The Computer Science Department of the K.U.Leuven and the Ada-Belgium organization are pleased to announce the seminar T e c h n o l o g y U p d a t e : A d a a n d S P A R K f o r e d u c a t i o n a n d r e s e a r c h State-of-the-art programming language technology with Ada Formal specifications made practical with SPARK organized with support from AdaCore and Altran Praxis on Tuesday, February 23, 2010, 14:00-18:00 at the K.U.Leuven, Department of Computer Science Celestijnenlaan 200A, B-3001 Leuven (Heverlee), Belgium http://distrinet.cs.kuleuven.be/events/AdaEvent/ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------ Introduction ------------ Ada is a state-of-the-art programming language especially suitable for large, long-lived applications where safety, security, and reliability are critical. Due to its approach of detecting errors as soon as possible it is also generally usable for all types of applications. SPARK is a formally-defined programming language based on Ada, intended to be secure and to support the development of high-integrity software. This event is primarily intended for the educational and research community, and will present experts from academia and industry who believe that using Ada and SPARK in education and research is fundamental to form the software engineers of tomorrow. Why Ada? Because they believe that Ada is the right choice for a range of courses including elementary programming, data structures, software engineering and for more advanced courses and research in compiler construction, real-time systems, robotics, cryptography, etc. Ada and SPARK embody the best contemporary ideas in software technology, and students exposed to these languages at an early stage of their career become more skilled and principled programmers. The event will focus on the technical advantages of these programming languages, the tools and support available for academics, as well provide an insight into their academic and industrial use through real-life case studies. -------- Schedule -------- - 13:30-14:00 Arrival - 14:00-14:50 "What's New in the World of Ada" Robert Dewar, AdaCore, New York, USA - 14:50-15:20 "Ada in Industry, an Experience Report" Philippe Waroquiers, EUROCONTROL/CFMU, Brussels, Belgium - 15:20-15:40 Break - 15:40-16:10 "Ada in Research and Education, an Experience Report" Erhard Pl�dereder, University Stuttgart, Germany - 16:10-17:00 "SPARK - The Libre Language and Toolset for High-Assurance Software" Rod Chapman, Altran Praxis, Bath, UK - 17:00-18:00 Networking drink All presentations will be in English. ------------- Presentations ------------- "What's New in the World of Ada" Robert Dewar, AdaCore, New York, USA This talk will briefly review the history and main features of Ada, its usage in academic and industrial projects, and will then cover new developments in the Ada language and Ada language tools. New features of Ada 2012 will be discussed as well as the current status of their implementation in GNAT. The talk will also discuss interesting new tools that are available for Ada development, including CodePeer, the new static analysis system being developed jointly by AdaCore and SofCheck, and Couverture, a novel approach to coverage analysis, suitable for both certified critical systems, and mainstream application development. Robert Dewar is co-founder, President and CEO of AdaCore and is a Professor of Computer Science at the Courant Institute of New York University. He has been involved with Ada for over 20 years and, as co-director of both the Ada-Ed projects and the GNAT project, led the team that developed the first validated Ada compiler at NYU. Robert was one of the authors of the requirements document for the Ada revision, and served as a distinguished reviewer for both Ada 83 and Ada 95. He has co-authored several renowned compilers including the SPITBOL (SNOBOL) compiler, the Realia COBOL compiler for the PC (now marketed by Computer Associates), and the Alsys Ada compiler. He has also written several real time operating systems for Honeywell Inc. Among his many publications, Robert is a principal author (with Professor Edmond Schonberg) of GNAT, the GNU Ada Compiler. A talented public speaker, he is frequently invited to share his thoughts in public on computers and on open-source software. --- "Ada in Industry, an Experience Report" Philippe Waroquiers, EUROCONTROL/CFMU, Brussels, Belgium The presentation will give details about how Ada is used at the CFMU to develop ETFMS (Flow Management system) and IFPS (Flight Plan processing system). IFPS processes all the flight plans for of the flights departing from, landing in, or crossing Europe. ETFMS balances the traffic load with the capacity, ensuring an efficient usage of the airspace capacity while maintaining safety. Philippe Waroquiers works in the Engineering division of EUROCONTROL/CFMU. The CFMU (Central Flow Management Unit) is the operational unit of EUROCONTROL, the European Organization for the Safety of Air Navigation. Philippe is involved in the functional specification, architecture and development of its mission critical systems. --- "Ada in Research and Education, an Experience Report" Erhard Pl�dereder, University Stuttgart, Germany The University of Stuttgart uses Ada as the programming language of choice for the introductory courses in Computer Science and Software Engineering. The talk will expand on the reasons for this decision and the discussions about it. It will attempt to separate winning arguments from the grist of many. It will also address issues on the road to teaching computer science students a general understanding of programming languages, in order to enable them to pick up future languages easily and without prejudice. Finally, a large on-going research project using Ada will be briefly described. Prof. Dr. Erhard Pl�dereder is Head of the Department of Programming Languages and Compilers at the University of Stuttgart, Germany. Presently he is also serving as Dean of the Faculty of Computer Science, Electrical Engineering and Information Technology. A former chair of IFIP WG2.4 and of several ISO Rapporteur Groups, Ada-Europe President, and long-term researcher in program analysis, he has a keen interest in programming languages, their strengths and weaknesses, as a teacher, a user, and a researcher. --- "SPARK - The Libre Language and Toolset for High-Assurance Software" Rod Chapman, Altran Praxis, Bath, UK This presentation introduces SPARK - a language specifically designed to support the development and verification of high-assurance software. This presentation covers the concepts behind SPARK, the language design and the capabilities of the verification tools. It will also cover the uses of SPARK in teaching software engineering and will look at current and potential research topics for the academic community, as well as recent and on-going industrial projects. The presenter will be Dr. Roderick Chapman of Altran Praxis. Rod has been involved with the design of both safety- and security-critical software with Praxis for many years, including significant contributions to many of Praxis' key-note projects such as SHOLIS, MULTOS CA, Tokeneer, and the development of the SPARK language and verification tools. Rod is a well-known conference speaker. He has presented papers, tutorials and workshops at many international events including SSTC, NSA HCSS, and ACM SIGAda. He was the opening key-note speaker at Ada Europe 2006. Rod is a Chartered Engineer, a Fellow of the BCS, and an SEI-certified PSP Instructor. ------------- Participation ------------- Attendance is free, but registration is necessary. To register, please provide your name, email address and affiliation, either by email to , or via the web form at . For directions to the Computer Science Department of the K.U.Leuven, see . ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Our apologies if you receive multiple copies of this announcement. Please circulate among your contacts in education and research who may be in the neighborhood at that time, or live or work close-by. Dirk.Craeynest@cs.kuleuven.be, Ada-Belgium (V20100206.1)