ITI43515 Modelling Cyber-Physical Systems (Spring 2017)

The course is connected to the following study programs

Elective course in the master programme in applied computer science.

Lecture Semester

2. semester (spring).

The student's learning outcomes after completing the course

Knowledge

The student

• understands the challenges associated with cyber-physical systems
• has experienced the relevance of good software design principles

Skills

The student has the capability to

• model and implement reactive systems with concurrency
• perform analysis of consistency of models of systems with concurrency
• connect sensors, actuators and controlling components in a functioning system
• give and take constructive criticism of the system design and functioning
• receive the experience of building a cyber-physical system and making it execute

General competence

The student

• can build systems in «Internet of Things»
• can assess realistically what errors may occur in cyber-physical systems and how to minimize their vulnerability
• has some insight into formal semantics of sequence diagrams

Content

The course focus on how reactive systems can be built with emphasis on modeling. The models are executable and based on state machines. The requirements of these concurrent systems are modeled as sequence diagrams, and it is emphasized that the requirements and design are consistent.

In particular, we emphasize reactive systems using the Internet of Things, and we use a running example where the functionality is enhanced during the course following an agile method.

Towards the end of the course, we show how systems can be made more resilient to unexpected incidents and errors.

Forms of teaching and learning

Project work, lectures and guided lab and exercises.

For each instance of the course, we create new project tasks. We teach the project teams how to give and take constructive feedback.

Workload

4 hours lectures and supervision each week.

Coursework requirements - conditions for taking the exam

• Group project: the project can be reworked 2-3 times before final delivery. Group size: 2-4 students.
• Plenary presentation and evaluation of the project.

Coursework requirements must be accepted to qualify for the exam.

Examination

Individual written exam:

4 hours individual written exam. All written aiding tools allowed.

Assessment on the A - F grading scale.

Course evaluation

This course is evaluated by a

• Mid-term evaluation (voluntary)
• End evaluation (compulsory)

The lecturer compiles a report based on the evaluation forms filled in by the students and his/her own experience with the course. The report is the discussed by the study quality committee of the faculty of Computer Sciences.

Literature

A number of articles and lecture notes constitute the curriculum.