Modelling Outside the Box Workshop @ Bellairs


The 5th Modelling Workshop at the Bellairs Research Institute of McGill will take place from Friday The MODELS conference has been running for over fifteen years. Model-driven development, as an idea, is much older. Like any mature community, there is a natural tendency over time for members of the community to think alike and do alike. Research advances become mostly incremental because the community is unable to step beyond accepted boundaries; truly radical ideas are too risky. This is not to say that incremental research is bad. On the contrary, incremental research is the bread and butter of any research discipline; without it, the community would wither and die. However, any discipline also needs the occasional prod towards new ideas that would not flourish under normal conditions. Sometimes, such new ways of thinking arise spontaneously. But sometimes, the community can help it along by creating conditions for outside the box thinking.


The Idea


Through a series of creativity, lateral thinking, and brainstorming activities, the "Modelling Outside the Box" (MOTB) workshop will ask participants to think outside the box and imagine different, radical, innovative forms of model-driven engineering (MDE). Participants will be asked to leave behind all their preconceived notions of MDE and to approach the issue of MDE from a different angle. This will be a highly interactive workshop in which facilitators will use tried-and-tested methods for fostering creativity to generate fresh new ideas for MDE. The aim is to avoid the blinkered thinking and tunnel vision that is a natural consequence of any mature discipline. We are also planning to invite guest speakers from radically different areas to give short, inspiring talks about how they use models in their discipline. The outcomes will be new connections between people and, hopefully, new ideas that may lead to future research collaborations. Plans are to consolidate the ideas and innovation during the workshop to formulate a vision statement / research agenda for the modelling community for the next 50 years.



Use the navigation menu above to get more information on the Bellairs Research Institute of McGill and on the current list of confirmed participants. You can also look at the 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010 and 2009 editions of the Bellairs AOM workshop.



Last modified: November 23, 2015, Jörg Kienzle