Metamodeling themes are currently appearing in a number of application areas (e.g., UML, XML, E-Commerce, etc.). Its foundations, however, can be traced back to the ancient world. Fundamental questions of modeling were already discussed by Plato and Aristotle, later refined by mathematicians like Frege and finally brought into connection with meta levels by Russell. The absence of a well defined description hierarchy may lead to paradoxes and should, therefore, best be avoided.

Our current research activities and lectures focus on the application of known but also novel metamodeling techniques, in particular in conjunction with the definition and use of the UML. Furthermore, we describe and develop architectures on the basis of a hierarchy of stepwise refined architectural descriptions with a vision of automated software development in the spirit of the MDA (Model Driven Architecture) approach. Our theses section gives an overview of open, running and finished theses.

Activities

	Together with Friedrich Steimann, Thomas Kühne is Co-Program Chair for the GI-conference "Modellierung 2008", 12.3.-14.3.2008 in Berlin.
	Thomas Kühne is the editor for a SoSyM Theme Issue on Metamodeling. Please check the Call for Papers.
	Together with the Software Technology Group we conduct the Software Engineering Practical.
	We also organise the yearly TU-Darmstadt Programming Contest. The Contest acts as a qualification for the international collegiate programming contest.
	We collaborate with wibas GmbH on the development of OpenExpertise, a system of expertise patterns that help to plan and run IT projects successfully. In addition we assist in the organisation of the quarterly SPIN Workshop.