IFIP TC6/WG6.1 
Fifth International Conference on
Formal Methods for Open Object-Based Distributed Systems
20-22 March 2002, University of Twente, the Netherlands
www.fmoods.org

Organization:
Arend Rensink (University of Twente)
Bart Jacobs (University of Nijmegen)

• Subject area
• Topics
• History
• Invited speakers
• Organizers
• Programme committee
• Steering committee
• Paper submission
• Sponsors and affiliations

Subject area 

Object-based Distributed Computing is being established as the most pertinent basis for the support of large, heterogeneous computing and telecommunications systems. Indeed, several important international organisations, such as ITU, ISO, OMG, TINA-C, etc. are defining similar distributed object-based frameworks as a foundation for open distributed computing.

The advent of Open Object-based Distributed Systems - OODS - brings new challenges and opportunities for the use and development of formal methods. New architectures and system models are emerging (e.g., the enterprise, information, computational and engineering viewpoints of the ITU-T/ISO/IEC ODP Reference Model) which require formal notational support. Usual design issues such as specification, verification, refinement, and testing need to take into account new dimensions introduced by distribution and openness, such as quality of service and dependability constraints, dynamic binding and reconfiguration, consistency between multiple models and viewpoints, etc. OODS is a challenging research context and a source of motivation for semantical models of object-based systems and notations, for the evolution of standardised formal description techniques, for the application and assessment of logic based approaches, for better understanding and information modeling of business requirements, and for the further development and use of Object Oriented methodologies and tools.

Topics 

The objective of FMOODS is to provide an integrated forum for the presentation of research in several related fields, and the exchange of ideas and experiences in the topics concerned with the formal methods support for Open Object-based Distributed Systems. Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

• Formal models for object-based distributed computing
• Specification and analysis techniques for distributed systems
• Refinement and transformation of specifications
• Verification, testing and validation of distributed systems
• Semantics of object-based programming languages
• Object-based coordination languages
• Multiple viewpoint modelling and consistency between different models
• Types, service types and subtyping
• Quality of service: specification, verification and testing of constraints
• Formal support for object life cycles
• Design and software life-cycle of object-based distributed applications
• Formal models for measuring the quality of object-oriented requirement or design specifications
• Formal aspects of distributed real-time multimedia systems
• Applications to telecommunications and related areas
• Formal and rigorous specifications of business enterprises
• Analysing interactions between objects / components
• Formal models for security in distributed systems

Proceedings

The proceedings of FMOODS 2002 will be published by Kluwer, who are the official IFIP publishers. The proceedings will be made available at the conference.

History of the conference 

This conference is part of  a series initiated in 1996 by Elie Najm and Jean-Bernard Stefani. Previous editions took place in:

• Paris (1996)
• Canterbury (1997; selected papers have appeared in the July 2000 issue of IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering)
• Florence (1999)
• Stanford, California (2000)

Invited Speakers

We are very glad to have found the following persons willing to give a presentation:

• Carolyn Talcott (Stanford University, USA): A Semantic Framework for Specifying and Reasoning about Composable Distributed Middleware Services
• Matthew Dwyer (Kansas State University): Software Model Checking: the Bandera approach
• Steve Schneider (University of London): Verifying Authentication Protocol Implementations

Conference Organizers

• Arend Rensink (general chair + local organiser)
  University of Twente, the Netherlands
  rensink@cs.utwente.nl

• Bart Jacobs (Pc chair)
  University of Nijmegen, the Netherlands
  bart@cs.kun.nl

Programme committee

• Lynne Blair (U. Lancaster, UK)
• John Derrick (UKC, Kent, UK)
• Alessandro Fantechi (U. Firenze, Italy)
• Riccardo Focardi (U. Venice, Italy)
• Andrew D. Gordon Microsoft Research
• Rolf Hennicker (Muenchen)
• Bart Jacobs (U. Nijmegen, Netherlands)
• Guy Leduc (U. of Liege, Belgium)
• Elie Najm (ENST, Paris, France)
• Uwe Nestmann (EPFL Lausanne)
• Arnd Poetzsch-Heffter (FernUniv. Hagen)
• Arend Rensink (U. Twente, Netherlands)
• Scott Smith (Johns Hopkins University, USA)
• Perdita Stevens (U. Edinburgh)
• Carolyn Talcott (Stanford University, USA)
• Nalini Venkatasubramanian (UC Irvine, USA)

Steering committee

• John Derrick (UKC, Kent, UK)
• Roberto Gorrieri (U. Bologna, Italy)
• Guy Leduc (U. of Liege, Belgium; chairman of IFIP WG6.1)
• Elie Najm (ENST, Paris, France)

Important Dates

20 Feb 2002	Early registration
20-22 March 2002	The conference

Sponsors and affiliations

FMOODS is an IFIP and IFIP TC6 WG6.1 event

Academic sponsors:

NWO (Dutch Organisation for Schientific Research)
IPA (Institute for Software and Arithmetic)
Universiteitsfonds Twente
Department of Computer Science, University of Twente
CTIT (Centre for Telematics and Information Technology)
KNAW (Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen)