Transformation of UML Behavioral Diagrams to Support Software Model Checking

Unified Modeling Language (UML) is currently accepted as the standard for modeling (object-oriented) software, and its use is increasing in the aerospace industry. Verification and Validation of complex software developed according to UML is not trivial due to complexity of the software itself, and the several different UML models/diagrams that can be used to model behavior and structure of the software. This paper presents an approach to transform up to three different UML behavioral diagrams (sequence, behavioral state machines, and activity) into a single Transition System to support Model Checking of software developed in accordance with UML. In our approach, properties are formalized based on use case descriptions. The transformation is done for the NuSMV model checker, but we see the possibility in using other model checkers, such as SPIN. The main contribution of our work is the transformation of a non-formal language (UML) to a formal language (language of the NuSMV model checker) towards a greater adoption in practice of formal methods in software development.Comment: In Proceedings FESCA 2014, arXiv:1404.043

Automatic Software Repair: a Bibliography

This article presents a survey on automatic software repair. Automatic software repair consists of automatically finding a solution to software bugs without human intervention. This article considers all kinds of repairs. First, it discusses behavioral repair where test suites, contracts, models, and crashing inputs are taken as oracle. Second, it discusses state repair, also known as runtime repair or runtime recovery, with techniques such as checkpoint and restart, reconfiguration, and invariant restoration. The uniqueness of this article is that it spans the research communities that contribute to this body of knowledge: software engineering, dependability, operating systems, programming languages, and security. It provides a novel and structured overview of the diversity of bug oracles and repair operators used in the literature

A Functional Architecture Approach to Neural Systems

The technology for the design of systems to perform extremely complex combinations of real-time functionality has developed over a long period. This technology is based on the use of a hardware architecture with a physical separation into memory and processing, and a software architecture which divides functionality into a disciplined hierarchy of software components which exchange unambiguous information. This technology experiences difficulty in design of systems to perform parallel processing, and extreme difficulty in design of systems which can heuristically change their own functionality. These limitations derive from the approach to information exchange between functional components. A design approach in which functional components can exchange ambiguous information leads to systems with the recommendation architecture which are less subject to these limitations. Biological brains have been constrained by natural pressures to adopt functional architectures with this different information exchange approach. Neural networks have not made a complete shift to use of ambiguous information, and do not address adequate management of context for ambiguous information exchange between modules. As a result such networks cannot be scaled to complex functionality. Simulations of systems with the recommendation architecture demonstrate the capability to heuristically organize to perform complex functionality