Tutorials and Round-Table

TUTORIALS

Four tutorials will be given covering technology and engineering issues which are of particular relevance to the subjects handled during the Conference.

Use Cases for Requirements Capture and Tracing (G. Chiozzi (ESO, Germany))

Use Cases are a "semi-formal" approach to requirements capture that is well accepted by users. They allow not only to capture functional requirements but also to trace them during the whole development life cycle, binding together analysis, design, implementation and testing. Requirements agreed with customers are expressed in a format simple enough to be understood by all involved parties, but at the same time formal enough to be directly verifiable at the final acceptance test.

Use Cases support an iterative and incremental development process and accommodate new and changing requirements. The adoption of UML (Unified Modeling Language) provides the support of a uniform and consistent visual language in which to express the results of the development phases.

Network Technology (P. L. Montessoro, University of Udine)

The evolution of network technology is extremely rapid, especially when compared to the typical life times of an experimental physics facility, therefore the choice of technology in this field is increasingly more strategic. Specialists from top level companies will present their forecast for the future.

Introduction to Java (J.P. Forestier (Societe OSYX, France))

The tutorial introduces the main characteristics of Java (Object Oriented, portable, robust, secure, etc…) together with the techniques used for the development of applications, applets and JavaBeans. The advantages of using Java in distributed object architectures are then shown.

Introduction to OPC (OLE for Process Control) (Frank Iwanitz (Softing GmbH, Germany))

After an introduction on the origin of OPC, the model, capabilities and limitations of the standard are outlined. Client and server implementations are shown. Performance, networking and security aspects are eventually considered.

ROUND-TABLE

Prospective Directions in Controls (J.W. Humphrey (SLAC, USA))

Experimental Physics control systems continuously evolve and their requirements change in the course of their lifecycle due to, for example, operational experience and technological obsolescence.

In addition, under the pressure of reduced resources that strikes our laboratories, there is an increasing tendency to integrate more industrial components in Experimental Physics control systems rather than performing in house developments and to intensify collaborations between groups distributed world wide.

All this raises issues on engineering, available tools (technical and managerial), as well as on the role of the control specialists who see their activity shifting from developers to integrators.


Photo by Ugo Borsatti, Archivio Storico "Foto Omnia"