The 20th International Workshop on Configuration features three invited talks which well be given by internationally renowned researchers and practitioners.
Presenter 1: Prof. David Benavides, University of Sevilla
Talk Title: Feature model analysis and configuration: a 10 years journey with configuration stops
Abstract: Variability is a intrinsic characteristic of software. We could affirm that there is no software if there is no variability. Nowadays, variability management is a must in modern software engineering because the need of software intensive systems to vary according to different contexts, different platforms or different customers. In the last decade, there have been many research advances in the field and there are many state of the art contributions that are ahead but could be put in practice opening an interesting branch of applied research. But also, even more important, there are some additional research trends that, although a bit further from practice, deserve some attention. In this talk, we will explore some of these ideas to try to shed light for further research in the following years.
Short Bio: David Benavides is a Associate Professor of Software Engineering in the Department of Computer Languages and Systems at the University of Seville. He received a B.S. in Information Systems from the Institute Superieur d’Electronique de Paris, France (2000), a M.Sc. in Computer Engineering from the University of Seville (2001) and a Ph.D. in Software Engineering (with honors) from the same University(2007). He has served as PC member of different variability-related conferences/events and has been PC chair of SPLC 2012 and general chair of SPLC 2017. He, together with his coauthors, were awarded with the first SPL most influential paper award in 2017 for a work published in 2005. His main areas of expertise are Software Product Lines and Feature Model Analysis where configurations techniques are used. He is also interested in open-source, computation thinking, software visualization and social applications of software systems. He has visited different research centers and has co-authored journal, conferences and workshop papers with more than forty external authors along the world and has special connections with South America. One of his PhD graduates was recently distinguished with the PhD national award on software engineering for his work on variability analysis, configuration, testing and evolution.
Presenter 2: Dr. Joachim Pargfrieder, Siemens Mobility GmbH, R&D and Innovation Manager
Talk Title: Inspiro Metro Configurator – a Virtual Reality Experience
Abstract: The Inspiro metro configurator is a tool that allows you to define, configure and design a metro vehicle and to present it in virtual reality (VR) mode. The user immerges into virtual reality and experiences the metro vehicle in a total different environment. Hence, an application, which was ‘just’ available in the gaming industry, is now ready for the rather conservative railway/metro industry. The Inspiro metro platform defines the technical solution space for metro projects. It is normally difficult to convey our products’ touch and feel to customers given its complexity and scale. Therefore we developed this VR-tool, which allows a close to ‘real-life’ visual approach to the Inspiro metro platform.
Short Bio: Joachim Pargfrieder studied Mechanical Engineering at University of Technology and Business Administration at the University of Economics and Business in Vienna. After three years of academic research in the field of automation and control he joined Siemens Mobility in 2001 as R&D project manager. 2009 he left Siemens and worked as an consultant. In 2011 he returned to Siemens and was Product Manager at Mobility – Urban Transport. Now he is responsible for the R&D and Innovation Management at Mobility – Rolling Stock. He lives with his wife and his twins, 8 years old, in Vienna.
Presenter 3: Dr. Juha Tiihonen, Variantum and University of Helsinki
Talk Title: Life-cycle management of configurable products – the Variantum way
Abstract: Configurable products and services are an established and successful way to achieve mass-customization. However, running a company with configurable products can be challenging, because management of variability creates complexities in all phases of product life-cycle. Variantum helps customers with configurable offerings to launch new products and services faster, achieve an error-free sales-to-delivery process and boost their after-sales service business. To achieve this, management of variability is integrated to the modular offering of Variantum that covers product life-cycle in an integrated fashion. This talk aims to give a conceptual overview, augmented with live demonstrations of key functionalities, of this management of variability over life cycle. We specially focus on support for the sales-delivery process based on two-phase configuration with separate sales and production configuration. The modeling conceptualization and main functionalities are described and exemplified.
Short Bio: Juha Tiihonen, D.Sc.(Tech.) develops sales configuration systems at Variantum oy, Espoo, Finland. He is also a senior researcher at the Empirical Software Engineering Research Group of University of Helsinki, Finland. His interests include product and service configuration including modeling, configurators and business processes; software product variability and its management, requirements engineering, recommendation technologies, and mass customization. His strengths include conceptual modeling and tool support for configuration of physical products and services. Juha serves in program committees of numerous journals, conferences and workshops, organizes workshops and serves a co-editor of special issues. Juha is a co-founder of Variantum oy, a company specializing in product life-cycle management of configurable offerings.