From: li@polaris.cs.pdx.edu (Jingke Li)
Newsgroups: pdx.general,psu.msgs
Subject: PSU Computer Science Colloquium (Monday 1/11)
Date: 5 Jan 93 01:38:50 GMT
Article-I.D.: pdxgate.6651
Reply-To: li@polaris.cs.pdx.edu (Jingke Li)
Distribution: pdx
Organization: Computer Science Dept., Portland State University, Portland, OR


		   PSU Computer Science Colloquium
                   ===============================

		    Monday, January 11, 1993, 4PM
		   -------------------------------
		   SBA 290, SW 6th and SW Harrison
		  (For parking info, call 725-4036)


	Process-Based Specification of Structured Interaction

			    Richard Furuta 
			University of Maryland

ABSTRACT:
We are investigating an abstract, formally-defined model of
process-based man/machine interaction, which we call Trellis.  Trellis
provides an analytical framework for the interactions it shapes as
well as a high-level system design for software implementations based
on the model.  Its structures are formed from timed, annotated
place/transition nets (Petri nets), and thus enjoy an important
duality: a Trellis structure is both a directed graph and a parallel
automaton.  As a graph, the model expresses the static semantic
relationships and other dependencies among the information entities in
the structure; as an automaton, the model expresses the dynamic
actions that can exist when the structure is manipulated (for example,
the browsing paths in an interactive document and the execution paths
in a parallel program).  Trellis has been used to structure
information in a diverse collection of areas including hypermedia,
multimedia, and CSCW.  In software engineering applications Trellis
(and hypermedia in general) can be used to structure and interrelate a
project's documents, code, and other artifacts.  More uniquely, the
dual nature of the Trellis representation also enables the
representation and integration of the processes that create these
artifacts.

In this talk, I will describe the Trellis model with examples of its
application in the domains of interactive documents (hypertext) and
software engineering.  I also will give an overview of some of the
analysis techniques that we are applying to verify structural
properties of the representation.

BIOGRAPHY:
Richard Furuta's research has focused on modelling the characteristics
of the objects manipulated in interactive computer applications, with
a concentration on identifying the inherent strengths and weaknesses
of those objects.  Specific areas of application include hypertext and
structured documents.  Other areas of current research include
applications in human-computer interfaces, software engineering, and
visual programming.  Dr. Furuta is U.S. Editor of Electronic
Publishing: Origination, Dissemination, and Design (EP-odd), published
by John-Wiley, and has served on its advisory editorial board since
its inception in 1987.  He also serves on the editorial boards for the
journal Hypermedia and for the Cambridge University Press series on
Electronic Publishing.  He is a former Vice President for the TeX
Users Group.  He will be co-program chair for ACM Hypertext '93, and
has been program chair for Electronic Publishing '90, co-program chair
of the 1991 DC ACM Chapter annual symposium, and has served on the
program committees for EP88, ACM DocProc '88, ACM Hypertext '91, EP92,
and ECHT '92 as well as other conferences.  Dr. Furuta received the
B.A. degree from Reed College in 1974, the M.S. degree in Computer
Science from the University of Oregon in 1978, and the Ph.D. degree in
Computer Science from the University of Washington in 1986.  He is
currently an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science
at the University of Maryland, College Park.