Aligning IS programs with industry: linking business analysis curricula design with the professional body

Aligning information systems (IS) solutions with business goals and needs are crucial for IS activities. IS professionals who are able to work closely with both the business and technical staff are key enablers of business and IT alignment. IS programs in higher education (HE) institutions have a long tradition of enabling graduates to develop the appropriate skills needed for their future careers. Yet, organizations are still having difficulty finding graduates who possess both the knowledge and skills that are best suited to their specific requirements. Prior studies suggest that IS curricula are often ill-matched with industry/business needs. This study reports on the business analysis curricula (re) design which was undertaken to align it with a key professional body for the IS industry. This study presents the approaches taken in the (re) design of the module, and provides a discussion of the wider implications for IS curricula design. The results show a positive outcome for the HE and professional body partnership.

Programs to compute magnetization to density ratio and the magnetization inclination from 3-D gravity and magnetic anomalies

Vector field formulation based on the Poisson theorem allows an automatic determination of rock physical properties (magnetization to density ratio-MDR-and the magnetization inclination-MI) from combined processing of gravity and magnetic geophysical data. The basic assumptions (i.e., Poisson conditions) are: that gravity and magnetic fields share common sources, and that these sources have a uniform magnetization direction and MDR. In addition, the previously existing formulation was restricted to profile data, and assumed sufficiently elongated (2-D) sources. For sources that violate Poisson conditions or have a 3-D geometry, the apparent values of MDR and MI that are generated in this way have an unclear relationship to the actual properties in the subsurface. We present Fortran programs that estimate MDR and MI values for 3-D sources through processing of gridded gravity and magnetic data. Tests with simple geophysical models indicate that magnetization polarity can be successfully recovered by MDR-MI processing, even in cases where juxtaposed bodies cannot be clearly distinguished on the basis of anomaly data. These results may be useful in crustal studies, especially in mapping magnetization polarity from marine-based gravity and magnetic data. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A pointcut-based coverage analysis approach for aspect-oriented programs

Aspect-oriented programming (AOP) is a promising technology that supports separation of crosscutting concerns (i.e., functionality that tends to be tangled with, and scattered through the rest of the system). In AOP, a method-like construct named advice is applied to join points in the system through a special construct named pointcut. This mechanism supports the modularization of crosscutting behavior; however, since the added interactions are not explicit in the source code, it is hard to ensure their correctness. To tackle this problem, this paper presents a rigorous coverage analysis approach to ensure exercising the logic of each advice - statements, branches, and def-use pairs - at each affected join point. To make this analysis possible, a structural model based on Java bytecode - called PointCut-based Del-Use Graph (PCDU) - is proposed, along with three integration testing criteria. Theoretical, empirical, and exploratory studies involving 12 aspect-oriented programs and several fault examples present evidence of the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed approach. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Important Parameters in Designing and Presenting Exhibits and Planetarium Programs in Science Centers : A Visitor-Based Framework

This dissertation proposes an initial framework for designing and presenting exhibits in science centers and to recommend methods for improving the educational role of planetariums in science centers.

The Survivability of Swedish Emergency Management Related Research Centers and Academic Programs : A Preliminary Sociology of Science Analysis

The Survivability of Swedish Emergency Management Related Research Centers and Academic Programs: A Preliminary Sociology of Science Analysis Despite being a relatively safe nation, Sweden has four different universities supporting four emergency management research centers and an equal and growing number of academic programs. In this paper, I discuss how these centers and programs survive within the current organizational environment. The sociology of science or the sociology of scientific knowledge perspectives should provide a theoretical guide. Yet, scholars of these perspectives have produced no research on these related topics. Thus, the population ecology model and the notion of organizational niche provide my theoretical foundation. My data come from 26 interviews from those four institutions, the gathering of documents, and observations. I found that each institution has found its own niche with little or no competition – with one exception. Three of the universities do have an international focus. Yet, their foci have minimal overlap. Finally, I suggest that key aspects of Swedish culture, including safety, and a need aid to the poor, help explain the extensive funding these centers and programs receive to survive. 

Fred: An approach to generating real, correct, reusable programs from proofs

In this paper we describe our system for automatically extracting "correct" programs from proofs using a development of the Curry-Howard process. Although program extraction has been developed by many authors, our system has a number of novel features designed to make it very easy to use and as close as possible to ordinary mathematical terminology and practice. These features include 1. the use of Henkin's technique to reduce higher-order logic to many-sorted (first-order) logic; 2. the free use of new rules for induction subject to certain conditions; 3. the extensive use of previously programmed (total, recursive) functions; 4. the use of templates to make the reasoning much closer to normal mathematical proofs and 5. a conceptual distinction between the computational type theory (for representing programs)and the logical type theory (for reasoning about programs). As an example of our system we give a constructive proof of the well known theorem that every graph of even parity, which is non-trivial in the sense that it does not consist of isolated vertices, has a cycle. Given such a graph as input, the extracted program produces a cycle as promised.

Protocols between programs and proofs

In this paper we describe a new protocol that we call the Curry-Howard protocol between a theory and the programs extracted from it. This protocol leads to the expansion of the theory and the production of more powerful programs. The methodology we use for automatically extracting “correct” programs from proofs is a development of the well-known Curry-Howard process. Program extraction has been developed by many authors, but our presentation is ultimately aimed at a practical, usable system and has a number of novel features. These include 1. a very simple and natural mimicking of ordinary mathematical practice and likewise the use of established computer programs when we obtain programs from formal proofs, and 2. a conceptual distinction between programs on the one hand, and proofs of theorems that yield programs on the other. An implementation of our methodology is the Fred system. As an example of our protocol we describe a constructive proof of the well-known theorem that every graph of even parity can be decomposed into a list of disjoint cycles. Given such a graph as input, the extracted program produces a list of the (non-trivial) disjoint cycles as promised.

Extraction of structured programs from specification proofs

We present a method using an extended logical system for obtaining programs from specifications written in a sublanguage of CASL. These programs are “correct” in the sense that they satisfy their specifications. The technique we use is to extract programs from proofs in formal logic by techniques due to Curry and Howard. The logical calculus, however, is novel because it adds structural rules corresponding to the standard ways of modifying specifications: translating (renaming), taking unions, and hiding signatures. Although programs extracted by the Curry-Howard process can be very cumbersome, we use a number of simplifications that ensure that the programs extracted are in a language close to a standard high-level programming language. We use this to produce an executable refinement of a given specification and we then provide a method for producing a program module that maximally respects the original structure of the specification. Throughout the paper we demonstrate the technique with a simple example.