By completing this internship, the successful applicant will gain practical experience of:
- independent tool/technique research and review
- practical tool development
- model-driven engineering, specifically of domain specific languages
For further information, contact Dr Fiona Polack at fiona.polack@cs.york.ac.uk.
By Jenny Owen
CoSMoS needs a summer intern to develop a hardware extension to our robots. The lucky intern will get to work on a real robot and will learn a whole lot about robotics, hardware and engineering along the way. That sort of thing looks great on a CV, plus you get paid! Here’s a photo of one of the robots, we have a total of 18:
It’s a really great opportunity if you didn’t manage to get a summer placement in industry this year. I wish I could do it but unfortunately the CoSMoS project ends with my PhD and it can’t be extended for 10 weeks. In my opinion, the most important requirement from an applicant is that they know about microcontrollers, can code in C and can design circuits. An intern which knows or has done more stuff would be nice, but it’s well worth applying for even if you don’t: It’s better to have a proactive and enthusiastic intern who’ll need to do some extra learning than someone who has the knowledge but won’t do anything.
Full job description and application details are below.
Continue reading Come work for us!
By Tim Hoverd
Another CoSMoS paper is being presented at the ALife XII conference which takes in Odense in August.
The paper is related to my PhD work, and in particular what I started out doing, back in the mists of time, relating to Chris Alexander’s Nature of Order. Chris is an architect, of the building variety, and this work relates to his ideas about how the built environment should, and in some cases does, evolve to preserve some properties he thinks important.
In a nutshell,we built a bit of software that places blobs in a two-dimensional space in a manner that attempts to mimic some of Chris’s properties. In particular ones that he calls Positive Space and Levels of Scale. The idea is that, to some extent, the diagrams look rather like city plans, especially the ones for ancient cities that have arisen from geography, geology and centuries [...]
By Teodor Ghetiu
Hello everyone!
Here are two new papers being prepared for press, by your very own CoSMoS researchers. Topics range from evolution and swarm robotics, to validation and structured means of argumentation.
Endulge !
Exploiting Loose Horizontal Coupling in Evolutionary Swarm Robotics – ANTS 2010
Jenny Owen, Susan Stepney, Jon Timmis and Alan Winfield
Abstract: “We describe a theory from Herbert Simon that links the structure of complex systems to increased speed of evolution, and argue the position that this theory can be beneficial to evolutionary swarm robotic research.
We propose a way of applying this theory to evolutionary swarm robotic systems by manually designing the robot to robot communication mechanisms and keeping these constant, whilst evolving the rest of the robots’ behaviours. This allows for robots to evolve independently of each other without breaking any inter-dependencies that may exist between robots in the swarm. Finally [...]
By Mark Read
I have recently returned from a very engaging visit with my collaborator in San Diego. Through my PhD we’ve had a good run at investigating EAE (a mouse proxy for multiple sclerosis, which he investigates in the lab) through modelling and simulation. Alas, PhD is nearing its 3 year deadline, and so we are looking into alternative funding opportunities to continue the work. We talked a lot about calibration of the simulation, and as such I’m currently performing a literature survey of modelling/simulation based biological research. Simulation offers a great deal of flexibility to the researcher, in computer code it is very easy to turn on and off molecule expressions that might be quite difficult to engineer into, say, a mouse. But, this raises an interesting question: with all this power to represent whatever might take one’s fancy, how can you be sure that your simulation [...]
By Teodor Ghetiu
Hi there.
It’s been a while since the last CoSMoS infusion patterned the website in shapes of smiley travellers and Yorkshire geese. This is, of course, not the only activity we’re undertaking within the project. Many “brainstormy” things have happened during our Kent meeting and this will certainly lead to more scientific delights being delivered on this blog.
The delights are still in the making so, until then, I’ll be blogging about the website updates we’re planning for the summer. In this direction, we are interested in receiving any feedback and thoughts from you — just send your wishes through the contact form; they will be warmly welcomed. Here are some of the plans for the new website:
Publications: a new, more compact template will be used for displaying publications. We also intend to link in presentation slides that accompanied various conference papers.
Demos: separate pages will be dedicated to the [...]
By Teodor Ghetiu
Tick tock, tick tock… and the CoSMoS “workers” are on their way to Kent University, for another fabulo-important meeting. Some of us are called workers because… hmm, this is what we actually are: a variably sized-group of Research Assistants and Research Students from the Universities of York and Kent, doing work for the common good of the modelling and simulating community.
This time of the year we’ve got a good selection of topics, ranging from Adam Sampson‘s thoughts on decoupling different facets of computer simulations (e.g. their visualisation, data analysis, spatial representation), to Antonio Gomez Zamorano‘s work on FPGA-based computer simulations and more. Let’s not forget Tim Hoverd with his secret weapon, “emergent architecture” and Teodor Ghetiu‘s (yes, me) Argument-Driven Validation. The icing on the cake is provided by Jenny Owen, who will shed more light [...]
By Paul Andrews
The final call for papers for the CoSMoS 2010 workshop is out. Deadline for submissions has been extended for a week to the [...]
By Teodor Ghetiu
The second call for papers for the 3rd Complex Systems Modelling and Simulation Workshop, is out! This year, the CoSMoS Workshop is collocated with ALife XII, conference focussed on “critical properties of living systems”.
Here is more from the CFP:
Constructing models and simulations of complex systems is a challenging and interdisciplinary task. Elements might include choice of modelling tools and techniques, simulation infrastructures, concurrency, the process of moving from models to simulations, arguing validity of simulations, and the identification of reusable engineering techniques such as patterns. The CoSMoS workshop series is part of a four-year initiative, based at the Universities of York and Kent, UK, to develop a framework and infrastructure for the construction of of generic complex systems simulations.
We are seeking papers on the engineering aspects of the modelling and simulation of complex systems, with a focus on complex living systems. Areas of interest include, but are [...]
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