I don't have any sample code for you, but I've done this with the old Designer SDK for .unv universes. First, you need to make sure that you have a connection available from the server that you can use in your universe. Then you need to make sure that the tables and joins are created in the Data Foundation. Lastly, you'll need to create the Business Layer based on the values of your variables. I've never looked at anything from Cognos, but you'll need to be able to organized your universe elements into classes. You would create the classes and then add the dimensions and measures to them.
At this point you'll have a .df and a .blx file on the local drive. From there, you'll need to publish it to the server - basically automate that process instead of doing it in the IDT.
-Dell