Keynotes
Keynote speakers for Modularity'15:
Joanne M. Atlee
Professor
School of Computer Science
University of Waterloo
Title: Feature Modularity
Abstract:
Ideally, feature modularity enables rapid evolution of a software system through incremental, parallel, and possibly third-party development of distinct feature modules. However, in practice, features are often not separate concerns: they behave differently in the presence of other features, and they sometimes interfere with each other in surprising ways. This talk will look at feature modularity, the feature interaction problem (which is NOT that features sometimes interact), and current research on resolving interactions.
Schedule: Thursday, 19-March, 2:00pm-3:00pm.
About the Speaker:
Joanne Atlee is a Professor in the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo. Her research interests include software modelling, automated analysis of software models, modular software development, feature interactions, and software-engineering education. She was Program Co-Chair for the 31st International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE’09) and was Program Chair for the 13th IEEE Requirements Engineering Conference (RE'05). She served on the ACM SIGSOFT Executive Committee as an at-large member and is a member of the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) Working Group 2.9 on Software Requirements Engineering. She is a co-author with Shari Lawrence Pfleeger on their textbook “Software Engineering: Theory and Practice”.
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Don Batory
David Bruton Jr. Centennial Professorship Chair
Department of Computer Science
University of Texas, Austin
Title: A Theory of Modularity for Automated Software Development
Abstract
Automated Software Development (ASD) are technologies for developing customized programs automatically and compositionally from modules. The foundations of ASD are domain-specific algebras, where each program in the target domain maps to a unique expression. Algebraic identities are used to optimize programs automatically. In this keynote, I trace the history of ASD and present a general theory of modularity for ASD that follows from its tenets.
Schedule: Thursday, 19-March, 9:00am-10:00am.
About the Speaker: Don Batory holds the David Bruton Centennial Professorship in the Department of Computer Science at The University of Texas at Austin. He received a B.S. (1975) and M.Sc. (1977) degrees from Case Institute of Technology, and a Ph.D. (1980) from the University of Toronto. He was a faculty member at the University of Florida in 1981 before he joined the University of Texas in 1983. He was Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (1999-2002), Associate Editor of ACM Transactions on Database Systems (1986-1992), member of the ACM Software Systems Award Committee (1989-1993; Committee Chairman in 1992), Program Co-Chair for the 2002 Generative Programming and Component Engineering Conference. He is a proponent of Feature Oriented Software Development (FOSD) and with colleagues (and former students) has recently authored a textbook on the topic. Since 1993, he and his students have written 11 Award Papers for their work in automated program development. He and Lance Tokuda were awarded the Automated Software Engineering 2013 Most Influential Paper Award on their work on program refactorings.
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Peter D Mosses
Department of Computer Science
Swansea University
Title: A component-based approach to semantics
Abstract:
Modularity is a key property for scaling up semantics to the definition of major programming languages. This talk presents the highly modular component-based approach currently being developed and tested by the PLanCompS project [www.plancomps.org], and reports on progress following the preliminary case study presented at Modularity'14.
A component-based semantics of a programming language involves a collection of so-called fundamental programming constructs, or 'funcons'. The definition of each funcon is an independent module, intended to be used as an off-the-shelf component. The semantics of a language is defined by specifying a translation from programs to funcons, which is generally simpler than specifying the semantics of the programs directly. New funcons can be defined when needed, although it is expected that many funcons will be widely reused in definitions of different languages. After completing further case studies, the PLanCompS project intends to publish an initial collection of validated funcon definitions in an open access digital library.
Schedule: Wednesday, 18-March, 9:00am-10:00am.
About the Speaker:
Peter Mosses is a professor of Computer Science at Swansea University. His research in semantics stretches back to Strachey’s Programming Research Group at Oxford in the early 1970s, where he contributed to the development of denotational semantics, and implemented SIS, a system for running programs based on their semantics. He was based at Aarhus University, Denmark, from 1976 to 2004. The main focus of his research has been on pragmatic aspects of formal specifications, especially modularity, which led to the development of action semantics, MSOS (a modular variant of structural operational semantics) and component-based semantics. He was also the initial coordinator of CoFI, the Common Framework Initiative, which designed the algebraic specification language CASL. He is currently a principal investigator in the EPSRC-funded project PLanCompS (Programming Language Components and Specifications).