[Om-announce] CfP: Models for Formal Analysis of Real Systems (MARS 2017)

[Peter.Hoefner at data61.csiro.au]

Final Call for Papers:

                             Workshop on
              Models for Formal Analysis of Real Systems
                             (MARS 2017)

                       Affiliated With ETAPS 2017

                     April 29, 2017 Uppsala, Sweden

		   http://mars-workshop.org/mars2017/

AIM: 
Logics and techniques for automated reasoning have often been 
developed with formal analysis and formal verification in mind. 
To show applicability, toy examples or tiny case studies are 
typically presented in research papers. Since the theory needs 
to be developed first, this approach is reasonable. 
   However, to show that a developed approach actually scales to 
real systems, large case studies are essential. The development 
of formal models of real systems usually requires a perfect 
understanding of informal descriptions of the system - sometimes 
found in RFCs or other standard documents - which are usually just 
written in English. Based on the type of system, an adequate 
specification formalism needs to be chosen, and the informal 
specification translated into it. Examples for such formalisms 
include process and program algebra, Petri nets, variations of 
automata, as well as timed, stochastic and probabilistic 
extensions of these formalisms. Abstraction from unimportant 
details then yields an accurate, formal model of the real system.
   The process of developing a detailed and accurate model usually 
takes a large amount of time, often months or years; without even 
starting a formal analysis. When publishing the results on a formal 
analysis in a scientific paper, details of the model have to be skipped 
due to lack of space, and often the lessons learnt from modelling are 
not discussed since they are not the main focus of the paper.
   The workshop aims at discussing exactly these unmentioned lessons. 
Examples are:
  * Which formalism is chosen, and why?
  * Which abstractions have to be made and why?
  * How are important characteristics of the system modelled?
  * Were there any complications while modelling the system?
  * Which measures were taken to guarantee the accuracy of the model?

The workshop emphasises modelling over verification. In particular, 
we invite papers that present full Models of Real Systems, which may 
lay the basis for future formal analysis. The workshop will bring 
together researchers from different communities that all aim at verifying 
real systems and are developing formal models for such systems. Areas where 
large models often occur are within networks, (trustworthy) systems and 
software verification (from byte code up to programming- and specification 
languages). An aim of the workshop is to present different modelling 
approaches and discuss pros and cons for each of them.


SUBMISSION:

Submissions must be unpublished and not be submitted for publication elsewhere. 
Contributions are limited to 12 pages EPTCS style (not counting the appendices), 
but shorter extended abstracts are welcome. Appendices (of arbitrary length) can 
be used to present all details of a formalised model; the appendices will be part 
of the proceedings. In case a formal model is presented that is modelled in some 
formalism or tool, such as timed automata for Uppaal or formal proofs for Isabelle/HOL, 
these models have to be submitted as well. They will be published as part of the 
proceedings, and will be made available in our Repository of Models for Formal 
Analysis of Real Systems (http://mars-workshop.org/repository.html).
Submissions must be in English and submitted in PDF format via EasyChair
(https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=mars2017). 
   All submissions will be peer reviewed by at least three referees based on their 
novelty, relevance and technical merit. The proceedings (including the electronic 
models) will be published as part of the open access series Electronic Proceedings 
in Theoretical Computer Science (EPTCS).


IMPORTANT DATES (AoE):

 * Submission: Friday 13 January 2017
 * Notification: Monday 13 February 2017
 * Final version: Monday 27 February 2017
 * Workshop: Saturday 29 April 2017 


PROGRAMME COMMITTEE:

Hubert Garavel          (INRIA, France)
Jan Friso Groote	(Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands)
Holger Hermanns	(co-chair) (Saarland University, Germany)
Peter Hoefner (co-chair)   (Data61, CSIRO, Australia)
Gerard Holzmann	        (NASA/JPL, USA)
Pavel Krcal             (Lloyd's Register, Sweden)
Kim G. Larsen           (Aalborg University, Denmark)
David Parker            (University of Birmingham, United Kingdom)
Frits Vaandrager        (Radboud University, The Netherlands)
Marcel Verhoef          (European Space Agency, ESTEC, The Netherlands)
Josef Widder            (TU Wien, Austria)


CONTACT:

   mars2017 at mars-workshop.org