Title: Meridian: An Integrated Toolkit for the Automated Development of
       Interactive Distributed Applications  

Abstract

Interactive distributed applications (IDAs) are those that involve
direct interaction with users and whose processing and data components
are distributed across a network.  Examples of IDAs include
distributed data management systems, on-board driver/pilot navigation
assistance systems, computer-supported cooperative work environments,
distance education tools, and a variety of public safety systems.  The
increasing interest in IDAs is fueled by several factors, including
the advent of the World-Wide Web, the development of new middleware
technologies, the introduction of scripting languages for graphical
user interfaces, and the availability of new network services and
protocols.

The talk will describe a newly initiated project, Meridian, whose
objective is to automate the development of IDAs.  
Meridian will comprise a collection of tools designed
to support diagram-based modeling, rigorous correctness analysis,
software reuse, automated code generation, and software visualization.
Moreover, the tools will interact with one another through explicit design
representations with formally defined semantics, enabling requirements
to be traced from high-level models to low-level code.
In order to validate the Meridian toolkit and facilitate technology
transfer, case studies of three different classes of IDAs will be
conducted using projects supplied by industrial partners. Applications 
include web-based collaborative computing, automotive embedded systems, and
and a two-way digital radio system.