Research Laboratory of Modeling and Software Technologies

The Research Laboratory of Modeling and Software Technologies is part of the Institute of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Latvia (IMCS LU).

The Laboratory was founded in 1970 by Prof. Jānis Bārzdiņš.

Our most famous product is GRADE (Graphical Reengineering Analysis and Design Environment), a graphical model and workflow editor. Developed since 1990, it was one of the world's pioneers in graphical diagramming.

GRADE was followed by several projects, including MOLA (Model Transformation Language) and GRAF (Graphical Tool Building Framework). The latter is based on the Transformation-Driven Architecture (TDA), our original approach for developing model-based tools by means of run-time model transformations. The most famous TDA/GRAF-based tools are OWLGrEd (Editor for Compact UML-style OWL Graphic Notation), ViziQuer (Structured Semantic Data Search Tool), and GradeTwo.

While working on GRADE and its successors, we have developed fast layout algorithms, which can be used to lay out graph-like diagrams as well as dialog windows.

The staff includes 36 persons (19 PhDs, 5 doctoral students, 2 graduate students, 1 undergraduate students).

Apart from research, the Laboratory has always been involved in teaching at the Faculty of Computing (page in Latvian), University of Latvia.