[FOM] CfP: Models for Formal Analysis of Real Systems (MARS 2018)

[Rob van Glabbeek]

                           Call for Papers

                             Workshop on
              Models for Formal Analysis of Real Systems
                             (MARS 2018)

                           April 21, 2018
                     Affiliated With ETAPS 2018
                        Thessaloniki, Greece

	         http://mars-workshop.org/mars2018/

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 models related to the
submission, if in machine readable form, will be archived in a
repository (http://mars-workshop.org/repository.html).

   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, to discuss pros and cons for each of them,
and to start a collection of interesting benchmarks for diverse
formal methods.

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 in some formalism or
tool, such as timed automata for Uppaal or formal proofs for
Isabelle/HOL, these models have to be submitted in totality as well,
in the appendices and/or as an TAR or ZIP file, the contents of which,
for accepted papers, 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=mars2018). The TAR
or ZIP file with the model should be send as an email attachment to
mars2018-workshop.org.
   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 January 12, 2018
 * Notification: Monday February 19, 2018
 * Final version: Monday March 12, 2018
 * Workshop: Saturday April 21, 2018

PROGRAMME COMMITTEE:

Marsha Chechik		(University of Toronto, Canada)
Ansgar Fehnker		(University of Twente, The Netherlands)
Rob van Glabbeek (co-chair)	(Data61, CSIRO, Australia)
Jan Friso Groote 	(Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands)
Keijo Heljanko		(Aalto University, Finland)
Holger Hermanns 	(Saarland University, Germany)
Eric Jenn 		(IRT Saint Exupéry, France)
Marjan Sirjani 		(Reykjavik University, Iceland)
Wendelin Serwe(co-chair)	(INRIA, France)
Pamela Zave		(AT&T Laboratories, New Jersey, USA)

CONTACT:

mars2018 at mars-workshop.org