Speaker: Dr. Shaoying Liu Department of Computer Science at Hosei University, Tokyo, Japan When: Tuesday, Nov 13, 2007 Time: 11:00am Where: ECS 243 (HPDRC Conf. Room)

Abstract:

Conventional software engineering based on informal or semi-formal methods are facing tremendous challenges in ensuring software productivity and quality. Formal methods have attempted to address those challenges by introducing mathematical notation and calculus to support formal specification, refinement, and verification in software development. However, in spite of their theoretical potential in improving the controllability of software process and reliability, formal methods are difficult to apply to large-scale and complex systems in industry due to many practical constraints (e.g., limited expertise, time and budget restrictions, changing requirements). We have developed the "Formal Engineering Methods" (FEM) as a research area since 1990 to study how formal methods can be effectively integrated into conventional software engineering process so that formal techniques can be tailored, revised, or extended to fit the need for improving software productivity and quality in practice (e.g., through the enhancement of the usability of formalism and the tool supportability of the relevant methods). We have also developed a specific FEM called Structured Object-Oriented Formal Language (SOFL) and the related techniques to support rigorous and systematic software development with tool support. In this talk, I will introduce both the notion of FEM and the SOFL method with examples and a demonstration of a support tool.

Biography:
Shaoying Liu is Professor of Software Engineering in the Department of Computer Science at Hosei University, Tokyo, Japan. He holds a B.Sc and M.Sc degrees from Xi’an Jiaotong University, China, and a Ph.D in Formal Methods from the University of Manchester, U.K. Liu’s research interests include Formal Engineering Methods, Software Development Methodology, Software Inspection, Software Testing, Dependable Complex Computer Systems, and Intelligent Software Engineering Environments. He has published a book titled "Formal Engineering for Industrial Software Development Using the SOFL Method" with Springer-Verlag, three editored conference proceedings, and over 80 academic papers in refereed journals and international conferences. He has served as General Chairs and/or Program Chairs for many international conferences and as program committee members of numerous international conferences, and is currently serving on the Editorial Board for the Journal of Testing, Verification and Reliability. He founded the IEEE International Conference on Formal Engineering Methods (ICFEM) in Japan in November 1997. He received an "Outstanding Paper Award" from the Second IEEE International Conference on Engineering of Complex Computer Systems (ICECCS1996).