Teaching Formal Methods: CoLogNET/FME Symposium, TFM 2004, Ghent, Belgium, November 18-19, 2004. Proceedings / Edition 1

by C. Neville Dean, Raymond T. Boute

Overview

“Professional engineers can often be distinguished from other designers by the engineers’ ability to use mathematical models to describe and 1 analyze their products.” This observation by Parnas describes the de facto professional standards in all classical engineering disciplines (civil, mechanical, electrical, etc.). Unf- tunately, it is in sharp contrast with current (industrial) practice in software design, where mathematical models are hardly used at all, even by those who, 2 in Holloway’s words “aspire to be engineers.” The rare exceptions are certain critical applications, where mathematical techniques are used under the general name formal methods. Yet, the same characteristics that make for malmethods a necessity in critical applications make themal so advantageous in everyday software designat various levels from design efficiency to software quality. Why, then, is education failing with respect to formal methods? – failing to convince students, academics and practitioners alike that formal methods are truly pragmatic; – failing to overcome a phobia of formality and mathematics; – failing to provide students with the basic skills and understanding required to adopt a more mathematical and logical approach to software development. Until education takes these failings seriously, formal methods will be an obscure byway in software engineering, which in turn will remain severely impoverished as a result.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783540236115
Publisher:	Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Publication date:	12/22/2004
Series:	Lecture Notes in Computer Science , #3294
Edition description:	2004
Pages:	252
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.02(d)

Table of Contents

A Beginner’s Course on Reasoning About Imperative Programs.- Designing Algorithms in High School Mathematics.- Motivating Study of Formal Methods in the Classroom.- Formal Systems, Not Methods.- A Practice-Oriented Course on the Principles of Computation, Programming, and System Design and Analysis.- Teaching How to Derive Correct Concurrent Programs from State-Based Specifications and Code Patterns.- Specification-Driven Design with Eiffel and Agents for Teaching Lightweight Formal Methods.- Integrating Formal Specification and Software Verification and Validation.- Distributed Teaching of Formal Methods.- An Undergraduate Course on Prool Engineering – How to Teach Formal Methods Without Scaring Students.- Linking Paradigms, Semi-formal and Formal Notations.- Teaching Formal Methods in Context.- Embedding Formal Development in Software Engineering.- Advertising Formal Methods and Organizing Their Teaching: Yes, but ....- Retrospect and Prospect of Formal Methods Education in China.- A Survey of Formal Methods Courses in European Higher Education.