[TYPES/announce] Summer school on formal methods and networks: application available

[Nate Foster]

The application for this summer school is now available online at
bit.ly/formalnets. We will process applications and scholarship
requests on a rolling basis. The final deadline for applying is May
10th.

             Summer School on Formal Methods and Networks
         http://www.cs.cornell.edu/conferences/formalnetworks
                           June 10-14, 2013
                          Cornell University
                           Ithaca, NY, USA

INTRODUCTION

In many areas of computing, techniques ranging from testing to formal
modeling to full-blown verification have been successfully used to
help programmers create reliable systems. For example, in processor
development, automated theorem proving uncovers deep bugs in designs
before they become costly errors in silicon; avionics developers use
program analysis to verify critical safety properties of the embedded
software running on airplanes; and operating system vendors have
successfully used model checking to eliminate entire classes of bugs
in device drivers. But, until recently, networks have largely resisted
analysis using formal techniques.

The goal of this summer school is to bring together leading
researchers and graduate students to study recent research results on
applying formal methods to networks. The curriculum will consist of a
series of lectures on topics from theoretical frameworks for modeling
network behavior to practical techniques and tools. The lectures will
be designed to be accessible to a general computer science audience
and will not assume advanced knowledge of formal methods or networks.

SPEAKERS

Nikolaj Bjorner (Microsoft Research)
Satisfiability Modulo Theories Solving for Network Verification

Brighten Godfrey (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
Verifying Networks in Real Time

Timothy Griffin (University of Cambridge)
Partial Automation in the Design and Implementation of Path-finding Algorithms

Arjun Guha (University of Massachusetts Amherst)
Network Programming With Frenetic

Shriram Krishnamurthi (Brown University)
Modeling and Reasoning about Network Components

Ratul Mahajan (Microsoft Research)
Systematically Exploring the Behavior of Control Programs

Nick McKeown and Peyman Kazemian (Stanford University)
Network Verification Using Header Space Analysis

Pamela Zave (AT&T Research)
Compositional Abstractions of Network Architectures

RATES

The fee for participating in the summer school is $160 for students
and $240 for all others. This includes all registration costs,
materials, and meals, as well as an outing on Wednesday
afternoon. Dorm housing from June 10th through June 14th is available
for an additional $200 (double) or $280 (single). Alternatively,
participants may arrange their own housing. The Visit Ithaca website
(http://www.visitithaca.com) maintains a list of accommodations in the area.

SCHOLARSHIPS

Generous support for the summer school is provided by the National
Science Foundation under grants CNS-1111698 and CNS-1111520. To
encourage broad participation, we are will offer scholarships to
selected students.

APPLICATION

Prospective applicants should complete the application form
(http://bit.ly/formalnets) and ask their academic advisor or supervisor
to send a brief letter justifying their participation to
summerschool-application at lists.frenetic-lang.org. The letter should
also specify the amount of funding available from the advisor or
university for students who have applied for a scholarship. We will
process applications and scholarship requests on a rolling basis and
send notifications by email. The final application deadline is May
10th, 2013.

ORGANIZERS

Nate Foster (Cornell University)
Jennifer Rexford (Princeton University)
David Walker (Princeton University)