Information Systems Laboratory

/ Luiz F. Capretz / Assistant Professor
/ Jianhua Ma / Assistant Professor

The Information Systems Laboratory is concerned with the establishment and use of sound engineering principles and good management practice to produce quality software systems. Our research puts software development into a new perspective by creating new techniques, methodologies and tools to overcome the so-called software crisis.

Presently, we are involved, together with the Software Engineering Laboratory, in the development of a framework for advanced software techniques (FAST Project), spanning the whole software life cycle from requirements to maintenance. In this project, we are concerned with software reusability issues within an object-oriented approach.

As far as education is concerned, we have participated in the preparation of the courses Software Engineering I and II, and proposed innovative courses for the University of Aizu graduate curricula. The research carried out in this laboratory has allowed us to publish seven conference papers and one journal article on object-oriented design, CASE environments and telecommunications systems. I also co-authored a book on software engineering (Object-Oriented Software: Design and Maintenance).

Our research is concerned with object-oriented design methodologies for software systems. A general methodology for object-oriented design, called MOOD, has been refined, used and evaluated. MOOD is unrelated to any programming language, yet is capable of being used to design a variety of object-oriented software systems. In particular, MOOD allows the creation of a design mainly in terms of classes, objects and inheritance, and the representation of a design graphically by a set of class hierarchy diagrams, composition diagrams, object diagrams and operation diagrams.

Object-oriented design is expected to be at the forefront of new approaches to the development of complex software systems. We have investigated some general requirements for CASE tools which support object-oriented software development, taking into account a process model suitable for software reusability. The work carried out in this area has shown how these requirements can be met by a CASE tool set which supports software development within the telecommunications systems application domain.

The laboratory has been equipped with modern computers such as: powerful SUN Sparc 10 Model 51, Mac-Quadra Model 840av, NeXT, Compaq PCs, Pentium Gateway 2000, a network of nine JCC workstations, and several personal computers with accompanying peripherals. Software tools including C++ Designer, Simula and Eiffel compilers have been installed and will be used in research projects and courses taught by members of this laboratory. The library lounge has also been started up with more than a hundred books.

Refereed Journal Papers

1. Tsuneo Ikedo and Jianhua Ma, The Truga001: A Scalable Rendering Processor. IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, 1998. vol.Vol.18, No.2, pp.61-81.

2. Jianhua Ma, Runhe Huang, T.K. Shih, Using VCR to Support Different Styles and Types of Group Collaborations in Virtual Universities. Tanmkang Journal of Science and Engineering, 1999 (in printing).

1. J. Ma, R. Huang, E. Tsuboi and R. Hayasaka, A Multimedia Collaborative Environment for Distant Education. Proceeding of the Fifth International Workshop on Distributed Multimedia Systems (DMS'98), 1998, pp.175-182, July.

2. R. Huang and J. Ma, Designs of a Collaborative Teaching/Learning Environment. Proceeding of the 4th International Conference on Networking Entities (Neties'98: Networking for the Millennium), pp.46-49, October 1998.

3. R. Huang, J. Ma and R. Hayasaka, Computation of Householder Bidiagonalization on a Transputer based Parallel Machine. Proceeding of the International conference Parallel and Distributed Computing and Systems (PDCS'98), pp.178-181, October 1998.

4. J. Ma and R. Huang, A Natural Networked Computer based Integrated Teaching/Learning Hyper-environment. Proceeding of the 1998 International Conference of the Learning Sciences, pp.332-334, December 1998.

5. J.Ma, R.Nakatani and R.Huang. Communications, Management and Manipulations of Objects in a Virtual Collaboration Room. Prceedings of the International Conference on Distributed Multimedia System (DMS'99), July 1999.

6. J. Ma and R. Huang, Towards an Integrated Educational System for Global Teaching and Learning. Prceedings of the International Conference on Distributed Multimedia System (DMS'99), July 1999.

7. S.K. Chang, T. Arndt, F.R. Guo, S. Levialdi, A.C. Liu, J. Ma, T. Shih and G. Tortora. Macro University - A Framework for a Federation of Virtual Universities. Prceedings of the International Conference on Distributed Multimedia System (DMS'99), July 1999.

8. Shih, T.K., Chiu, C.F., Hung, J.C., and Ma, J. A Distributed Web Document Database and Its Supporting Environment. The Fourth IEEE Symposium on Computers and Communications ISCC'99, July 1999.

9. Shih, T.K., Ma, J., and Huang R., The Design and Implementation of a Distributed Web Document Database. MMNS'99, 1999, Accepted.

10. R. Huang and J. Ma, A General Purpose Virtual Collaboration Room. Fifth IEEE International Conference on Engineering of Complex Computer Systems (ICECCS'99), 1999, Accepted.

11. J. Ma, R. Huang, and T. L. Kunii. University21: An Integrated Educational System. Edited Book: International Perspective on Tele-education and Tele-learning, 1999, accepted.

12. R. Huang, E. Tsuboi and J. Ma. A Parallel Distributed Genetic Algorithm for Designing 3-connectivity Communication Networks. Proceedings of the International Conference on Parallel and Distributed Computing and Systems (PDCS'99), 1999, accepted.

13. R. Huang, J. Ma and T. Izumi, Parallel Implementation of a Ray-Tracing Algorithm on a Transputer-based Network. Proceedings of the International Conference on Parallel and Distributed Computing and Systems (PDCS'99), 1999, accepted.

1. Aizawa, K., Interactive Simulations of the Discrete Convolution by Using Java. The Univ. of Aizu, 1998, Thesis Advisor: Jianhua Ma.

2. Sakuma, T., Image Retrival by Using Color and Brightness Attributes. The Univ. of Aizu, 1998, Thesis Advisor: Jianhua Ma.

3. Suziki, K., Developments of a Content Based Image Retrival Tool. The Univ. of Aizu, 1998, Thesis Advisor: Jianhua Ma.

4. Hoshino, S., Interactive FT/DFT Simulator. The Univ. of Aizu, 1998, Thesis Advisor: Jianhua Ma.

5. Nakatani, R., Communications, Management and Manipulations of Objects in a Virtual Collaboration Room. The Univ. of Aizu, 1998, Thesis Advisor: Jianhua Ma.