[TYPES] SOS 2004: Call for Papers

[iu3 at mcs.le.ac.uk]

                         Call for Papers

	       Structural Operational Semantics

       http://www.cs.auc.dk/~luca/SOS-WORKSHOP/

          A Satellite Workshop of CONCUR 2004
        30 August, 2004, London, United Kingdom

Aims:

Structural operational semantics (SOS) provides a framework 
for giving operational semantics to programming and specification 
languages.  A growing number of programming languages from 
commercial and academic spheres have been given usable semantic 
descriptions by means of structural operational semantics. 
Because of its intuitive appeal and flexibility, structural 
operational semantics has found considerable application in 
the study of the semantics of concurrent processes.  Moreover, 
it is becoming a viable alternative to denotational semantics 
in the static analysis of programs, and in proving compiler 
correctness.

Recently, structural operational semantics has been successfully 
applied as a formal tool to establish results that hold for classes 
of process description languages. This has allowed for 
the generalization of well-known results in the field of process 
algebra, and for the development of a meta-theory for process calculi 
based on the realization that many of the results in this field 
only depend upon general semantic properties of language constructs.

The proposed SOS workshop aims to be a forum for researchers, 
students and practitioners interested in new developments and 
directions for future investigation in the field of structural 
operational semantics. One of the specific goals of the workshop is 
to establish synergies between the concurrency and programming 
language communities working on the theory and practice of SOS. 

The workshop will also mark the publication of a special issue of 
the Journal of Logic and Algebraic Programming, devoted to SOS. 
Together with original research papers on SOS, this special issue 
will feature a definitive version of Gordon Plotkin's 1981 DAIMI memo 
on SOS, together with a piece by Plotkin on the origins of SOS. 

Specific topics of interest include (but are not limited to):

    * programming languages
    * process algebras
    * higher-order formalisms
    * rule formats for operational specifications
    * meaning of operational specifications
    * comparisons between denotational, axiomatic and SOS 
    * compositionality of modal logics with respect to 
      operational specifications
    * congruence with respect to behavioural equivalences
    * conservative extensions
    * derivation of proof rules from operational specifications
    * software tools that automate, or are based on, SOS

Papers reporting on applications of SOS to software engineering and 
other areas of computer science are welcome.

Paper submission:  

We solicit unpublished papers reporting on original research on 
the general theme of SOS. Prospective authors are invited to submit 
a pdf or postscript file with their extended abstract, whose length 
should not exceed 15 pages, by email to all of the co-chairs at their 
respective email addresses. The email message with the submission 
should also include, in plain text, contact information for 
the author(s), together with the title and abstract of the submission.  
Submissions are to be received by Sunday, 6 June, 2004. Authors will 
be notified of acceptance by Wednesday, 30 June, 2004. Submissions 
from the PC members are allowed. 

Proceedings:  

Preliminary proceedings containing the abstracts of the talks will be 
published as a volume in the BRICS Notes Series, and will be available 
at the meeting. The final proceedings of the workshop will appear as 
a volume in the ENTCS series.  

If the quality and quantity of the submissions warrant it, the co-chairs 
plan to arrange a special issue of an archival journal devoted to full 
versions of selected papers from the workshop. 

Important Dates:

    * Submission: Sunday 6 June 2004
    * Notification: Wednesday 30 June 2004
    * Final version: Friday July 16 2004
    * Workshop: Monday 30 August 2004

Invited Speakers:

Andrew Pitts (Cambridge, United Kingdom)
Gordon Plotkin (Edinburgh, United Kingdom) (To be confirmed) 

Program Committee:

Luca Aceto (BRICS, Aalborg, Denmark, co-chair)
Wan Fokkink (CWI, The Netherlands, co-chair)
Rob van Glabbeek (NICTA, Sydney, Australia)
Ralf Laemmel (CWI, The Netherlands)
Peter Mosses (BRICS, Aarhus, Denmark)
David Sands (Chalmers, Sweden)
Alex Simpson (Edinburgh, United Kingdom)
Simone Tini (Insubria, Italy)
Irek Ulidowski (Leicester, United Kingdom, co-chair)
Erik de Vink (Eindhoven, The Netherlands)

Organizing Committee:

Luca Aceto, email: luca AT cs.auc.dk,
    (BRICS, Aalborg, Denmark)
Wan Fokkink, email:  wan AT cwi.nl, 
    (CWI, The Netherlands)
Irek Ulidowski, email iu3 AT mcs.le.ac.uk
    (Leicester, United Kingdom)