(Fairfax, VA) - The Aviation System Analysis Capability (ASAC) Executive Assistant (EA), developed by the Logistics Management Institute (LMI) and Ricciardi Technologies, Inc. (RTI) for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), has been selected for demonstration at OOPSLA 98. OOPSLA, which stands for Object-Oriented Programming Systems, Languages and Applications, is the premier conference for object technology, and is being held in Vancouver, B.C. on 18 - 22 October 1998.

ASAC is a diverse collection of models, databases, analysts, and individuals from the public and private sectors, brought together to work on issues of common interest to organizations within the aviation community. By linking the many distributed models and data that comprise the ASAC system, the EA provides an intelligent, web-based interface through which researchers at NASA and elsewhere can quickly evaluate the economic potential of alternative technologies and systems. When an analysis executes, relevant output data from a completed model are passed seamlessly to successive models. Users are able to set breakpoints between models, and visually monitor the progress of the analysis, as it takes place.

"The ASAC EA is a good example of how the power of the Internet can be harnessed to allow users at widely diverse locations to assemble and link together various mathematical and financial models that are distributed among several computers," says David Godso, Executive Vice President of RTI. "RTI's 'middleware'-based distributed systems approach was a natural for this application. We used CRC Card techniques, Object Modeling Technique (OMT), Design Patterns, and Universal Modeling Language (UML) to develop and document our system design, and implemented it using CORBA standard services, C++, Java, and an ODBMS."