2nd workshop on Fun With Formal Methods


Vienna, Austria, July 13, 2014
(as a part of Vienna Summer of Logic VSL-2014, http://vsl2014.at/ in affiliation with

CAV-2014, http://vsl2014.at/meetings/CAV-index.html)

* Aims and Scope
Almost half of a century has passed since Robert W. Floyd published the first research

that explicitly discussed formally how to assign meaning to programs. But recently David

L. Parnas have called Really Rethinking “Formal Methods”, to question the assumptions

underlying the well-known current formal software development methods to see why they

have not been widely adopted and what should be changed. So, things are right where they

started decades ago?

Not at all, since industrial applications of Formal Methods are not the unique measure

of success. Another dimension where we can discuss utility of Formal Methods could be

better education. A very popular (in Russia) aphorism of Mikhail Lomonosov (the first

Russian academician) says: “Mathematics should be learned just because it disciplines

and bring up the mind”. We do believe that Formal Methods discipline and bring up minds

in Computer Science. We would not like to say that educators should not care about

industrial applications of Formal Methods (quite opposite, we must care!). At the same

time Formal Methods education helps to bridge a "cultural gap" (E.W.Dijkstra) between

Mathematics and Computer Science.

The problem is how to overcome a stable allergy to Formal Methods: many people think

Formal Methods are too pure in theory but too poor in practice. We do believe that the

basic reason behind this allergy is the absence of primary, elementary level. It is not

wise to start teaching arithmetic from Peano axiomatic, but it is a common sense to

start from elementary problems about numbers of apples, pencils, etc.

* The workshop is designed for
- enjoying the art and beauty of Formal Methods,
- discussing experience how to make Formal Methods easy,
- presenting application of Formal Methods to puzzles, to games, etc.,
- non-standard problem solving outside programming and Computer Science,
- everything else about Fun and Joy of Formal Methods.

* Invited speakers
- Nikolay Nepejvoda (Program Systems Institute, Russia), the title TBA
- TBA

* Prvious workshop FWFM-2013
One day workshop Fun With Formal Method was held Saturday, July 13, 2013, in Saint

Petersburg, Russia (FWFM-2013) in affiliation with the 25th International Conference on

Computer Aided Verification (CAV-2013). Please refer for further datails to the page of

FWFM-2013 at http://www.iis.nsk.su/fwfm2013. Selected papers of this workshop have been

accepted for publication in the electronic journal Informatica Didactica

(http://www.informatica-didactica.de/cmsmadesimple/index.php?page=home) devoted to

post-proceedings of FWFM-2013.

* Paper Submissions
Extended abstracts and papers on topics related to FWFM are solicited. There is no any

strict limit for page number or style, but it is recommended to be in range 2-4 pages

for extended abstracts and 4-16 pages for papers. (Single column, single interval, font

not less than 12 for review convenience.)

All submitted paper will be reviewed by 2 members of Program Committee (or their sub-

reviewers) and selection of accepted papers will based on relevance, quality and

(partly) originality of the submitted papers. Papers already published somewhere are

also welcome but must make it explicit their publication status (for including to

proceedings).

Please submit your extended abstracts and papers via Easychair page

https:/www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=fwfm2014.
We plan to publish informal proceedings before the workshop and disseminate them among

participants at the workshop on USB-sticks. Selected papers of this workshop will be

published in the electronic journal Informatica Didactica (http://www.informatica-

didactica.de/cmsmadesimple/index.php?page=home) devoted to post-proceedings of FWFM-

2014.

* Registration Dates and Details
Please refer to the main registration page of VSL at http://vsl2014.at/registration/ for

further details, fees and methods of payment.

* For further questions please contact

Nikolay Shilov
(nikolay.shilov@nu.edu.kz)