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Call for Papers

15th International Conference on Tests And Proofs
TAP 2021 Bergen (Norway), June 21-25, 2021
https://www.univ-orleans.fr/lifo/events/TAP2021

Part of STAF 2021
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Important Dates
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Abstract: March 1, 2021
Full Paper: March 8, 2021
Notification: April 12, 2021
Camera-Ready Version: April 25, 2021
Conference: June 21-25, 2021


Aim and Scope
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The TAP conference promotes research in verification and formal
methods that targets the interplay of proofs and testing: the
advancement of techniques of each kind and their combination, with the
ultimate goal of improving software and system dependability.

Research in verification has seen a steady convergence of
heterogeneous techniques and a synergy between the traditionally
distinct areas of testing (and dynamic analysis) and of proving (and
static analysis). Formal techniques for counter-example generation
based on, for example, symbolic execution, SAT/SMT-solving or model
checking, furnish evidence for the potential of a combination of test
and proof. The combination of predicate abstraction with testing-like
techniques based on exhaustive enumeration opens the perspective for
novel techniques of proving correctness. On the practical side,
testing offers cost-effective debugging techniques of specifications
or crucial parts of program proofs (such as invariants). Last but not
least, testing is indispensable when it comes to the validation of the
underlying assumptions of complex system models involving hardware
and/or system environments. Over the years, there is growing
acceptance in research communities that testing and proving are
complementary rather than mutually exclusive techniques.

The TAP conference aims to promote research in the intersection of
testing and proving by bringing together researchers and practitioners
from both areas of verification.


Topics of Interest
------------------

TAP's scope encompasses many aspects of verification technology,
including foundational work, tool development, and empirical
research. Its topics of interest center around the connection between
proofs (and other static techniques) and testing (and other dynamic
techniques). Papers are solicited on, but not limited to, the
following topics:

- Verification and analysis techniques combining proofs and tests
- Program proving with the aid of testing techniques
- Deductive techniques supporting the automated generation of test vectors
and oracles (theorem proving, model checking, symbolic execution, SAT/SMT
solving, constraint logic programming, etc.)
- Deductive techniques supporting novel definitions of coverage criteria,
- Program analysis techniques combining static and dynamic analysis
- Specification inference by deductive and dynamic methods
- Testing and runtime analysis of formal specifications
- Search-based technics for proving and testing
- Verification of verification tools and environments
- Applications of test and proof techniques in new domains,
such as security, configuration management, learning
- Combined approaches of test and proof in the context of formal
certifications (Common Criteria, CENELEC, …)
- Case studies, tool and framework descriptions, and experience
reports about combining tests and proofs


Submission Instructions
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TAP 2021 accepts papers of four kinds:

- Regular research papers: full submissions describing original
research, of up to 16 pages (excluding references).

- Tool demonstration papers: submissions describing the design and
implementation of an analysis/verification tool or framework, of up
to 8 pages (excluding references). The tool/framework described in a
tool demonstration paper should be available for public use.

- Short papers: submissions describing preliminary findings, proofs of
concepts, and exploratory studies, of up to 6 pages (excluding
references).

- Journal-first extended abstracts, of up to 4 pages, summarizing
recently published articles in high-quality journals. The aim of
journal-first papers is to further enrich the program of TAP, as
well as to provide an more flexible path to dissemination of results
in the field. The summarized journal article should have been
published (or accepted) by 1 July 2020 or later, and report new
results (as opposed as simply extending prior conference work with
'appendix' material, or minor enhancements). Journal-first
submissions must be marked as such in the submission’s title, and
must explicitly include full bibliographic details (including a DOI)
of the journal publication they are based on.

Accepted submissions will be published in Springer's LNCS
series. Papers have to adhere to Springer's LNCS format and must be
submitted in PDF format at the EasyChair submission site:

https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=tap2021


Committees
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Information about all committees can be found under
https://www.univ-orleans.fr/lifo/events/TAP2021

Program Chairs :
Frederic Loulergue (University of Orleans, France)
Franz Wotawa (Graz University of Technology, Austria)

Contact
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tap2021@easychair.org