Keynote talk: Pervasive Computers and the GRID: the Birth of a Computational Exoskeleton for Augmented Reality

Roberto Siagri
President and CEO
Eurotech Spa

Abstract:

In the near future, the "computer" as we know it will disappear. It will be hidden into everything around us and will improve our sensorial and perceptive abilities, providing us with an "augmented" reality. Pervasive computing (also known as "ubiquitous computing") is about distributed computing devices scattered all over the physical world, such as wearable computers, devices embedded in everyday objects and sensors monitoring the environment. According to this vision, pervasive computing is about both the devices and the infrastructures (communication channels and de-centralized High Performance Computers) needed to support pervasive computing applications (i.e.: the pervasive GRID). In the near future the "pervasive GRID" concept, what I call the "computational exoskeleton", will be extended to many human activities and will represent an ideal starting point for the development of a future class of applications and services.

Biography:

Roberto Siagri is President and CEO of Eurotech spa (www.eurotech.com). In his role, he is responsible for strategic planning and for identification of new business opportunities. In 1986 he obtained a degree in Solid State Physics from the University of Trieste. In 2002 and 2003 he has held a teaching position at the Department of Electronic, Managing and Mechanical Engineering of the University of Udine, as contract professor of Digital Systems Electronics in the Electronic Engineering degree course.
He has spent more than 20 years in the IT sector and has received the following recognitions for his activity: in June 2003, the "Rotary Obiettivo Europa" award from the Scientific Committee of the Rotary Club of the province of Udine, for his achievements in the field of technology and for the international, and especially European, reach of his activities; in October 2005, the Economy award from the Chamber of Commerce of Udine, at the 52nd prize-giving ceremony for "Work and Economic Progress"; in March 2006, the "Businessman of the Year" award for the region Friuli Venezia Giulia from the "Capital" magazine and the publishing house Class Editori; in November 2006, the Italian Ernst&Young "Entrepreneur of the Year 2006" award for the "Finance" category.

Keynote talk: Software Engineering Research - From Cradle to Grave

Elaine J Weyuker
AT&T Labs - Research

The 2007 ACM SIGSOFT
Outstanding Research Award recipient

Abstract:

This talk will focus on doing software engineering research from the theoretical problem inception, through algorithm definition, small proof-of-concept studies, large empirical studies, and finally tool building to automate the process and make it accessible to practitioners. This style of cradle to grave research will be illustrated by describing five years of research we have been performing to accurately predict the location of faults in the next release of large industrial software systems. We will present our research results and describe our expectations for the use of our models in large-scale software production.

Biography:

Elaine Weyuker is an AT&T Fellow doing software engineering research at AT&T Labs. Prior to moving to AT&T she was a professor of computer science at NYU's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences. Elaine is the recipient of the 2007 ACM/SIGSOFT Outstanding Research Award. She is also a member of the National Academy of Engineering, an IEEE Fellow, and an ACM Fellow and has received IEEE's Harlan Mills Award for outstanding software engineering research, Rutgers University 50th Anniversary Outstanding Alumni Award, and the AT&T Chairman's Diversity Award as well has having been named a Woman of Achievement by the YWCA. She is the chair of ACM's Committee on Women in Computing (ACM-W) and a member of the Coalition to Diversify Computing Executive Committee.

State-of-the-art Presentation: Quantitative Verification: Models, Techniques and Tools

Marta Kwiatkowska
Professor of Computing Systems
Computing Laboratory Oxford University

Abstract:

Model-driven engineering has been recognised as a promising approach to tackle the escalating complexity of software systems. Consequently, software modelling and analysis techniques such as simulation, testing, static analysis, model checking and run-time monitoring are now used routinely and interchangeably in the context of software engineering, and the popularity of supporting software tools is growing. The changing nature of software systems - mobile, adaptive, context-aware - places increasing emphasis on the need to consider critical resources and their usage throughout execution. Therefore, quantitative verification techniques to establish properties such as "the chance of battery power dropping below minimum is less than 0.01" and "the worst-case time to receive a response from a sensor is 5ms" are called for.
This talk will give a brief overview of state-of-the-art and future challenges of probabilistic model checking, a formal verification technique for quantitative verification of systems which exhibit probabilistic behaviour. We will describe the modelling approach, focusing on software features such as real-time, randomisation, resources and concurrency, and illustrate the usefulness of the methodology with examples of real-world systems that have been analysed using the PRISM model checker.

Biography:

Marta Kwiatkowska will shortly be taking up Professorship of Computing Systems in the Computing Laboratory, University of Oxford, in association with Fellowship of Trinity College. She is currently Professor at the University of Birmingham and held visiting positions at Imperial College, CWI and ENS Cachan. Kwiatkowska's research is concerned with modelling and quantitative verification and analysis methods for complex systems. Her work spans the whole spectrum, from theory, through algorithms to software implementation and applications.
The main focus of Kwiatkowska's research over the past several years has been on modelling and verification of probabilistic systems, resulting in the development of the PRISM model checker. PRISM is widely used for the verification of real-world case studies, ranging from correctness of security protocols, efficiency of wireless protocols, reliability of nanotechnology designs, to the analysis of biological signalling pathways.

State-of-the-art Presentation: On Marrying Ontology and Software Technology

Steffen Staab
Head of Research Group "ISWeb - Information Systems and Semantic Web"

Institute for Computer Science, Faculty of Computer Science of the University of Koblenz-Landau

Abstract:

In software engineering the use of models for purposes such as software design, software configuration or software validation constitutes a common practice and is of core concern to the field. Ontologies constitute domain models formalized using expressive logic languages for class definitions and rules. Hence, when seen from an abstract point of view, the two technologies seem closely related. However, in the state-of-the-art research and practice the two technologies are just beginning to converge and the relationship between the two is still under exploration. In this talk, we give an outline of current ontology technologies, such as the Semantic Web standards for a Web Ontology Language (OWL). Then, we describe some avenues of research for joining ontology and software technology into a happy marriage, i.e. (i), by increasing the expressiveness of software design models through ontologies, (ii), by improving accessability and maintainability of software configurations, and, (iii), by validating software design models using ontology reasoning.

Biography:

Steffen Staab is professor for databases and information systems at the University of Koblenz-Landau, leading the research group on Information Systems and Semantic Web (ISWeb). His interests lie in researching core technology for ontologies and semantic web as well as in applied research for exploiting these technologies for knowledge management, multimedia and software technology. He has participated in numerous national, European and intercontinental research projects on these different subjects and his research has led to over 100 refereed contributions in journals and conferences. Dr. Staab held positions as researcher, project leader and lecturer at the University of Freiburg, the University of Stuttgart/Fraunhofer Institute IAO, and the University of Karlsruhe and he is a co-founder of Ontoprise GmbH. For more information see: http://isweb.uni-koblenz.de/ and http://www.uni-koblenz.de/~staab/

State-of-the-art Presentation: Free/Open Source Software Development: Recent Research Results and Emerging Opportunities

Walt Scacchi
Sr. Research Scientist, ISR

Associate Director, Computer Game Culture and Technology Laboratory

University of California, Irvine

Abstract:

The focus of this presentation is to review what is known about free and open source software development (FOSSD) work practices, development processes, project and community dynamics, and other socio-technical relationships. It focuses on exploring how FOSS is developed and evolved based on an extensive review of a set of empirical studies of FOSSD projects that articulate different levels of analysis. These characterize what has been analyzed in FOSSD studies across levels that examine (i) why individuals participate; (ii) resources and capabilities supporting development activities; (iii) how cooperation, coordination, and control are realized in projects; (iv) alliance formation and inter-project social networking; (v) FOSS as a multi-project software ecosystem, and (vi) FOSS as a social movement. Next, there is a discussion of limitations and constraints in the FOSSD studies so far. Last, attention shifts to identifying emerging opportunities for future FOSSD studies that can give rise to the development of new software engineering tools or techniques, as well as to new empirical studies of software development.

Biography:

Walt Scacchi is senior research scientist and research faculty member in the Institute for Software Research, and also the co-director of the Computer Game Culture and Technology Laboratory, both at UC Irvine. He received a Ph.D. in Information and Computer Science at University of California, Irvine in 1981. On joining the faculty at the University of Southern California in 1981, he created and directed the USC System Factory Project until 1991.This was the first software factory research project in a U.S. university. During the 1990's, Dr. Scacchi founded and directed the USC ATRIUM Laboratory, focused on investigating the organizational and technological processes of system development, with emphasis on software engineering and electronic commerce. Dr. Scacchi returned to UC Irvine in 1999. His research interests include open source software development, knowledge-based systems for modeling and simulating complex engineering and business processes, computer game culture and technology, developing decentralized heterogeneous information systems, software acquisition and electronic commerce/business,and organizational analysis of system development projects. Dr. Scacchi has been a member of ACM and IEEE for the past 30 years. He is an active researcher with more than 150 research publications. He has directed 45 externally funded research projects. He also has had numerous consulting and visiting scientist positions with more than 25 firms or institutes, including three start-up ventures. He serves as General Chair of the 3rd. IFIP International Conference on Open Source Systems (Limerick, IE, 11-14 June 2007), and his recent activities and research publications can be found at http://www.ics.uci.edu/~wscacchi.

In-memory talk: The Work of Dean Rosenzweig: A Tribute to a Scientist and an Innovator

Andre Scedrov
Professor of Mathematics and Computer and Information Science

University of Pennsylvania

In this talk we highlight Professor Rosenzweig's contributions to modelling, analysis, and testing of network security protocols. The Cryptographic Abstract Machine is an executional model of cryptographic actions, independent of the concrete cryptographic procedures employed and independent of the abstraction level of the underlying model of cryptography. This is motivated both by a theoretical purpose of relating the dynamics of protocol executions at different levels of abstraction and by a practical purpose of enabling automatic generation and testing of provably correct code implementing protocol roles from high level specifications. We discuss how the abstract Dolev-Yao intruder model may be represented in the general purpose model-based testing tool SpecExplorer, which can then be used for the testing of cryptographic protocols.

Biography:

Andre Scedrov (B.Sc. 1977 University of Zagreb, Ph.D. 1981 State University of New York at Buffalo, Mathematics) is a Professor of Mathematics and Computer and Information Science at the University of Pennsylvania. His contributions are in information assurance, logic, and programming language analysis. He has written over 70 research articles and several books. Professor Scedrov currently serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Computer Security, on the advisory board of the IEEE Symposium on Logic in Computer Science, and on the program committees of the IEEE Computer Security Foundations Symposium, the Information Security Conference, and recently the ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security. He lead two recent collaborative projects in diffuse computing, which investigated incentive- compatibility in distributed computation, authorization mechanisms, secure communication protocols, and experimental evaluation of software prototypes, and which included several faculty and a number of students from Penn, Stanford, Cornell, and Yale.

EC Presentation: ICT in FP7 - Next Opportunities

Paolo Bresciani

European Commission
DG Information Society and Media
Unit D3: Software & Service Architectures and Infrastructures

Abstract:

In this talk I will briefly introduce the role of the ICT theme in the Seventh Research Framework Programme recently started by the European Commission, with some details on the area of Services and Software Engineering. An overview on the next opportunities for ICT in context of the FP7 will also be presented.

Biography:

Paolo Bresciani is a Project "Officer in the Software & Service Architectures and Infrastructures" unit of the Directorate General "Information Society" of the European Commission. As part of his tasks, he monitors FP6 projects in the field of Software and Services Engineering and in the field of Complex Systems. As well, he is contributing to the evaluation process of the recently launched 7th Framework Programme. Previously, he also served the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a Scientific National Expert at the office for the Bilateral Cultural and Scientific Cooperation. As a research scientist, he has been working for more than 15 years at the ITC-irst (now Fondazione Bruno Kessler - irsst). Paolo Bresciani's research interests lie in several areas of ICT, including, among the rest, Knowledge Representation, Conceptual Modelling, Requirements Engineering and Software Engineering. He has been a member of several program committees of international conferences and workshops, reviewers of international journals, and one of the organisers of the Agent Oriented Information Systems (AOIS) and of the Agent Oriented Methodologies (AOM) international workshops, held, in various editions, at the ER, AAMAS, CAiSE and OOPSLA conferences. He co-authored about 50 published scientific papers and co-edited four books in the field of Agent Oriented Information Systems. He is a member of the ACM.