Graph Transformations and Model-Driven Engineering: The Merits of Manfred Nagl Gregor Engels1 , Claus Lewerentz2 , Wilhelm Sch¨ afer3 , 4 5 Andy Sch¨ urr , and Bernhard Westfechtel 1

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1

Database and Information Systems, University of Paderborn, Paderborn, Germany 2 Software Systems Engineering, Brandenburg University of Technology, Cottbus, Germany 3 Software Engineering, University of Paderborn, Paderborn, Germany Real-Time Systems Lab, Darmstadt University of Technology, Darmstadt, Germany 5 Applied Computer Science I (Software Engineering), University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany

Short CV

Manfred was born in 1944 in Landskron, Czechia. In 1963, he enrolled for mathematics and physics at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, from which he received a master degree in 1969. Subsequently, he worked at a research lab of Siemens AG in the area of graphics software. In 1971, he returned to the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. At the chair of programming languages headed by Hans-J¨ urgen Schneider, he focused on graph grammars and graph rewriting systems. Manfred received a doctoral degree in 1974 and a habilitation degree in 1979, both from the Engineering Faculty of the University of ErlangenNuremberg. In 1979, Manfred obtained his first position as a professor at the University of Koblenz-Landau, where he worked as an associate professor of computer science until 1981. He then moved to the University of Osnabr¨ uck, where he held the chair of applied computer science as a full professor until 1986. From then on, Manfred held a chair of computer science at RWTH Aachen University until he retired in July 2009.

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Research

In 1971, Manfred started working on graph transformations (graph grammars and graph rewriting systems), which was a very young field at that time. In fact, the first publications on graph grammars (by Manfred’s advisor, Hans-J¨ urgen Schneider, and John Pfaltz) appeared around 1970. The first years of research were dominated by work on theoretical foundations. Manfred contributed to the theory of graph transformations by developing the set-theoretic approach, which significantly differs from the categorical approach of Hans-J¨ urgen Schneider. Furthermore, Manfred put strong emphasis on implementations and applications, as it is documented by his habilitation thesis “Graph Grammars: Theory, Applications, Implementation”, which was published as a text book in 1979. G. Engels et al. (Eds.): Nagl Festschrift, LNCS 5765, pp. 1–5, 2010. c Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2010 

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G. Engels et al.

Graph transformations constitute the most important thread of research which Manfred has been constantly developing up to the present. Around 1980, the field of integrated software engineering environments emerged. While programs were developed traditionally with separate tools such as text editors, compilers, and debuggers, an integrated software engineering environment was envisioned consisting of tightly integrated tools operating on a common program representation. While abstract syntax trees and attribute grammars were employed in most other projects, Manfred favored graphs for the internal program representation and graph transformation systems for specifying operations on program graphs. Manfred launched the IPSEN project, where pioneering work on implementing and applying graphs and graph transformations in integrated software engineering environments was accomplished. The IPSEN project was started at the University of Osnabr¨ uck in 1982 and was continued at RWTH Aachen University until 1996, when it was finally documented in an LNCS volume (LNCS 1170). The IPSEN environment is a complex software system, the development of which required a thoroughly devised and well-structured software architecture. This research field emerged as a hot topic only around 1995, although Manfred started working on software architecture much earlier (around 1980). Several doctoral dissertations performed under his supervision were devoted to software architecture. In 1990, Manfred published — to the best of our knowledge — the first text book on software architecture. Conceptually, the IPSEN environment was based on graph transformations. However, graph transformation systems had to be written by hand and had to be converted manually into an implementation on top of a graph-based database management system. At the end of the 1980s, the development of PROGRES was started. PROGRES is both a language for specifying graph transformation systems and an integrated development environment, which was built with the help of IPSEN. Phrased in current terms, PROGRES supports model-driven engineering with graph transformations. Again, Manfred initiated pioneering work in an area which became a hot topic much later. A fully functional version of PROGRES was available around 1996, and PROGRES was used for many research projects under the supervision of Manfred and his descendants until his retirement. Nowadays, numerous languages and tools for model-driven engineering are available, partly inspired by work on graph transformations, and are starting to impact industrial software development. RWTH Aachen is a university with strong emphasis on engineering disciplines. In 1990, Manfred launched a joint project with mechanical engineers which was concerned with process support for engineering design. From the very beginning, Manfred had a unified view on design processes in engineering disciplines and software processes. In 1997, he managed to set up a large research project — the Collaborative Research Council IMPROVE — which was dedicated to models and tools for improving design processes in chemical engineering. The results of this project were documented in an LNCS volume (LNCS 4970), which appeared in 2008. Within the IMPROVE project, a series of research prototypes

Andreas Zamperoni

Adeniyi Onabajo

Ping Guo

Jochen Küster

Tim Schattkowsky

Hendrik Voigt

Tian Han

Stephan Frohnhoff

Silvia Kolmschlag

Fig. 1. Descendants of Manfred Nagl

Katharina Mehner-Heindl

Sebastian Thöne

Pieter Jan t`Hoen

Marc Lohmann

Jan Hendrik Hausmann

Alexander Förster

Ralf Depke

Alexej Cherchago

Giorgio Busatto

Martin Assmann

Marc Andries

Andreas Winter

Gregor Engels

Christine Kohring

Peter Klein

Ulrich Norbisrath

Thomas Heer

Stefan Gruner

Manfred Münch

Vladimir Bacvanski

Ibrahim Armac

Jochen Stier

Jens Holger Weber

Jörg Wadsack

Daniela Schilling

Jörg Niere

Gerald Junkermann

Sven Burmester

René Wörzberger

Elmar Pritsch

Anne-Thérèse Körtgen

Markus Heller

Roland Baumann

Stefan Wolf

Robert Wagner

Florian Stallmann

Vladimir Rubin

Matthias Meyer

Matthias Gerke

Wilhelm Schäfer

Ansgar Radermacher

Bodo Kraft

Dominikus Herzberg

Simon Becker

Rami Bahsoon

Wolfgang Emmerich

Lothar Wendehals

Matthias Tichy

Sabine Sachweh

Olaf Neumann

Martin Hirsch

Ulrike Ranger

Carl Arndt Krapp

Manfred Jackel

Anita Behle

Manfred Nagl

Licia Capra

Frank Simon

Andreas Noack

Hans-Ulrich Kobialka

Stefan Knopf

Dirk Beyer

Claus Lewerentz

Daniel Retkowitz

Martin Lefering

Dirk Jäger

Boris Böhlen

Christian Nentwich

Janusz Szuba

Alexander Königs

Lutz Bichler

Peter Aschenbrenner

Carsten Amelunxen

Oliver Alt

Andy Schürr

Ansgar Schleicher

André Marburger

Thorsten Janning

Katja Cremer

James Skene

Bernhard Daubner

Thomas Buchmann

Bernhard Westfechtel

Michael von der Beeck

Oliver Meyer

Manfred Kaul

Rupert Gall

Marie Nordström

Annabella Loconsole

Magnus Eriksson

Ola Ågren

Jürgen Börstler

Erhard Weinell

Christof Mosler

Michael Kirchhof

Felix Gatzemeier

Christian Schneider

Ralf Gemmerich

Ira Diethelm

Albert Zündorf

Graph Transformations and Model-Driven Engineering 3

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of integrated process support environments was developed. These environments were partly based on the graph transformation technology described above.

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Students

Manfred has created a large number of scientific descendants, who are listed in Figure 1 (without any guarantee for completeness). Up to now, 45 Ph.D. students obtained their doctoral degrees; they constitute the first-level branches of the “family tree”. Among them, 6 researchers currently hold full professorship positions in software engineering at universities in Germany (shown in bold face). In addition, there are 8 descendants holding positions as associate professors, professors at universities of applied sciences, or assistant professors (emphasized in italics). The figure also shows 56 “grand children” (among them 5 professors) and even 7 “great-grand children”. Altogether, the “family tree” provides an impressive demonstration of Manfred’s impact.

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Publications

Manfred has produced an impressive list of publications, which currently comprises 24 authored and edited books and 126 refereed articles for journals, conferences, and workshops. Below, only the books are listed. Among them, we would like to emphasize – – – – – –

the first text book on graph transformations [3], the first German text book on Ada [4], the first text book on software architecture [10], the LNCS volume on the IPSEN project [13], the LNCS volume on the IMPROVE project [22], and proceedings of various workshops and conferences related to graphs and graph transformations [2,5,6,7,9,12,17,20,21,23].

References 1. Schneider, H.J., Nagl, M. (eds.): Programmiersprachen, 4. Fachtagung der Gesellschaft f¨ ur Informatik. Informatik-Fachberichte 1. Springer, Berlin (1976) 2. Nagl, M., Schneider, H.J. (eds.): Graphs, Data Structures, Algorithms, Proceedings Workshop on Graph-Theoretic Concepts in Computer Science (WG 1978). Applied Computer Science, vol. 13. Carl Hanser Verlag, M¨ unchen (1979) 3. Nagl, M.: Graph-Grammatiken: Theorie, Anwendungen, Implementierung. Vieweg, Braunschweig/Wiesbaden (1979) 4. Nagl, M.: Einf¨ uhrung in die Programmiersprache Ada. Vieweg, Braunschweig/Wiesbaden (1982) 5. Ehrig, H., Nagl, M., Rozenberg, G. (eds.): Graph Grammars and Their Application to Computer Science. LNCS, vol. 153. Springer, Heidelberg (1983) 6. Nagl, M., Perl, J. (eds.): Proceedings International Workshop on Graph-Theoretic Concepts in Computer Science (WG 1983). Trauner-Verlag, Linz (1984)

Graph Transformations and Model-Driven Engineering

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7. Ehrig, H., Nagl, M., Rozenberg, G. (eds.): Graph Grammars and Their Application to Computer Science. LNCS, vol. 291. Springer, Heidelberg (1987) 8. Nagl, M.: Einf¨ uhrung in die Programmiersprache Ada, 2. new and extended edn. Vieweg, Wiesbaden (1988); and two further editions in 1991 and 1992 9. Nagl, M. (ed.): Graph-Theoretic Concepts in Computer Science (WG 1989). LNCS, vol. 411. Springer, Heidelberg (1990) 10. Nagl, M.: Softwaretechnik: Methodisches Programmieren im Großen. Springer, Heidelberg (1990) 11. Nagl, M. (ed.): Software- und Information Engineering, Congress VI, Online-Konferenz 1993. Online-Verlag, Velbert (1993) 12. Nagl, M. (ed.): Graph-Theoretic Concepts in Computer Science (WG 1995). LNCS, vol. 1017. Springer, Heidelberg (1995) 13. Nagl, M. (ed.): Building Tightly Integrated Software Development Environments: The IPSEN Approach. LNCS, vol. 1170. Springer, Heidelberg (1996) 14. Nagl, M. (ed.): Verteilte, integrierte Anwendungsarchitekturen: Die Software-Welt im Umbruch, Congressband VI, Online 1997. Online-Verlag, Velbert (1997) 15. Nagl, M., Westfechtel, B. (eds.): Integration von Entwicklungssystemen in Ingenieuranwendungen — Substantielle Verbesserung der Entwicklungsprozesse. Springer, Berlin (1999) 16. Nagl, M.: Softwaretechnik und Ada 1995 — Entwicklung großer Systeme, 5. new and extended edition. Vieweg, Wiesbaden (1999), 6. edn. (2003) 17. Nagl, M., Sch¨ urr, A., M¨ unch, M. (eds.): Applications of Graph Transformations with Industrial Relevance: First International Workshop (AGTIVE 1999). LNCS, vol. 1779. Springer, Heidelberg (2000) 18. Nagl, M. (ed.): B2B mit EAI: Strategien mit XML, Java + Agenten, Online 2001, Congressband VI. Online-Verlag, Velbert (2001) 19. Nagl, M., Westfechtel, B. (eds.): Modelle, Werkzeuge und Infrastrukturen zur Unterst¨ utzung von Entwicklungsprozessen. John Wiley VCH Verlag, Weinheim (2003) 20. Pfaltz, J.L., Nagl, M., B¨ ohlen, B. (eds.): Applications of Graph Transformations with Industrial Relevance: Second International Workshop (AGTIVE 2003). LNCS, vol. 3062. Springer, Heidelberg (2004) 21. Hromkoviˇc, J., Nagl, M., Westfechtel, B. (eds.): Graph-Theoretic Concepts in Computer Science: 30th International Workshop (WG 2004). LNCS, vol. 3353. Springer, Heidelberg (2004) 22. Nagl, M., Marquardt, W. (eds.): Collaborative and Distributed Chemical Engineering: From Understanding to Substantial Design Process Support — Results of the IMPROVE Project. LNCS, vol. 4970. Springer, Heidelberg (2008) 23. Sch¨ urr, A., Nagl, M., Z¨ undorf, A. (eds.): Applications of Graph Transformations with Industrial Relevance: Third International Symposium (AGTIVE 2007). LNCS, vol. 5088. Springer, Heidelberg (2008) 24. Nagl, M., Bargst¨ adt, H., Hoffmann, M., M¨ uller, N.: Zukunft Ingenieurwissenschaften - Zukunft Deutschland, Beitr¨ age einer 4ING-Fachkonferenz und der gemeinsamen Plenarversammlung der 4ING-Fakult¨ atentage. Springer, Berlin (2008)