Heriot-Watt Summer Talk Series.
Synopsis
Software is woven into the fabric of modern life - from communications, consumer electronics and finance to healthcare, transportation and national infrastructure. As well as significant economic and social benefits, the proliferation of software brings with it serious risks - system failures and security vulnerabilities.
To combat these risks calls for formal methods that enable us to reason precisely about the correctness of a software system. Mathematical logic and formal reasoning provide the foundations for such methods.
This talk presents some high profile software-related system failures as well as some notable success stories for formal methods. To be applicable on an industrial scale, formal methods require computer assistance in the form of automated reasoning tools and techniques.
Mapping out the range of existing automated reasoning techniques and describe my own perspective on their use within formal methods.
Finally, highlight involvement in a new collaborative and multidisciplinary project that is addressing the challenge of building trustworthy autonomous systems.
About the speaker
Andrew Ireland is a Professor of Computer Science at Heriot-Watt University and a founder member of the Dependable Systems Group; he also works closely with the Mathematical Reasoning Group at the University of Edinburgh. His research focuses on automated reasoning and the verification of software-intensive systems.
He has won substantial EPSRC funding over the last 20-years, including two EPSRC Platform Grants. These grants underpinned a blend of AI and theoretical Computer Science research, and involved close collaboration with the University of Edinburgh, Imperial College, Goldsmiths and Queen Mary University.
His industrial collaborators have included BAE Systems, Praxis Critical Systems (now Capgemini Engineering), QinetiQ and D-RisQ.
He is a founder member of the IFIP Working Group 1.9/2.15 on Verified Software. He has had organisational involvement with numerous international workshops and conferences, most notably as a Programme Co-Chair of the 23rd IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE 2008) and the Conference Chair of the 3rd International Conference on Verified Software: Theories, Tools and Experiments (VSTTE 2010). He was Co-chair of the Award Committee for the Microsoft Research Verified Software Milestone Award (2011-13).
This event is brought to you by: Heriot-Watt University and BCS Middle East section
