Author supplied: Teaching software architecture (SA) in a bachelor computer science curriculum can be challenging, as the concepts are on a high abstraction level and not easy to grasp for students. Good techniques and tools that help with addressing the challenging SA aspects in a didactically responsible way are needed. In this tool demo we show how we used the software architecture compliance checking tool HUSACCT for addressing various concepts of SA in our courses on software architecture. The students were introduced to architectural reconstruction and architecture compliance checking, which helped them to gain important insights in aspects such as the relation between architectural models and code and the specification of dependency relations between architecture elements as concrete rules.
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The last decade has seen an increasing demand from the industrial field of computerized visual inspection. Applications rapidly become more complex and often with more demanding real time constraints. However, from 2004 onwards the clock frequency of CPUs has not increased significantly. Computer Vision applications have an increasing demand for more processing power but are limited by the performance capabilities of sequential processor architectures. The only way to get more performance using commodity hardware, like multi-core processors and graphics cards, is to go for parallel programming. This article focuses on the practical question: How can the processing time for vision algorithms be improved, by parallelization, in an economical way and execute them on multiple platforms?
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Author Supplied: In the last decades, architecture has emerged as a discipline in the domain of Information Technology (IT). A well-accepted definition of architecture is from ISO/IEC 42010: "The fundamental organization of a system, embodied in its components, their relationships to each other and the environment, and the principles governing its design and evolution." Currently, many levels and types of architecture in the domain of IT have been defined. We have scoped our work to two types of architecture: enterprise architecture and software architecture. IT architecture work is demanding and challenging and includes, inter alia, identifying architectural significant requirements (functional and non-functional), designing and selecting solutions for these requirements, and ensuring that the solutions are implemented according to the architectural design. To reflect on the quality of architecture work, we have taken ISO/IEC 8402 as a starting point. It defines quality as "the totality of characteristics of an entity that bear on its ability to satisfy stated requirements". We consider architecture work to be of high quality, when it is effective; when it answers stated requirements. Although IT Architecture has been introduced in many organizations, the elaboration does not always proceed without problems. In the domain of enterprise architecture, most practices are still in the early stages of maturity with, for example, low scores on the focus areas ‘Development of architecture’ and ‘Monitoring’ (of the implementation activities). In the domain of software architecture, problems of the same kind are observed. For instance, architecture designs are frequently poor and incomplete, while architecture compliance checking is performed in practice on a limited scale only. With our work, we intend to contribute to the advancement of architecture in the domain of IT and the effectiveness of architecture work by means of the development and improvement of supporting instruments and tools. In line with this intention, the main research question of this thesis is: How can the effectiveness of IT architecture work be evaluated and improved?
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The reclaiming of street spaces for pedestrians during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as on Witte de Withstraat in Rotterdam, appears to have multiple benefits: It allows people to escape the potentially infected indoor air, limits accessibility for cars and reduces emissions. Before ordering their coffee or food, people may want to check one of the many wind and weather apps, such as windy.com: These apps display the air quality at any given time, including, for example, the amount of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), a gas responsible for an increasing number of health issues, particularly respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. Ships and heavy industry in the nearby Port of Rotterdam, Europe’s largest seaport, exacerbate air pollution in the region. Not surprisingly, in 2020 Rotterdam was ranked as one of the unhealthiest cities in the Netherlands, according to research on the health of cities conducted by Arcadis. Reducing air pollution is a key target for the Port Authority and the City of Rotterdam. Missing, however, is widespread awareness among citizens about how air pollution links to socio-spatial development, and thus to the future of the port city cluster of Rotterdam. To encourage awareness and counter the problem of "out of sight - out of mind," filmmaker Entrop&DeZwartFIlms together with ONSTV/NostalgieNet, and Rotterdam Veldakademie, are collaborating with historians of the built environment and computer science and public health from TU Delft and Erasmus University working on a spatial data platform to visualize air pollution dynamics and socio-economic datasets in the Rotterdam region. Following discussion of findings with key stakeholders, we will make a pilot TV-documentary. The documentary, discussed first with Rotterdam citizens, will set the stage for more documentaries on European and international cities, focusing on the health effects—positive and negative—of living and working near ports in the past, present, and future.
Noord-Holland kent een belangrijke en innovatieve maakindustrie. Het gaat hierbij om relatief kleine nichespelers, die een grote internationale markt bedienen. In 2016 werd het TechnoSpitsen netwerk Noord-Holland opgericht, met als doelstelling “Het slim verbinden van (nieuwe) technologieën, kansen en uitdagingen, mensen en kennis, bedrijven en onderwijs, voor een innovatieve en toekomstbestendige maakindustrie”. Door samenwerken in “open innovatie” bundelen bedrijven en Hogeschool de krachten: • Samenwerken met collega-bedrijven, leren van elkaar • Samenwerken met studenten en daardoor een betere instroom van nieuw talent • Samenwerken met docent-onderzoekers, waardoor vernieuwende ideeën kunnen doorstromen naar de praktijk en naar het onderwijs. KIJKEN MET ANDERE OGEN doet praktijkonderzoek naar de mogelijkheden en toegevoegde waarde van moderne beeldbewerkingstechnieken en beeldbewerkingssoftware (computer vision). Door de inzet van geavanceerde vision technieken komen we tot verbeteringen in het ontwerp van hun machine-ontwerp en productieproces. Meer specifiek: • Verbeteringen in productiviteit door kortere cyclustijd of doorlooptijd • Verbeteringen in de productkwaliteit en nauwkeurigheid van werken (zero defects) • Verbeteringen in het storingsgedrag (kortere down-time, minder storingen) • Verbeteringen in de omstelflexibiliteit (sneller overgaan op ander product) Met camera’s die meer kleuren kunnen zien dan het menselijk oog – infrarood, ultraviolet, X-ray kunnen we letterlijk ‘Kijken met Andere Ogen’! Beeldvormende technieken, oorspronkelijk ontwikkeld voor ruimtevaart, astronomie en medische toepassingen, worden als nieuwe beeldvormende chips in compacte behuizingen ondergebracht en komen beschikbaar voor nieuwe robottoepassingen in industrie en agri-food. Met nieuwe GPU gebaseerde HW-architecturen, en moderne deep learning algoritmes, kunnen we relatief snel nieuwe toepassingen met geavanceerde objectherkenning bouwen. Leren uit voorbeelden in plaats van programmeren. Door computer-gegenereerde beelden te combineren met ‘live’ beelden wordt het mogelijk om de resultaten van metingen ‘live’ inzichtelijk te maken (Augmented Reality). ‘Andere ogen’ die meekijken en tips geven tijdens inspectie of training.
In summer 2020, part of a quay wall in Amsterdam collapsed, and in 2010, construction for a parking lot in Amsterdam was hindered by old sewage lines. New sustainable electric systems are being built on top of the foundations of old windmills, in places where industry thrived in the 19th century. All these examples have one point in common: They involve largely unknown and invisible historic underground structures in a densely built historic city. We argue that truly circular building practices in old cities require smart interfaces that allow the circular use of data from the past when planning the future. The continuous use and reuse of the same plots of land stands in stark contrast with the discontinuity and dispersed nature of project-oriented information. Construction and data technology improves, but information about the past is incomplete. We have to break through the lack of historic continuity of data to make building practices truly circular. Future-oriented construction in Amsterdam requires historic knowledge and continuous documentation of interventions and findings over time. A web portal will bring together a range of diverse public and private, professional and citizen stakeholders, each with their own interests and needs. Two creative industry stakeholders, Yume interactive (Yume) and publisher NAI010, come together to work with a major engineering office (Witteveen+Bos), the AMS Institute, the office of Engineering of the Municipality of Amsterdam, UNESCO NL and two faculties of Delft University of Technology (Architecture and Computer Science) to inventorize historic datasets on the Amsterdam underground. The team will connect all the relevant stakeholders to develop a pilot methodology and a web portal connecting historic data sets for use in contemporary and future design. A book publication will document the process and outcomes, highlighting the need for circular practices that tie past, present and future.
