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Toyota Software Development for Partner Robots

Posted on February 15, 2009  Comments (1)

Toyota Discusses Software Development for Partner Robots

Yamada: What was unique about the software development for the partner robots exhibited at Aichi Expo was the fact that Toyota entirely disposed of its assets from the past.

Toyota owned some software assets because it had been developing partner robots for some time before developing the robots for the exposition. But those assets were all one-offs. No one but the developers themselves could comprehend their architectures.

As Toyota was developing more than one partner robot for the exposition, the number of developers involved increased. Considering that we can never complete any development if we use the past assets that rely on an individual developer’s skill, we made everything, including the platform, from scratch again.

Toyota developed the platform focusing on promoting design review by visualizing the control logic. Therefore, the company thoroughly separated control sequences and algorithms. To be more specific, it used state transition diagrams.

Each algorithm is stored in a different block in a state transition diagram. With such diagrams, developers can easily comprehend the flow of the control and review the design even if they do not understand each algorithm. The company employed this method because each algorithm such as a bipedal walking algorithm is too complicated for anyone but their developers to understand it.

Related: Toyota Partner Robots (2006) – Toyota Cultivating Engineering Talent – Toyota iUnit

Solving the Toughest Problems in Computer Science

Posted on January 12, 2009  Comments (1)

Software Breakthroughs: Solving the Toughest Problems in Computer Science, 2004:

Bill Gates’ talk at MIT provided an optimistic view of the next generation of computer science, now that the “rough draft” is done. Gates finds a paradox today in that computer science is poised to transform work and home life, “but people’s excitement level is not as high as it was five years ago during the Internet bubble.” Because most sectors of the computer industry—from microchips to storage, displays to wireless connectivity— continuously improve in performance, Gates predicts a flood of new products and applications. He sported a wristwatch that receives data wirelessly, as well as keeps its user on schedule. Gates describes “rich, new peripherals” such as ultra-wideband digital cameras and he demonstrates software that allows pictures to be archived using a 3D visual interface with a built-in time, date, and keyword database. He says that computer science is merging with and making over such fields as astronomy and biology, by unifying vast, unwieldy data collections into easily navigable libraries. And Gates appears confident that technological breakthroughs will ultimately resolve urgent problems of computer and network security.

Related: Bill Gates Interview from 1993 – Donald Knuth – Computer Scientist – Open Source: The Scientific Model Applied to Programming – Internship with Bill Gates

Rumors of Software Engineering’s Death are Greatly Exaggerated

Posted on January 4, 2009  Comments (3)

Rumors of Software Engineering’s Death are Greatly Exaggerated by Steve McConnell

Indeed, one of the hallmarks of engineering as opposed to science is that engineers will work with materials whose properties are not entirely understood, and they’ll factor in safety margins until the science comes along later and allows more precision in the engineer’s use of those materials.
…
Software engineering already has been defined as engineering, we have an international reference standard for that definition, the field’s two largest professional bodies have jointly adopted a professional code of conduct for software engineers, we have accreditation standards for university programs in software engineering, we have university numerous programs that have already been accredited, and several countries are licensing professional engineers in software.

Related: Who Killed the Software Engineer? – Is Computer Science a Science? – What Ails India’s Software Engineers? – Federal Circuit Decides Software No Longer Patentable – A Career in Computer Programming

Who Killed the Software Engineer?

Posted on January 21, 2008  Comments (6)

Computer Science Education: Where Are the Software Engineers of Tomorrow? by Dr. Robert B.K. Dewar and Dr. Edmond Schonberg

Over the last few years we have noticed worrisome trends in CS education. The following represents a summary of those trends:
1. Mathematics requirements in CS programs are shrinking.
2. The development of programming skills in several languages is giving way to cookbook approaches using large libraries and special-purpose packages.
3. The resulting set of skills is insufficient for today’s software industry (in particular for safety and security purposes) and, unfortunately, matches well what the outsourcing industry can offer. We are training easily replaceable professionals.
…
As faculty members at New York University for decades, we have regretted the introduction of Java as a first language of instruction for most computer science majors. We have seen how this choice has weakened the formation of our students, as reflected in their performance in systems and architecture courses.
…
Every programmer must be comfortable with functional programming and with the important notion of referential transparency. Even though most programmers find imperative programming more intuitive, they must recognize that in many contexts that a functional, stateless style is clear, natural, easy to understand, and efficient to boot.

An additional benefit of the practice of Lisp is that the program is written in what amounts to abstract syntax, namely the internal representation that most compilers use between parsing and code generation. Knowing Lisp is thus an excellent preparation for any software work that involves language processing.

This is an excellent article: any CS students or those considering careers as programmers definitely should read this. Also read: Computer Science Education.

via: Who Killed the Software Engineer?

Dewar, a professor emeritus of computer science at New York University, believes that U.S. colleges are turning out programmers who are – there’s no nice way to say this – essentially incompetent.

Related: A Career in Computer Programming – Programming Grads Meet a Skills Gap in the Real World – Programming Ruby – What you Need to Know to Be a Computer Game Programmer – Hiring Software Developers – What Ails India’s Software Engineers?

What Ails India’s Software Engineers?

Posted on November 30, 2005  Comments (1)

India does not produce enough good computer engineers and those it does are good at theory but not very well equipped to handle the practical aspects.’
– Microsoft Chief Technical Officer Craig Mundie

What Ails India’s Software Engineers? is an interesting series of 3 articles by Rediff exploring the state of India’s software engineering industry.

From its 113 universities and 2,088 colleges — many of which teach various engineering disciplines — India produces nearly 350,000 engineering graduates every year. All of Europe produces 100,000 engineering graduates a year, and America produces only 70,000.

But, the quality of Indian engineers is questionable, says Madhavan, who has had a career spanning four decades and is now advisor to several engineering colleges in Karnataka and Kerala.
“That is because of the lack of trained faculty and the dismal State spending on research and development in higher education in the country,” he says.

Part of what makes this article interesting is it challenges the accepted wisdom. The article offers an interesting perspective and some details that are not well understood.

In the 1980s, India had just 158 engineering colleges. That number has jumped to 1,208 in the last two decades, mainly because of the information technology boom and the ever-burgeoning capitation fee that self-financing colleges charge.

Every year, these engineering colleges admit about 350,000 students. Apart from this, nearly 3,500 students are absorbed into the seven premier Indian Institutes of Technology.

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