Mutation testing realizes the idea of using artificial defects to support testing activities. Mutation is typically used as a way to evaluate the adequacy of test suites, to guide the generation of test cases, and to support experimentation. Mutation has reached a maturity phase and gradually gains popularity both in academia and in industry. This chapter presents a survey of recent advances, over the past decade, related to the fundamental problems of mutation testing and sets out the challenges and open problems for the future development of the method. It also collects advices on best practices related to the use of mutation in empirical studies of software testing. Thus, giving the reader a “mini-handbook”-style roadmap for the application of mutation testing as experimental methodology.

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Mutation Testing Advances: An Analysis and Survey

This paper presents PneUI, an enabling technology to build shape-changing interfaces through pneumatically-actuated soft composite materials. The composite materials integrate the capabilities of both input sensing and active shape output. This is enabled by the composites' multi-layer structures with different mechanical or electrical properties. The shape changing states are computationally controllable through pneumatics and pre-defined structure. We explore the design space of PneUI through four applications: height changing tangible phicons, a shape changing mobile, a transformable tablet case and a shape shifting lamp.

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PneUI: pneumatically actuated soft composite materials for shape changing interfaces

We introduce the term shape resolution, which adds to the existing definitions of screen and touch resolution. We propose a framework, based on a geometric model (Non-Uniform Rational B-splines), which defines a metric for shape resolution in ten features. We illustrate it by comparing the current related work of shape changing devices. We then propose the concept of Morphees that are self-actuated flexible mobile devices adapting their shapes on their own to the context of use in order to offer better affordances. For instance, when a game is launched, the mobile device morphs into a console-like shape by curling two opposite edges to be better grasped with two hands. We then create preliminary prototypes of Morphees in order to explore six different building strategies using advanced shape changing materials (dielectric electro active polymers and shape memory alloys). By comparing the shape resolution of our prototypes, we generate insights to help designers toward creating high shape resolution Morphees.

Morphees: toward high "shape resolution" in self-actuated flexible mobile devices

Chapter Six - Mutation Testing Advances: An Analysis and Survey.

Model-based development is becoming an increasingly common development methodology. In important domains like embedded systems already major parts of the code are generated from models specified with domain-specific modelling languages. Hence, such models are nowadays an integral part of the software development and maintenance process and therefore have a major economic and strategic value for the software-developing organisations. Nevertheless almost no work has been done on a quality defect that is known to seriously hamper maintenance productivity in classic code-based development: Cloning. This paper presents an approach for the automatic detection of clones in large models as they are used in model-based development of control systems. The approach is based on graph theory and hence can be applied to most graphical data-flow languages. An industrial case study demonstrates the applicability of our approach for the detection of clones in Matlab/Simulink models that are widely used in model-based development of embedded systems in the automotive domain.

Clone Detection in Automotive Model-Based Development.

While graph-based techniques show good results in finding exactly similar subgraphs in graphical models, they have great difficulty in finding near-miss matches. Text-based clone detectors, on the other hand, do very well with near-miss matching in source code. In this paper we introduce SIMONE, an adaptation of the mature text-based code clone detector NICAD to the efficient identification of structurally meaningful near-miss subsystem clones in graphical models. By transforming graph-based models to normalized text form, SIMONE extends NICAD to identify near-miss subsystem clones in Simulink models, uncovering important model similarities that are difficult to find in any other way.

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Models are code too: Near-miss clone detection for Simulink models

https://research.cs.queensu.ca/home/cordy/Papers/SC_SCP14_SurveyGI.pdf

A survey of grammatical inference in software engineering

In this paper, we introduce a multi-touch display surface that can be dynamically deformed from a flat circular display to a convex or concave hemispherical display. A rubber latex material is used for the display surface allowing it to inflate or deflate as air is pumped into or out of an airtight container. The elasticity of the display surface also allows users to deform the surface by varying the pressure exerted on it. This deformation may be detected by the device and provides a z-axis input in addition to the typical x,y-axis inputs of flat-screen displays.

An inflatable hemispherical multi-touch display

Grammatical inference – used successfully in a variety of fields such as pattern recognition, computational biology and natural language processing – is the process of automatically inferring a grammar by examining the sentences of an unknown language. Software engineering can also benefit from grammatical inference. Unlike the aforementioned fields, which use grammars as a convenient tool to model naturally occuring patterns, software engineering treats grammars as first-class objects typically created and maintained for a specific purpose by human designers. We introduce the theory of grammatical inference and review the state of the art as it relates to software engineering.

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Grammatical Inference in Software Engineering: An Overview of the State of the Art

In this position paper we briefly review the Simulink model clone detection approaches in literature, including a new one currently being developed, and outline our plan for an experimental comparison. We are using public and private Simulink models to compare approaches based on clone relevance, performance, types of clones detected, user interaction, adaptability, and the ability to identify recurring patterns using a combination of manual inspection and model visualization.

https://research.cs.queensu.ca/home/cordy/Papers/SASC_SimCompare_IWSC12.pdf

Andrew Stevenson

Papers

Models are code too: Near-miss clone detection for Simulink models

A survey of grammatical inference in software engineering

An inflatable hemispherical multi-touch display

Grammatical Inference in Software Engineering: An Overview of the State of the Art

Towards qualitative comparison of simulink model clone detection approaches