FMCAD 2014 - FORMAL METHODS IN COMPUTER-AIDED DESIGN

SECOND CALL FOR PAPERS

International Conference on 
Formal Methods in Computer-Aided Design (FMCAD)

Lausanne, Switzerland, October 21-24, 2014
http://www.fmcad.org/FMCAD14

The conference includes the FMCAD student forum;
it is collocated with MEMOCODE, DIFTS, and the
Hardware Model Checking Competition 2014 FMCAD Edition.

FMCAD 2014 has technical co-sponsorship from IEEE's CEDA
(Council on Electronic Design Automation) and 
in-cooperation status with 
ACM SIGPLAN (Special Interest Group on Programming Languages) and 
ACM SIGSOFT (Special Interest Group on Software Engineering).

IMPORTANT DATES

Abstract Submission: Tuesday, May 6
Paper Submission: Friday, May 16
Author Response Period: June 23-27
Author Notification: July 25
Camera-Ready Version: August 15
Conference: October 21-24

CONFERENCE SCOPE 

FMCAD 2014 is the 14th in a series of conferences on the
theory and application of formal methods in computer-aided
design and verification of computer systems and related
topics. FMCAD provides a leading international forum to
researchers and practitioners in academia and industry for
presenting and discussing novel methods, technologies,
theoretical results, tools, and open challenges in formal
reasoning.

FMCAD employs a rigorous peer-review process and is devoted
to maximizing the dissemination of papers.  Accepted papers
are distributed through both ACM and IEEE digital
libraries. In addition, published articles are made
available freely on the conference page and the authors
retain the copyright. There are no publication fees. At
least one of the authors is required to register for the
conference and present the accepted paper.

FMCAD 2014 will be co-located with MEMOCODE, the ACM/IEEE
International Conference on Formal Methods and Models for
Codesign, in Lausanne, Switzerland.  MEMOCODE will take
place from October 19 to 20, followed by a joint
FMCAD/MEMOCODE tutorial day on October 21.  FMCAD will
continue from October 22 to 24, 2014.

TOPICS OF INTEREST

FMCAD welcomes submission of papers reporting original
research on advances in all aspects of formal methods
technology and its application to computer-aided design.
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the
following:

-- Model checking, theorem proving, equivalence checking,
   abstraction and reduction, compositional methods,
   decision procedures at the bit- and word-level,
   probabilistic methods, combinations of deductive methods
   and decision procedures.

-- Synthesis and compilation for computer system
   descriptions, modeling, specification, and implementation
   languages, formal semantics of languages and their
   subsets, model-based design, design derivation and
   transformation, correct-by-construction methods.

-- Application of formal and semi-formal methods to
   functional and non-functional specification and
   validation of hardware and software, including timing and
   power modeling, verification of computing systems on all
   levels of abstraction, system-level design and
   verification for embedded and cyberphysical systems,
   hardware-software co-design and verification,
   transaction-level verification.

-- Experience with the application of formal and semi-formal
   methods to industrial-scale designs. Tools that represent
   formal verification enablement, new features, or a
   substantial improvement in the automation of formal
   methods.

-- Application of formal methods in areas beyond computer
   systems, including formal methods describing processes
   studied in other areas of science, engineering, and
   humanities.

SUBMISSIONS

Submissions must be made electronically in PDF format
through a link available on the FMCAD web site

http://fmcad.org/FMCAD14

Two categories of papers can be submitted: regular papers (8
pages) and short papers (4 pages) containing ideas and
results that can be described succinctly.  Both regular and
short papers must use the IEEE Transactions format on
letter-size paper with a 10-point font size.

Submissions must contain original research that has not been
previously published, nor concurrently submitted for
publication. Any partial overlap with published or
concurrently submitted papers must be clearly indicated. If
experimental results are reported, authors are strongly
encouraged to provide adequate access to their data so that
results can be independently verified.

A small number of accepted papers will be considered for a
distinguished paper award. Recently awarded papers include:

* "An SMT Based Method for Optimizing Arithmetic
  Computations in Embedded Software Code", Hassan Eldib and
  Chao Wang (2013)

* "A quantifier-free SMT encoding of non-linear hybrid
  automata", Alessandro Cimatti, Sergio Mover and Stefano
  Tonetta (2012)

* "An Incremental Approach to Model Checking Progress Properties",
  Aaron Bradley, Fabio Somenzi, Zyad Hassan and Yan Zhang (2011)

* "Applying SMT in Symbolic Execution of Microcode", Anders
  Franzen, Alessandro Cimatti, Alexander Nadel, Roberto
  Sebastiani, and Jonathan Shalev (2010)

STUDENT FORUM

FMCAD 2014 will host a Student Forum that provides a
platform for graduate students at any career stage to
introduce their research to the wider Formal Methods
community, and solicit feedback. Submissions for the event
must be short reports describing research ideas or ongoing
work that the student is currently pursuing, and must be
within the scope of FMCAD.  Work, part of which has been
previously published, will be considered; the novel aspect
to be addressed in future work must be clearly described in
such cases.

The event will consist of short presentations by the student
authors of each accepted submission, and of a poster that
will be on display throughout the duration of the
conference.  Accepted submissions will be listed, with title
and author name, in the event description in the conference
proceedings.  The authors will also have the option to
upload their poster and presentation to the FMCAD web site.

Limited funds will be available for travel assistance for 
students with accepted contributions.

More details are available at
http://www.fmcad.org/FMCAD14/student-forum.shtml

IMPORTANT DATES FOR STUDENT FORUM

Submission Deadline: Sunday, June 08
Acceptance notification: Sunday, Aug 03
Forum date: Monday, Oct 20



CO-LOCATED EVENTS

The following meetings will be co-located with this year's edition:

-- MEMOCODE 2014, the ACM/IEEE International Conference on
   Formal Methods and Models for Codesign
   ( http://www.memocode-conference.com )

-- DIFTS 2014, International Workshop on Design and
   Implementation of Formal Tools and Systems
   ( http://fmgroup.polito.it/cabodi/difts2014/ )

-- We are also proud to host this year's 
   Hardware Model Checking Competition 2014 FMCAD Edition

ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

PROGRAM CHAIRS
Koen Claessen, Chalmers University of Technology
Viktor Kuncak, EPFL

LOCAL ARRANGEMENT CHAIR
Viktor Kuncak, EPFL

PUBLICATION CHAIR
Barbara Jobstmann, EPFL, Jasper DA, and CNRS/Verimag

STUDENT FORUM CHAIR
Ruzica Piskac, Yale University 

PUBLICITY CHAIR
Mitra Purandare, IBM Research Lab, Zurich 

PROGRAM COMMITTEE

Jason Baumgartner, IBM
Dirk Beyer, University of Passau
Armin Biere, Johannes Kepler University
Per Bjesse, Synopsys
Nikolaj Bjorner, Microsoft Research
Roberto Bruttomesso, Atrenta
Gianpiero Cabodi, Politecnico di Torino
Hana Chockler, King's College
Alessandro Cimatti, FBK-irst
Koen Claessen (Chair), Chalmers University of Technology
Bruno Dutertre, SRI International
Ziyad Hanna, Jasper Design Automation
Keijo Heljanko, Aalto University
Alan Hu, University of British Columbia
Warren Hunt, University of Texas
Susmit Jha, Strategic CAD Lab, Intel
Daniel Kroening, University of Oxford
Viktor Kuncak (Chair), EPFL
Panagiotis Manolios, Northeastern University
Ken McMillan, Microsoft Research
Katell Morin-Allory, TIMA Laboratory, Grenoble
Lee Pike, Galois, Inc.
Ruzica Piskac, Yale University
Mitra Purandare, IBM Research Lab, Zurich
Sandip Ray, Intel Corporation
Philipp Ruemmer, Uppsala University
Andrey Rybalchenko, Microsoft Research Cambridge
Julien Schmaltz, TU Eindhoven
Natasha Sharygina, Universita' della Svizzera Italiana
Anna Slobodova, Centaur Technology
Niklas Sorensson, Chalmers University of Technology
Daryl Stewart, ARM
Cesare Tinelli, The University of Iowa
Martin Vechev, ETH Zurich
Thomas Wahl, Northeastern University
Georg Weissenbacher, Vienna University of Technology 

STEERING COMMITTEE

Jason Baumgartner, IBM, USA
Armin Biere, Johannes Kepler University in Linz, Austria
Alan Hu, University of British Columbia, Canada 
Warren Hunt, University of Texas at Austin, USA