9522257 Sobel This project is to integrate a formal method into a software engineering curriculum. The formal method chosen captures the external behavior of a system component while supporting both the compositionality of component specifications and the hierarchical decomposition of a system specification. The method will be introduced by a sequence of courses, beginning in the sophomore year, after two semesters of programming and one semester of discrete math. The first course will address the basic skills needed to apply formal method techniques and will not be coupled to any implemented language. The next course will apply the method to a particular programming language and the third course will extend the concepts to the analysis and design phases of the software life cycle. The last course in the sequence will address concurrency in depth. Finally, students will test the efficacy of their modified curriculum through an existing project-oriented senior capstone sequence. The project will be managed, monitored, and assessed by an advisory council, which will include members of the project and external consultants. The curriculum format, the evaluations used, and the final results will be made available to the academic community through publications and presentations. ***
