2010 - ERCIS

University of Münster –
Department of Information Systems –
Chair of Practical Computer Science
24
About the Institution
Since 1997, the Chair of Practical Computer
Science has been led by Prof. Dr.
Herbert Kuchen who is responsible for
teaching in the scope of software engineering,
programming languages, and
programming techniques.
Maintaining close partnerships and
collaborations with several local companies,
we are offering students to
write bachelor and master theses that
have a high practical relevance to the
professional world.
Research Topics
Our research focuses on selected
aspects of software engineering. The
most important fields of research are
Model Driven Software Design, Parallel
Programming, Software Testing,
and Debugging. Furthermore, we are
developing new methods and techniques
in the area of E-Learning and
E-Assessment systems.
Current Research
Practical exercises play an important
role in academic teaching. However,
high student-to-faculty ratios as well
as shortage of financial and human resources
make it difficult to offer exercises
with a high standard of quality.
Our E-Assessment system EASy aims
to facilitate the management of exercises
and supports preparation, conduction,
and postprocessing of exercises.
EASy supports multiple-choice
tests, programming tasks, and mathematical
proofs as well as verification
proofs. Currently, we are developing
further modules to support additional
types of exercises.
In the field of Model Driven Software
Design (MDSD), we are working on a
generator for web applications, which
supports model-to-model and modelto-source
code transformations. The
generator supports multiple platforms
and stands out due to its suitability for
real-world applications.
Furthermore, we are investigating approaches
to apply MDSD techniques
within the domain of Business Process
Modelling. We are developing modelto-model
transformations for processmodelling
languages, in particular in
the area of the Business Process Modelling
Notation (BPMN) language. We
are also investigating approaches to
facilitate the development of domain
specific languages (DSL).
Experience shows that the development
of parallel programs is an elaborate
and time-consuming task. The
Münster Skeleton Library (Muesli) is a
collection of high-level concepts that
facilitate the development of parallel
programs. The library contains
so-called algorithmic skeletons, i.e.
frequently occurring parallel programming
patterns, which can be easily
and efficiently combined with parallel
applications. In the past year, we
have added algorithmic skeletons to
Muesli, which support hybrid memory
architectures and multi-node, multicore
com¬puters as well as a distributed
data structure for sparse matrices.
In the area of program debugging,
we are developing the Java Hybrid
Debugger (JHyde). Traditionally, Java
programs are debugged using a trace
debugger to follow the execution step
by step. JHyde combines different new
debugging techniques that help to
simplify and speed up the search for
bugs in Java programs.
Software testing is essential for the
creation of high-quality software products.
We drew the status quo of software
testing as done by IT companies
in the Münsterland region and worked
out best practices and recommendations.
Moreover, we are developing
the Münster generator of glass-box
test cases (Muggl). Recently, we started
adding so-called generators and
validators to Muggl. Generators create
complex object structures instead of
using random testing. This greatly increases
Muggl’s efficiency. Validators