Brandenburg University of Technology at Cottbus, Institut fuer Bauinformatik, Gerald Hildebrandt Distributed Research and Education Platforms in Engineering

Brandenburg University of Technology at Cottbus, Institut fuer Bauinformatik, Gerald Hildebrandt

Distributed Research and Education Platforms in

Engineering -Experience from Hydroengineering

Examples


Distributed Research and Education Platforms in Hydroengineering

Overview

• introduction

• joint education experiment:“WWW-based Collaborative Engineering in Hydroscience”

• research projects from Hydroengineering

– net-based collaborative working environments

– WWW-based document management system “DCMS”



Introduction

• modern engineering projects:– in cooperation

– different disciplines

– distributed

• ICT as base-technologies for “any time / any place” solutions• support from distributed computer- and network based project platforms• traditional course programs do not cover introduction and application of

corresponding working processes• acquisition of experience• development of a "technical culture“• practical experiments and exercises



5 European Universities

52 students from 15 different nations

• yearly arrangement since 1999• adapted to the progress in ICT and in working processes in engineering • course participants in 2000:

IAHR-EGW course: “WWW-based Collaborative Engineering in Hydroscience”



Course Idea

• students from different locations• cooperately solution of a

hydroengineering task• in small, distributed teams• in one week• using Web based tools and techniques• teams as independent units• free to choose their way of collaboration• acquisition of knowledge and experience

in Web based collaborative engineering



Course Organisation

• parallel solving of the engineering task by the teams• international and interdisciplinary team composition• definition of organisation structure, work plan, work distribution and

coordination by the team members• all collaboration (communication, coordination and documentation) over

the Web environment• supervisors at each location provides consultancy on demand



Prerequisites

• participants:– new field of engineering

– studying different disciplines

– on different level

– in different countries

– with different mentalities

• course success demands basic skills:– communication and documentation in a Web environment

– basic knowledge in hydroengineering

– basics in project management and team working

– willingness for cooperation

• selected lectures to ensure the equal level of the participants



Engineering Task

• design of a flood protection system for the river Vida in Denmark– discharges into the North Sea– controlled by weirs and gates– floods from upstream after long rainfall– navigationable

• exercise objective:– introduction controlling structures– performing of dredging

• river network, cross section, boundary conditions and hydraulic parameter was provided for a specified time period

• MIKE11by DHI Water & Environment



Reporting

• course progress and engineering task results:– daily reports:

• current engineering task state • performed work steps• problems, difficulties and exceptions• collaboration methods and team decisions

– daily supervisor assessments:• comments • administration information and hints

– final report: • engineering task solution• collaboration experience

• preparation and publishing of all reports over the course platform



Course Platform

• local facilities (individual work environment)– standard PC with unlimited Internet access– standard Web browser, office package– personal email account and homepage– communication tools (telefon, telefax, email, chat, ftp, telnet)– Web documentation tools (e.g. HTML-, picture editor)– audio/video facilities for conferencing

• shared facilities (team collaboration, course organisation and observation, consulting)

– file service – document service– application service– mailing service– license service



Central Course Server

Course Platform Group Platforms 1-7

file service

river data MIKE 11

document service

lecture notes exercise description platform description assessments time table group composition addressbook

application service

bulletin board DCMS DSS/SS 1D Data Set Analyse

mailing service

file service

data sharing file exchange

document service

exercise model reports time table work plan addressbook

application service

bulletin board

Budapest

Bild 0

Cottbus

Delft

Grenoble

Internet

license service

Mike11



General Results

• all seven groups developed a suitable engineering solution in time– engineering alternatives

– not economical optimised

– Web as a collaboration platform

• main course target:acquisition of knowledge and experience– team work

– collaboration method

– communication rules

– coordination methods

– specification of responsibilities

• different compentence and combination of individual abilities• acquisition of ’social competence’ and ’soft skills’ inside the teams



MS NetMeeting

• general tool for conferencing and discussion• audio/video communication only as 1 to 1 connection• chat modul as n to n connection• application sharing• general chat sessions with 12 participants• information sharing instead of information exchange



Conclusions

• extension of the normal course programme• large effort in preparation and implementation• results demonstrates the potential and importance• improvement: face-to-face meeting• standard part of academic education to reflect the progress of the

ongoing ICT revolution• no alternatives to the acquisition of competence

http://hydroweb.bauinf.tu-cottbus.de



• engineers require support in– cooperation, communication, coordination and documentation

– access & exchange of project information

• net-based platform for “any time / any place” information management• advantages

– efficient information acquisition

– better decisions

• documents as carrier of information • document management, lookup and retrieval mechanisms

Information Management in modern Engineering Projects



Document Repository

• stores, controls, and manages

documents

• library services

• database or separate

application

• information about the

document (metadata)

• link to the document



Metadata

• meta: underlying definition or description

• metadata: data about data

• indexing of Web-pages: author, language and content

• no mandatory standard for the practical use of metadata

• W3C standard: Resource Description Framework

• Dublin Core: simple, but flexible

• several XML-applications and industry initiatives



DCMS Document Management

document management over the Web by referring and semantic markup



DCMS System Architecture

• based on the meta-informationsystem architecture

• utilises Java inter-process-communication

• administrator services for managing document repositories

• user services for searching, browsing, editing, visualisation & communication



DCMS Administrator Services

• document type and media independent

• document entries:– semantic markup– URL– database

• markup:– standard semantic criteria– specific semantic criteria– easy adaption

• tree structure• import, validation, CSS• visualisation





DCMS User Services

• document browsing

• document selection

• document classification

• document upload

• document sharing

• user communication



Document Browsing & Visualisation

• information to each document (standard and project specific semantic markup)

• access to the document

• integrated document visualisation

generation of a tree structure of HTML pages from the document entries in the document repository



Document Selection

• searching for relevant information concerning specific engineering problems

• problem specification by semantic criteria used for the document classification



Adding Entries to the Repository

document location:•URL from a user‘s Web-server•upload on DCMS server

document entry placement:•global DCMS inbox•personal myDCMS area

document classification: •standard semantic criteria•project specific semantic

criteria

document auhtor:•new or registered



Personal myDCMS Areas

• personal work-desk within the document repository

• information sharing for collaborative work

• adding new entries on personal area via classification/upload

• replacing documents with new versions on own Web-servers



Bulletin Board

• client communication

• document sharing

• document exchange



Design and Implementation

• 100% Java:platform independent

• server objects

• XML database

• integrated helptool

• session management

• performance, advantages



Selected Applications of the DCMS

ELTRAMOS: ELectronic market and TRAding of MOdelling Services and assets for engineering SMEs and institutes

MorWin: Morphodynamische Modellierung von Windwatten (morphodynamics of wind wadden areas)

OSIRIS: Operational Solutions for the Management of Inundation Risks in the Information Society

HydroWeb: IAHR-EGW Course ”WWW-based Collaborative Engineering in Hydrosience”

WebRiver: Web-based River Modelling Platform

ETNET21: European Thematic Network for Education and Training - Environment-Water

http://dcms.bauinf.tu-cottbus.de

Documents

Brandenburg University of Technology at Cottbus, Institut fuer Bauinformatik, Gerald Hildebrandt Distributed Research and Education Platforms in Engineering