[Om-announce] AI4FM 2013: Final Call for Short Contributions - 1 week to go

[Ewen Maclean]

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  AI4FM 2013 - the 4th International Workshop on
    the use of AI in Formal Methods

       http://www.ai4fm.org/ai4fm-2013/

    Rennes, France, 22nd July, 2013
     In association with ITP 2013
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          --- Final Call for Short Contributions ---
               *** PhD funding available ***
               ***     New deadline      ***
General
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This workshop will bring together researchers from formal methods and
AI; it will address the
issue of how AI can be used to support the formal software development
process, including modelling
and proof. Previous AI4FM workshops have included a mix of industrial
and academic participants
and we anticipate attracting a similarly diverse audience.

Industrial use of formal methods is certainly increasing but, in order
to make it more mainstream,
the cost of applying formal methods, in terms of mathematical skill
level and development time,
must be reduced — we believe that AI can help with these issues.

Rigorous software development using formal methods allows the
construction of an accurate characterisation
of a problem domain that is firmly based on mathematics; by applying
standard mathematical analyses, these
methods can be used to prove that systems satisfy formal
specifications. A recent ACM computing survey paper
describes over sixty industrial projects and discusses the effect
formal methods have on time, cost and quality.
It shows that with tools backed by mature theory, formal methods are
becoming cost effective and their use is
easier to justify, not as an academic exercise or legal requirement,
but as part of a business case. Furthermore,
the use of such formal methods is no longer confined to safety
critical systems: the list of industrial partners
in the EU-funded DEPLOY project is one indication of this broader use.
Most methods tend to fit a ``posit-and-prove''
paradigm where the user posits a development step (expressed in terms
of specifications of yet-to-be-realised components)
that has to be justified by proofs. The associated properties that
must be verified are often called proof obligations (POs)
or verification conditions. In most cases, such proofs require
mechanical support by theorem provers.

One can distinguish between automatic and interactive provers, where
the latter are generally more expressive but require
user interaction. AI has had a large impact on the development of
provers. In fact, some of the first AI applications were
in theorem proving and all theorem provers now contain heuristics to
reduce the search space that can be attributed to AI.
Nevertheless, theorem proving research and (pure) AI research have
diverged and theorem proving is barely considered
to be AI-related anymore.

PhD Bursary
-----
Formal Methods Europe (FME) has kindly agreed to cover the
registration fee for a limited number of PhD students. A proviso for
receiving this bursary is that the student presents at the workshop.

Scope
-----

We encourage submissions presenting work in progress, tools under
development, and PhD projects, in order that the
workshop can become a forum for active dialogue between the groups
involved in  theorem provers, formal methods and artificial intelligence.
Particular areas of interest include, but are not limited to:
 * The use of machine learning to support interactive theorem proving;
 * The use of machine learning to enhance automated theorem proving;
 * The development of search heuristics;
 * The us of AI for term synthesis, invariant generation, lemma
discovery and concept invention;
 * The use of AI for counter-example generation;
 * The use of AI to support and guide the formal modelling process;
 * The role of AI planning for formal systems developments, from
requirements to the end product (including software and hardware);
 * The interplay between reasoning and modelling and the role of AI in
this framework;
 * Ontologies in the formal engineering process.

Submission
----------

The main aim for the workshop is discussion, thus submissions
do not need to be original. Extended versions of submissions
may have been published previously, or submitted concurrently with or
after AI4FM 2013 to another workshop, conference or a journal.

Submission is by email to:

  ai4fm2013 at ai4fm.org

Please submit an abstract up to 3 pages in a PDF format. The extended
abstracts will be handed out to all participants, and will be made
into a technical report prior to the workshop.

Please indicate if you are student and would like to apply for the FME bursary.

Acceptance for presentation at the workshop will be made by the
organisers based on relevance to the workshop.


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

Submission deadline: April 24, 2013
Notification of acceptance: May 01, 2013
Final version due: May 15, 2013
Workshop: July 22nd, 2013


Organisers
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* Leo Freitas (Newcastle University, UK)
* Gudmund Grov (Heriot-Watt University, UK)
* Ewen Maclean (University of Edinburgh, UK)

Contact Details
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If you have any queries, please email the organisers at the following
email address:

  ai4fm2013 at ai4fm.org

-- 
The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in
Scotland, with registration number SC005336.