This one-year award supports the US PI to conduct a series of planning visits to integrate the scientific research on software development between the US, Canada (Carleton University), France (INRIA), and Norway (University of Oslo). The objective of these visits is to address the development of a universal software modeling language in a systematic manner. The planning visits are expected to lead to a collaborative research plan and proposal that will outline techniques, processes, methods, and tools that support the development of dependable software models.
The proposed research program will explore model-based software development (MBSD) to provide technology that supports the development of dependable systems. Developers of dependable systems must balance multiple, often conflicting dependability goals in their designs. This complexity is tackled in MBSD through 1) the use of models that describe complex systems at multiple levels of abstraction and from a variety of perspectives, and 2) the use of technology for transforming abstract descriptions of software to dependable implementations. The goal of the collaborative research is to produce techniques, processes, methods, and tools that support rigorous evolution of models from abstract to executable forms that are highly dependable.
These planning visits are expected to lead to collaborative research to establish a scientific method for creating a common modeling language that includes security interests early in development. Software developers will be able to identify and correct errors arising from interactions across dependability features before the system is deployed. Through the planning visits, the PI's graduate students will be exposed to a range of research opportunities at three diverse universities in Canada and Europe, and benefit from the international exposure. They will gain a better understanding of the significance of their research in the global context, and will be equipped to leverage the work of international collaborators in their subsequent research.
