About |  Call for papers | Dates |  Program committee

About

Software-intensive systems are complicated, driven by the need to integrate across multiple concerns. Consequently, the development of such systems requires the integration of different concerns and skills. These concerns can be covered by different domain-specific modeling languages, with specific concepts, technologies, and abstraction levels. This multiplication of languages eases the development related to each individual specific concern but raises language and technology integration problems at the different stages of the software life cycle. To reason about the global system as a whole, it is necessary to explicitly describe the different kinds of relationships that exist between the different languages used in its development. To support effective language integration, there is a pressing need to reify and classify these relationships, as well as the language interactions that the relationships enable. Equally, the proliferation of domain-specific modeling languages required increases the need for effective and efficient techniques for engineering languages and their support infrastructures (transformations, analysis tools, editors, execution infrastructure, debuggers, …).

The Modeling Language Engineering (MLE) workshop aims at bringing together researchers and practitioners working on modeling-language and software-language engineering. It is a meeting opportunity for Software Language Engineering (SLE) enthusiasts within the software-modeling community.

Keynote (Alfonso Pierantonio)

Achieving Better Workbenches in Model-Driven Engineering: Why Technology (and the models behind it) Matters!

In Model-Driven Engineering (MDE), the seamless integration among tools, languages, and processes is crucial for the success, acceptance, and adoption of such a software discipline, particularly in developing domain-specific modeling languages (DSMLs). The intricacy of modern domains requires flexibility, smooth integration of concerns, unobtrusive support to language extension and co-evolution round-tripping, and mitigation of the adversarial impact of unwanted complexity, including technical debt accumulation.

Drawing on Heidegger’s concept of ‘ready-to-hand’ tools, this keynote examines the challenges and opportunities in creating tools and languages that support developers without disrupting their workflow. A tool is considered ‘ready-to-hand’ when it seamlessly supports our work, extending our being and enhancing our ability to solve problems, much like how a hammer becomes an extension of our hand when we use it to drive a nail. Conversely, a tool is “present-at-hand” when it forces us to shift our focus from the task to its operation and intricacies. While MDE offers powerful platforms for addressing the complexities of software-intensive systems, the extent to which these tools are integrated into our processes directly affects their usability and accessibility, including the cognitive load they impose. The keynote delves into the concept of key enablers — critical factors, whether they be technological assets or design decisions, that enabled the creation of jjodel, a collaborative and flexible modeling workbench designed with these concepts in mind. Special attention will be given to how the cohesive and reactive architecture of jjodel addresses the challenges of consistently integrating multiple notations and simplifying flexibility and collaborative modeling.

Speaker: Alfonso Pierantonio

Alfonso Pierantonio photo

Alfonso Pierantonio is a Professor of Software Engineering at the University of L’Aquila, Italy. He specializes in model-driven and language engineering, with a strong interest in co-evolution techniques, consistency management, and tool design and implementation. Alfonso is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Object Technology and on the editorial and advisory board of Software and System Modeling and Science of Computer Programming. He is in the Steering Committee of ACM/IEEE MoDELS.

Program

Date: Sunday the 22nd of September 2024

Session 1 – Language Engineering and Domain-Specific Modeling (8:55 - 10:30)

8:55 – Workshop introduction

9:00 – ALFI: Action Language for Foundational UML as an Intermediate Language for Model Transformations in JetBrains MPS. Mario Fuksa, Timur Sağlam, Tim Neumann and Steffen Becker

9:30 – A Synopsis on Import Statements in Modeling Languages. Nico Jansen, Bernhard Rumpe and David Schmalzing

10:00 – Modelling of Cyber-Physical Systems through Domain-Specific Languages: Decision, Analysis, Design. Marcus Gerhold, Aliaksei Kouzel, Haroun Mangal, Selin Mehmed and Vadim Zaytsev

Coffee break (10:30 − 11:00)

Session 2 – Discussions (11:00 − 12:30)

11:00 - Discussions: Modeling Languages and AI

Lunch break (12:30 − 14:00)

Session 3 – Keynote (14:00 - 15:30)

14:00 – Keynote: Alfonso Pierantonio

Coffee break (15:30 - 16:00)

Session 4 – Modeling Language Tooling (16:00 - 17:30)

16:00 – Hybrid Graphical-Textual DSL Editors: Vision, Requirements and Challenges. Ionut Predoaia, Dimitris Kolovos and Antonio García-Domínguez

16:30 – Towards Model Product Lines: Composition of EMF Models. Horacio Hoyos Rodriguez, Victor Bandur, Vera Pantelic, Mark Lawford and Richard Paige

17:00 – Mapping Requirements to Features to Create Traceability in Product Line Models. Thomas Chiang, Richard Paige, Alan Wassyng and Sébastien Mosser

Call for papers

Topics

The topics of interest for MLE 2024 include:

  • Methodologies, languages, techniques, and methods for designing and implementing modeling languages
  • Composition, extension, and reuse of modeling languages and model execution tools
  • Heterogeneous modeling, simulation, and execution
  • Customization of modeling languages
  • Integration of modeling languages and programming languages
  • Semantics-aware model transformations and code generation
  • Scalability of model execution and execution-based model analysis
  • Execution of partial and underspecified models
  • Model execution in the presence of non-determinism and concurrency
  • Tracing model executions and analyzing model execution traces
  • Model execution tools for the (dynamic) validation, verification, and testing of systems (e.g., model animation, debugging, simulation, trace exploration, model checking, symbolic execution)
  • Live modeling and exploratory modeling techniques
  • Automation techniques for the development of modeling and model execution tools
  • Evolution in the context of executable modeling (e.g.} evolution of executable modeling languages, execution semantics, executable models, model execution tools)
  • Verification of semantic conformance (e.g., among executable modeling languages, executable models, model execution tools)
  • Integration challenges for languages, from requirements to design, for analysis and simulation, during runtime, etc.
  • Case studies and experience reports on the successful or failed adoption of modeling in different application domains and application contexts
  • Surveys and benchmarks of different approaches for the development of modeling languages, model execution, and execution-based model analysis

Submissions describing practical and industrial experience related to the use of modeling languages are also encouraged, particularly in the following application domains: Cyber-Physical Systems, Smart Manufacturing, Industry 4.0; Internet of Services, Internet of Things; Smart City, Smart Building, Home automation; Smart and Learning systems.

Workshop Format

This full-day workshop will prioritize discussions over presentations. We plan to open with a keynote in the morning, followed by paper presentations. The afternoon will then be spent primarily in discussions inspired by topics raised by the keynotes and paper presentations. Where there is sufficient divergence in the topics raised, we will create break-out groups of participants interested in each sub-topic. The goal of these discussions is to identify commonalities and connections between different topics, support research networking, cross-pollination, and informal knowledge transfer. The final session of the workshop will be focused on summarizing the key topics and ideas discussed at the workshop to help identify the next steps that may be followed up by workshop participants.

Submission

We expect early research results about the aforementioned topics, descriptions of problems, case studies, experience reports, or solutions related to the topics of interest.

Each contribution must be described in a short paper of 5 pages or a full paper of 10 pages, including references, in ACM format (acmart).

Papers that describe use cases or novel approaches can be accompanied by concrete artifacts, such as models (requirements, design, analysis, transformation, composition, etc.), stored in a public repository. Artifacts should illustrate any experience with the conjoint use of different modeling languages.

All submissions have to follow the ACM format (acmart) and must be submitted electronically in PDF format via Easychair. They will be evaluated by at least three members of the program committee regarding novelty, correctness, significance, readability, and alignment with the workshop call. Furthermore, all submissions must be original work and must not have been previously published or being under review elsewhere. The accepted papers will be included in the joint workshop proceedings published by the ACM.

Dates

  • Paper Abstract submission deadline: Friday, June 28, 2024
  • Paper submission deadline: Friday, July 5, 2024 Monday, July 15, 2024 (Extended)
  • Notification of acceptance: Wednesday, August 7, 2024
  • Camera-ready deadline: Friday, August 16, 2024
  • Workshop: Sunday, September 22, 2024

Organizing committee

  • Ed Seidewitz (Model Driven Solutions, USA)
  • Antonio Bucchiarone (MoDiS - FBK, Trento, Italy)
  • Dorian Leroy (CEA, France)

Program committee

  • Marsha Chechik, University of Toronto, Canada
  • Juergen Dingel, Queen’s University, Canada
  • Romina Eramo, University of Teramo, Italy
  • Peter J.Clarke, Florida International University, USA
  • Juan de Lara, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Spain
  • Sofia Meacham, Bournemouth University, UK
  • Zoltan Micskei, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Hungary
  • Jean-Marie Mottu, Nantes Université, France
  • Ernesto Posse, Lumenix/Zeligsoft, Canada
  • Nicolas Rouquette, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, USA
  • Bianca Wiesmayr, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria
  • Vadim Zaytsev, Universiteit Twente, Netherlands