Robotics and manufacturing education and research— the New Mexico initiatives

Since the early 1980s, the University of New Mexico (UNM) has been increasingly active in the area of manufacturing engineering and robotics research and education. Six robotics and manufacturing laboratories devoted to research and instruction have been established. Many PhD and master's students use these facilities in their research, and instructional programs have been established at the undergraduate and graduate level in both the Mechanical Engineering and Electrical and Computer Engineering Departments.Notably, a master's level program was established in 1987 with participation from two universities, UNM and New Mexico State University. Active collaboration is the mode of operation between the College of Engineering and the Robert O. Anderson Schools of Management at UNM in the manufacturing program, a program in total quality management, and in the establishment of a computer-integrated manufacturing program and laboratory through IBM's CIM in Higher Education Alliance.This paper describes these programs in detail, and discusses some approaches and future plans.     

1984/1988 X.400 recommendations — user requirements

An evaluation of the 1984 and 1988 CCITT X.400 series of recommendations is given with particular reference to the use of a Message Handling System (MHS) for interpersonal communication. The human user's needs in electronic communication are studied. Based on these findings, the technical quality of the services provided are evaluated, as is the support of the human factors in communication. MHS is evaluated in terms of its suitability for the individual user and the applicability for communication in groups. Message handling services are presented and compared with user requirements. In particular, the new services of the X.400 recommendations of 1988 concerning interworking with Directory Services (DS), the security model, message store and distribution lists are examined to determine how they meet the needs of the human user, and how they could be used or extended to improve communication in groups.     

List structures in SIMULA and PL/1—a comparison

A typical list structurre application program was written in both SIMULA and PL/1. The program was executed using the IBM 360/370 SIMULA and PL/1 optimizing compilers. SIMULA was found to give shorter compile time, about the same execution time and larger memory requirement than PL/1. The source program for the same algorithm was shorter in SIMULA. The SIMULA system could discover semantic programming errors earlier and diagnose them better them PL/1.     

Robust stability—degree assignment and its applications to the control of flexible structures

A new method of robust controller synthesis is introduced which is an extension of robust stabilization to robust stability-degree assignment. This method guarantees a lower bound of stability degree for all uncertainties within a prescribed magnitude band. The method is applied to the control of four types of flexible structures, namely, colocated beam, non-colocated beam, beam with moving base and large scale satellite model. Excellent performances have been obtained experimentally with respect to the response speed and the robustness.     

PIN OLEDs — Improved structures and materials to enhance device lifetime

Abstract— Currently, three issues are identified that decide upon the commercial success of organic light‐emitting diodes (OLEDs), both in display and lighting applications: power efficiency, lifetime, and price competitiveness. PIN OLEDs are widely seen as the preferred way to maximize power efficiency. Here, it is reported that this concept also delivers the world longest lifetimes. For a highly efficient deep‐red PIN OLED, a half‐lifetime of 25,000 hours for a starting brightness of 10,000 cd/m² and a minimal voltage increase over lifetime is reported. This value corresponds to more than 1 × 10⁶ hours at 1000 cd/m² using an exponent of n = 1.7, which was measured by driving the OLEDs at different starting luminances. Because there is no initial luminance drop, these PIN OLEDs also exhibit a very high 80% lifetime (>300,000 hours at 1000 cd/m²). New record lifetime values for blue and green will be reported as well. Additionally, further topics that have impact on the production yield and cost such as the newly developed air‐stable organic n‐doping material NDN‐26 and top‐emitting structures will be discussed.     

Engineering education as a part of industrial society—product quality, process quality and quality in engineering education

The task assigned to the engineer is to develop and to produce engineering products that improve the welfare of humanity. Common to these products is, or should be, the fact that they meet human needs. It is important that each product reaches those who have need for it at the correct time, price and quality. Dr J.M. Juran, pioneer in quality control, has defined quality as “fitness for use”. Production should always be as rational and as cost-effective as possible. Process quality has to be balanced to the quality of the product and the rationality of the process. At the high-tech level we experience today, it is technically demanding to develop and produce engineering products. This is not possible without very skilled engineers.     

Computer aided design education—The the more the education, the less the use

The use of computers does not at present fit comfortably into the world of the design engineer. To improve this situation, it is not the engineer but the computer that needs educating. The use of CAD requires a database combined with an engineering editor to allow evolutionary design. In the field of finite element analysis, CAD promises to save money while restoring the engineer to his proper position.     

The relevance of software education: A survey and some recommendations

We summarize the results of a survey of software practitioners in which we asked about the relevance of their education. We analyze the data and highlight potential changes to computer science or software engineering curricula, based on mismatches between the extent to which the topic is taught and its importance in the careers of the participants. We also present some advice to companies regarding topics in which they should train employees; we compare this advice to a list of skills that employers have indicated they wish employees to possess.     

Interface and bulk effects for bias—light‐illumination instability in amorphous‐In—Ga—Zn—O thin‐film transistors

Abstract— Positive‐current‐bias (PB) instability and negative‐bias—light‐illumination (NBL) instability in amorphous‐In—Ga—Zn—O (a‐IGZO) thin‐film transistors (TFTs) have been examined. The channel‐ thickness dependence indicated that the Vth instability caused by the PB stress is primarily attributed to defects in the bulk a‐IGZO region for unannealed TFTs and to those in the channel—gate‐insulator interface for wet‐annealed TFTs. The interface and bulk defect densities (Dit and Nss, respectively) are Dit = 4.8 × 10¹¹ cm^?2/eV and Nss = 7.0×10¹⁶ cm^?3/eV for the unannealed TFT, which increased to 5.2×10¹¹ cm^?2/eV and 9.8×10¹⁶ cm^?3/eV, respectively, by the PB stress test. These are reduced significantly to Dit = 0.82×10¹¹ cm^?2/eV and Nss = 3.2×10¹⁶ cm^?3/eV for the wet‐annealed TFTs and are unchanged by the PB stress test. It was also found that the photo‐response of a‐IGZO TFTs begins at 2.3 eV of photon excitation, which corresponds to subgap states observed by photoemission spectroscopy. The origin of the NBL instability for the wet‐annealed TFTs is attributed to interface effects and considered to be a trap of holes at the channel‐gate—insulator interface where migration of the holes is enhanced by the electric field formed by the negative gate bias.     

FODA — the formal specification of ODA document structures and its use as a basis for conformance testing

The Office Document Architecture (ODA) is an International Standard which is developed by TC 97/sc 18 of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in close collaboration with CCITT's Study Group VIII and with ECMA. This paper describes the current state of a formal specification of the ODA document structures by mathematical means and its use for conformance specification and conformance testing.     

MUSS—the user interface

A common failing with many ‘general purpose’ operating systems is that they try to provide a single user interface to suit all applications. The approach adopted in the MUSS system is to provide a set of basic building blocks which can be used for the construction of tailor-made systems. The system is novel in that the provision of facilities and the means of invoking them are regarded as two quite distinct problems.     

Programmable Rewriting Strategies in Haskell: — White Paper —

Programmable rewriting strategies provide a valuable tool for implementing traversal functionality in grammar-driven (or schema-driven) tools. The working Haskell programmer has access to programmable rewriting strategies via two similar options: (i) the Strafunski bundle for generic functional programming and language processing, and (ii) the “Scrap Your Boilerplate” approach to generic functional programming. Basic rewrite steps are encoded as monomorphic functions on datatypes. Rewriting strategies are polymorphic functions composed from appropriate basic strategy combinators.We will briefly review programmable rewriting strategies in Haskell. We will address the following questions:

• What are the merits of Haskellish strategies?

• What is the relation between strategic programming and generic programming?

• What are the challenges for future work on functional strategies?

Portability—prediction and correction

We consider the attainment of portability through the successive refinements of an initial coding attempt. This may be seen as prediction followed by correction. Recent attention has been given to the mechanical selection of software variants stored in a single composite file. We conclude that, under some circumstances, it is also necessary to consider the updating of the file as well as extraction from it.     

CIM—the integration of manufacturing and information systems

The integration of computers within the manufacturing environment has long been a method of enhancing productivity. Their use in many facets of a manufacturing enterprise has given industries the ability to deliver low-cost, high-quality competitive products. As computer technology advances, we find more and more uses for new hardware and software in the enterprise. Over a period of time, we have seen many “islands” of computer integration. Distinct, fully functional hardware and software installations are a common base for many industries. Unfortunately, these islands are just that, separate, distinct and functional but non-integrated. The lack of integration within these information systems make it difficult for end users to see the same manufacturing data. We are finding the need for a “single image” real-time information system to provide the enterprise with the data that is required to plan, justify, design, manufacture and deliver products to the customer. Unfortunately, many industries have a large installed base of hardware and software. Replacement of current systems is not a cost-justified business decision. An alternative would be the migration of current systems to a more integrated solution. The migration to a computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM)-based architecture would provide that single image real-time information system.

The effort and skills necessary for the implementation of a CIM-based architecture would require active participation from two key organizations: Manufacturing and information systems (I/S). The manufacturing engineers, process engineers and other manufacturing resource would be the cornerstone for obtaining requirements. The ability to effectively use I/S is a critical success factor in the implementation of CIM. I/S has to be viewed as an equal partner, not just as a service organization. Manufacturing management needs to understand the justification process of integrating computer systems and the “real” cost of integration versus the cost of non-integrated manufacturing systems. The active participation of both organizations during all phases of CIM implementation will result in a effective and useful integrated information system.     

On the rhetorical contract in human—computer interaction

The social identity of a participant in any form of human communication is in many ways determined and maintained by the patterned use of symbols. Research has illuminated the variety of ways that this is done in the standard forms of communication, such as conversation and text; much less, however, is known about the determination and maintenance of social identity in human—computer interaction. This paper reports an exploration of the rhetorical contract, or the expectation for appropriate interaction, as it develops in human—computer interaction. Subjects used either a direct manipulation or a command interface that, at an unannounced point in the interaction, presented an error message that was either consistent or inconsistent with the interface's previous pattern of interaction. Results indicated that the direct manipulation interfaces were more likely to establish social expectations and that users of the direct manipulation interface that experienced an incosistent error message expressed large negative affective responses. These results suggest that the social nature of human—computer interactions can be examined with reference to the constructs applicable to other forms of communication.     

Identrus — the ‘Technical Platform’

In his outline of Identrus, John Bullard described the business rationale for its existence, and its fundamental principles of trust, global interoperability and simplicity. He has explained how the delivery of identity assurance services, within a supporting framework of operating rules, and governed through the application of private contract law, allows Identrus to deliver trusted digital signature services on a global basis. In this article we discuss how these services are realized by Identrus and its participants, in practice, and outline some of the technology underpinning the system.