skip to main content
review-article

A Review of Dr. Robert France's Contributions and Impact on Model-Driven Engineering and Software Engineering: Robert B. France (1960-2015)

Published:02 June 2015Publication History
Skip Abstract Section

Abstract

Robert B. France was one of the pioneers in model-driven engineering and instrumental in shaping the field of model-driven engineering from two complementary dimensions: research and building collaborative communities. In both dimensions, an overarching quality is the notion of inclusiveness and bridge building. Dr. France built bridges between research communities, between researchers and practitioners, between individual researchers, and between senior and junior researchers. This article describes a few highlights from both dimensions, focusing on the "bridging" aspects in each

References

  1. R. B. France, D.-K. Kim, S. Ghosh, and E. Song, "A UML-based pattern speci_cation technique," Software Engineering, IEEE Transactions on, vol. 30, no. 3, pp. 193--206, 2004. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  2. A. Andrews, R. France, S. Ghosh, and G. Craig, "Test adequacy criteria for UML design models," Software Testing, Verification and Reliability, vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 95--127, 2003.Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  3. A. Evans, R. France, K. Lano, and B. Rumpe, "Developing the UML as a formal modeling notation," in The Unified Modeling Language. UML `98: Beyond the Notation. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 1999, pp. 336--348. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  4. L. Semmens, R. B. France, and T. W. G. Docker, "Integrated structured analysis and formal specification techniques," The Computer Journal, vol. 35, no. 6, pp. 600--610, 1992.Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  5. M. Shro_ and R. B. France, "Towards a formalization of UML class structures in Z," in Computer Software and Applications Conference, 1997. COMPSAC'97. Proceedings., The Twenty-First Annual International. IEEE, 1997, pp. 646--651. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  6. R. B. France, "Semantically extended dataow diagrams: a formal specification tool," Software Engineering, IEEE Transactions on, vol. 18, no. 4, pp. 329--346, 1992. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  7. B. R. Bryant, J. Gray, M. Mernik, P. J. Clarke, R. B. France, and G. Karsai, "Challenges and directions in formalizing the semantics of modeling languages," Computer Science and Information Systems, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 225--253, 2011.Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  8. A. von Mayrhauser, R. France, M. Scheetz, and E. Dahlman, "Generating test-cases from an object-oriented model with an artifical-intelligence planning system," Reliability, IEEE Transactions on, vol. 49, no. 1, pp. 26--36, Mar 2000.Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  9. O. Pilskalns, A. Andrews, S. Ghosh, and R. France, "Rigorous testing by merging structural and behavioral uml representations," in 2003 - The Unified Modeling Language. Modeling Languages and Applications, ser. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, P. Stevens, J. Whittle, and G. Booch, Eds. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2003, vol. 2863, pp. 234--248.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  10. T. Dinh-Trong, N. Kawane, S. Ghosh, R. France, and A. Andrews, "A tool-supported approach to testing uml design models," in Engineering of Complex Computer Systems, 2005. ICECCS 2005. Proceedings. 10th IEEE International Conference on, June 2005, pp. 519--528. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  11. T. Dinh-Trong, S. Ghosh, and R. France, "A systematic approach to generate inputs to test uml design models," in Software Reliability Engineering, 2006. ISSRE '06. 17th International Symposium on, Nov 2006, pp. 95--104. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  12. B. Baudry, T. Dinh-Trong, J.-M. Mottu, D. Simmonds, R. France, S. Ghosh, F. Fleurey, and Y. Le Traon, "Model Transformation Testing Challenges," in ECMDA workshop on Integration of Model Driven Development and Model Driven Testing., Bilbao, Spain, 2006. {Online}. Available: https://hal.inria.fr/inria-00542781Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  13. H. Chavez, W. Shen, R. France, and B. Mechling, "An approach to testing java implementation against its uml class model," in Model-Driven Engineering Languages and Systems, ser. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, A. Moreira, B. Schad'tz, J. Gray, A. Vallecillo, and P. Clarke, Eds. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2013, vol. 8107, pp. 220--236.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  14. G. Georg, I. Ray, and R. France, "Using aspects to design a secure system," in Engineering of Complex Computer Systems, 2002. Proceedings. Eighth IEEE International Conference on. IEEE, 2002, pp. 117--126. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  15. I. Ray, R. France, N. Li, and G. Georg, "An aspect-based approach to modeling access control concerns," Information and Software Technology, vol. 46, no. 9, pp. 575--587, 2004.Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  16. A. Solberg, D. M. Simmonds, R. Reddy, R. B. France, S. Ghosh, and J. Ø. Aagedal, "Developing distributed services using an aspect oriented model driven framework," Int. J. Cooperative Inf. Syst., vol. 15, no. 4, pp. 535--564, 2006.Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  17. D. C. Petriu, C. M. Woodside, D. B. Petriu, J. Xu, T. Israr, G. Georg, R. B. France, J. M. Bieman, S. H. Houmb, and J. Jürjens, "Performance analysis of security aspects in UML models," in Proceedings of the 6th International Workshop on Software and Performance, WOSP 2007, Buenes Aires, Argentina, February 5-8, 2007, 2007, pp. 91--102. {Online}. Available: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1216993.1217010 Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  18. S. Lundesgaard, A. Solberg, J. Oldevik, R. France, J. Aagedal, and F. Eliassen, "Construction and execution of adaptable applications using an aspect-oriented and model driven approach," in Distributed Applications and Interoperable Systems, ser. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, J. Indulska and K. Raymond, Eds. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2007, vol. 4531, pp. 76--89. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  19. M. Woodside, D. C. Petriu, D. B. Petriu, J. Xu, T. Israr, G. Georg, R. France, J. M. Bieman, and S. H. Houmb, "Performance analysis of security aspects by weaving scenarios extracted from UML models," Journal of Systems and Software, pp. 56--74, 2009. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  20. B. Baudry, "Description of research discussions with Robert France over the course of many years (2006-2014), including respective visiting professorships at Universite de Rennes, France and Ft. Collins, Colorado." Personal Communication, 2015.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  21. "Workshop on Modeling in Software Engineering (MISE)," Co-located workshop with ICSE., 2007-Present, Initially organized in 2007 by Joanne Atlee, Robert France, Ana Moreira, and Bernhard Rumpe during discussions held in MODELS 2006, Genoa, Italy.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  22. B. Combemale, "Description of research discussions with Robert France over the course of many years (2010-2014), including visits at Universite de Rennes, France, Ft. Collins, Colorado, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines," Personal Communication, 2015.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  23. N. Bencomo and G. Blair, "Description of collaborations with Robert France over the course of many years (2006-2014), particularly in the area of [email protected]," Personal Communication, 2015.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  24. J.-M. Jézéquel, "Research discussions with Robert France during his visit to Universite de Rennes, France in November 2014," Personal Communication, 2015.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  25. E. M. Clarke and J. M. Wing, "Formal Methods: State of the Art and Future Directions," ACM Computing Surveys, vol. 28, no. 4, pp. 626--643, Dec. 1996. {Online}. Available: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/242223.242257 Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  26. J. M. Wing, "A Specifier's Introduction to Formal Methods," Computer, vol. 23, no. 9, pp. 8--23, Sep. 1990. {Online}. Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/2.58215 Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  27. pUML Members, http://www.cs.york.ac.uk/puml/, Established in 1997 by Robert France and Andy Evans with major contributions from Tony Clark, Stuart Kent, Bernhard Rumpe, Kevin Lano, Jean-Michel Bruel and Ana Moreira. The group comprises international researchers and practitioners whose collective objective is to develop the Unified Modeling Language (UML) as a precise and well-defined language.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  28. Object Management Group, "Unified Modeling Language (UML)," www.omg.org.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  29. R. France, A. Evans, K. Lano, and B. Rumpe, "The UML as a formal modeling notation," Computer Standards & Interfaces, vol. 19, no. 7, pp. 325--334, 1998. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  30. A. Evans, J.-M. Bruel, R. France, K. Lano, and B. Rumpe, "Making UML precise," Proceedings of the OOPSLA, vol. 98, 1998.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  31. A. Evans, R. France, K. Lano, and B. Rumpe, "Meta-modelling semantics of UML," in Behavioral Specifications of Businesses and Systems. Springer US, 1999, pp. 45--60.Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  32. "The Senior Prize is awarded to Robert France for his research on adding formal semantics to object-oriented modelling notations." http://www.aito.org/Dahl-Nygaard/2014.html, 2014, AITO is the Association Internationale pour les Technologies Objets, a non-profit association registered in Kaiserslautern, Germany. The purpose of the Association is promote the advancement of research in object-oriented technology, primarily in Europe, in particular through the organisation of the annual European Conference for Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP)Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  33. R. France, I. Ray, G. Georg, and S. Ghosh, "Aspect-oriented approach to early design modelling," IEE Proceedings-Software, vol. 151, no. 4, pp. 173--185, 2004.Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  34. A. Rashid, P. Sawyer, A. Moreira, and J. Araujo, "Early aspects: a model for aspect-oriented requirements engineering," in Requirements Engineering, 2002. Proceedings. IEEE Joint International Conference on, 2002, pp. 199--202. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  35. G. Straw, G. Georg, E. Song, S. Ghosh, R. France, and J. M. Bieman, "Model composition directives," in UML The Unified Modeling Language. Modeling Languages and Applications. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2004, pp. 84--97.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  36. Y. R. Reddy, S. Ghosh, R. B. France, G. Straw, J. M. Bieman, N. McEachen, E. Song, and G. Georg, "Directives for composing aspect-oriented design class models," in Transactions on Aspect-Oriented Software Development I. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2006, pp. 75--105. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  37. D. M. Simmonds, R. Reddy, R. B. France, S. Ghosh, and A. Solberg, "An aspect oriented model driven framework," in Ninth IEEE International Enterprise Distributed Object Computing Conference (EDOC 2005), 19-23 September 2005, Enschede, The Netherlands, 2005, pp. 119--130. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  38. B. Baudry, F. Fleurey, R. France, and R. Reddy, "Exploring the relationship between model composition and model transformation," in: 7th International Workshop on Aspect-Oriented Modeling, Montego Bay, Jamaica, 2005.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  39. F. Fleurey, B. Baudry, R. France, and S. Ghosh, "A generic approach for automatic model composition," in Workshop on Models in Software Engineering (MISE). Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2008, pp. 7--15. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  40. R. France, F. Fleurey, R. Reddy, B. Baudry, and S. Ghosh, "Providing support for model composition in metamodels," in Enterprise Distributed Object Computing Conference, 2007. EDOC 2007. 11th IEEE International. IEEE, 2007, pp. 253--253. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  41. S. Ghosh, R. B. France, D. M. Simmonds, A. Bare, B. Kamalakar, R. P. Shankar, G. Tandon, P. Vile, and S. Yin, "A middleware-transparent approach to developing distributed applications," Softw., Pract. Exper., vol. 35, no. 12, pp. 1131--1154, 2005. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  42. S. H. Houmb, G. Georg, D. C. Petriu, B. Bordbar, I. Ray, K. Anastasakis, and R. B. France, "Balancing security and performance properties during system architectural design," in Software Engineering for Secure Systems: Industrial and Research Perspectives, H. Mouratidis, Ed., 2009.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  43. N. Bencomo, G. Blair, and R. France, "Summary of the Workshop [email protected] at MODELS 2006," in Models in Software Engineering, ser. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, T. Kuehne, Ed. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2007, vol. 4364, pp. 227--231. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  44. G. Blair, N. Bencomo, and R. France, "Models@ run.time," Computer, vol. 42, no. 10, pp. 22--27, Oct 2009. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  45. R. France and B. Rumpe, "Model-driven development of complex software: A research roadmap," in 2007 Future of Software Engineering, ser. FOSE '07. Washington, DC, USA: IEEE Computer Society, 2007, pp. 37--54. {Online}. Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/FOSE.2007.14 Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  46. N. Bencomo, R. France, B. H. C. Cheng, and U. A~ Axmann, Eds., [email protected] - Foundations, Applications, and Roadmaps {Dagstuhl Seminar 11481, November 27 - December 2, 2011}, 2014.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  47. W. Cazzola, N. A. Rossini, M. Al-Refai, and R. B. France, A fine-grained software evolution using UML activity and class models," in Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Model Driven Engineering Languages and Systems (MoDELS'13), Lecture Notes in Computer Science 8107, A. Moreira and B. Schaetz, Eds. Miami, FL, USA: Springer, 2013, pp. 271--286.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  48. W. Cazzola, N. A. Rossini, P. Bennett, S. P. Mandalaparty, and R. B. France, "Fine-grained semi-automated runtime evolution," in MoDELS@Run-Time, ser. Lecture Notes in Computer Science 8378, N. Bencomo, B. Cheng, R. B. France, and U. A~ Axmann, Eds. Springer, August 2014, p. 237--258.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  49. M. Al-Refai, W. Cazzola, and R. B. France, "Using models to dynamically refactor runtime code," in Proceedings of the 29th Annual ACM Symposium on Applied Computing (SAC'14). Gyeongju, South Korea: ACM, March 2014, p. 1108--1113. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  50. "Workshop on The Unified Modeling Language: Beyond the Notation (UML_98)," Mulholland, France, 1998, where Dr. Jean Bezívin and Dr. Pierre-Alain Müller were the co-chairs.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  51. "Journal of Software and Systems Modeling (SoSym)," Springer, Established in 2001. Accessible via http://www.sosym.org/.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  52. G. Georg, B. Rumpe, and M. Schindler, "Statistical data regarding SoSym," Personal communication.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  53. R. Feldt, "ISI Listed Software Engineering Journals," http://www.cse.chalmers.se/~feldt/advice/isi_listed_se_journals.html, Journals are ranked by their latest (2-year) impact factor according to the ISI Web of Science JCR report for 2012.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  54. R. France, J. Bieman, and B. H. C. Cheng, "Repository for Model Driven Development (ReMoDD)," in Proceedings of the 2006 International Conference on Models in Software Engineering, ser. MoDELS'06. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag, 2006, pp. 311--317. {Online}. Available: http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1762828.1762879 Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  55. R. France, "Supporting community-driven evolution of model-driven development knowledge using remodd," in Engineering of Computer Based Systems (ECBS), 2011 18th IEEE International Conference and Workshops on, April 2011, pp. 3--3. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  56. R. France, J. Bieman, S. Mandalaparty, B. Cheng, and A. Jensen, "Repository for model driven development (remodd)," in Software Engineering (ICSE), 2012 34th International Conference on, June 2012, pp. 1471--1472. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  57. B. Combemale, B. Baudry, J.-M. Jézéquel, J.-M. Bruel, P. Lahire, and P. Collet, "Tribute to Robert B. France," http://people.irisa.fr/Benoit.Combemale/tribute-robert-france/, 2015.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  58. WIFT '95: Proceedings of the 1st Workshop on Industrial-Strength Formal Specification Techniques. Washington, DC, USA: IEEE Computer Society, 1995, Organizing Co-Chairs: Robert France and Maria Larrondo-Petrie; Program Chair: Susan Gerhart; Tutorial Co-Chairs Betty H. C. Cheng and Lesley Semmens; European Coordinator: Tom Docker; Asian Coordinator: T. H. Tse.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  59. WIFT '98: Proceedings of the Second IEEE Workshop on Industrial Strength Formal Specification Techniques. Washington, DC, USA: IEEE Computer Society, 1998, Conference Chair: Michael Hinchey; Program Chair: Betty H. C. Cheng; Tutorial Chair: Perry Alexander; Local Arrangements Chairs: Robert France and Maria Larrondo-Petrie.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  60. "GEMOC Initiative," gemoc.org, 2013-present, from the website: "GEMOC is an open initiative exploring the necessary breakthrough in software languages to support a global software engineering. GEMOC investigates tools and methods in software language engineering (SLE) for the design and implementation of collaborative, interoperable and composable modeling languages.".Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  61. B. Combemale, J. Deantoni, B. Baudry, R. France, J.-M. Jézéquel, and J. Gray, "Globalizing Modeling Languages," Computer, pp. 68--71, Jun. 2014. {Online}. Available: http://hal.inria.fr/hal-00994551 Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  62. B. Combemale, J. DeAntoni, R. B. France, B. Barn, T. Clark, U. Frank, V. Kulkarni, and D. Turk, Eds., Joint Proceedings of the First International Workshop On the Globalization of Modeling Languages (GEMOC 2013) and the First International Workshop: Towards the Model Driven Organization (AMINO 2013) Co-located with the 16th International Conference on Model Driven Engineering Languages and Systems (MODELS 2013), Miami, USA, September 29 - October 04, 2013, ser. CEUR Workshop Proceedings, vol. 1102. CEUR-WS.org, 2013. {Online}. Available: http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-110Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  63. B. Combemale, J. DeAntoni, and R. B. France, Eds., Proceedings of the 2nd International Workshop on The Globalization of Modeling Languages co-located with ACM/IEEE 17th International Conference on Model Driven Engineering Languages and Systems, GEMOC@Models 2014, Valencia, - Spain, September 28, 2014, ser. CEUR Workshop Proceedings, vol. 1236. CEUR-WS.org, 2014. {Online}. Available: http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1236Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  64. B. H. C. Cheng, B. Combemale, R. B. France, J.-M. Jézéquel, and B. Rumpe, "Globalizing Domain-Specific Languages (Dagstuhl Seminar 14412)," Dagstuhl Reports, vol. 4, no. 10, pp. 32--50, 2015. {Online}. Available: http://drops.dagstuhl.de/opus/volltexte/2015/4891Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  65. "Robert France webpage," http://www.cs.colostate.edu/~france, Biography and Words to live by under "About Me" link.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar

Index Terms

  1. A Review of Dr. Robert France's Contributions and Impact on Model-Driven Engineering and Software Engineering: Robert B. France (1960-2015)

              Recommendations

              Comments

              Login options

              Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

              Sign in

              Full Access

              • Published in

                cover image ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes
                ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes  Volume 40, Issue 3
                May 2015
                36 pages
                ISSN:0163-5948
                DOI:10.1145/2757308
                Issue’s Table of Contents

                Copyright © 2015 Author

                Publisher

                Association for Computing Machinery

                New York, NY, United States

                Publication History

                • Published: 2 June 2015

                Check for updates

                Qualifiers

                • review-article
              • Article Metrics

                • Downloads (Last 12 months)1
                • Downloads (Last 6 weeks)0

                Other Metrics

              PDF Format

              View or Download as a PDF file.

              PDF

              eReader

              View online with eReader.

              eReader