COMPUTATION TOOLS 2014 Tutorials

The Fifth International Conference on Computational Logics, Algebras, Programming, Tools, and Benchmarking

COMPUTATION TOOLS 2014

May 25 - 29, 2014 - Venice, Italy

Tutorials

T1. Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL)
by Prof. Dr. Klaus Schmidt, Illinois State University, USA

T2. Automatic Protocol Conformance Checking in Component-Based and Service-Oriented Systems
by Prof. Dr. Wolf Zimmermann, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany

T3. Some Lessons Learned in Developing an Introductory Online Undergraduate Statistics Course
by Prof. Dr. Eugene L. Round, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Worldwide Campus, Daytona Beach Florida, USA

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

T1. Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL)
by Prof. Dr. Klaus Schmidt, Illinois State University, USA

Information Technology plays a crucial role in providing support for successful business decisions [1]. With the growing demand for higher productivity and better quality from both internal and external customers, aligning IT services with business requirements has become essential. IT supports organizational demands and delivers information to support business strategies [2].

Intelligent business decisions and efficient IT alignment is challenging. Therefore organizations need to use IT in such a way that it informs and supports business strategies. As IT and business alignment increases, smooth functioning of business processes is essential. Since business requirements are in constant state of change, IT services need to optimize the challenges of changing business requirements.

The significance of a well-designed customer relationship continues to increase and therefore makes IT services with high customer focus imperative. In order to provide high quality services to customers, the customer expectations just like internal customers of any larger organization should be aligned with fluctuating business requirements. This challenging task in turn makes a disciplined IT management approach essential. In order to address these interactions and demands by customers, in an effective way, the concept of ITSM (Information Technology Service Management) was introduced. IT Service Management (ITSM) refers to the IT organization’s orientation towards delivering IT services with a customer-centric approach [3]. The objective of the ITIL Service Management practice framework is to deliver services to business customers that are fit for purpose, stable and that are so reliable, the business views them as a trusted utility [4].

1. Align IT Services with Business Requirements with ITSM. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/Kovair/align-it-services-with-business-requirements-with-itsm
2. Linden, A. & Andersson, J. (01/2011). IT Service Management - A paradigm shift from technology- to service providers. Retrieved from http://lup.lub.lu.se/luur/download?func=downloadFile&recordOId=1781811&fileOId=1781822
3. A Real World Approach to Implementing ITSM. (2009). Retrieved from http://www.information-management.com/news/-10016193-1.html
4. Introduction To ITIL Contents. (n.d). Retrieved from http://www.axelos.com/gempdf/Introduction_to_ITIL_Contents.pdf

T2. Automatic Protocol Conformance Checking in Component-Based and Service-Oriented Systems
by Prof. Dr. Wolf Zimmermann, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany

Usage protocols define legal sequences of procedure calls in component or Web Service interfaces. For stateful components/services not all sequences of procedure calls are allowed. Examples of usage protocols are compliance to some legal or organizatorial rules, file components, protocols stemming for business processes etc. The tutorial introduces an approach towards automatic and compositional checking of usage protocols in a component-based or service oriented system. The checking approach generates for each component/service from its source code a control-flow precise abstraction of the behaviour. These abstractions are composed according to the architecture of the component-based/service oriented system to the system behaviour. The system behaviour is being used to check usage protocols. The behaviour models precisely specify the system behaviour w.r.t. the control flow stemming from procedure calls (without bounds on recursion depth), concurrency (without limitations to the degree of parallelism), explicit and implicit synchronization, and exception handling.

After some motivating examples, the tutorial introduces the basic approach and demonstrates some limitations with finite-state machine based approaches. It then shows the foundations for the above mentioned abstractions. Then, an approach towards automatic abstraction and composition of the abstractions is being introduced. After a short introduction of the checking approach (which basically goes back to existing model checkers), the tutorial concludes with a discussion of next steps.

For the tutorial some knowledge of programming language concepts and their implementation is helpful.

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University is a leader in the field of aviation and aerospace education in the United States. The university offers undergraduate and graduate degrees through two residential campuses in Daytona Beach, Florida, and Prescott, Arizona. The Embry-Riddle Worldwide campus offers a variety of degree programs in the traditional classroom setting through a network of small campuses throughout the world, via web conferencing, and also online. Improving delivery of basic statistics concepts has long been a concern of statistics educators. The Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Education (GAISE) College Report (American Statistical Association, 2005) included a number of suggestions for improvement including incorporation of student projects that require collection and analysis of real data. More recently, there has been movement toward incorporating randomization and bootstrapping techniques into the teaching of introductory statistics. Incorporating all of these ideas into an introductory statistics course taught in the traditional campus setting with students in a face-to-face classroom in a normal semester of instruction is difficult enough. The problem we faced is how to do it in an online class delivered asynchronously to students throughout the world in a nine-week term. This tutorial will discuss the GAISE Guidelines, randomization and bootstrapping techniques using StatCrunch software, and some ideas regarding student projects in an introductory statistics class. It will outline the process used to develop a nine-week online introductory undergraduate statistics courses that incorporate these ideas and activities. Finally, audience input on techniques used at other schools as well as comments on our process will be sought in an effort to continue to improve course delivery.