Embedding Domain-Specific Modelling Languages in Maude Specifications

Extended version accepted in the Systems and Software Engineering Journal.International audienceWe propose an approach for embedding Domain-Specific Modelling Languages (\dsml) into Maude, based on representing models and metamodels as Maude specifications, and on representing operational semantics and model transformations as computable functions/relations between such specifications. This provides us, on the one hand, with abstract definitions of essential concepts of domain-specific modelling languages: model-to-metamodel conformance, operational semantics, and (operational-semantics-preserving) model transformations; and, on the other hand, with equivalent executable definitions for those concepts, which can be directly used in Maude for formal verification purpose

STUDY ON THE PERCEPTION OF THE EMPLOYEES RELATED TO THE TRAINING OF FUTURE GRADUATES

At present, taking into consideration the economic situation and the aspects related to the social life, the students need permanent guarantees that the standards of their diplomas are acknowledged by the future employees at a national and international level, and the employees need guarantees that they may choose from well trained future employees. Among the important elements of quality assurance, the feedback of the employers or potential employers – respectively of the business market, represents a strategic element of a competitive and efficient quality assurance system of any university.practical training, lifelong learning, higher education, tutors

THE EVALUATION OF EDUCATIONAL SERVICES QUALITY BY THE STUDENTS OF THE FACULTY OF ECONOMICAL SCIENCES "DIMITRIE CANTEMIR" CLUJ-NAPOCA

The evaluation of the educational services quality by the students represents an important element of the internal quality monitoring process for the identification of the necessary actions required in the continuous improvement of the offered educational quality, and on the other hand it represents an indicator of the university interest of having access at the student's point of view. Starting from the student needs, together with the staff involved in the evaluation and quality assurance committee of the Faculty of Economic Sciences Cluj-Napoca, "Dimitrie Cantemir" Christian University Bucharest, we elaborated a questionnaire for the evaluation of the educational services quality by the students, concerning: teaching-learning activities, available admission information, tutorial system, class schedule, material base, laboratory, course and seminar rooms equipments, administrative services, student organizations, counselling services offered by the faculty. The conclusions of the study were discussed with the faculty's management, decisions being made to take actions in order to increase the student satisfaction level. By developing and implementing their own strategy to quality policies and procedures, the higher education institution is explicitly committed to develop a quality culture in all its activities.quality, university management, educational services, higher education, the quality circle

While Loops in Coq

While loops are present in virtually all imperative programming languages. They are important both for practical reasons (performing a number of iterations not known in advance) and theoretical reasons (achieving Turing completeness). In this paper we propose an approach for incorporating while loops in an imperative language shallowly embedded in the Coq proof assistant. The main difficulty is that proving the termination of while loops is nontrivial, or impossible in the case of non-termination, whereas Coq only accepts programs endowed with termination proofs. Our solution is based on a new, general method for defining possibly non-terminating recursive functions in Coq. We illustrate the approach by proving termination and partial correctness of a program on linked lists.Comment: In Proceedings FROM 2023, arXiv:2309.1295

Formal executable semantics for conformance in the MDE framework

International audienceIn the MDE framework, a metamodel is a language referring to some kind of metadata whose elements formalize concepts and relations providing a modeling language. An instance of this modeling language which adheres to its concepts and relations is called a valid model, i.e., a model satisfying structural conformance to its metamodel. However, a metamodel frequently imposes additional constraints to its valid instances. These conditions are usually written in OCL and are called well-formedness rules. In presence of these constraints, a valid model must adhere to the concepts and relations of its metamodel and fullfill its constraints, i.e., a valid model is a model satisfying semantical conformance to its metamodel. In this work, we provide a formal semantics to the notions of structural and semantical conformance between models and metamodels building on our previous work. Our definitions can be automatically checked using the ITP/OCL tool

Equational approximations for tree automata completion

AbstractIn this paper we deal with the verification of safety properties of infinite-state systems modeled by term rewriting systems. An over-approximation of the set of reachable terms of a term rewriting system R is obtained by automatically constructing a finite tree automaton. The construction is parameterized by a set E of equations on terms, and we also show that the approximating automata recognize at most the set of R/E-reachable terms. Finally, we present some experiments carried out with the implementation of our algorithm. In particular, we show how some approximations from the literature can be defined using equational approximations

Embedding domain-specific modeling languages into Maude specifications

International audienceWe propose a formal approach for the definition and analysis of domain-specific modelling languages (DSML). The approach uses standard model-driven engineering artifacts for defining a language's syntax (using metamodels) and its operational semantics (using model transformations). We give formal meanings to these artifacts by translating them to the Maude language: metamodels and models are mapped to equational specifications, and model transformations are mapped to rewrite rules between such specifications, which are also expressible in Maude thanks to Maude's reflective capabilities. These mappings provide us, on the one hand, with abstract definitions of the MDE concepts used for defining DSML, which naturally capture their intended meanings; and, on the other hand, with equivalent executable definitions, which can be directly used by Maude for formal verification. We also study a notion of operational semantics-preserving model transformations, which are model transformations between two DSML that ensure that each execution of a transformed instance is matched by an execution of the original instance. We propose a semidecision procedure, implemented in Maude, for checking the semantics-preservation property. We also show how the procedure can be adapted for tracing finite executions of the transformed instance back to matching executions of the original one. The approach is illustrated on xSPEM, a language for describing the execution of activities constrained by time, precedence, and resource availability

Operational Semantics of the Marte Repetitive Structure Modeling Concepts for Data-Parallel Applications Design

International audienceThis paper presents an operational semantics of the repetitive model of computation, which is the basis for the repetitive structure modeling (RSM) package defined in the standard UML Marte profile. It also deals with the semantics of an RSM extension for control-oriented design. The goal of this semantics is to serve as a formal support for i) reasoning about the behavioral properties of models specified in Marte with RSM, and ii) defining correct-by-construction model transformations for the production of executable code in a model-driven engineering framework

Operational Semantics of the Marte Repetitive Structure Modeling Concepts for Data-Parallel Applications Design

International audienceThis paper presents an operational semantics of the repetitive model of computation, which is the basis for the repetitive structure modeling (RSM) package defined in the standard UML Marte profile. It also deals with the semantics of an RSM extension for control-oriented design. The goal of this semantics is to serve as a formal support for i) reasoning about the behavioral properties of models specified in Marte with RSM, and ii) defining correct-by-construction model transformations for the production of executable code in a model-driven engineering framework

Verifying an ATM Protocol Using a Combination of Formal Techniques

This paper describes a methodology and a case study in formal verification. The case study is the protocol, a member of the adaptation layer whose main role is to perform a reliable data transfer over an unreliable communication medium. The methodology involves: (1) a state-space exploration for initial debugging; (2) a partial-order abstraction that preserves the properties of interest; and (3) a compositional verification of the properties at the abstract level using the theorem prover. Steps (2) and (3) guarantee that the properties still hold on the whole (composed, concrete) system as well. The value of the approach lies in adapting and integrating several formal techniques for verifying a real case study