Beyond Code: An Introduction to Model-Driven Software Development (CISC 836, Winter 2021) Detailed course content [Home] [Content] [Schedule] [Projects]

Important note
These are the webpages for last term's version (Winter 2021) of the course. For this term's version (Fall 2021), go here.

Course structure

1. Lectures accompanied by 4 assignments.
2. Discussion of research papers:
   • Each student is expected to read the assigned papers, prepare a short summary, and participate in the class discussion.
   • Each paper will have 2-3 discussion leaders assigned to them. Every student is expected to lead the discussion of at least one paper.
3. Student projects with presentations:
   • Each student is expected to work on a project.
   • Group projects with up to 2 students are allowed.
   • The deliverables are:
     • a 2-page project proposal,
     • a presentation (possibly including a demo) of the complete project, and
     • a 5-page final project report.

Topics to be covered

1. Introduction, motivation and overview
2. What is a model?
   • General observations, key concepts, examples, activities on models
3. Models in software engineering
   • characteristics of good models
   • model-driven software development (MDSD)
   • examples
4. General purpose modeling languages
   • UML, EMF
5. MDSD for real-time, embedded systems
   • UML-RT
   • tools: IBM RSA-RTE
6. Code generation from models
7. The actor model
8. Domain-specific languages (DSLs)
   1. examples
   2. defining DSLs
      1. syntax:
         • abstract: grammars vs metamodels, metamodel languages (MOF, ECore)
         • concrete: textual, graphical
         • serialization
      2. semantics: translational
   3. model transformation with Xtend
   4. tools: Xtext