Agathe Merceron

Vicinity respecting net morphisms

Vicinity respecting net morphisms are a restricted class of net morphisms. The restriction requires that pre- and post-sets of elements are respected by the morphisms. However, vicinity respecting net morphisms allow to map S-elements to T-elements and vice versa and can hence formalize contractions of nets.

Systematic testing and formal verification to validate reactive programs

The use of systematic testing and formal verification in the validation of reactive systems implemented in synchronous languages is illustrated. Systematic testing and formal verification are two techniques for checking the consistency between a program and its specification. The approach to validation is through specification: two system views are developed in addition to the program, a behavioural specification for systematic testing and a logical specification for formal verification. Pursuing both activities, reactive programs can be validated both more efficiently (in terms of costs) and more effectively (in terms of confidence in correctness). This principle is demonstrated here using the well known lift example.

Clustering Students to Help Evaluate Learning

In this paper we show how clustering techniques can be applied to student answers generated from a web-based tutoring tool. In particular we are interested in extracting clusters of students based on the mistakes they made using the tool, with the aim of obtaining pedagogically relevant information and providing this feedback to the teacher. The data we used comes from the Logic-ITA, a web-based tutoring tool to practice formal proofs currently in use in the School of Information Technologies at the University of Sydney.

Verifying a Time-Triggered Protocol in a Multi-language Environment

The multi-language environment SYNCHRONIE supports the design and formal verification of synchronous reactive systems. Presently, SYNCHRONIE integrates three synchronous languages, ESTEREL, LUSTRE, and ARGOS. In the synchronous approach, not only the system but also its properties can be specified using a synchronous language. In SYNCHRONIE properties can be formalised textually as ESTEREL or LUSTRE programs, or graphically as ARGOS programs. Moreover, properties may also be specified as temporal logic formulas with past or future operators. It is shown how to specify and automatically prove properties of a time-triggered protocol taking advantage of this environment.

European-Russian-central asian network of Master's degree “Informatics as a Second Competence”

The aim of the ERAMIS project is to set up a network of Masters degree “Informatics as a Second Competence” among 9 beneficiary universities of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia, and 5 European universities. This contribution presents how this network is implemented.

Vicinity respecting homomorphisms for abstracting system requirements

This paper is concerned with structuring system requirements on an abstract conceptual level. Channel/Agency Petri nets are taken as a formal model. They allow to represent functional aspects as well as data aspects of the requirements in a graphical way. Vicinity respecting homomorphisms are presented as a means to refine and abstract these nets. They preserve paths, i.e., dependencies between computational elements and they preserve important structural properties of nets, such as S- and T-components, siphons and traps and the free choice property. These properties have important interpretations for marked Petri nets and can therefore be used for the analysis of system models at more concrete levels.

LeVinQam: a question answering mining platform

The development of Web technologies has accelerated the offer of (commercial) e-learning platforms. This paper is a first step toward the design and implementation of a platform called LeVin-Qam whose main functionalities are: (a) the provision and management of a series of exercises and tests (authoring tools); (b) a personalized navigation through the existing collection of exercises and tests, taking into account the user profile (level of skills) and history; (c) the analysis of user answers, its storing into a database and its mining. As case studies we have chosen (1) the learning of SQL, the standard database query language, and (2) formal proofs for propositional logic, to validate the platform functionalities and the mining of answers.

Gamification designs in Wearable Enhanced Learning for healthy ageing

Supporting healthy ageing through sustained physical fitness requires interventions that promote healthy levels of physical activity as part of daily life. Wearable devices, such as activity trackers are body-worn and may be seamlessly integrated into daily activities to promote fitness. Although wearables have been used by younger adopters to optimise physical fitness, little is known so far how these emerging technologies may be leveraged to enhance learning and improve well-being and fitness of seniors. In this paper we present a novel approach to designing Wearable Enhanced Learning (WELL) for healthy ageing as part of the R&D project “Fitness MOOC - interaction of seniors with wearable fitness trackers in the MOOC (fMOOC)”. The fMOOC project is a cooperation between Beuth University of Applied Sciences and the Geriatrics Research Group at Charité Berlin and aims at enhancing healthy ageing through an embodied learning experience in a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) with support of wearable activity trackers. This paper focuses on gamification designs in wearable enhanced learning for senior users and addresses the issue of user engagement.

COMPONENT-BASED VERIFICATION IN A SYNCHRONOUS SETTING

Formal verification of properties in reactive real-time systems is crucial, as these systems are often safety-critical. Such systems are successfully implemented using synchronous languages, where refinement is a relevant operation. This paper investigates the interplay between this operation and formal verification. It turns out that, while for the refined program component-based verification of properties expressed using suitable temporal logics is easily achieved, component-based verification from the point of view of the refining program is best achieved with observers. Our results are based on a translation of synchronous programs into Boolean automata. Their practical relevance is illustrated with a protocol case study.

Refinement and modular verification with observers

The formal verification of properties in reactive real-time systems is crucial, as these systems are often safety-critical ones. Refinement is a relevant operation in synchronous languages. In this paper, we argue that, in the synchronous approach to the design and implementation of reactive real-time systems, modular verification (from the point of view of the refining program) is best achieved with observers.