Legal LEGO: Model based computer assisted teaching in evidence courses

This paper describes the development of a new approach to the use of ICT for the teaching of courses in the interpretation and evaluation of evidence. It is based on ideas developed for the teaching of science to school children, in particular the importance of models and qualitative reasoning skills. In the first part, we make an analysis of the basis of current research into “evidence scholarship” and the demands such a system would have to meet. In the second part, we introduce the details of such a system that we developed initially to assist police in the interpretation of evidence.

QoS-aware model driven architecture through the UML and CIM

The specification of Quality of Service (QoS) constraints over software design requires measures that ensure such requirements are met by the delivered product. Achieving this goal is non-trivial, as it involves, at least, identifying how QoS constraint specifications should be checked at the runtime. In this paper we present an implementation of a Model Driven Architecture (MDA) based framework for the runtime monitoring of QoS properties. We incorporate the UML2 superstructure and the UML profile for Quality of Service to provide abstract descriptions of component-and-connector systems. We then define transformations that refine the UML2 models to conform with the Distributed Management Taskforce (DMTF) Common Information Model (CIM) (Distributed Management Task Force Inc. 2006), a schema standard for management and instrumentation of hardware and software. Finally, we provide a mapping the CIM metamodel to a .NET-based metamodel for implementation of the monitoring infrastructure utilising various .NET features including the Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) interface.