One major challenge in self-adaptive systems is to assure the required quality properties. Formal methods provide the means to rigorously specify and reason about the behaviors of self-adaptive systems, both at design time and runtime. To the best of our knowledge, no systematic study has been performed on the use of formal methods in self-adaptive systems. As a result, there is no clear view on what methods have been used to verify self-adaptive systems, and what support these methods offer to software developers. As such insight is important for researchers and engineers, we performed a systematic literature review covering 12 main software engineering venues and 4 journals, resulting in 75 papers used for data collection. The study shows that the attention for selfadaptive software systems is gradually increasing, but the number of studies that employ formal methods remains low. The main focus of formalization is on modeling and reasoning. Model checking and theorem proving have gained limited attention. The main concerns of interest in formalization of self-adaptation are efficiency/performance and reliability. Important adaptation concerns, such as security and scalability, are hardly considered. To verify the concerns of interest, a set of new properties are defined, such as interference freedom, responsiveness, mismatch, and loss-tolerance. A relevant part of the studies use formal methods at runtime, but the use is limited to modeling and analysis. Formal methods can be applied to other runtime activities of self-adaptation, and there is a need for lightweight tools to support runtime verification.

Designing software systems that have to deal with dynamic operating conditions, such as changing availability of resources and faults that are difficult to predict, is complex. A promising approach to handle such dynamics is self-adaptation that can be realized by a MAPE-K feedback loop (Monitor-Analyze-Plan-Execute plus Knowledge). To provide evidence that the system goals are satisfied, given the changing conditions, the state of the art advocates the use of formal methods. However, little research has been done on consolidating design knowledge of self-adaptive systems. To support designers, this paper contributes with a set of formally specified MAPE-K templates that encode design expertise for a family of self-adaptive systems. The templates comprise: (1) behavior specification templates for modeling the different components of a MAPE-K feedback loop (based on networks of timed automata), and (2) property specification templates that support verification of the correctness of the adaptation behaviors (based on timed computation tree logic). To demonstrate the reusability of the formal templates, we performed four case studies in which final-year Masters students used the templates to design different self-adaptive systems.

No abstract

Abstract. Ensuring a constant flow of information is essential for offering quick help in different types of disasters. In the following, we report on a workin-progress distributed, collaborative and tangible system for supporting crisis management. On one hand, field operators need devices that collect information-personal notes and sensor data-without interrupting their work. On the other hand, a disaster management system must operate in different scenarios and be available to people with different preferences, backgrounds and roles. Our work addresses these issues by introducing a multi-level collaborative system that manages real-time data flow and analysis for various rescue operators.Keywords: Wearable tangible device, collaborative crisis management. IntroductionHumans, despite technological and scientific advances, are still vulnerable in the face of natural disasters. It is therefore essential to provide effective management and quick aid in such scenarios [8,15]. Providing up-to-date data, ensuring a constant flow of information, organizing and coordinating rescue units and reaching the people in need are the core factors for ensuring disaster management and offering quick help. This paper presents an exploratory design study on tangible user interfaces for improving coordination in crisis management. Designing novel Disaster Management Information Systems (DMIS) poses unique challenges [1,2]. Multiple publications have focused on interaction techniques for crisis management systems, capturing vital aspects in the areas of multitouch [3,17] or gesture interaction [1,4], with a special emphasis on map-based approaches. At the same time, solutions have been devised that aid the cooperation and interaction of disaster managers and unit operators in the settings of a mobile command post connected to mobile devices [18]. Still, while mobile devices like tablets and smart phones would seem ideal, the need for additional information about the environment

No abstract

Mobile technologies have emerged as facilitators in the learning process, extending traditional classroom activities. However, engineering mobile learning applications for outdoor usage poses severe challenges. The requirements of these applications are challenging, as many different aspects need to be catered, such as resource access and sharing, communication between peers, group management, activity flow, etc. Robustness is particularly important for learning scenarios to guarantee undisturbed and smooth user experiences, pushing the technological aspects in the background. Despite significant research in the field of mobile learning, very few efforts have focused on collaborative mobile learning requirements from a software engineering perspective. This paper focuses on aspects of the software architecture, aiming to address the challenges related to resource sharing in collaborative mobile learning activities. This includes elements such as autonomy for personal interactive learning, richness for large group collaborative learning (indoor and outdoor), as well as robustness of the learning system. Additionally, we present self-adaptation as a solution to mitigate risks of resource unavailability and organization failures that arise from environment and system dynamism. Our evaluation provides indications regarding the system correctness with respect to resource sharing and collaboration concerns, and offers qualitative evidence of self-adaptation benefits for collaborative mobile learning applications.

The use of mobile technologies in education has increased the amount of tools that can be used for pedagogical purposes. However, the introduction of these technologies comes with challenges that require from attention. The first of them is concerning with the limitations that these devices have in features when compared with laptop and desktop computers, naming the screen size, performance and memory space among others. A mechanism to address this limitation can be the combination of multiple devices in groups and share the resources within these groups. The second limitation that this paper addresses is with regard to these devices being prone to failures in relation with their availability, due to its battery life, connectivity, etc. This paper presents a decentralized distributed self-adaptive system that attempts to cover both the limitations in features of these devices, by combining the devices in organizations, named MVD, and the weakness in availability by providing a self-adaptation mechanism. Moreover, the paper presents the identified required components for the creation of a system that provides such benefits and illustrates the internal functionality of the system to provide the self-adaptive quality.

No abstract