Joe.Bolinger

Mirror
Cyber Infrastructure Development

As part of my own research and others in our research group we are building a software framework that can be used as a basis for a variety of collaborative applications. The motivation for the cyber infrastructure is twofold. First, we would like to bring together a collection of related work into a single toolbox that will become a generic software framework. Secondly, we hope it will serve as a living laboratory where real applications can be hosted, generate live data, and in turn support various research projects by side effect. To support both goals we have begun by taking a small number of existing production applications, that appeal to a local user population, and are using them as the starting point for the software framework and infrastructure development. In addition to the direct development efforts, I am also using this project as an opportunity to observe a group of student developers and am planning to conduct some qualitative analysis to study how they use structured communication tools over the course of the project to engage in peer review and support activities.

Course, Curriculum, and Laboratory Improvement
Curriculum Creation & Evaluation

I am working with Dr. Rajiv Ramnath to create engaging course materials for a graduate software engineering course, CSE 757, using the artifacts of recent industry sponsored student projects completed by myself or other students. The challenge is to find a way to package and present these artifacts in a manner that is suitable for a quarter long course without sacrificing the realism and intricacies of industrial software development. We are also investigating the use of qualitative content analysis techniques to detect trends in student learning and validate the learning objectives of the course through the materials students generate when they take the course.

Collaboration Tool Selection
Observations at a Large IT Organization

I took part in a group of students that observed a team in a large IT organization tasked with the goal of selecting a set of collaboration tools to support various internal projects. Through this effort we were exposed to a number of individual teams and industrial processes, mostly concerned with software development or maintenance. Through observation we were able to draw some general conclusions about the nature of the work environments and the relative usefulness of tools on the market, as well as their likelihood to be adopted by a particular project group.

Capacity Management
Observations at a Large IT Organization

As part of a graduate course in Enterprise Architecture I observed capacity management policies in a large IT organization. The observations were compared with a survey of the literature and measured against current industry trends. We reported our findings as part of the course and our relationship with the organization resulted in additional student projects on more specific capacity management initiatives such as energy conservation and green computing.

Architecture Patterns
Extraction & Knowledge Management

I worked with a group of students to analyze a set of architecture documents collected from a number of internal projects in a software development organization. We located and documented similar patterns found in the architectures that had strong potential for reuse or as learning aids. The patterns were presented to senior enterprise architects at the organization in an effort to reinforce a pattern-based approach to architecture that the organization was working to adopt.