We propose a conceptual framework to support speciication, design and veriication of programs controlling physical systems. We introduce a computational model that represents the controller capabilities and distinguishes between synchronous and phase transitions. A graphical system description language is proposed that we believe is readily accessible to control engineers. We formalize the noti...

When dealing with the complexity of an image as part of the indexing process, keywords are not sufficient to obtain an index that is a faithful representation of the image content. We propose to use the conceptual graphs formalism as the indexing language, which allows to use not only keywords, but also relations between them. The obtained indexes are more precise, and retrieval effectiveness i...

This paper presents an approach to support computer-aided conceptual design of mechatronic assemblies in a collaborative, multi-user environment. We describe a system, Conceptual Understanding and Prototyping (CUP), that allows a team of design engineers, collaborating over the Internet, to develop a high-level structure-function-behavior (S-B-F) description of an assembly in a VRML-based virtu...

To meet the needs for large-scale, high-quality learning contents, needless to say, we have to sharpen authoring tools. Authoring process can be roughly divided into two phases, a composing phase and a verification phase. A great deal of effort has been made on the support in the former phase. What seems to be lacking, however, is that in the latter. An ontology-aware authoring tool we have bee...

The product development process is concerned, not only with the design of products, but with how these products are manufactured, distributed and serviced. Engineering conceptual design can be de ned as that phase of the product development process during which the designer takes a speci cation for a product to be designed and generates many broad solutions to it. Each of these broad solutions ...

Conceptual design involves requirements analysis, functional specification, and architectural design. It remains informal and poorly understood. We studied the conceptual design activities of a representative industrial software project, Centauri, for three months with follow-up observations and discussions over the following six months. Our goal was to understand how patterns of collaboration ...

To meet the needs for large-scale, high-quality learning contents, needless to say, we have to sharpen authoring tools. Authoring process can be roughly divided into two phases, a composing phase and a verification phase. A great deal of effort has been made on the support in the former phase. What seems to be lacking, however, is that in the latter. An ontology-aware authoring tool we have bee...

Redesigning organizational processes and their coordination often involves the construction of conceptual models, empirical models, and change alternatives. Modeling of organizational processes can be a very time-consuming activity, and during the redesign phase of an organization, time is a scarce resource. During the phase of translating process models of an organization into simulation model...