I defended my PhD on November, 28th 2008, at Supélec.
Dissertation (in french)
Presentation (in french)
Supervisor
- Guy Vidal-Naquet, Professor (Université Paris-Sud 11 and Supélec)
Jury
- Mr. Charles André, Professor (Université de Nice)
- Mr. Christian Attiogbé, Professor (Université de Nantes)
- Mr. Marc Pouzet, Professor (Université Paris-Sud 11), President of the Jury
- Mr. François Terrier, Professor (INSTN), Head of a Research Laboratory (CEA)
- Mrs. Marie-Agnès Péraldi, Associate Professor (Université de Nice)
- Mr. Guy Vidal-Naquet, Professor (Université Paris-Sud 11 and Supélec)
- Mr. Frédéric Boulanger, Professor (Supélec)
- Mr. Dominique Marcadet, Professor (Supélec)
Research Topic
"Composition of models for the multi-paradigm modeling of the behavior of systems"
Abstract
In the context of Model Driven Engineering, the use of multiple modeling paradigms for developing complex systems is both unavoidable and essential. It results in the heterogeneity of the models representing the considered system and makes global reasoning about the system difficult. The objective of multi-paradigm modeling is to ease the joint use of heterogeneous models during the development cycle. In the work presented in this dissertation, we focus on the study of the heterogeneity of models and propose an approach to multi-paradigm modeling.
We first qualify the causes of the heterogeneity of models with respect to the development cycle and we identify several types of heterogeneity. On this basis, we propose a framework for the study of the domain of multi-paradigm modeling with several research axis.
The multidisciplinarity of multi-paradigm modeling allows the use of techniques from various fields. We propose a survey and a classification of the techniques which are relevant with respect to heterogeneity. The range of the techniques that we present includes model transformation, meta-model composition, model composition, component adaptation, co-simulation and mega-models.
Then we present ModHel'X, the approach to the composition of models for multi-paradigm modeling that we developed. It relies on the concept of model of computation and allows:
- the specification of the semantics of a modeling language in an executable way by specializing an abstract semantics for models of computation that we developed;
- the explicit specification of the composition mechanism between heterogeneous models through a special modeling structure called interface block;
- the simulation of the global behavior of heterogeneous models thanks to a generic execution algorithm that we defined.
ModHel'X has been implemented in a framework based on EMF (Eclipse Modeling Framework).
Keywords
multi-paradigm modeling, heterogeneity of models, heterogeneous modeling, composition of models, modeling language, model of computation, execution of models, Model Driven Engineering (MDE)