Forthcoming Keynote Lectures

Keynote: Conceptual Modeling and Artificial Intelligence: Challenges and Opportunities for Enterprise Engineering

December 16th, 2021

by Dominik Bork, TU Wien, Austria

Abstract:

The uptake of AI is recognizable across all disciplines and domains, both in academia and industry. The enterprise engineering field of research is no exception to this trend. In this keynote talk, Dominik would like to shed light on selected enterprise engineering challenges and the opportunities of approaching them by intertwining conceptual modeling and AI.

Dominik will propose a generic framework for classifying conceptual modeling and AI research in this talk. Moreover, Dominik will instantiate this framework to exemplify recent contributions relevant to the enterprise engineering community. The examples show how AI may act as an enabler and facilitator in conceptual modeling and, from the opposite direction, how conceptual modeling may support AI-based approaches. This talk will further emphasize how we can make enterprise engineering tools more amenable to their stakeholders by i) bringing them to the web and by ii) extending their model processing capabilities.

Eventually, this talk will conclude with some open issues and an agenda for future research directions.

Brief Bio:

Dominik Bork is Assistant Professor for Business Systems Engineering at the Faculty of Informatics, Institute of Information Systems Engineering, Business Informatics Group at TU Wien. His research covers conceptual modeling and model engineering and their application in domains such as enterprise modeling, modeling tool development, and web modeling. A primary focus of ongoing research is on empirical aspects of conceptual modeling and the mutual benefits of conceptual modeling and Artificial Intelligence.

Dominik has a long-lasting experience in developing modeling tools. He was always concerned about the empirical and human-centered aspects, i.e., how users perceive models and how to design convenient user interfaces for model-based systems. At the University of Vienna, Dominik helped establish the Open Models Initiative Laboratory (OMiLAB) and the Next-generation Enterprise Modeling Summer School (NEMO). Moreover, he developed and contributed many open-source modeling tools downloaded more than 2.000 times as of early 2021 and used by researchers and HEI teachers alike. Recently, Dominik and his team developed and released one of the first Language Server Protocol-based modeling tools within the VS Code ecosystem.

Dominik organizes several international workshops on his core research topics at the flagship international conferences on conceptual and enterprise modeling. From 2022, Dominik will serve as PC co-chair of the working conference on Exploring Modeling Methods for Systems Analysis and Development (EMMSAD). Dominik also recently joined the editorial board of the Business & Information Systems Engineering journal, supporting the Department of Information Systems Engineering and Technology as an Associate Editor. He is currently an elected expert advisor of the GI Special Interest Groups of Modeling Business Information Systems (MobIS) and Development methods for information systems and their application (EMISA).

For more information, please visit https://www.model-engineering.info/.

Keynote: Toward AI-native Enterprise – rationale, technology support, and early results

December 17th, 2021

by Vinay Kulkarni, Distinguished Chief Scientist, TCS Research, India

Abstract:

Enterprises are fast transforming into hyperconnected ecosystems that need to operate in an increasingly dynamic environment changing along multiple dimensions in a manner that cannot be deduced beforehand. Moreover, the window of opportunity to respond to these changes is ever- shrinking and there is little opportunity of later course correction. This is giving rise to new demands that must be supported by enterprise IT systems given their increasing pervasiveness. Enterprises need to not only respond to the various changes but also exhibit continuous improvement and that too in a pro-active manner. Current practice is found inadequate to meet this critical need effectively and efficaciously. The talk will present an approach that integrates and builds further upon proven ideas from AI, Modelling & Simulation, Software Engineering, and Control Theory. At the heart is the concept of Enterprise Digital Twin – a purposive hi-fidelity simulatable representation of reality augmented with domain knowledge. The talk will also outline how the proposed approach can be the first step toward realization of AI-native Enterprise by sharing early results of addressing a clutch of business-critical problems in real world context.

Brief Bio:

Vinay Kulkarni is Distinguished Chief Scientist and Head of Software Systems & Services research at Tata Consultancy Services. His research interests include learning-native software systems, multi agent systems, model-driven software engineering, and enterprise modelling. Prior work focused on making software development an engineering endeavour with a-priori guarantees about properties such as correctness, scalability, productivity, maintainability etc. Involved in development of automation tools and method using model-based techniques that are used by industry for 20+ years. Much of this work has found way into international standards, three of which Vinay contributed in a leadership role. Fellow of Indian National Academy of Engineering, Vinay is an alumnus of Indian Institute of Technology Madras and serves as Visiting Professor at Middlesex University London and Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur.