Annual Report 2010 - Fachgruppe Informatik an der RWTH Aachen ...

Overview
Our research group is concerned with several topics from the area of programming languages
and verification. In particular, we are interested in the application of formal methods in order
to increase the reliability of programs:
To guarantee the correctness of software, testing is not sufficient, but a formal verification is
required. Program verification is a highly relevant aspect of software technology and
correctness issues are especially important for safety-critical and distributed applications.
However, in general, correctness proofs are very expensive and time-consuming. Therefore,
program verification should be automated as much as possible.
Thus, a main topic of our research is the development of methods for mechanized analysis
and verification of algorithms and systems. For that purpose, we use approaches from areas
like term rewriting, automata theory, mathematical logic, computer algebra, and artificial
intelligence in order to facilitate the task of correct software development.
A central problem in the design of reliable software is the proof of termination. We have developed
the “dependency pair” method, which extends the applicability of classical
techniques for automated termination analysis significantly.
Moreover, we work on methods and systems for proving partial correctness of programs.
These techniques check if a program meets its specification provided that it terminates. In
particular, we are interested in applying such techniques for several types of programming
languages and paradigms.
Other important topics of our research are concerned with SAT solving, evaluation strategies,
modularity aspects of programs, and formal specification languages.
In the winter term 2009/10, we held the lecture on Functional Programming, a seminar on
Verification Techniques, and a seminar on Satisfiability Checking (together with the group of
Prof. Dr. E. Ábrahám). In the summer term 2010, we gave the first-year course on Formal
Systems, Automata, Processes, a seminar on Automated Termination Analysis, and a
proseminar on Advanced Programming Concepts in Java, Haskell, and Prolog.
In March and April 2010, two new Ph.D. students joined our group: Thomas Ströder and
Marc Brockschmidt. In November 2009, the Ph.D. thesis of Peter Schneider-Kamp was
awarded with the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Preis for outstanding scientific contributions. He had
completed his thesis in our group in December 2008 and since January 2009, he is assistant
professor at the University of Southern Denmark.
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