5th International ABZ 2014 Conference (ASM, Alloy, B, TLA, VDM, Z)

Call for Papers, Answers to the case study, Workshops, Tutorials

5th International ABZ 2014 Conference (ASM, Alloy, B, TLA, VDM, Z)
==========================================

May 23-27, 2016 -- Linz, Austria
http://www.cdcc.faw.jku.at/ABZ2016/

The ABZ conference is dedicated to the cross-fertilization of six 
related state-based and machine-based formal methods, Abstract State 
Machines (ASM), Alloy, B, TLA, VDM and Z, that share a common conceptual 
foundation and are widely used in both academia and industry for the 
design and analysis of hardware and software systems. It builds on the 
success of the first ABZ conference held in London in 2008, where the 
ASM, B and Z conference series merged into a single event, the second 
ABZ 2010 conference held in Orford (Canada), where the Alloy community 
joined the event, the ABZ 2012 held in Pisa (Italy), which saw the 
inclusion of the VDM community, and ABZ 2014 held in Toulouse (France), 
which brought the inclusion of the TLA community into the ABZ conference 
series. The ABZ 2016 conference will be held in Linz, Austria.

Contributions are solicited on all aspects of the theory and 
applications of ASMs, Alloy, B, TLA, VDM, Z approaches in 
software/hardware engineering, including the development of tools and 
industrial applications. The program spans from theoretical and 
methodological foundations to practical applications, emphasizing system 
engineering methods and tools that are distinguished by mathematical 
rigor and have proved to be industrially viable. The main goal of the 
conference is to contribute to the integration of accurate state- and 
machine-based system development methods, clarifying their commonalities 
and differences to better understand how to combine different approaches 
for accomplishing the various tasks in modeling, experimental 
validation, mathematical verification of reliable high-quality 
hardware/software systems.

Although organized to host several formal methods with ASM, Alloy, B, 
TLA, VDM and Z, in a single event, editorial control of the joint 
conference is vested in one integrated program committee, which will 
respectively determine its ASM, Alloy, B, TLA, VDM and Z content, to be 
presented in parallel conference tracks with a schedule to allow the 
participants to switch between the sessions.

As successfully practiced at ABZ 2014, the 5th edition of ABZ will again 
include special sessions dedicated to a shared real-life case study 
among all the methods addressed in ABZ 2016. The objective of this 
session is to enrich the set of case studies developed with ABZ methods 
with a practical and real-life case study. After the success of the 
"Landing Gear" case study at ABZ 2014 in the aeronautical context this 
time the organizers defined a real-life case study issued from the 
medical domain with challenging safety requirements. The ABZ 2016 case 
study concerns the control of a hemodialysis machine. See 
http://www.cdcc.faw.jku.at/ABZ2016/ for a detailed description of this 
case study.

Proposals are invited for workshops and tutorials to take place before 
the main conference.

Four kinds of contributions are invited:

-- Research papers: full papers of not more than 14 pages in LNCS 
format, which have to be original, unpublished and not submitted elsewhere.

-- Short presentations of work in progress, and tool demonstrations. 
This is an excellent opportunity for Ph.D. students to present and 
validate their work in progress. An extended abstract of not more than 4 
pages is expected and will be reviewed.

-- Answers to case study papers: full papers of not more than 14 pages 
in LNCS format reporting on the experiments conducted with any of the 
state based techniques in the scope of ABZ 2014.

-- Application in industry papers reporting on work or experiences on 
the application of state based formal methods in industry. An extended 
abstract of not more than 4 pages is expected and will be reviewed. It 
is also an interesting option for industrial practitioners who sometimes 
face too many constraints to prepare a full paper.

Submissions:
========

Research, short and industry papers must be prepared using the SPRINGER 
LNCS style and submitted electronically in PDF at the ABZ 2016 
conference submission website (Easy Chair).

Programm Committee Chairs:
Michael BUTLER, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK
Klaus-Dieter SCHEWE, Johannes-Kepler-University Linz and Software 
Competence Center Hagenberg, Linz/Hagenberg, Austria

Program Committee: tba

Answers to the case study must be prepared using the SPRINGER LNCS style 
and submitted electronically in PDF at the ABZ 2016 conference 
submission website (Easy Chair).

Case study Chairs:
Atif Mashkoor, Software Competence Center Hagenberg, Hagenberg, Austria 
(atif.mashkoor@scch.at)
Miklos Biro, Software Competence Center Hagenberg, Hagenberg, Austria 
(miklos.biro@scch.at)

The submission system for the conference can be accessed at 
https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=abz2016

The deadline for submissions is January 15, 2016. Notifications will be 
sent by February 22, 2016.

Publication:
=======

All research and short accepted papers will be published in a volume of 
Springer's LNCS series. The answers to case study papers and the 
application in industry papers shall be published in a volume of 
Springer's CCIS series (tbc). The two volumes will be distributed at the 
conference.

Journal Special Issues: It is planned that an improved version of a 
selected number of contributions will be published in a special issue of 
the journal Science of Computer Programming for the research papers and 
in a special issue of the Software Tools and Technology Transfer journal 
for the answers to case study papers (to be confirmed).

Workshops and Tutorials:
================

Workshops and tutorials will be associated to the main event ABZ. 
Proposals are solicited in areas related to the conference topics. 
Workshop proposal should be sent to the workshop chairs:

     Yamine Ait-Ameur, Institut National Polytechnique de Toulouse, 
France (yamine@enseeiht.fr)
     Stephan Merz, INRIA Nancy, Nancy, France (stephan.merz@loria.fr)
     Alexander Raschke, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany 
(alexander.raschke@uni-ulm.de)

The deadline for submissions is October 16, 2015. Notifications will be 
sent by November 6, 2015.

Tutorial proposal should be sent to the tutorial chairs (tbc):

     Vincenzo Gervasi, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy (gervasi@di.unipi.it)
     Michael Leuschel, University of Duesseldorf, Duesseldorf, Germany  
(leuschel@cs.uni-duesseldorf.de)

The deadline for submissions is February 15, 2016. Notifications will be 
sent by March 14, 2016.

Important Dates:
==========

Workshop proposal submission: October 16, 2015
Workshop proposal notification: November 6, 2015

Research paper submission:  January 15, 2016
Answers to case study submission:  January 15, 2016
Short and industry paper submission: February 4, 2016
Acceptance notification: February 22, 2016
Final Version due: March 14, 2016

Tutorial proposal submissions: February 15, 2016
Tutorial proposal notifications: March 14, 2016

ABZ 2016 conference: May 23-27, 2016


For questions concerning ABZ 2016, contact Klaus-Dieter SCHEWE 
(klaus-dieter.schewe@scch.at).