Our research activities are best represented by our research centres listed here. While these are a good place to start, if you do not find that paper you were looking for, the contact details of a particular principal investigator, or the funding opportunity you were seeking please contact us.
List of Research Centres
An Empirical Analysis of Information Retrieval based concept location techniques in software comprehension
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Encapsulating Targeted Component Abstractions
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Towards A Taxonomy of Software Change
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A Framework for Evaluating Comprehension of Concurrent Software
Expectation Based Inference Based and Bottom Up Software Comprehension
The Design of a Haptic Simulator for Teaching and Assessing Spinal Anaesthesia
UL-CSIS-07-02 - An Accelerometer and Gyroscope Based Sensor System for Dance Performance
This project explores the use of wearable wireless sensors for the generation and manipulation of music from dance performances. The design of a prototype wireless sensor that includes dual-axis accelerometers and three single-axis gyroscopes is discussed. The input of sensor data to a Pd (Pure Data) patch is explored and possible mapping strategies for a system of sensors is discussed.
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UL-CSIS-07-01 - Importing MusicXML files into Max/MSP
A Max/MSP external object is created to allow musical scores to be imported into Max/MSP patches. This report details the programming of the object in Java and the parsing of the MusicXML file.
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UL-CSIS-06-03 - A Practical Application of Content Analysis
Content analysis is a technique which can be used to analyse qualitative data. In this report, we present a description of how content analysis was applied to data collected while studying Quality Assurance...
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UL-CSIS-06-02 - Quality Assurance Practices in Ireland
This report presents the results a survey conducted in Ireland on behalf of Enterprise Ireland in early-2006. This was carried out to gain an understanding of the Quality Assurance (QA) practices within small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in the software industry in Ireland. While the authors recognise that this survey cannot claim to be representative of the views on Quality Assurance within the SME software sector in Ireland, they provide an interesting overview of attitudes towards this topic. The data is sometimes contradictory and unclear but we use it to explore the issues concerning QA practices in which we and others, including Enterprise Ireland, have an interest. Initially, we examine the data concerning the attitudes towards and perceptions of Quality Assurance by the SMEs surveyed. We then discuss the use of specific QA techniques including testing, reviews and implementation of coding standards. Keane and Richardson (2005) previously published an analysis concerning attitudes in the Irish Software industry towards Quality. The data discussed in this technical report sheds some new light on this topic.
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UL-CSIS-06-01 - Applying ACO Metaheuristic to the Layer Assignment Problem
This report presents the design and implementation of Ant Colony Optimisation (ACO) based heuristic for solving the Layer Assignment Problem (LAP) for a directed acyclic graph (DAG). This heuristic produces compact layerings by trying to minimise their width and height. It takes into account the contribution of dummy vertices to the width of the resulting layering.
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An Analysis of the Use of Friends in C++ Software Systems
AUTHOR(s): Michael English, Jim Buckley, Tony Cahill, and Kristian Lynch
ABSTRACT: A commonly held belief is that a friend is a violation of encapsulation and as a consequence its use would result in poorly designed and difficult to understand software. However, little empirical evidence exists to support this claim. This paper presents a study which assesses the design implications of including friendship in a system.
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Building Blocks of Upward Planar Digraphs
AUTHOR(s):Patrick Healy and Karol Lynch
Technical Report
ABSTRACT: The upward planarity testing problem consists of testing if a digraph admits a drawing ! such that all edges in | are monotonically increasing in the vertical direction and no edges in | intersect. In this paper we present a divide-and-conquer approach to the upward planarity testing problem based on an algorithmic characterisation of the upward planarity of a digraph in terms of the upward planarity of its biconnected components.
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Component Reconn-exion: Component Recovery Using a Variation on Software Reconnaissance and Reflexio
AUTHOR(s):Andrew Le Gear and Jim Buckley
Technical Report
ABSTRACT: Component-based development presents itself as a means of improving software development productivity by enabling reuse. However, the problem exists that the majority of legacy systems are not implemented using componentbased development.
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Distinguishing characteristics of the IETF Standard Development Process
Distinguishing characteristics of the IETF Standard Development Process: Do they practise what they preach?
AUTHOR(s): Malachy Walsh
Technical Report
ABSTRACT: In this paper the characteristics of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) standard development process are examined. These characteristics help it to rapidly produce successful protocol specifications...
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The Structure, Content, and Format of IETF RFCs
AUTHOR(s): Malachy Walsh
Technical Report
ABSTRACT: In this paper, the structure, information content, and format used by the Internet engineering task force (IETF) to produce request for comments (RFC) documents is examined. The structure, content, and format of RFCs are not completely documented. Instead RFC authors use both documented guidelines and norms established in previous RFCs...
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UL-CSIS-05-07 - What really happened after SPI assistance in Ireland?
This paper describes my planned research into long-term benefits of software process improvement (SPI) with respect to training and/or consulting improvement programmes on which I worked in 1994-1999. About 80 Irish companies participated.
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UL-CSIS-05-06 - An assessment of supports and barriers for female researchers in Science, ...
To date, there is a shortage of women in Science, Engineering and Technology both internationally and in Ireland. The Science Foundation Ireland Institute Planning Grant provided the opportunity to conduct a self-assessment of women's participation in science and engineering research activities and research management. To this end a self - assessment exercise was undertaken within the departments of Science, Engineering and Technology in the University of Limerick between June and September 2005. This report presents detailed information on the barriers that women researchers within SET experience. In addition it examines the supports in place at the University of Limerick and provides an evaluation of the usefulness of the current supports and initiatives in overcoming the barriers that exist for women in SET at present.
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UL-CSIS-05-05 - The Structure, Content, and Format of IETF RFCs
In this paper, the structure, information content, and format used by the Internet engineering task force (IETF) to produce request for comments (RFC) documents is examined. The structure, content, and format of RFCs are not completely documented. Instead RFC authors use both documented guidelines and norms established in previous RFCs. In this paper a template derived from these sources using content analysis is presented. This is then compared to the IEEE 830 standard for software requirements specifications. This comparison is made to discover whether lessons can be drawn from the RFC template that are relevant to the production of software requirements specifications.
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UL-CSIS-05-04 - Distinguishing characteristics of the IETF Standard Development Process ...
In this paper the characteristics of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) standard development process are examined. These characteristics help it to rapidly produce successful protocol specifications. Some advantages and disadvantages of the IETF process are discussed based on a review of academic literature. This includes examination of the IETF's own documentation to find the process they advocate. A study, aimed at analysing how the IETF process functions in practice, is then presented. This study is based on qualitative content analysis of an Internet Protocol development mailing list. The results of this analysis are used to show how lessons learned from the IETF process could be applied to software requirements engineering to possibly improve development of requirements specifications.
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UL-CSIS-05-03 - Component Reconn-exion: Component Recovery Using a Variation on Software ...
Component-based development presents itself as a means of improving software development productivity by enabling reuse. However, the problem exists that the majority of legacy systems are not implemented using componentbased development. The application of a component recovery technique may be a means of overcoming this issue. This paper proposes a component recovery technique called "Component Reconn-exion" that is based upon a combination of adapted versions of the Software Reconnaissance and Software Reflexion Modelling techniques. A small case study demonstrating the technique is described and the conclusions discussed.
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UL-CSIS-05-02 - Building Blocks of Upward Planar Digraphs
The upward planarity testing problem consists of testing if a digraph Γ admits a drawing such that all edges in Γ are monotonically increasing in the vertical direction and no edges in Γ intersect. In this paper we present a divide-and-conquer approach to the upward planarity testing problem based on an algorithmic characterisation of the upward planarity of a digraph in terms of the upward planarity of its biconnected components.
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Investigations into Upward Planar Diagraphs
AUTHOR(s): Patrick Healy and William Karol Lynch
Technical Report
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Thematic Review of Software Reengineering and Maintenance
AUTHOR(s): Andrew Le Gear
Technical Report 2004
ABSTRACT: The Software Architecture Evolution (SAE) group at the University of Limerick in conjunction with their industrial partner are currently researching a variety of software
reengineering techniques to recover components from software. Reengineering towards components is the process of extracting cohesive units of reusable code from a legacy system.
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10th Annual Research Conference, 2003
Department of Computer Science and Information Systems
Thursday 6th February, 2003
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Software Comprehension – A Review & Research Direction
AUTHOR(s): Michael P. O’Brien
ABSTRACT: Comprehending computer programs is one of the core software engineering activities. Software comprehension is required when a programmer maintains, reuses, migrates, reengineers, or enhances software systems. Due to this, a large amount of research has been carried out, in an attempt to guide and support software engineers in this process.
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Towards A Taxonomy Of Software Change
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Graph Layering by Promotion of Nodes
AUTHOR(s): Nikola S. Nikolov and Alexandre Tarassov
ABSTRACT: This work contributes to the wide research area of visualization of hierarchical graphs. We present a new polynomial-time heuristic which can be integrated into the method of Sugiyama, Tagawa and Toda (STT) for drawing hierarchical graphs.
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9th Annual Research Conference, 2002, CSIS
An introduction to the papers presented at the 9th Annual Research Conference held on 3rd of September 2002 at CSIS, UL.
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An Optimal Solution to Dimension-Constrained Graph Layering
AUTHOR(s): Patrick Healy and Nikola S. Nikolov
ABSTRACT: We consider the problem of layering directed acyclic graphs subject to dimension constraints. With the goal of minimising the sum of edge spans we develop an Integer Linear Programming formulation that layers the graph accurately according to the specified dimensions...
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Sensing the Position & Orientation of Hand-Held Objects: An Overview of Techniques
AUTHOR(s): Krispin Leydon
Technical Report, 2001
Interaction Design Centre
CSIS Department
University of Limerick
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8th Annual Research Conference, 2001, CSIS
An Introduction to the papers presented at the 8th Annual Research Conference, 10th September 2001, CSIS UL.
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New Technologies New Professions - The Irish Experience
Authors: Kevin Ryan and Deas
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7th Annual Research Conference, 2000
Department of Computer Science and Information Systems
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Department of Computer Science and Information Systems | 6th Annual Research Conference | Tuesday, 14th September, 1999
Verification of a Quality Function Deployment Matrix for Software Process Improvement
AUTHOR: Dr. Ita Richardson | Technical Report
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Characterising Domains for Constructive Expert Systems
AUTHOR(S): Kevin Ryan, Niamh Harty
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The Vertex-Exchange Graph and its use in Multi-Level Graph Layout
AUTHOR(s): Patrick Healy, Ago Kuusik
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Characterisation of Level Non-Planar Graphs by Minimal Patterns
AUTHOR(s): Patrick Healy, Ago Kuusik
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CSIS Research Seminar Series Spring 1998
Technical Report UL-CSIS-98-05
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5h Annual Research Conference - CSIS - 1998
Department of Computer Science and Information Systems
5th Annual Research Conference
Tuesday, 15th September 1998
S2-05 Schuman Building
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CSIS Research Seminar Series - Spring 1997
CSIS Research Seminar Series -
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4th Annual Research Conference, CSIS - 1997
Department of Computer Science and Information Systems 4th Annual Research Conference - Tuesday, 16th September 1997 - UL-CSIS-97-3
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Prioritizing Software Requirements in an Industrial Setting
AUTHOR(s): Kevin Ryan, Joachim Karlsson
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An Optimal Algorithim for Rectangle Placement
AUTHOR(S): Patrick Healy, Marcus Creavin | ABSTRACT:
In this paper we consider the problem of placing efficiently a rectangle in a two dimensional layout that may not have the bottom-left placement property. This problem arises when we apply any one of a number of iterative...
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Technical Report UL-CSIS-96-5
Department of Computer Science and Information Systems
Research Seminar Series - Technical Report UL-CSIS-96-5
Spring 1996
Technical Report UL-CSIS-96-6
Department of Computer Science and Information Systems
Research Seminar Series - Technical Report UL-CSIS-96-6
Autumn 1996
Decorated Dissection Trees - Research Report
AUTHOR(S): Donal MacVeigh | ABSTRACT:
In this paper I look at a method of building a binary search tree for storing a two-dimensional figure with all its subfigures. The problem is to store lines and curves such that searching and retrieval will be fast. When we do a partitioning, we must insert the partitioning arc and the subfigures such that a further data point will find the correct subfigure...
Technical Report UL-CSIS-96-4
Department of Computer Science and Information Systems
3rd Annual Research Conference - Technical Report UL-CSIS-96-4
17th September, 1996
Method Integration
Method Integration - Presenataion - BCS Conference - Cork, 1996
A Programmer’s Environment for Music Analysis
AUTHOR(S): Donncha Sean O Maidin |
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Emulation Of Uniform Cracking
Author(S): Donal MacVeigh|ABSTRACT:
H.Steinhaus noted that the pattern of cracks in dried up homogeeous mud or tiles of earthenware as a rule has two characteristics:
Technical Report UL-CSIS-95-1
Department of Computer Science and Information Systems
2nd Annual Research Conference - Technical Report UL-CSIS-95-1
12th September, 1995
The Role of AI in Requirements Engineering
AUTOR(S): Kevin Ryan | ABSTRACT:
There are two orthogonal aspects to the interaction between AI and RE. The more obvious is that we may look to AI to help solve many of the most difficult and crucial problems facing RE particularly those concerning knowledge storage and user acceptance...
The Role of Networking - Electronic and Human
AUTOR(S): Kevin Ryan | ABSTRACT:
The development of high speed telecommunication constitutes a threat and an opportunity for developing countries in Africa. This short paper is intended to introduce some of the considerations that are vital if African, and other developing, countries are to share in the benefits of this new technology...
CSCW Challenging Perspectives on Work and Technology
AUTHOR(S): Liam J. Bannon | ABSTRACT:
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A challenge to certain (G)DSS perspectives on the role of decisions, information, and technology in
AUTHOR(S): Liam J. Bannon | ABSTRACT:
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Technical Report UL-CSIS-94-13
Department of Computer Science and Information Systems
1st Annual Research Conference - Technical Report
12th September, 1994
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The Role of Natural Language in Requirements Engineering
AUTHOR(S): Kevin Ryan | ABSTRACT:
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Matching Conceptual Graphs as an Aid to Requirements Re-use
AUTHOR(S): Kevin Ryan, Niamh Harty | ABSTRACT: The types of knowledge used during requirements acquisition are identified and a tool to aid in this process, ReqColl (Requirements Collector) is introduced. The tool uses conceptual graphs to represent domain concepts and attempts to recognise new concepts through the use of a matching facility. The overall approach to requirements capture is first described and the approach to matching illustrated informally.
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A Prototype Syntax Checker for German Learners of English
AUTHOR(S): Deirdre Mulligan, Kevin Ryan | ABSTRACT:
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Systematic Decompilation
AUTHOR(S): J. John O'Gorman | ABSTRACT: A decompiler is a program that translates back from machine code to the source language, hus reversing the compilation process. Very little has been written ...
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An Annotated Bibliography of the COMAL Language
Author: J. John Gorman. COMAL was first proposed as a programming language for use in schools 25 years ago in Denmark, but is still only known and used by pockets of enthusiasts. This bibliography should serve both to indetify the many intorductory articles at least one of which should be accessible to almost every reader, and also provide pointers for those who wish to go further into the litereature.
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Intelligent CAL
Author: J. John O'Gorman. Poor Results in using CAL material can
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A Methodology for Reverse Engineering
AUTHOR: J. John O'Gorman. ABSTRACT: Reverse Engineering has dubious connotations, but some justifying features are outlined, and a methodology proposed for analysing an "unseen" piece of code or data...
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A Case STudy in Portability
AUTHOR: J. John O'Gorman | Computer Assisted Instruction is a fairly recent development in computer applications. It aims to enhance...
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