Wednesday, June 19, 2019

ABZ 2020 : ABZ 2020 – 7th International Conference on Rigorous State Based Methods, Ulm


ABZ 2020 : ABZ 2020 – 7th International Conference on Rigorous State Based Methods


Conference Series : Abstract State Machines, Alloy, B and Z
 
Link: https://abz2020.uni-ulm.de
 
When May 27, 2020 - May 29, 2020
Where Ulm, Germany
Abstract Registration Due Jan 13, 2020
Submission Deadline Jan 20, 2020
Notification Due Mar 2, 2020
Final Version Due Mar 16, 2020

Categories    computer science   formal methods   formal specification   rigorous methods
 

Call For Papers

ABZ 2020: International Conference on Rigorous State Based Methods

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
First Call for Papers, Answers to case studies, Workshops, Tutorials
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The ABZ conference is dedicated to the cross-fertilization of state-based and machine-based formal methods, like 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. The conference aims for a vital exchange of knowledge and experience among the research communities around different formal methods.

The name ABZ goes back to the first conference in London in 2008, where the ASM, B and Z conference series were merged into a joint event. In the following years other formal methods were added, e.g. Alloy in 2010 (Orford, Canada), VDM in 2012 (Pisa, Italy), and TLA + in 2014 (Toulouse, France). After the also successful 2016 conferences in Linz, Austria and 2018 in Southampton, UK, it was decided to name the conference "ABZ: International Conference on Rigorous State Based Methods", to stress the openness for further state-based formal methods. We hope to continue many fruitful discussions between representatives of the individual methods in the past, which will bring us closer to the common goal of this research community: the creation of reliable and safe software.

ABZ 2020 will have a main conference track, a case study track, tutorials and workshops.


-----------------------
Invited Speakers
-----------------------
Prof. Uwe Glässer, SFU, Burnaby, Canada
Prof. Yamine Ait Ameur, INPT-ENSEEIHT/IRIT, Toulouse, France


--------------------------
Case Study Track
--------------------------
As successfully practiced since ABZ 2014, the 7th edition of ABZ will again include special sessions dedicated to an industrial case study. Due to the proximity of Ulm to Stuttgart, where the headquarters of some automotive manufacturers and suppliers are located, it is obvious to provide a case study from the automotive industry.

We explicitly invite you to also submit contributions to case studies from previous conferences, which substantially extend the solutions presented there in one aspect or another. Possible enhancements could be new proof techniques, more elegant modeling, generation, verification, or validation of executable code, etc.
See web page for a detailed description of the new case study and links to the previous ones.

-----------------------
Main ABZ Track
-----------------------
Contributions are solicited on all aspects of the theory and applications of ASMs, Alloy, B, TLA, VDM, Z and other state-based rigour 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 in a single event, editorial control of the joint conference is vested in one integrated program committee.

-------------------------------------------------
Workshop and Tutorial Proposals
-------------------------------------------------
Workshops and tutorials will be associated with the main event ABZ. Proposals are solicited in areas related to the conference topics.

A workshop proposal should contain the title of the workshop, a short description of the scientific content, the names and brief CVs of the workshop organizers, the intended PC for the workshop, the duration of the workshop, and the expected number of participants.

A tutorial proposal should contain the title of the tutorial, a short description of the scientific content, the names and brief CVs of the tutorial presenters and the duration.

Please submit your proposals to abz2020@uni-ulm.de.

-----------------------
Call For Papers
-----------------------
Four kinds of contributions are invited:

• Full Research papers: full papers of not more than 15 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.
• 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.
• Answers to case study papers: full papers of not more than 15 pages in LNCS format reporting on the experiments conducted with any of the state based techniques in the scope of ABZ 2020. We also expect a link to a webpage, where the produced models can be downloaded.

Accepted papers will appear in the Springer LNCS proceedings. The deadlines for the different kinds of contributions see below.


---------------------------
Important dates (all AoE)
---------------------------

Workshops/Tutorials
------------------------
Workshop proposal submission: November 1, 2019
Workshop notification: November 15, 2019
Tutorial proposal submission: February 16, 2020

Case Study Track
------------------------
Abstract submission: November 29, 2019
Paper submission: December 6, 2019
Notification: January 13, 2020
Final version: March 2, 2020

Main Track
------------------------
Abstract submission: January 13, 2020
Paper submission: January 20, 2020 (including research/short/industry papers)
Notification: March 2, 2020
Final version: March 16, 2020

ABZ 2020 conference: May 27-29, 2020



-------------------
Organization
-------------------
Conference Chairs:
Alexander Raschke, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany
Dominique Méry, LORIA-Université de Lorraine, Nancy, France

Case Study Chair:
Frank Houdek, Daimler AG, Stuttgart, Germany


Publicity Chair
Jakob Pietron, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany


--------------------
Program Committee
--------------------
To be announced.


For further questions concerning ABZ 2020, please contact us at abz2020@uni-ulm.de

Friday, January 18, 2019

"Turing and Software Verification" (CLIFF B. JONES)



Janet Barnes and Angela Wallenburg. Formal Methods Considered Normal

Janet Barnes and Angela Wallenburg. Formal Methods Considered Normal (slides)

"On B and Event-B: Principles, Success and Challenges: Jean-Raymond Abrial, Marseille, France"


"After more than 20 years since the publication of my book on B, and almost 10 years since the publication of my book on Event-B, the aim of this talk is to present some key points about these technologies. The talk will cover the basic principles on which B and Event-B have been developed and look at differences and similarities between B and Event-B. It will also outline where B and Event-B are spread around the world. Finally, the talk will explore challenges with the industrial application of these technologies."

Jean-Raymond Abrial. On B and Event-B: Principles, Success and Challenges (slides)

Call for papers: History of Formal Methods 2019 Workshop, 11th October 2019, Porto, Portugal (co-located with FM'19)


We invite submissions to the HFM2019 workshop. See the website (https://sites.google.com/view/hfm2019) for complete details and instructions on how to submit. Submission is via EasyChair  (https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=hfm2019).
This is a workshop on the history of formal methods in computing. The aim is to bring together historians of computing, technology, and science with practitioners in the field of formal methods to reflect on the discipline's history. There will be a round of abstract submission prior to the workshop which will determine who is invited to give a presentation at the workshop. Afterwards, presenters may submit papers based on their presentations for inclusion in the workshop's proceedings. 
Scope
The theme of the workshop is the history of formal methods in computing. By 'formal methods' we mean mathematical or logical techniques for modelling, specifying, and reasoning about aspects of computing. This could include programming language description, concurrency modelling, theorem proving, program specification and verification, or mathematical foundations of computing. 
Theoretical aspects of computing have been present almost since the beginning of electronic computers, and in various ways these techniques have evolved and changed, including into what are now called "Formal Methods". Such aspects have been instrumental in developing fundamental understanding of computation and providing techniques for rigorous development of software, but have not always had the desired impact on practical and industrial computing. 
This makes the field ripe for historical research and we invite submissions to our workshop which take a historical view of the topic. This may include discussion of developments of various formal methods, evolving agendas within the field, consideration of the effect of social and cultural factors, and evaluation of the way in which formal methods have impacted computing more broadly. 
The workshop is intended to be of interest to current researchers in formal methods and to be accessible to people without any historical background. It should also be a venue for historians of science whose work covers formal aspects of computing as we believe understanding the the history of the field brings greater clarity to current technical research. We encourage early stage researchers to try their hand at historical reflection and gain an idea of the field's grounding; we invite historians to contribute to the history of formal methods; and we invite researchers who have worked in formal methods for whom an historical talk provides the opportunity to reflect on their field.
Submission information
Submissions prior to the workshop will take the form of abstracts no longer than 500 words. If references are required, these can be added as an optional PDF file (and do not count towards the word count). All abstracts will be reviewed by the program committee whose details can be found on the website; based on these reviews, a decision will be made on who to invite to present at the workshop.
Following to the workshop, proceedings will be published (details of publisher to be finalised later). Please indicate during your submission if you wish for a paper to be considered for inclusion in the proceedings—select "Yes" even if you are not totally certain. All papers submitted for the proceedings will be subject to peer review. 
Important Dates
  • Call for papers: January 2019
  • Submissions: 30 April 2019
  • Notification of acceptance: 30 June 2019
  • Presentations ready: 1 September 2019
  • Workshop: 11th October 2019
  • Papers for proceedings: 31 December 2019
Chairs
  • Troy Astarte
  • Brian Randell 
  • (Newcastle University)

Monday, January 8, 2018

Méthodes formelles et systèmes cyber-physiques – Séminaire à Shonan

http://www.clearsy.com/methodes-formelles-systemes-cyber-physiques-seminaire-a-shonan/

China : Jean-Raymond Abrial : "international science and technology cooperation award"


https://www.shine.cn/archive/nation/National-awards-for-top-scientists/shdaily.shtml

Source: Xinhua/Shanghai Daily | January 10, 2017,
extrait 
"
Presiding over the ceremony, Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli called on those involved in science and technology to follow the example set by the prize winners and contribute to the country’s drive to become a major power in the sector.
The ceremony, attended by around 3,300 representatives from the Communist Party of China, state and military organs and science and technology circles, honored 279 projects, seven scientists and one international organization with national prizes.
The international cooperation prizes were awarded to five scientists from the United States, Germany and France, and the Mexico-headquartered International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center.
Shanghai excelled at the ceremony with 52 projects and scientists honored.

French scientist Jean-Raymond Abrial, who has been working with local scientists on system and software engineering, won the international science and technology cooperation award.

Shanghai-based chip designer Spreadtrum won in the technology progress category for its contribution to the development of TD-LTE (time division-long term evolution), the China-developed 4G standard for phones.
Tongji University was Shanghai’s biggest success story with seven programs developed by its staff winning one first prize and six seconds.
A team led by Tong Xiaohua, a professor at its College of Surveying and Geo-Informatics, won first prize for an invention that improves the accuracy of information collected by remote sensors, thus providing important support for aerospace projects, such as improving imaging quality of Chinese laser sensors for finding safe landing sites
“When satellites and other aerospace facilities are flying high in the space, they may have jitter vibration and face other challenges that will disturb them from taking precise images and data,” Tong said. “Our technology by image analysis can detect and estimate the influence of the disturbances, and thus improve geo-positioning accuracy of high-resolution images together with ground geometric calibration.”
The achievement came after 10 years of cooperation with the Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Development Research Center of the China Geological Survey.
Another team led by Zhu Hehua, a professor at Tongji’s College of Civil Engineering, won a second prize for developing a series of key technologies for underground construction in urban areas.
A major health award went to Dr Jing Zaiping of Changhai Hospital for his research into minimally invasive endovascular surgery. His work on aortic dissection and aneurysms made once fatal diseases treatable."

Le scientifique français M. Jean-Raymond Abrial s’est vu décerner le 2 janvier 2017 à Pékin le Prix Chinois de la Coopération Internationale en Science et Technologie, au cours d’une cérémonie récompensant des personnes ayant contribué au développement scientifique et technologique de la Chine. Cette cérémonie s’est tenue en la présence du président XI Jinping, du premier ministre LI Keqiang, et du vice premier ministre ZHANG Gaoli. Le Prix Chinois de la Coopération Internationale en Science et Technologie est un prix annuel de prestige créé en 1994 faisant partie des Prix Nationaux en Science et Technologie. Cette année il a été attribué à cinq scientifiques étrangers et à une ONG internationale.
Jean-Raymond Abrial est un informaticien français de renommée internationale. Anciennement chercheur à l’INRIA (Institut national de recherche en informatique et en automatique), il est membre de l’Académie Européenne des Sciences, et est connu dans le monde du développement logiciel comme le créateur de la notation formelle Z et par la suite de la méthode B. Il a d’ailleurs participé à l’implémentation de la suite d’outils utilisant cette méthode, qui a été utilisée pour des applications de systèmes de sécurité critiques à travers le monde. Il a également fait partie de l’équipe qui a conçu la première version du langage de programmation Ada.
Jean-Raymond Abrial a largement contribué à la recherche scientifique en Chine. En 2005 il a débuté une coopération avec le professeur HE Jifeng de l’Université Normale de la Chine de l’Est où il a dirigé des projets de recherche jusqu’à leur application industrielle. Il a ainsi introduit la méthode B en Chine et, grâce à lui, de nombreux systèmes basés sur des logiciels de sécurité critiques ont été conçus et développés avec succès dans le pays, et de nombreuses entreprises ont été capables de développer ce type de systèmes de manière indépendante. Il a également dirigé, en collaboration avec le professeur HE Jifeng, le développement d’un logiciel pour le métro automatique de Shanghai. Il est prévu que cette nouvelle technologie soit installée sur la Ligne 17 du métro, entre Hongqiao Railway Station et Oriental Land, et les essais devraient commencer à la fin de cette année.
JPEG
Dernière modification : 12/01/201

Sunday, January 7, 2018

ICTAC2015 Conference - Keynote by Jean-Raymond Abrial


This is the Keynote titled "An Exercise in Mathematical Engineering: Stating and Proving Kuratowski Theorem" by Invited Speaker Jean-Raymond Abrial (Chair: Camilo Rueda)





Lectures of Jean-Raymond Abrial on B, Event-B, Rodin (vidéos)

Lecture 1

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GP1pJINVT4

Lecture 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8nvVaZ74wA

Lecture 3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5OUtq8cdV8 

Mini-course around Event-B and Rodin


Developping sequential programs


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0tpgPOKAyg

This lecture gives a status report of the hypervisor we are developing using Event-B.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-GKHZAWWjU

Verification Corner, Modeling, refinement, and verification


In this episode of Verification Corner, Jean-Raymond Abrial and Rustan Leino show how to do a design starting from a model that is gradually refined toward executable code. They use the Rodin tool, which supports the Event-B formalism.

Monday, January 2, 2017

11th International Conference on Tests And Proofs TAP 2017

=====================================================
First Call for Papers

11th International Conference on Tests And Proofs
TAP 2017 Marburg (Germany), 19-20 July 2017
http://http://www.seceng.de/tap2017

Part of STAF 2017 http://www.informatik.uni-marburg.de/staf2017/
=====================================================


Important Dates
---------------

Abstract:             17 February 2017
Paper:                24 February 2017
Notification:          7 April 2017
Camera-Ready Version: 21 April 2017
Conference:           17-21 July 2017


Aim and Scope
-------------

The TAP conference promotes research in verification and formal
methods that targets the interplay of proofs and testing: the
advancement of techniques of each kind and their combination, with the
ultimate goal of improving software and system dependability.

Research in verification has recently seen a steady convergence of
heterogeneous techniques and a synergy between the traditionally
distinct areas of testing (and dynamic analysis) and of proving (and
static analysis). Formal techniques, such as model checking, that
produce counterexamples when verification fails are a clear example of
the duality of testing and proving. The combination of static
techniques such as satisfiability modulo theory and predicate
abstraction has provided means of proving correctness by complementing
exhaustive enumeration testing-like techniques. More practically,
testing supports the cost-effective debugging of complex models and
formal specifications, and is applicable in conditions that are beyond
the reach of formal techniques -- for example, components whose source
code is not accessible. Testing and proving are increasingly seen as
complementary rather than mutually exclusive techniques.

The TAP conference aims to promote research in the intersection of
testing and proving by bringing together researchers and practitioners
from both areas of verification.


Topics of Interest
------------------

TAP's scope encompasses many aspects of verification technology,
including foundational work, tool development, and empirical
research. Its topics of interest center around the connection between
proofs (and other static techniques) and testing (and other dynamic
techniques). Papers are solicited on, but not limited to, the
following topics:

- Verification and analysis techniques combining proofs and tests
- Program proving with the aid of testing techniques
- Deductive techniques (theorem proving, model checking, symbolic
execution, SMT solving, constraint logic programming, etc.) to
support testing: generating testing inputs and oracles, supporting
coverage criteria, and so on.
- Program analysis techniques combining static and dynamic analysis
- Specification inference by deductive and dynamic methods
- Testing and runtime analysis of formal specifications
- Model-based testing and verification
- Using model checking to generate test cases
- Testing of verification tools and environments
- Applications of testing and proving to new domains, such as
security, configuration management, and language-based techniques
- Bridging the gap between concrete and symbolic reasoning techniques
- Innovative approaches to verification such as crowdsourcing and
serious games
- Case studies, tool and framework descriptions, and experience
reports about combining tests and proofs


Highlight Topics
----------------

In addition to TAP’s general topics of interests, the 11th edition of
TAP will feature two highlight topics on techniques, tools, and
experience reports on

1. Testing and proving the correctness of security properties and
 implementations of cryptographic functions and protocols with a
 focus on the successful interplay of tests and proofs, and

2. Asserting the correct functioning and testing of verification
 tools, especially on theorem provers, that form the basis of many
 verification results for tools and applications our society
 increasingly depends on.


Submission Instructions
-----------------------

TAP 2017 accepts papers of three kinds:

- Regular research papers: full submissions describing original
research, of up to 16 pages (excluding references).

- Tool demonstration papers: submissions describing the design and
implementation of an analysis/verification tool or framework, of up
to 8 pages (excluding references). The tool/framework described in
a tool demonstration paper should be available for public use.

- Short papers: submissions describing preliminary findings, proofs
of concepts, and exploratory studies, of up to 6 pages (excluding
references).


Organization
------------

Program Chairs

- Einar Broch Johnsen
- Sebastian Gabmeyer

Program Committee

- Bernhard K. Aichernig
- Elvira Albert
- Bruno Blanchette
- Jasmin C. Blanchette
- Achim D. Brucker
- Catherine Dubois
- Gordon Fraser
- Carlo A. Furia
- Sebastian Gabmeyer (chair)
- Angelo Gargantini
- Alain Giorgetti
- Christoph Gladisch
- Martin Gogolla
- Arnaud Gotlieb
- Marieke Huisman
- Bart Jacobs
- Einar Broch Johnsen (chair)
- Nikolai Kosmatov
- Laura Kovacs
- Martin Leuker
- Panagiotis Manolios
- Karl Meinke
- Andreas Podelski
- Andrew J. Reynolds
- Martina Seidl
- Martin Steffen
- Martin Strecker
- T. H. Tse
- Luca Viganò
- Burkhart Wolff
- Stijn de Gouw


Contact
-------
mailto:tap2017@easychair.org
_______________________________________________
events mailing list
events@fmeurope.org
http://fmeurope.hosting.west.nl/mailman/listinfo/events

ABZ 2018

5-8 June 2018, Southampton, U.K.

Saturday, June 4, 2016

An Incremental B-Model for RBAC-Controlled Electronic Marking System


Nasser Al-hadhrami (Ministry of Education, Nizwa, Oman), Benjamin Aziz (School of Computing, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, UK) and Lotfi ben Othmane (Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Technology, Darmstadt, Germany)

Modelling and Refining Hybrid Systems in Event-B and Rodin

Sunday, March 27, 2016

Principle of Beneficent Difficulty, M. Jackson

 "Principle of Beneficent Difficulty

 Difficulties, explicitly characterized and diagnosed, are the medium in which a method captures its central insights into a problem. A method without limitations, whose development steps are never impossible to complete, whose stages diagnose and recognise no difficulty, must be very bad indeed. Just think about it. A method without limitations and difficulties is saying one of two things to you. Either it’s saying that all problems are easily solved. You know that’s not true. Or else it’s saying that some problems are difficult, but the method is not going to help you to recognise or overcome the difficult bits when you meet them. Take your choice. Either way it’s bad news. "

Michael Jackson. Software Requirements and Specifications: A Lexicon of Principles, Practices and Prejudices. Addison-Wesley and ACM Press, 1996

Z

Z 
L'exemple classique (fourni par Mike Spivey dans La notation Z, Masson, traduit par Michel Lemoine, 1994) 
Le carnet d'anniversaire 
Nous utilisons, quand c'est possible, la notation ASCII de B. 
  
[NOM, DATE]

NOM et DATE sont des types de base (les SETS de B) 
Voici de qu'en Z, on appelle des schémas : 
  
______CarnetDAnniversaire______________
    connu : POW (NOM)
    anniversaire : NOM +-> DATE
_________________
    connu = dom (naissance)
_____________________________________
_____AjoutAnniversaire__________________
    DELTACarnetDAnniversaire
    nom? : NOM
    date? : DATE
________________
     nom? /: connu
    anniversaire' = anniversaire \/ {nom? |-> date?}
_____________________________________

DELTA déclare : connu, connu', anniversaire, anniversaire'. Le prime exprime l'état après l'opération. 
  
Attention ! 
Vous avez bien lu. Ci-dessus, nous avons écrit = et non :=. Un schéma est un prédicat. Le saut de ligne exprime une conjection. 
Le schéma AjoutAnniversaire donne le prédicat qui doit être respecté par l'opération d'ajout. 
  
______ChercherAnniversaire________________
    KHICarnetDAnniversaire
    nom? : NOM
    date! : DATE
________________
    nom? : connu
    date! : anniversaire (nom?)
_______________________________________
  KHI déclare : connu, connu', anniversaire, anniversaire' et les contraintes : 
connu = connu' 
anniversaire' = anniversaire 
Un schéma va permettre de spécifier un état initial, lequel, comme en B, sert à s'assurer que l'on peut bien avoir un état satisfaisant les contraintes. 
 
______InitCarnetDAnniversaire________________
    CarnetDAnniversaire
_____________________
    connu = { }
________________________________________ RAPPORT ::= ok | déjàConnu | nonConnu

RAPPORT est un type libre. 
  
____Succès______________________________
    résultat! : RAPPORT
___________________
    résultat! = ok
________________________________________
____DéjàConnu___________________________
    KHICarnetDAnniversaire
    nom? : NOM
    résultat! : RAPPORT
_______________________
    nom? : connu
    résultat! = déjàConnu
________________________________________

Utilisation du schéma calculus : 
On va avoir une spécification robuste 
 
RAjoutAnniversaire == (AjoutAnniversaire & Succès) or DéjàConnu
Il y a d'autres opérateurs que le & et le or pour le calcul de schémas. 
etc. 
Nous avons présenté des schémas fermés. Les déclarations sont locales à ces schémas. 
Il existe des schémas ouverts (description axiomatique) qui introduisent une ou plusieurs variables globales et éventuellement spécifient une contraintes sur leurs valeurs. 
Exemple : 
  
    carré : NAT --> NAT
_________________
    ! b: NAT . carré(n) = n * n

La notation Z pour la description des ensembles en compréhension : 
{...| ... ....} 
On distingue trois parties {déclaration | contrainte . expression } 
exemple : 
  
{x : NAT | pair (x) . x * x} est l'ensemble des carrés des nombres pairs.
Les schémas comme types 
On peut prendre un schéma comme type. 
Un schéma est alors vu comme l'ensemble des états qui respectent le schéma. Une variable de type schéma est alors une variable qui peut prendre comme valeur un de ces états qui respectent le schéma indiqué comme type de la variable. 
  
Généricité 
Exemple 
  
=======[X, Y] =============================
    first : X * Y --> X
___________________
    !x : X ; y : Y . first(x, y) = x
_________________________________________

Bibliographie 
En français, deux livres sur Z. 
Une introduction avec 
D. Lightfoot, Spécification formelle avec Z, Teknea, traduit par H. Habrias 
J.M. Spivey, La notation Z, Masson, traduit par M. Lemoine