MBT 2011, April 2-3, 2011, Saarbruecken, Germany

Photo: Wolfgang Staudt

I have been invited to serve on the Program Committee of MBT 2011, the 7th Workshop on Model-Based Testing. MBT 2011 is a satellite worksop of ETAPS 2011 to be held in Saarbrücken, Germany.

The workshop is devoted to model-based testing of both software and hardware. Model-based testing is closely related to model-based specification. Models are used to describe the behavior of the system under consideration and to guide such efforts as test selection and test results evaluation. Both testing and verification are used to validate models against the requirements and check that the implementation conforms to the specification model.

Model-based testing has gained attention with the popularization of models in software/hardware design and development. Of particular importance are formal models with precise semantics, such as state-based formalisms. Testing with such models allows one to measure the degree of the product's conformance with the model.

Techniques to support model-based testing are drawn from diverse areas, like formal verification, model checking, control and data flow analysis, grammar analysis, and Markov decision processes.

The intent of this workshop is to bring together researchers and users of models for to discuss the state of the art in theory, applications, tools, and industrialization of model-based specification, testing and verification.

Original submissions are solicited from industry and academia. They are invited to present their work, plans, and views related to model-based testing. The topics of interest include but are not limited to:

• Online and offline test sequence generation methods and tools
• Test data selection methods and tools
• Runtime verification
• Model-based test coverage metrics
• Automatic domain/partition analysis
• Combination of verification and testing
• Models as test oracles
• Scenario based test generation
• Meta programming support for testing
• Formalisms suitable for model-based testing
• Application of model checking techniques in model-based testing
• Game-theoretic approaches to testing
• Model-based testing in industry: problems and achievements

Erlang on Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard)

This is what I did to install Erlang on my MacBook Pro:

1. Install the GCC compiler. This is done by installing Xcode, Apple's developer tool set, available for free after registration. It can be found at the Apple ADC.
2. Install the Apache FOP print formatter. This Java application is needed for building the documentation. This implies that you also need Java. The configuration routine checks for Java SDK 1.5. (or higher). I had Java SDK 1.6 installed.
3. Get the latest Erlang source, which in my case was a file named otp_src_R13B03.tar. Unarchive the file and follow the instructions:

   $ cd otp_src_R13B03
   $. /configure
   $ make
   $ sudo make install
   

   Now bring up a terminal and issue the command:

   $ erl
   Erlang R13B03 (erts-5.7.4) [source] [smp:2:2] [rq:2] [async-threads:0] [kernel-poll:false]
   
   Eshell V5.7.4  (abort with ^G)
   1> 1+2.
   3
   2>
   

   That's it! I am ready to have some Erlang fun.

ICFEM 2010, Nov 16-19, Shangai

Photo: Wolfgang Staudt

Another Shanghai conference I have been invited to serve on the Program Committee: ICFEM 2010, the 12th International Conference on Formal Engineering Methods. ICFEM 2010 will take place in Shanghai, right after UTP 2010. Submission deadline for abstracts is 28th of May 2010. The conference chair is my former colleague at UNU-IIST He Jifeng (East China Normal University, China), PC-cochairs are Jin Song Dong (National University of Singapore, Singapore) and Huibiao Zhu (East China Normal University, China).

ICFEM brings together those interested in the application of formal engineering methods to computer systems. Researchers and practitioners, from industry, academia, and government, are encouraged to attend, and to help advance the state of the art. We are interested in work that has been incorporated into real production systems, and in theoretical work that promises to bring practical, tangible benefit.

Submissions related to the following principal themes are encouraged, but any topics relevant to the field of formal methods and their support environments will also be considered:

• Formal model-based development and code generation
• Abstraction and refinement
• Formal specification and modelling
• Software verification
• Formal approaches to software testing
• Software model checking
• Formal methods for object and component systems
• Analysis and models for concurrency
• Formal methods for cloud computing
• Tool development and integration
• Software safety, security and reliability
• Experiments involving verified systems
• Applications of formal methods

UTP 2010, Nov 15-16, Shanghai

Photo: stevechasmar

I have been invited to serve on the Program Committee of UTP 2010, the 3rd International Symposium on Unifying Theories of Programming. UTP 2010 will take place in Shanghai. Submission deadline for abstracts is 4th of June 2010. The PC-chair is Shengchao Qin, University of Durham, UK.

Based on the pioneering work on Unifying Theories of Programming by Tony Hoare, He Jifeng, and others, the aims of the UTP Symposium series are to continue to reaffirm the significance of the ongoing UTP project, to encourage efforts to advance it by providing a focus for the sharing of results by those already actively contributing, and to raise awareness of the benefits of such unifying theoretical frameworks among the wider computer science and software engineering communities.

Of particular interest is how unification may be used to meet the goals and difficulties to be encountered in the Grand Challenges of Computing, with particular reference to the UK's "GC6: Dependable Systems Evolution", its international cousin the "Verified Software Initiative", and their plan to develop a Verified Software Repository. To this end the UTP2010 Symposium welcomes contributions on the above themes as well as others which can be related to them. Such additional themes include, but are not limited to, relational semantics, relational algebra, healthiness conditions, normal forms, linkage of theories, algebraic descriptions, incorporation of probabilistic programming, timed calculi and object-based descriptions, as well as alternative programming paradigms such as functional, logical, data-flow, and beyond. In all cases, the UTP approach should be compared and advantages/disadvantages discussed.