Timetable

Term 2, weeks 11-20:

• Lecture: Monday 2pm in CS104
• Lecture: Tuesday 3pm in CS101
• Lab Session: Friday 10am in CS101/CS001 (the IBM lab)

Remember the module forum: note postings re Friday 13/02 and Friday 20/02 sessions

Previous material 2005-6, 2006-7 and 2007-8 is available for those interested. The current CS405 page is here.

See also:
• The First Warwick Electronic Bulletin on EM
• The Second Warwick Electronic Bulletin on EM
• The Third Warwick Electronic Bulletin on EM

Download the tkeden tool

Coursework

Details of the 2008/9 assignment are now available. (See the tabs on the left-hand panel of the assignment webpage for details of the initial and final submission procedures.)

Examination

The coursework and the examination contribute 50% to the final mark for the module. The format of the CS405 exam for 2009 will be unchanged: Question 1 is a compulsory question, and you must answer two questions out of the other four. You will have 3 hours in which to answer the paper. This year's paper will be marked out of 50 (question 1 will carry 20 marks, and questions 2, 3, 4 and 5 will carry 15 marks). Here are some notes to assist your revision for the CS405 examination. You may also find it helpful to consult the sample 'good' answer to a previous "Question 1" included in the online notes for CS405 for 2006-7. In addition to the online references listed in the Additional Resources link in Lecture 22 below, you can also access other papers mentioned in the module online: including Cantwell-Smith's Two Lessons of Logic and The Foundations of Computing, Harel's Biting the Silver Bullet and Ridley's Database Systems of Database Theory.

Online material

Lectures

• Lecture 1 - Introduction and Orientation (5th January)
  Handout: Empirical Modelling: a broader view of computing
  Handout: An Empirical Modelling perspective on computing
  Online model: oxoGardner1999

• Lecture 2 - More about construal (6th January)
  Lecture slides: On construals
  Lecture slides: Basic EM concepts
  Supplementary notes: About construals
  Online model: oxoJoy1994 (select option 2 on start-up)
  Online model: mirrorOXO
  Online paper: Experimenting with Computing (see section 3 p4-8 of the full paper as published in the Journal of Applied Logic)

• Lecture 3 - Observables, dependency and agency (12th January)
  Lecture slides: Situations and Motivations
  Handout: Using definitive notations to represent state

• Lecture 4 - Illustrating EM principles and tools (13th January)
  Lecture slides: EM artefacts for representing state
  Handout: Picturing how state is represented in EM
  Online model: room3dMcdonald1998
  Online model: graphicspresHarfield2007

• Lecture 5 - The EDEN interpreter (19th January)
  Handout: Useful outcomes from CS405
  Lecture slides: About eden, donald and scout (also topical for Lectures 6 and 7)
  Handout: Practical exercises illustrating definitive representation of state
  EDEN Script: Definitive script for the room viewer
  Online model: roomviewerYung1991

• Lecture 6 - More about the EDEN interpreter (20th January)

• Lecture 7 - Introducing the coursework (26th January)
  Lecture slides: About the coursework (see also the assignment2009 link on the LHS of the webpage)

• Lecture 8 - Modelling with definitive scripts for general applications (27th January)
  Lecture slides: Towards a conceptual framework for very general computing applications (also topical for Lecture 9 )
  Handout: Illustrating modelling and programming in EDEN
  Online model: jugsBeynon2008

• Lecture 9 - Programming from an Empirical Modelling perspective (30th January)

• Lecture 10 - Comparing EDEN with other programming tools (2nd February)
  Lecture slides: Some comparative studies
  Handout: The room in Logo
  EDEN Script: Specifying the room in basic Logo
  Online model: logoparserRoe2002 (to be interpreted with tkeden-1.49 on Linux or tkeden-1.46 on Windows)
  Lecture slides: Dependency by definition in Imagine-d Logo - EDEN presentation
  Online paper: Dependency by definition in Imagine-d Logo: applications and implications

• Lecture 11 - Rethinking Programming (3rd February)
  Online paper:Rethinking Programming
  Lecture slides: Rethinking programming: modelling heapsort as a case study
  Supplementary slides: Heapsort DMT and WP specification
  Handout: Heapsort model interactions
  Handout: Morals of the heapsorting exercise

• Lecture 12 - Programming from an Empirical Modelling perspective 2 (9th February)
  Lecture slides: Programming from an EM perspective 2
  Handout: 3D Noughts and Crosses in Miranda
  Online functional program: oxo.m (Execute by using the mira interpreter to evaluate the function 'oxo')
  Online model: oxoJoy1994 (select option 2 on start-up)
  Online paper: Experimenting with Computing (cf. Lecture 2)

• Lecture 13 - A Perspective on Concurrency (10th February)
  Online notes: EM for Concurrent Systems: an overview
  Online notes: A perspective on concurrent systems
  Lecture slides: Brief summary of A perspective on concurrent systems
  Online model: cruisecontrolBridge1991 (which now runs much too fast! ... but has useful exercises)

• Seminar 1 - Reviewing some practical exercises to support coursework (13th February)
  Online notes: Advice on developing practical skills with EDEN

• Lecture 14 - Introductory lectures on Concurrency (16th February + reading material for 20th February)
  Online notes: Empirical Modelling for the Single Agent
  Online notes: Concurrent systems modelling: agentification, artefacts and animation
  Lecture slides: Empirical Modelling in relation to Concurrency
  Online extract from paper: Agent Oriented Modelling and the Explanation of Behaviour (see sections 3.1 and 4.2)
  Lecture slides: "A story about the Ficts" Slide1, Slide2, Slide3, and Slide4.
  Online notes: Interpreting the Ficts fiction

• Lecture 15 - The LSD notation (17th February)
  Online notes: The LSD notation for domain analysis and description
  Online examples: Examples of LSD accounts and specifications

• Lecture 16 - LSD in relation to systems development (23rd February)
  Online notes: Principles for developing an LSD account
  Handout: A comparative study of LSD accounts of an electronic catflap (Exercise)
  Handout: LSD for the railway station animation (see also ~wmb/public/projects/simulations/train)

• Lecture 17 - LSD in relation to systems development continued (24th February)
  Lecture Slides: Back to the Future ("Modern Computing in Railway History")
  Handout: The Railway Disaster Exercises: Clayton Tunnel, Tamworth, Abermule
  Handout: Tamworth station accident 1870
  Supplementary slides: Tamworth station maps 1870
  Handout: LSD accounts relating to Tamworth accident scenario

• Seminar 2 - Discussion relating to LSD: Clayton Tunnel and Abermule (27th February)
  Model Demonstration: claytontunnelChanHarfield2005

• Lecture 18 - Issues for animation of LSD accounts: artefacts and roles (2nd March)
  Online notes: Empirical Modelling for Concurrency: the roles of LSD and the ADM
  Online notes: Empirical Modelling Artefacts in Concurrent Systems Modelling
  Online model: digitalwatchFischer1999

• Lecture 19 - The Abstract Definitive Machine and the Animation of LSD accounts (3rd March)
  Lecture slides: An overview of the Abstract Definitive Machine
  Online notes: The Abstract Definitive Machine
  Online model: railwayYung1995

• Lecture 20 - EM and Educational Technology - (6th March)
  Slides Computer Support for Constructionism in Context (PowerPoint from a tkeden presentation)
  Slides Where constructivism and computing collide
  Handout: About constructionism (from Chris Roe's PhD thesis Chapter 4, p106)
  Handout: About EM models - artefacts, construals, programs

• Lecture 21 - EM as an approach to systems development - (9th March)
  Slides EM as it relates to key issues in systems development
  (Key issues: requirements, domain learning, concurrent engineering, visualisation, conceptual integrity, human factors)

• Lecture 22 - EM and problematic concerns in computing - (10th March)
  Slides EM and concerns in computing raised by Brooks, Harel, Cantwell-Smith, Ridley
  Handout: WEB-EM-05 Abstracts and Feedback
  (Online versions of several relevant papers can be found by referring to the 2007-8 webpage for CS405 and to References supplied in the Additional Resources.)

Labs

• Lab 1 - Modelling with definitive scripts preliminaries (9th January)
  Handout: Lab sheet 1 (pdf)
  Online model: roomYung1989

• Labs 2 and 3 - Script mechanics - eden, donald and scout (16th & 23rd January)
  Handout: Lab sheet 2 (pdf)
  For further guidance on using scout, donald and eden, see the additional reference material on definitive notations (pdf).

For further practical guidance, please consult the resources cited in the online notes for Seminar 1 (given on February 13th).

The recently added webpage on the Web EDEN interpreter may also be of interest as a site giving convenient access to EM models.