The complexity of software increases while at the same time its quality level becomes more important: Safety-critical systems should never fail and commercial products have to perform well to keep the customers satisfied. With formal methods - a kind of mathematical descriptions - software can be tested and validated to prevent these failures. This was the topic of the 4th International Symposium on Formal Methods for Components and Objects (FMCO 2005), held from 1 to 4 November 2005 at the Centrum voor Wiskunde en Informatica in Amsterdam.
Emergency control
Formal methods are not only used to improve existing software but also to improve the development of new software, for instance, through 'coordination' (collaboration) of software components. This can be applied in unexpected areas. The CIM Consortium - containing Almende, Group 4 Falck, Centrum voor Wiskunde en Informatica, Delft University of Technology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and Cmotions - applies these methods for emergency control. CIM stands for Cybernetic Incident Management: the management of fires, floods and earthquakes with the aid of computer systems.
More information can be found on SEN3's website, the FMCO 2005 website, the CIM project webpage or the Dutch translation of this Latest News item
