MRT 2012 - Call for Papers

Motivation

We are witnessing the emergence of new classes of application that are highly complex, inevitably distributed, and operate in heterogeneous and rapidly changing environments. Examples of such applications include those from pervasive and Grid computing domains. These systems are required to be adaptable, flexible, reconfigurable and, increasingly, self-managing. Such characteristics make systems more prone to failure when executing and thus the development and study of appropriate mechanisms for runtime validation and monitoring is needed. In the model-driven software development area, research effort has focused primarily on using models at design, implementation, and deployment stages of development. This work has been highly productive with several techniques now entering the commercialisation phase. The use of model-driven techniques for validating and monitoring run-time behaviour can also yield significant benefits. A key benefit is that models can be used to provide a richer semantic base for run-time decision-making related to system adaptation and other run-time concerns. For example, one can use models to help determine when a system should move from a consistent architecture to another consistent architecture. Model-based monitoring and management of executing systems can play a significant role as we move towards implementing the key self-* properties associated with autonomic computing.

Goal

The goal of this workshop is to look at issues related to developing appropriate model-driven approaches to managing and monitoring the execution of systems. We build on the previous events where we have succeeded in building a community and bringing about an initial exploration of the core ideas of Models@Runtime and now seek:

• experiences with actual implementations of the concept.
• rationalisation of the various concepts into overall architectural perspectives.
• to make explicit the specific roles that models play at runtime.
• impact on software engineering methodologies.
• to continue to build a network of researchers in this emerging area, based on the results of the earlier editions.

Workshop format

The workshop participants will be selected based on their experience and ideas related to this new and emerging field. You are invited to apply for attendance by sending a full-paper (6 pages) or a position paper (2 pages) in PDF. The paper must conform to the ACM SIGS formatting guidelines: http://www.acm.org/sigs/publications/proceedings-templates. Submissions will be reviewed by at least 3 PC members. The authors will be notified about acceptance before the MODELS 2010 early registration deadline. Candidates for best papers (if finally chosen) can be just taken from the category of full-papers. A primary deliverable of the workshop is a report that clearly outlines (1) the research issues and challenges in terms of specific research problems in the area, and (2) a synopsis of existing model-based solutions that target some well-defined aspect of monitoring and managing the execution of systems. Potential attendees are strongly encouraged to submit position papers that clearly identify research issues and challenges, present techniques that address well-defined problems in the area, and are supported by small demos.

The workshop aims to:

• Integrate and combine research ideas from the areas cited above.
• Provide a “state-of-the-research” assessment expressed in terms of research issues, challenges, and accomplishments. This assessment can be used to guide research in the area.
• Continue to build a network of researchers in this area, building on the previous editions.
• Plan and promote further events on these topics.

We strongly encourage authors to address the following topics. Topics labelled with (*) are crucially important:

• What a runtime model looks like and how does it evolve? (*)
• How are the causal links with executing code realized? How different is it from good-old reflection? (*)
• Models@runtime and software aging: does it help or hurt?
• The role of models@run.time in the software development process (*)
• Models@runtime, the silver bullet for runtime assurance and V&V?
• Role of requirement at runtime, requirements reflection (*)
• How are the abstractions tied to the types of adaptations supported? (*)
• How do these abstractions evolve over time? (*)
• Are new abstractions created during runtime? (*)
• MDE@Runtime: Are MDE tools ready (performance, etc.) for more dynamic usages?
• Examples of how models can be used to validate and verify the behaviour of the system at runtime (*)
• Compatibility (or tension) between different model-driven approaches
• How do models at other phases of the SE lifecycle relate to the corresponding runtime models?
• How models@runtime can support large multi-disciplinary teams in open innovation/continuous design?
• Models@runtime and scalability: horizontally (managing large set of nodes) and vertically (from the cloud to the sensors)
• Small demos and tools that support the use of models@run.time (*)

Further Information

Web site: http://www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/computing/users/bencomo/MRT12/

Contact: Nelly Bencomo nelly@acm.org