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CREST Centre for Reliable Software Technology

Ralph BackDirector

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Programming Methods Group

• Programming Methods Research Group at Abo Akademi 1984 –– Ralph Back, founder– Kaisa Sere– Joakim von Wright– Johan Lilius– Large number of Ph.D.s and post docs during the years

• Decided to divide research group into five research labs 2002 –

• Programming Methods Group continues as CREST: Centre for Reliable Software Technology

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Center of Excellence in Formal Methods in Programming

• Four labs were nominated as a Center of Excellence in research 1.1.2002 – 31.12.2007

• Name: CoE in Formal Methods in Programming• Nominated by the Academy of Finland• Funded by

– Academy of Finland– Åbo Akademi– TEKES

• Alltogether some 30 Centers of Excellence in Research in Finland (three in CS)

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CREST Laboratories

• Distributed Systems Lab– Kaisa Sere

• Embedded Systems Lab– Johan Lilius

• Mechanized Reasoning Lab– Joakim von Wright

• Software Construction Lab– Ralph Back and Ivan Porres

• (5th lab, High Performance Computing Lab, is not part of CREST)

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Main research directions

• theoretical foundations of programming languages and programming methods

• extending formal methods to new application areas

• building computer supported tools for formal methods

• studying the use of formal methods in the software construction process as a whole, and

• case studies on how to apply formal methods.

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People engaged in CREST

• In total some 50 persons right now• Researchers in different categories

– professors– post docs– Ph.D. students– M.Sc. studens– Undergraduates– laboratory staff– administrative staff

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CREST

• CREST: Center for Reliable Software Technology– Center: can have different kinds of activities, not all

related to the Department or TUCS– Reliability: this is the key feature that we want to

improve in systems (the mission/focus of the center)

– Software: the main focus, but also hardware-software (systems)

– Technology: the main focus is on advancing technology, by research and development

– CREST is a research center

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CREST organization

• No formal status (yet)• We can make it into an institute, if we want• For now, it is a research organization that we have

created in order to achieve the mission (software reliability)

• Also, organizes the co-operation of the four laboratories within the center of excellence

• Organizationally, it coincides with the center of excellence (same leadership, funding, facilities, ...)

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CREST Facilities inDataCity 4th floor, A-B

• Everybody in CREST on the 4th floor• Embedded Systems Lab in old Liekki facilities• Distributed Systems Lab and Mechanized

Reasoning Lab in old TUCS facilities• Software Construction Lab in IB 4th floor

facilities• Gaudi in new facilities next to Liekki

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CREST activities

• Conference organizations (IFM2002, TTA 2002)• Summer Schools (SRF 2002)• Seminars every second week• Special days (UML day, Tools discussion, ...)• Courses and special seminars• Meetings (EEF meeting, IFIP WG2.3 meeting, ...)• Parties and free activities• Project meetings

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Organizational mess?

• Åbo Akademi, University of Turku, ...• Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, ...• Department of Computer Science, ....• TUCS• Embedded Systems Lab, ....• Gaudi• Center of Excellence in Formal Methods in

Programming• Research projects• CREST?

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Gaudi

CREST a center of excellence

IAMSR

ÅA TYTuKKK

MNF KTF ESF MLT

IB ITLIS

ESL DSL SCLMRL

HPL

MCL IBL AL MIL

TUCS

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Gaudi

CREST a center of excellence

Åbo Akademi University of TurkuTurku Business School

ESL DSL SCLMRL

Turku Centre for Computer Science (TUCS)

............

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Nokia-CREST cooperation

• Joint research center for studying reliable software technology • Or, co-operation program for software research• Partners:

– NMP, NRC– CREST, ÅA, TUCS– VTT– Could have international partners also

• Activities– Joint research projects– Schooling and training– Trying out new methods on Nokia applications– International contacts, research visits, reqruitment– Publications, conference organization, summer schools– Prototype tools, case studies, methods, processes