[TYPES/announce] Formal Methods 2021 -- 1st Call for Papers

[Jun PANG]

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FM 2021: 24th International Symposium on Formal Methods
Beijng, China, November 20-26, 2021
http://formalmethods2021.csp.escience.cn/
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FM 2021 is the 24th international symposium in a series organised by
Formal Methods Europe (FME), an independent association whose aim is
to stimulate the use of, and research on, formal methods for software
development. The symposia have been notably successful in bringing
together researchers and industrial users around a programme of
original papers on research and industrial experience, workshops,
tutorials, reports on tools, projects, and ongoing doctoral work. FM
2021 will be both an occasion to celebrate and a platform for
enthusiastic researchers and practitioners from a diversity of
backgrounds to exchange their ideas and share their experience.

FM 2021 will highlight the development and application of formal
methods in a wide range of domains including software, cyber-physical
systems and integrated computer-based systems. We are in particular
interested in the application of formal methods in the areas of
systems-of-systems, security, artificial intelligence, human-computer
interaction, manufacturing, sustainability, power, transport, smart
cities, healthcare, biology. We also welcome papers on experiences
from application of formal methods in industry, and on the design and
validation of formal methods tools.

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Important Dates
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Abstract submission: April 30, 2021, 23:59 AoE
Full paper submission: May 6, 2021, 23:59 AoE
Notification: July 16, 2021
Camera ready: August 16, 2021
Conference: November 20-26, 2021

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Topics of Interest
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FM 2021 encourages submissions on formal methods in a wide range of
domains including software, computer-based systems,
systems-of-systems, cyber-physical systems, security, human-computer
interaction, manufacturing, sustainability, energy, transport, smart
cities, and healthcare. We particularly welcome papers on techniques,
tools and experiences in interdisciplinary settings. We also welcome
papers on experiences of formal methods in industry, and on the design
and validation of formal methods tools. The broad topics of interest
for FM 2021 include, but are not limited to:

● Interdisciplinary formal methods: Techniques, tools and experiences
demonstrating the use of formal methods in interdisciplinary settings.
● Formal methods in practice: Industrial applications of formal
methods, experience with formal methods in industry, tool usage
reports, experiments with challenge problems. The authors are
encouraged to explain how formal methods overcame problems, led to
improved designs, or provided new insights.
● Tools for formal methods: Advances in automated verification, model
checking, and testing with formal methods, tools integration,
environments for formal methods, and experimental validation of tools.
The authors are encouraged to demonstrate empirically that the new
tool or environment advances the state of the art.
● Formal methods in software and systems engineering: Development
processes with formal methods, usage guidelines for formal methods,
and method integration. The authors are encouraged to evaluate process
innovations with respect to qualitative or quantitative improvements.
Empirical studies and evaluations are also solicited.
● Theoretical foundations of formal methods: All aspects of theory
related to specification, verification, refinement, and static and
dynamic analysis. The authors are encouraged to explain how their
results contribute to the solution of practical problems with formal
methods or tools.

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Submission Guidelines
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Papers should be original work, not published or submitted elsewhere,
in Springer LNCS format, written in English, submitted through
EasyChair:
https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=fm2021

Each paper will be evaluated by at least three members of the
Programme Committee. Authors of papers reporting experimental work are
strongly encouraged to make their experimental results available for
use by the reviewers. Similarly, case study papers should describe
significant case studies, and the complete development should be made
available at the time of review. The usual criteria for novelty,
reproducibility, correctness and the ability for others to build upon
the described work apply. Tool papers and tool demonstration papers
should explain enhancements made compared to previously published
work. A tool demonstration paper need not present the theory behind
the tool, but can focus on the tool’s features, how it is used, its
evaluation, and examples and screenshots illustrating the tool’s use.
Authors of tool and tool demonstration papers should make their tool
available for use by the reviewers.

We solicit various categories of papers:

● Regular Papers (max 15 pages)
● Long tool papers (max 15 pages)
● Case study papers (max 15 pages)
● Short papers (max 6 pages), including tool demonstration papers.
Besides short tool demo papers, short papers are encouraged for any
topic that can be described within the page limit, and in particular
for novel ideas without an extensive experimental evaluation. Short
papers will be given short presentations at the conference.

All page limits do not count references and appendices.

For all papers, an appendix can provide additional material such as
details on proofs or experiments. The appendix is not part of the page
count and not guaranteed to be read or taken into account by the
reviewers. It should not contain information necessary for the
understanding and the evaluation of the presented work. Papers will be
accepted or rejected in the category in which they were submitted.

At least one author of an accepted paper is expected to present the
paper at the conference as a registered participant.

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Best Paper Award
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At the conference, the PC Chairs will present an award to the authors
of the submission selected as the FM 2021 Best Paper.

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Publication
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Accepted papers will be published in the Symposium Proceedings to
appear in Springer’s Lecture Notes in Computer Science in the subline
on Formal Methods. Traditionally, extended versions of selected papers
will be invited for publication in a special issue of one or more
journals.

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General Chair
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Huimin Lin, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

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Program Committee Chairs
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Marieke Huisman, University of Twente, Netherlands
Corina Pasareanu, Carnegie Mellon University, USA
Naijun Zhan, Chinese Academy of Science, China

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Program Committee
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TBD

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Publicity Chair
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Eunsuk Kang, Carnegie Mellon University, US
Jun Pang, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg

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Local Organizers
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Naijun Zhan (chair), Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
Bai Xue, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
Bohua Zhan Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
Zhilin Wu, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
Andrea Turrini, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
David Jansen, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
Peng Wu, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

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Web Team
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Bohua Zhan, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
Bai Xue, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China