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The purpose of this thesis was to develop a program that would accept, as input, a finite set of algebraic equations and simple if-then conditional expressions that model a natural system, and then produce a continuous computer simulation with graphics and tabular output. The equations and conditionals can be in any order and key elements can be missing. The program can be used to run existing models or as a development tool to produce immediate prototypic computer simulations through synergistic man-machine interactions. The theoretical aspects of automatic program generation were discussed, as well as the architectural design of the system. The simulation system was used to develop a computer simulation of an exploited Northern Utah pheasant population and the results were compared to the results from an earlier FORTRAN computer simulation of the same model. It was concluded that the simulation system developed for this thesis produces verified computer simulations from mathematical models that are at least as accurate as the corresponding simulation written in FORTRAN. The system was easy to use and should be useful for unsophisticated users. Some "tuning'' of the input was needed to produce a verified simulation and it was concluded that further work was needed here.

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Most software projects today are written using programming languages. Compilers in turn translate programs written in these higher level languages into machine code, executable on actual hardware. Ensuring that these compilers function correctly is therefore paramount. Manually written test suites make sure that compilers functions correctly for some inputs, but can never hope to cover every possible use case. Thus, it is of interest to find out how other testing techniques can be applied. This project aimed to implement a random test program generator for Configura Magic (CM), a proprietary programming language used at Configura. Our tool is inspired by the widely successful C program generator Csmith. It is implemented by randomly generating an abstract syntax tree (AST) and unparsing it to produce correct code. Our tool found about 3 bugs in the CM compiler, Configura Virtual Machine (CVM), during its development.CVM was instrumented to get code coverage data after compiling programs. Compiling the CVM test suite (CTS) and Configura's main product CET (Configura Extension Technology)cover about 23% and 19% of the compiler respectively, while compiling programs generated by our tool only cover about 6%. But on the other hand, our generated programs uniquely cover about 0.2% that is not covered by CTS and CET. A backend for our tool that generates C-code was also implemented, to compare it against Csmith. The results show that on average (100 program generations 30 times, for a total of 3000 programs), our tool gets about 45% coverage while Csmith gets about 50% on the small C compiler TinyCC. Although our tool was mildly successful in finding bugs, the comparison between it and Csmith shows its potential to be even more effective.

Expert design knowledge is essential to develop a library of high-performance software. This includes how to implement and parallelize domain operations, how to optimize implementations, and estimates of which implementation choices are best. An expert repeatedly applies his knowledge, often in a rote and tedious way, to develop all of the related functionality expected from a domain-specific library. Expert knowledge is hard to gain and is easily lost over time when an expert forgets or when a new engineer starts developing code. The domain of dense linear algebra (DLA) is a prime example with software that is so well designed that much of experts' important work has become tediously rote in many ways. In this dissertation, we demonstrate how one can encode design knowledge for DLA so it can be automatically applied to generate code as an expert would or to generate better code. Further, the knowledge is encoded for perpetuity, so it can be reused to make implementing functionality on new hardware easier or it can be used to teach how software is designed to a non-expert. We call this approach to software engineering (encoding expert knowledge and automatically applying it) Design by Transformation (DxT). We present our vision, the methodology, a prototype code generation system, and possibilities when applying DxT to the domain of dense linear algebra. / text

<p> Skilled trades are in demand across many industries and many countries. Skilled trades refer to occupations that require training and proficiency in a specialized field, such as weld?ing, carpentry, or mechanics. The challenge is upskilling workers to become suited for these positions. One way training might be made more accessible is through low cost VR applica?tions as they can provide a ’learn by doing’ modality that is effective for learning motor skills, and also engaging for providing a holistic training experience. In this thesis, design guide?lines and a methodology for creating training programs that target hand tool based skills are laid out, tested, and refined for future usage. Working with content experts, a learning plan was developed via the backward design methodology, evaluated in a user study, and then applied to a second use case. The results of the user study showed that those who trained with VR were able to perform the prescribed task more quickly and with less mistakes. The implication of the second use case is that the established guidelines are versatile enough to be applied to other industries and simple enough to adapt industry specific knowledge to. The hope is that this work can help bridge the gap between the theoretical possibilities of VR training, effective training methodology, and real world application. </p>