Teaching Formal Methods

"Professional engineers can often be distinguished from other designers by the engineers' ability to use mathematical models to describe and 1 analyze their products." This observation by Parnas describes the de facto professional standards in all classical engineering disciplines (civil, mechanical, electrical, etc.). Unf- tunately, it is in sharp contrast with current (industrial) practice in software design, where mathematical models are hardly used at all, even by those who, 2 in Holloway's words "aspire to be engineers." The rare exceptions are certain critical applications, where mathematical techniques are used under the general name formal methods. Yet,thesamecharacteristicsthatmakeformalmethodsanecessityincritical applicationsmakethemalsoadvantageousineverydaysoftwaredesignatvarious levels from design e?ciency to software quality. Why, then, is education failing with respect to formal methods? - failing to convince students, academics and practitioners alike that formal methods are truly pragmatic; - failing to overcome a phobia of formality and mathematics; - failing to provide students with the basic skills and understanding required toadoptamoremathematicalandlogicalapproachtosoftwaredevelopment. Until education takes these failings seriously, formal methods will be an obscure byway in software engineering, which in turn will remain severely impoverished as a result.

Inhalt

A Beginner's Course on Reasoning About Imperative Programs.- Designing Algorithms in High School Mathematics.- Motivating Study of Formal Methods in the Classroom.- Formal Systems, Not Methods.- A Practice-Oriented Course on the Principles of Computation, Programming, and System Design and Analysis.- Teaching How to Derive Correct Concurrent Programs from State-Based Specifications and Code Patterns.- Specification-Driven Design with Eiffel and Agents for Teaching Lightweight Formal Methods.- Integrating Formal Specification and Software Verification and Validation.- Distributed Teaching of Formal Methods.- An Undergraduate Course on Protocol Engineering - How to Teach Formal Methods Without Scaring Students.- Linking Paradigms, Semi-formal and Formal Notations.- Teaching Formal Methods in Context.- Embedding Formal Development in Software Engineering.- Advertising Formal Methods and Organizing Their Teaching: Yes, but ....- Retrospect and Prospect of Formal Methods Education in China.- A Survey of Formal Methods Courses in European Higher Education.