Marian Daun

Context: Modern software development increasingly relies on conceptual models as blueprints for system design, particularly in low-code/no-code and Model-Driven Engineering approaches. Ensuring the semantic quality of these models is non-trivial, and testing-based approaches can be used for this.Objectives: One particularly promising testing-based approach is model mutation testing, which applies code-based mutation testing principles to conceptual models. In this approach, models with minor syntactic differences from the original model are created and tested against the test suite. However, model mutation testing requires skills that students often lack. Gamification has been proposed as a solution to this problem, as it structures complexity through game mechanics. Therefore, we investigated whether gamified model mutation testing improves students' testing skills.Method: We developed ModelDefenders, a competitive web game for entity-relationship model testing based on model mutation testing, and conducted a pretest-treatment-posttest experiment with students (n=34) enrolled in varying university degrees.Results: The results show that students created higher quality test cases post-treatment. The tool received positive user ratings independent of personal characteristics.Conclusion: We conclude that the gamified approach used in our research is associated with higher model testing performance, providing empirical evidence for gamification effectiveness in software engineering education.

In the context of the human-centric manufacturing of Industry 5.0, Human-Robot Collaboration (HRC) emerges as a pivotal strategy for achieving enhanced flexibility and adaptability in manufacturing systems. However, safety assessment in such systems remains challenging, as traditional methods tailored for standalone robot applications fail to capture the system-wide view and complex safety requirements inherent in HRC environments. Systems-Theoretic Process Analysis (STPA) can address this gap; however, the classic block diagram representation may introduce ambiguity. To overcome this, we combine STPA with Colored Petri Nets (CPN), a widely-used formal language, transforming the STPA control structure into a hierarchical and executable CPN model. We demonstrate the practical applicability of this approach through a case study on speed and separation monitoring for HRC assembly processes. This integration offers a comprehensive framework for advancing safety assessment in next-generation manufacturing environments.

Software engineering is no longer only an important subject in the education of computer science degree programs to train traditional software engineers, but made its way into a number of technical engineering degrees. Software engineering education, there, takes a vital part in preparing future engineers in developing highly specialized software in various domains. One example is robotics, we currently see a rise in industry's need for well-educated roboticists, which is reflected in an increasing number of robotics degree programs. In these programs, students are trained to develop individual software-based applications for standardized robotics hardware. In addition, students need to be able to blend into bigger software engineering programs considering IoT applications. Therefore, software engineering is an important part of students' education. However, due to other important fields to be taught during their studies (e.g., electrical engineering, mechanical engineering), it is impossible to teach all software engineering related aspects as is part of a software engineering. In addition, students are missing basic knowledge from lower semester computer science subjects, which are not part of these technical degree programs as well. Therefore, there is a need to define a software engineering curriculum for these technical engineering degree programs that provides students with sufficient software engineering knowledge and skills.