[TYPES/announce] PhD position - Computer assisted validation in Erlang

[German Vidal]

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PhD scholarship at MiST, DSIC (Universitat Politecnica de Valencia, Spain)
http://users.dsic.upv.es/~gvidal/german/mist

Computer assisted validation in Erlang

A fully-funded PhD position to start in early 2015.

** DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS: SEPTEMBER 24, 2014 **
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The common goal of the MiST research group is the development of
techniques for assisting the construction of reliable software through
all phases of its life cycle. We aim at providing a solid formal basis
for our developments which would allow us to formally prove the
correctness and effectiveness of the techniques. The group keeps a
balance between theoretical and practical developments.

We have a new doctoral position available to start in early 2015.
Candidates should be motivated to successfully complete a full
Doctoral degree program.  The PhD scholarship will cover a four-year
period and is linked to a research project (see below) funded within
the National Plan for Research and Development. The successful
applicant will receive high level doctoral training in close
interaction with her/his direct supervisor and other project
researchers. Each scholarship includes a PhD fees exemption, an annual
salary of EUR 16422 (divided in 14 payments) and social security
entitlements. The possibility to apply for additional funding to cover
the cost of international stays of up to three months per year is also
associated with each PhD scholarship. Furthermore, travelling costs
for attending conferences and schools, computer equipment, etc., is
also covered by the group.

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CAVI project

We live in a digital society in which the software reliability has
become a crucial aspect, both because the risks for human lives that a
software bug may cause and also for its associated economic cost. Most
current software products use heterogenous technologies and different
programming languages that are glued together by means of complex
mechanisms. This complexity, together with the fact that most software
components are made by third-party developers, makes the software
validation tasks a true challenge for software development companies
in terms of cost. However, validation tasks are crucial for
guaranteeing the quality of the software products. In this project, we
aim at advancing the knowledge and technology within the area of
software validation at different levels:

- Software testing. This is the technology most commonly used by the
software industry to prevent errors during the software
development. The controlled execution of a number of tests allows one
to validate, to some extent, the correctness of the software
developed. 

- Formal verification. The main drawback of the previous technique is
that, despite the fact that they can be very helpful to locate the
bugs of a program, they cannot be used to ensure that a program is
error-free. Therefore, we will also consider formal verification
techniques that finitely approximate (by means of static analysis,
abstract interpretation, constraints, etc.) the possible executions of
a program. Thus, we may obtain a total assurance of the correctness of
a program, which makes these techniques specially adequate for
validating critical software.

- Program debugging. Complementary to the previous methods, we can
also find a number of debugging techniques that help the programmer to
detect and locate the most common program errors. 

We plan to apply most of our developments to the functional and
concurrent programming language Erlang; see, e.g.,
http://www.erlang.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erlang_(programming_language)

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Applications and evaluation criteria

Formal applications for the PhD scholarships must be made online,
through the framework of the Spanish National Program for Training of
Researchers (FPI program):

 http://tinyurl.com/nmx6auf

In particular, in the above URL you can find:

- General requirements (basically, you should be already accepted
 and/or enrolled in a PhD program)

- Frequently asked questions

- The online application site (you need to sign up first and then add
 mainly the following documents: copy of your passport-in case you're
 not spanish-, updated CV, academic certifications of your graduate
 and master degrees, copy of the acceptance/registration to a PhD
 programme).

Unfortunately, all the available information is only in Spanish.
Nevertheless, we will happy to help you with the process, so don't
hesitate to ask us for clarifications and help with the online
application in case you are interested.

Evaluation criteria:

- Academic performance and achievements of the candidate

- Knowledge on functional and/or logic programming paradigms
 (including Erlang, Haskell and/or Prolog programming languages).

- Willingness to undertake research visits of up to three months in
 other countries.

- Ability to write and interact in English.

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Interested candidates are invited to contact German Vidal via email 
(gvidal at dsic.upv.es). 

Please note that the deadline for the application is approaching soon!
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