Bruno Antunes

Context-based recommendation to support problem solving in software development

During the software development process, developers are often faced with problem solving situations. For instance, it is common the occurrence of exceptions, that originate stack traces in the Console View of the IDE. These situations motivate the developer to use the Web to search for information. However, there is a gap between the IDE and the Web, requiring developers to spend significant time searching for relevant information and navigating through web pages in a Web browser. We propose to process the information of exception stack traces and retrieve question-answering web resources to help developers. We developed a tool that integrates recommendation of question/answer web resources in Eclipse, according to the context of these exception stack traces. The results of a preliminary experimentation are promising, showing that our approach performs better than a simple keyword-based approach.

Using ontologies for software development knowledge reuse

As software systems become bigger and more complex, software developers need to cope with a growing amount of information and knowledge. The knowledge generated during the software development process can be a valuable asset for a software company. But in order to take advantage of this knowledge, the company must store and manage it for reuse. Ontologies are a powerful mechanism for representing knowledge and encoding its meaning. These structures can be used to model and represent the knowledge, stored in a knowledge management system, and classify it according to the knowledge domain that the system supports. This paper describes the Semantic Reuse System (SRS), which takes advantage of ontologies, represented using the knowledge representation languages of the Semantic Web, for software development knowledge reuse. We describe how this knowledge is stored and the reasoning mechanisms that support the reuse.

An approach to context-based recommendation in software development

A software developer programming in an object-oriented programming language deals with a source code structure that may contain hundreds of source code elements. These elements are commonly related to each other and working on a specific element may require the developer to access other related elements. We propose a recommendation approach that uses the context of the developer to retrieve and rank recommendations of relevant source code elements in the IDE. These recommendations provide a shortcut to reach the desired elements and increase the awareness of the developer in relation to elements that may be of interest in that moment. We have tested our approach with a group of developers and the results show that context has a promising role in predicting and ranking the source code elements needed by a developer at each moment.

Knowledge management using semantic web technologies: an application in software development

As software systems become bigger and more complex, software developers need to cope with a growing amount of information and knowledge. New supporting toolsfor management of knowledge created during softwaredevelopment and maintenance is a necessity felt in thesoftware industry. The knowledge generated during the software development process can be a valuable asset for a software company. But in order to take advantage of this knowledge, the company must acquire, store andmanage it for reuse. This paper describes SRS (Semantic Reuse System), a system for management and reuse of software development knowledge based on Semantic Web technologies. SRS enables software developers to submit knowledge that the system then analyzes and indexes for later use. We describe how the knowledge is represented and how the reasoning mechanisms support knowledge reuse.

Context-based search in software development

Software developers usually spend a large amount of time navigating their own source code or searching for a specific source code artifact they need to work with. We propose a context-based search approach that focuses in the source code artifacts that exist in the workspace of the developer. These artifacts are stored in a knowledge base and represented using ontologies. The contextual information of the developer is used to rank the search results according to their relevance for the developer. The results of an experiment performed with two groups of developers show that our approach has a positive impact in retrieving relevant artifacts for the developer, helping them find what they need more quickly and easily.

Context-based search to overcome learning barriers in software development

During the software development process, developers are often faced with problem solving situations that motivate the use of the Web to search for information. However, there is a gap between the IDE and the Web, requiring the developers to spend significant time searching for relevant information and navigating through web pages in a Web browser. We propose a tool that aim to aid developers overcoming the learning barriers that exist when working with technologies that they do not master, facilitating the access to question/answer web resources through a context-based search interface, integrated in the IDE. We present an example of use, to better understand our approach.

Experience with a Slow Control system based on industrial process control hardware and software for the XENON1T dark matter search

XENON1T is a next generation Dark Matter search experiment using 3.5 tons of liquid xenon for direct detection of Dark Matter. A dual-phase liquid xenon Time Projection Chamber (TPC) shielded below 1400 m of rock at the Gran Sasso underground laboratory in Italy serves as both target and detector. The TPC is inside a 10 m high by 9.5 m diameter water Cherenkov detector serving as an active muon veto. The Slow Control system is based on industrial process control hardware and software. It is now being used to commission the detector. The system provides secure monitoring and control by collaborators, shifters and experts at both local and remote locations. 3.5 tons of liquid xenon requires extreme care to guard the safety of the instrumentation and to prevent the loss of any of the high value xenon. The system consists of a distributed architecture of networked local control units with touch panels for local control. Critical operations can be guarded by requiring specific conditions to be satisfied before they are allowed to be executed. Two Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) computers provide active-passive redundancy. All operating parameters and their history are stored and can be displayed. Alarm messages are sent by email, cellular network and by pre-recorded voice over land telephone lines. Experience with both the benefits and the disadvantages of using industrial process control hardware and software are presented.

SDiC: context-based retrieval in eclipse

While working in an IDE, developers typically deal with a large number of different artifacts at the same time. The software development process requires that they repeatedly switch between different artifacts, which often depends on searching for these artifacts in the source code structure. We propose a tool that integrates context-based search and recommendation of source code artifacts in Eclipse. The artifacts are collected from the workspace of the developer and represented using ontologies. A context model of the developer is used to improve search and give recommendations of these artifacts, which are ranked according to their relevance to the developer. The tool was tested by a group of developers and the results show that contextual information has an important role in retrieving relevant information for developers.

An Approach to Context Modeling in Software Development

The contextual information associated to the work of a developer can be used to identify the source code artifacts that are more relevant at a specific point in time. This information is essential to reduce the effort spent by developers when searching for needed source code artifacts. We propose a context model that represents the focus of attention of the developer at each moment. This context model adapts automatically to changes in the focus of attention of the developer by detecting context transitions. We have developed a prototype that was submitted to an experiment with a group of developers. The results collected show that the use of our context model to rank, elicit and filter relevant source code elements for the developer is very promising.

Wireless multi-physiological signal monitor for clinical discharge and readmissions criteria setting and ambulatory usage

A monitoring system measuring 4 physiological variables (respiratory and cardiac frequencies, skin temperature and acceleration) has been developed and tested. Details on the electronics and software are discussed with emphasis on energetic autonomy. The general rules for selecting adequate sampling rates for each variable are discussed, considering its nature and the amount of storage data that it implies. The three levels of software that hat to be written and articulated: one that resides in the microcontroller, another one at the smartphone and a last one for data analysis, also are discussed. Some aspects of data analysis software that is meant to provide the medical staff with readily intelligible information, are also discussed. Results, collected in a small population of volunteers are shown and commented.