@article{RojahnWeberGronau2023, author = {Rojahn, Marcel and Weber, Edzard and Gronau, Norbert}, title = {Towards a standardization in scheduling models}, series = {International journal of industrial and systems engineering}, volume = {17}, journal = {International journal of industrial and systems engineering}, number = {6}, publisher = {Inderscience Enterprises}, address = {Gen{\`e}ve}, issn = {1748-5037}, pages = {401 -- 408}, year = {2023}, abstract = {Terminology is a critical instrument for each researcher. Different terminologies for the same research object may arise in different research communities. By this inconsistency, many synergistic effects get lost. Theories and models will be more understandable and reusable if a common terminology is applied. This paper examines the terminological (in)consistence for the research field of job-shop scheduling by a literature review. There is an enormous variety in the choice of terms and mathematical notation for the same concept. The comparability, reusability and combinability of scheduling methods is unnecessarily hampered by the arbitrary use of homonyms and synonyms. The acceptance in the community of used variables and notation forms is shown by means of a compliance quotient. This is proven by the evaluation of 240 scientific publications on planning methods.}, language = {en} } @misc{RitterbuschTeichmann2023, author = {Ritterbusch, Georg David and Teichmann, Malte Rolf}, title = {Defining the metaverse}, series = {Zweitver{\"o}ffentlichungen der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam : Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaftliche Reihe}, journal = {Zweitver{\"o}ffentlichungen der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam : Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaftliche Reihe}, number = {159}, issn = {1867-5808}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-58879}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-588799}, pages = {12368 -- 12377}, year = {2023}, abstract = {The term Metaverse is emerging as a result of the late push by multinational technology conglomerates and a recent surge of interest in Web 3.0, Blockchain, NFT, and Cryptocurrencies. From a scientific point of view, there is no definite consensus on what the Metaverse will be like. This paper collects, analyzes, and synthesizes scientific definitions and the accompanying major characteristics of the Metaverse using the methodology of a Systematic Literature Review (SLR). Two revised definitions for the Metaverse are presented, both condensing the key attributes, where the first one is rather simplistic holistic describing "a three-dimensional online environment in which users represented by avatars interact with each other in virtual spaces decoupled from the real physical world". In contrast, the second definition is specified in a more detailed manner in the paper and further discussed. These comprehensive definitions offer specialized and general scholars an application within and beyond the scientific context of the system science, information system science, computer science, and business informatics, by also introducing open research challenges. Furthermore, an outlook on the social, economic, and technical implications is given, and the preconditions that are necessary for a successful implementation are discussed.}, language = {en} } @article{RitterbuschTeichmann2023, author = {Ritterbusch, Georg David and Teichmann, Malte Rolf}, title = {Defining the metaverse}, series = {IEEE Access}, volume = {11}, journal = {IEEE Access}, publisher = {Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers}, address = {New York, NY}, issn = {2169-3536}, doi = {10.1109/ACCESS.2023.3241809}, pages = {12368 -- 12377}, year = {2023}, abstract = {The term Metaverse is emerging as a result of the late push by multinational technology conglomerates and a recent surge of interest in Web 3.0, Blockchain, NFT, and Cryptocurrencies. From a scientific point of view, there is no definite consensus on what the Metaverse will be like. This paper collects, analyzes, and synthesizes scientific definitions and the accompanying major characteristics of the Metaverse using the methodology of a Systematic Literature Review (SLR). Two revised definitions for the Metaverse are presented, both condensing the key attributes, where the first one is rather simplistic holistic describing "a three-dimensional online environment in which users represented by avatars interact with each other in virtual spaces decoupled from the real physical world". In contrast, the second definition is specified in a more detailed manner in the paper and further discussed. These comprehensive definitions offer specialized and general scholars an application within and beyond the scientific context of the system science, information system science, computer science, and business informatics, by also introducing open research challenges. Furthermore, an outlook on the social, economic, and technical implications is given, and the preconditions that are necessary for a successful implementation are discussed.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Bano2023, author = {Bano, Dorina}, title = {Discovering data models from event logs}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-58542}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-585427}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {xvii, 137}, year = {2023}, abstract = {In the last two decades, process mining has developed from a niche discipline to a significant research area with considerable impact on academia and industry. Process mining enables organisations to identify the running business processes from historical execution data. The first requirement of any process mining technique is an event log, an artifact that represents concrete business process executions in the form of sequence of events. These logs can be extracted from the organization's information systems and are used by process experts to retrieve deep insights from the organization's running processes. Considering the events pertaining to such logs, the process models can be automatically discovered and enhanced or annotated with performance-related information. Besides behavioral information, event logs contain domain specific data, albeit implicitly. However, such data are usually overlooked and, thus, not utilized to their full potential. Within the process mining area, we address in this thesis the research gap of discovering, from event logs, the contextual information that cannot be captured by applying existing process mining techniques. Within this research gap, we identify four key problems and tackle them by looking at an event log from different angles. First, we address the problem of deriving an event log in the absence of a proper database access and domain knowledge. The second problem is related to the under-utilization of the implicit domain knowledge present in an event log that can increase the understandability of the discovered process model. Next, there is a lack of a holistic representation of the historical data manipulation at the process model level of abstraction. Last but not least, each process model presumes to be independent of other process models when discovered from an event log, thus, ignoring possible data dependencies between processes within an organization. For each of the problems mentioned above, this thesis proposes a dedicated method. The first method provides a solution to extract an event log only from the transactions performed on the database that are stored in the form of redo logs. The second method deals with discovering the underlying data model that is implicitly embedded in the event log, thus, complementing the discovered process model with important domain knowledge information. The third method captures, on the process model level, how the data affects the running process instances. Lastly, the fourth method is about the discovery of the relations between business processes (i.e., how they exchange data) from a set of event logs and explicitly representing such complex interdependencies in a business process architecture. All the methods introduced in this thesis are implemented as a prototype and their feasibility is proven by being applied on real-life event logs.}, language = {en} } @incollection{RojahnAmbrosBiruetal.2023, author = {Rojahn, Marcel and Ambros, Maximilian and Biru, Tibebu and Krallmann, Hermann and Gronau, Norbert and Grum, Marcus}, title = {Adequate basis for the data-driven and machine-learning-based identification}, series = {Artificial intelligence and soft computing}, booktitle = {Artificial intelligence and soft computing}, editor = {Rutkowski, Leszek and Scherer, Rafał and Korytkowski, Marcin and Pedrycz, Witold and Tadeusiewicz, Ryszard and Zurada, Jacek M.}, publisher = {Springer}, address = {Cham}, isbn = {978-3-031-42504-2}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-031-42505-9_48}, pages = {570 -- 588}, year = {2023}, abstract = {Process mining (PM) has established itself in recent years as a main method for visualizing and analyzing processes. However, the identification of knowledge has not been addressed adequately because PM aims solely at data-driven discovering, monitoring, and improving real-world processes from event logs available in various information systems. The following paper, therefore, outlines a novel systematic analysis view on tools for data-driven and machine learning (ML)-based identification of knowledge-intensive target processes. To support the effectiveness of the identification process, the main contributions of this study are (1) to design a procedure for a systematic review and analysis for the selection of relevant dimensions, (2) to identify different categories of dimensions as evaluation metrics to select source systems, algorithms, and tools for PM and ML as well as include them in a multi-dimensional grid box model, (3) to select and assess the most relevant dimensions of the model, (4) to identify and assess source systems, algorithms, and tools in order to find evidence for the selected dimensions, and (5) to assess the relevance and applicability of the conceptualization and design procedure for tool selection in data-driven and ML-based process mining research.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Sakizloglou2023, author = {Sakizloglou, Lucas}, title = {Evaluating temporal queries over history-aware architectural runtime models}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-60439}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-604396}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {v, 168}, year = {2023}, abstract = {In model-driven engineering, the adaptation of large software systems with dynamic structure is enabled by architectural runtime models. Such a model represents an abstract state of the system as a graph of interacting components. Every relevant change in the system is mirrored in the model and triggers an evaluation of model queries, which search the model for structural patterns that should be adapted. This thesis focuses on a type of runtime models where the expressiveness of the model and model queries is extended to capture past changes and their timing. These history-aware models and temporal queries enable more informed decision-making during adaptation, as they support the formulation of requirements on the evolution of the pattern that should be adapted. However, evaluating temporal queries during adaptation poses significant challenges. First, it implies the capability to specify and evaluate requirements on the structure, as well as the ordering and timing in which structural changes occur. Then, query answers have to reflect that the history-aware model represents the architecture of a system whose execution may be ongoing, and thus answers may depend on future changes. Finally, query evaluation needs to be adequately fast and memory-efficient despite the increasing size of the history---especially for models that are altered by numerous, rapid changes. The thesis presents a query language and a querying approach for the specification and evaluation of temporal queries. These contributions aim to cope with the challenges of evaluating temporal queries at runtime, a prerequisite for history-aware architectural monitoring and adaptation which has not been systematically treated by prior model-based solutions. The distinguishing features of our contributions are: the specification of queries based on a temporal logic which encodes structural patterns as graphs; the provision of formally precise query answers which account for timing constraints and ongoing executions; the incremental evaluation which avoids the re-computation of query answers after each change; and the option to discard history that is no longer relevant to queries. The query evaluation searches the model for occurrences of a pattern whose evolution satisfies a temporal logic formula. Therefore, besides model-driven engineering, another related research community is runtime verification. The approach differs from prior logic-based runtime verification solutions by supporting the representation and querying of structure via graphs and graph queries, respectively, which is more efficient for queries with complex patterns. We present a prototypical implementation of the approach and measure its speed and memory consumption in monitoring and adaptation scenarios from two application domains, with executions of an increasing size. We assess scalability by a comparison to the state-of-the-art from both related research communities. The implementation yields promising results, which pave the way for sophisticated history-aware self-adaptation solutions and indicate that the approach constitutes a highly effective technique for runtime monitoring on an architectural level.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Lindinger2023, author = {Lindinger, Jakob}, title = {Variational inference for composite Gaussian process models}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-60444}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-604441}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {xi, 122}, year = {2023}, abstract = {Most machine learning methods provide only point estimates when being queried to predict on new data. This is problematic when the data is corrupted by noise, e.g. from imperfect measurements, or when the queried data point is very different to the data that the machine learning model has been trained with. Probabilistic modelling in machine learning naturally equips predictions with corresponding uncertainty estimates which allows a practitioner to incorporate information about measurement noise into the modelling process and to know when not to trust the predictions. A well-understood, flexible probabilistic framework is provided by Gaussian processes that are ideal as building blocks of probabilistic models. They lend themself naturally to the problem of regression, i.e., being given a set of inputs and corresponding observations and then predicting likely observations for new unseen inputs, and can also be adapted to many more machine learning tasks. However, exactly inferring the optimal parameters of such a Gaussian process model (in a computationally tractable manner) is only possible for regression tasks in small data regimes. Otherwise, approximate inference methods are needed, the most prominent of which is variational inference. In this dissertation we study models that are composed of Gaussian processes embedded in other models in order to make those more flexible and/or probabilistic. The first example are deep Gaussian processes which can be thought of as a small network of Gaussian processes and which can be employed for flexible regression. The second model class that we study are Gaussian process state-space models. These can be used for time-series modelling, i.e., the task of being given a stream of data ordered by time and then predicting future observations. For both model classes the state-of-the-art approaches offer a trade-off between expressive models and computational properties (e.g. speed or convergence properties) and mostly employ variational inference. Our goal is to improve inference in both models by first getting a deep understanding of the existing methods and then, based on this, to design better inference methods. We achieve this by either exploring the existing trade-offs or by providing general improvements applicable to multiple methods. We first provide an extensive background, introducing Gaussian processes and their sparse (approximate and efficient) variants. We continue with a description of the models under consideration in this thesis, deep Gaussian processes and Gaussian process state-space models, including detailed derivations and a theoretical comparison of existing methods. Then we start analysing deep Gaussian processes more closely: Trading off the properties (good optimisation versus expressivity) of state-of-the-art methods in this field, we propose a new variational inference based approach. We then demonstrate experimentally that our new algorithm leads to better calibrated uncertainty estimates than existing methods. Next, we turn our attention to Gaussian process state-space models, where we closely analyse the theoretical properties of existing methods.The understanding gained in this process leads us to propose a new inference scheme for general Gaussian process state-space models that incorporates effects on multiple time scales. This method is more efficient than previous approaches for long timeseries and outperforms its comparison partners on data sets in which effects on multiple time scales (fast and slowly varying dynamics) are present. Finally, we propose a new inference approach for Gaussian process state-space models that trades off the properties of state-of-the-art methods in this field. By combining variational inference with another approximate inference method, the Laplace approximation, we design an efficient algorithm that outperforms its comparison partners since it achieves better calibrated uncertainties.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Discher2023, author = {Discher, S{\"o}ren}, title = {Real-Time Rendering Techniques for Massive 3D Point Clouds}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-60164}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-601641}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {ix, 123}, year = {2023}, abstract = {Today, point clouds are among the most important categories of spatial data, as they constitute digital 3D models of the as-is reality that can be created at unprecedented speed and precision. However, their unique properties, i.e., lack of structure, order, or connectivity information, necessitate specialized data structures and algorithms to leverage their full precision. In particular, this holds true for the interactive visualization of point clouds, which requires to balance hardware limitations regarding GPU memory and bandwidth against a naturally high susceptibility to visual artifacts. This thesis focuses on concepts, techniques, and implementations of robust, scalable, and portable 3D visualization systems for massive point clouds. To that end, a number of rendering, visualization, and interaction techniques are introduced, that extend several basic strategies to decouple rendering efforts and data management: First, a novel visualization technique that facilitates context-aware filtering, highlighting, and interaction within point cloud depictions. Second, hardware-specific optimization techniques that improve rendering performance and image quality in an increasingly diversified hardware landscape. Third, natural and artificial locomotion techniques for nausea-free exploration in the context of state-of-the-art virtual reality devices. Fourth, a framework for web-based rendering that enables collaborative exploration of point clouds across device ecosystems and facilitates the integration into established workflows and software systems. In cooperation with partners from industry and academia, the practicability and robustness of the presented techniques are showcased via several case studies using representative application scenarios and point cloud data sets. In summary, the work shows that the interactive visualization of point clouds can be implemented by a multi-tier software architecture with a number of domain-independent, generic system components that rely on optimization strategies specific to large point clouds. It demonstrates the feasibility of interactive, scalable point cloud visualization as a key component for distributed IT solutions that operate with spatial digital twins, providing arguments in favor of using point clouds as a universal type of spatial base data usable directly for visualization purposes.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Kossmann2023, author = {Koßmann, Jan}, title = {Unsupervised database optimization}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-58949}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-589490}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {xi, 203}, year = {2023}, abstract = {The amount of data stored in databases and the complexity of database workloads are ever- increasing. Database management systems (DBMSs) offer many configuration options, such as index creation or unique constraints, which must be adapted to the specific instance to efficiently process large volumes of data. Currently, such database optimization is complicated, manual work performed by highly skilled database administrators (DBAs). In cloud scenarios, manual database optimization even becomes infeasible: it exceeds the abilities of the best DBAs due to the enormous number of deployed DBMS instances (some providers maintain millions of instances), missing domain knowledge resulting from data privacy requirements, and the complexity of the configuration tasks. Therefore, we investigate how to automate the configuration of DBMSs efficiently with the help of unsupervised database optimization. While there are numerous configuration options, in this thesis, we focus on automatic index selection and the use of data dependencies, such as functional dependencies, for query optimization. Both aspects have an extensive performance impact and complement each other by approaching unsupervised database optimization from different perspectives. Our contributions are as follows: (1) we survey automated state-of-the-art index selection algorithms regarding various criteria, e.g., their support for index interaction. We contribute an extensible platform for evaluating the performance of such algorithms with industry-standard datasets and workloads. The platform is well-received by the community and has led to follow-up research. With our platform, we derive the strengths and weaknesses of the investigated algorithms. We conclude that existing solutions often have scalability issues and cannot quickly determine (near-)optimal solutions for large problem instances. (2) To overcome these limitations, we present two new algorithms. Extend determines (near-)optimal solutions with an iterative heuristic. It identifies the best index configurations for the evaluated benchmarks. Its selection runtimes are up to 10 times lower compared with other near-optimal approaches. SWIRL is based on reinforcement learning and delivers solutions instantly. These solutions perform within 3 \% of the optimal ones. Extend and SWIRL are available as open-source implementations. (3) Our index selection efforts are complemented by a mechanism that analyzes workloads to determine data dependencies for query optimization in an unsupervised fashion. We describe and classify 58 query optimization techniques based on functional, order, and inclusion dependencies as well as on unique column combinations. The unsupervised mechanism and three optimization techniques are implemented in our open-source research DBMS Hyrise. Our approach reduces the Join Order Benchmark's runtime by 26 \% and accelerates some TPC-DS queries by up to 58 times. Additionally, we have developed a cockpit for unsupervised database optimization that allows interactive experiments to build confidence in such automated techniques. In summary, our contributions improve the performance of DBMSs, support DBAs in their work, and enable them to contribute their time to other, less arduous tasks.}, language = {en} } @masterthesis{Repp2023, type = {Bachelor Thesis}, author = {Repp, Leo}, title = {Extending the automatic theorem prover nanoCoP with arithmetic procedures}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-57619}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-576195}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {52}, year = {2023}, abstract = {In dieser Bachelorarbeit implementiere ich den automatischen Theorembeweiser nanoCoP-Ω. Es handelt sich bei diesem neuen System um das Ergebnis einer Portierung von Arithmetik-behandelnden Prozeduren aus dem automatischen Theorembeweiser mit Arithmetik leanCoP-Ω in das System nanoCoP 2.0. Dazu wird zuerst der mathematische Hintergrund zu automatischen Theorembeweisern und Arithmetik gegeben. Ich stelle die Vorg{\"a}ngerprojekte leanCoP, nanoCoP und leanCoP-Ω vor, auf dessen Vorlage nanoCoP-Ω entwickelt wurde. Es folgt eine ausf{\"u}hrliche Erkl{\"a}rung der Konzepte, um welche der nicht-klausale Konnektionskalk{\"u}l erweitert werden muss, um eine Behandlung von arithmetischen Ausdr{\"u}cken und Gleichheiten in den Kalk{\"u}l zu integrieren, sowie eine Beschreibung der Implementierung dieser Konzepte in nanoCoP-Ω. Als letztes folgt eine experimentelle Evaluation von nanoCoP-Ω. Es wurde ein ausf{\"u}hrlicher Vergleich von Laufzeit und Anzahl gel{\"o}ster Probleme im Vergleich zum {\"a}hnlich aufgebauten Theorembeweiser leanCoP-Ω auf Basis der TPTP-Benchmark durchgef{\"u}hrt. Ich komme zu dem Ergebnis, dass nanoCoP-Ω deutlich schneller ist als leanCoP-Ω ist, jedoch weniger gut geeignet f{\"u}r gr{\"o}ßere Probleme. Zudem konnte ich feststellen, dass nanoCoP-Ω falsche Beweise liefern kann. Ich bespreche, wie dieses Problem gel{\"o}st werden kann, sowie einige m{\"o}gliche Optimierungen und Erweiterungen des Beweissystems.}, language = {en} }