[ecoop-info] STAF'15 Workshops - Joint Call for Papers

[Davide Di Ruscio]

------------- Apologies for multiple postings ---------------------

STAF 2015: Software Technologies: Applications and Foundations

Joint Call for Workshop Papers

*** Special Theme on Reproducibility ***

July 20-24, 2015 - L’Aquila, Italy

http://www.disim.univaq.it/staf2015/workshops/

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Software Technologies: Applications and Foundations (STAF) is a
federation of a number of the leading conferences on software
technologies. It was formed after the end of the successful TOOLS
federated event (http://tools.ethz.ch) in 2012, providing a loose
umbrella organisation, with a steering committee that aims to provide
continuity.

The STAF federated event runs annually; the conferences that
participate may vary from year to year, but all focus on practical and
foundational advances in software technology. The conferences address
all aspects of software technology, from object-oriented design,
testing, mathematical approaches to modelling and verification,
transformation, model-driven engineering, aspect-oriented techniques,
and tools.

STAF 2015 will bring together the 8th International Conference on
Model Transformation (ICMT), the 8th International Conference on Graph
Transformation (ICGT), the 11th European Conference on Modelling
Foundations and Applications (ECMFA), and the 9th  International
Conference on Tests and Proof (TAP).

STAF 2015 will also host a number of satellite events (workshops, a
projects showcase, and a doctoral symposium) during 20-24 July, 2015.

The following STAF 2015 workshops solicit the submission of papers
presenting novel work in the respective areas of interest:

* BigMDE – Scalable Model Driven Engineering
* BM-FA – Behaviour Modelling – Foundations and Applications
* BX – Bidirectional Transformations
* GCM – Graph Computation Models
* MORSE – Model-Driven Robot Software Engineering
* PAME – Patterns in Model Engineering
* VAO – View-Based, Aspect-Oriented and Orthographic Software Modelling
* VOLT – Verification Of Model Transformations


Important Dates for all the STAF 2015 workshops (but GCM):
* Abstract submission: 24 April 2015
* Paper submission: 8 May 2015
* Author notification: 5 June 2015
* Camera-ready version: 19 June 2015

For all satellite events, the 2015 special theme is “Reproducibility”.
Authors are encouraged to pay special attention to:

- open access to data sets,
- online supplements which lower the barrier to reproducing the
results of a paper,
- online supplements which strengthen the confidence that a proposed
software technology is based on (or could at least be applied on) more
than the paper’s running example.

Authors are encouraged to leverage platforms such as
http://FigShare.com for (1) and http://SHARE20.eu for (2) and (3).
Please refer to http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scico.2013.12.007 for
instructions on SHARE and please contribute new content to its STAF15
group (cf., http://is.ieis.tue.nl/staff/pvgorp/share/?page=LookupImage&bNameSearch=STAF15).


For more information and updates please refer at
www.disim.univaq.it/staf2015/workshops



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BigMDE 2015: 2nd International Workshop on Scalable Model Driven Engineering
Thursday, July 23rd, 2015, L'Aquila, Italy
http://www.big-mde.eu/


Important Dates
−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−
Abstract submission: 24 April 2015
Paper submission: 8 May 2015
Author notification: 5 June 2015
Camera-ready version: 19 June 2015


Workshop summary
−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−

As Model Driven Engineering (MDE) is increasingly applied to larger
and more complex
systems , the current generation of modelling and model management
technologies are being
pushed to their limits in terms of capacity and efficiency . As such ,
additional research
and development is imperative in order to enable MDE to remain
relevant with industrial
practice and to continue delivering its widely−recognised
productivity, quality, and
maintainability benefits.

The aim of this workshop is to provide a venue where developers and
users of modelling and
model management languages and tools can present problems and
solutions related to topics
such as :

− Working with large models
− Collaborative modelling ( version control , collaborative editing )
− Transformation and validation of large models
− Model fragmentation and modularity mechanisms
− Efficient model persistence and retrieval
− Models and model transformations on the cloud
− Visualization techniques for large models
− High−performance MDE ( not necessarily related to large models) .
− Identification of scalability and performance issues in MDE ( not
necessarily solutions ) .

Workshop format
−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−

The duration of the workshop is one day. The workshop format includes
a keynote talk, as
well as paper and demo presentations. The workshop will close with a
wrap−up discussion
that will formulate the workshop conclusions, identify the open
issues, and outline future lines of work .

Selection procedure
−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−

All submissions will be reviewed by at least three members of the
program committee.
Papers must be submitted in PDF format and strictly adhere to the ACM
SIG proceedings
format . We advocate two types of papers : tool demonstration papers
which should not exceed
4 pages in size , and regular papers which should not exceed 10 pages
including all text ,
references , appendices and figures . Paper submissions will be made
electronically via the
workshop submission web page , using the EasyChair service . All
submissions must be
original work , and must not have been previously published , nor be
under consideration for
publication , elsewhere . At least one author of each accepted paper
should register for
the conference and participate in the workshop .

Publication plans
−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−

We intend to publish accepted papers in the ACM Digital Library through the ACM
International Conference Proceedings Series.

Organisers
−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−

Dimitris Kolovos , University of York
Davide Di Ruscio , University of L’ Aquila
Nicholas Matragkas , University of York
Jesus Sanchez Cuadrado Universidad Autonoma de Madrid
Istvan Rath , Budapest University of Technology and Economics
Massimo Tisi , Ecole des Mines de Nantes

====================================================================

BM-FA 2015: 7th International Workshop on
Behavioural Modelling - Foundations and Applications
Monday, July 20th, 2015, L'Aquila, Italy
http://www.christiangerth.de/bm-fa-2015/


Abstract submission April 24, 2015
Full paper submission May 8, 2015
Notification of acceptance June 5, 2015
Camera ready version June 19, 2015

Model-based Software Engineering (MBSE) is mostly used for the
structural parts of the software. Except for the Business Process
Management areas, models for the behaviour or the functional
specification of the software are not very often used for code
generation or direct execution.

The complexity of today's software systems is increasing in various
ways. There is an increasing demand for smart and self-adaptive
software systems, which can effectively cope with changes in their
execution environment. Complex software systems are developed as
systems of systems, which are composed of many independently developed
and managed software systems. Such a composition leads to various
kinds of emergent behavior, which must be modelled and its impacts
must be analyzed. Last but not least, software engineers have to deal
with massively parallel and distributed software systems.

In this era, behavioral modelling is no longer a luxury; instead, it
is a necessity to facilitate comprehending the behavior of software
systems and reasoning about it. The 7th edition of workshop on
Behaviour Modelling - Foundations and Applications (BM-FA) attracts
attention to the role of behaviour modelling in development of today's
complex software systems.

We welcome submissions that address the following topics:
- Methods, techniques and applications of behaviour modelling in
engineering systems of systems
- Methods, techniques and applications of behaviour modelling in
representing emergent behavior
- Methods, techniques and applications of behaviour modelling in
self-adaptive software systems
- Methods, techniques and applications of behaviour modelling in hybrid systems
- Application of behaviour modelling for functional and non-functional
requirements, including their refinement into design models;
- Prospects and challenges in behaviour modelling;
- Approaches to the definition of behavioural interfaces and
contracts; including approaches to discover and compose components
specified with behavioural interfaces;
- Quality of behavioural models, e.g. approaches to control-flow or
data-flow analysis in business process modelling;
- Implementation, direct execution, and code generation of/from
behavioural models;
- Usability results of different modelling techniques;
- Composition and decomposition of behavioural models;
- Combination of different behaviour modelling approaches;
- Computation of differences between behavioural models;
- Applications of formal reasoning to behavioural models;
- Application of behavioural modelling in software quality assurance,
e.g., in model-based testing;
- Behavior models and their relationship to other artifacts, e.g.
structure models, but also arbitrary other code;
- The applicability of different behavior model types in different
domains. E.g. what kind of behavior is more feasible in embedded
systems, what kind in information systems, what kind in games, etc.
- Lessons learned from case studies that involve behaviour modelling;

Submission Guideline
------------------------------

All submitted papers must represent original and unpublished work.
There is a limit of 4 pages for short papers and 8 pages for full
papers, in the ACM SIG format.


Program Committee:
-----------------------------

Ella Roubtsova, Open university, the Netherlands
Silvia Abrahão, Universitat Politècnica de València
Steffen Zschaler, King's College London
Bedir Tekinerdogan, Wageningen University, the Netherlands
Nelly Bencomo, Aston University, UK
Shaukat Ali, Simula Lab, Norway
Omar Alam, McGill University, Canada
Ashley McNeile, Metamaxim Ltd,UK
Ekkart Kindler, Technical University of Denmark
Christian Gerth, Osnabruck University of Applied Sciences, Germany
Mehmet Aksit, University of Twente, Netherlands

Organization Committee:
----------------------------------

Somayeh Malakuti (primary contact), Technical University of Dresden, Germany
Ashley McNeile, Metamaxim Ltd,UK
Ekkart Kindler, Technical University of Denmark
Christian Gerth, Osnabruck University of Applied Sciences, Germany
Mehmet Aksit, University of Twente, Netherlands

====================================================================

Bx 2015: 4th International Workshop on Bidirectional Transformations
Friday, July 24th, 2015, L'Aquila, Italy
http://bx-community.wikidot.com/bx2015:home

Bidirectional transformations (Bx) are a mechanism for maintaining the
consistency of at least two related sources of information. Such
sources can be relational databases, software models and code, or any
other document following standard or ad-hoc formats. Bx are an
emerging topic in a wide range of research areas, with prominent
presence at top conferences in several different fields (namely
databases, programming languages, software engineering, and graph
transformation), but with results in one field often getting limited
exposure in the others. Bx 2015 is a dedicated venue for Bx in all
relevant fields, and is part of a workshop series that was created in
order to promote cross-disciplinary research and awareness in the
area. As such, since its beginning in 2012, the workshop rotated
between venues in different fields. In 2015, Bx is co-located with
STAF for the first time.

Aim and topics
----------------------------------

The aim of the workshop is to bring together researchers and
practitioners, established and new, interested in Bx from different
perspectives, such as:
- data and model synchronization
- view updating
- inter-model consistency analysis and repair
- data/schema (or model/metamodel) co-evolution
- coupled software/model transformations
- inversion of transformations and data exchange mappings
- domain-specific languages for Bx
- analysis and classification of requirements for Bx
- bridging the gap between formal concepts and application scenarios
- analysis of efficiency of transformation algorithms and benchmarks
- survey and comparison of Bx technologies
- case studies and tool support

Paper categories
----------------------------------

Submissions to Bx 2015 can be:
- Regular papers (up to 15 pages)
---> in-depth presentations of novel concepts and results
---> applications of Bx to new domains
---> survey papers providing novel comparisons between existing technologies
---> case studies

- Short papers (up to 8 pages)
---> work in progress
---> small focused contributions
---> position papers and research perspectives

- Tool papers (up to 8 pages)
---> presentation of new tools or substantial improvements to existing ones

Benchmark papers (up to 8 pages)
---> new benchmark proposals, focusing on assessing aspects of Bx not
covered by the examples currently available at the Bx example
repository (http://bx-community.wikidot.com/examples:home)


Proceedings and special issue
----------------------------------

The workshop proceedings, including all accepted papers, will be
published electronically by CEUR (http://ceur-ws.org). Authors of
accepted papers (of all categories) that have high-quality and the
potential to be extended into journal articles will be invited to
submit a revised and extended version of their paper to a special
issue of the Journal of Object Technology (http://www.jot.fm); these
papers will then be subject to a careful reviewing and selection
process according to the scientific standards of the Journal of Object
Technology.

Submission guidelines
----------------------------------

Submitted papers must follow the CEUR one column style available at
http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-XXX/samplestyles/. Tool papers must refer to a
web page describing how to download and install the presented tool.
Papers describing tools that have already been published elsewhere are
expected to contain substantial and clearly identified extensions to
the tool. Benchmark papers should follow the template of the Bx
example repository (http://bx-community.wikidot.com/examples:home),
and clearly justify the relevance of the new benchmark as a means to
assess Bx tools and techniques (in particular, submissions of
cross-disciplinary benchmarks are encouraged). Moreover, they must
refer to a web page providing supporting artifacts
(metamodels/schemas, model/data instances for interesting test cases,
executable consistency checkers, etc).

Papers must be submitted via the EasyChair system:
https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=bx2015

Submissions not complying with the above guidelines or page limits may
be excluded from the reviewing process without further notice. If a
paper is accepted, one author of the paper is expected to participate
in the workshop to present it. Authors of accepted tool papers are
also expected to be available to demonstrate their tool at the event.

Program committee co-chairs
----------------------------------

Alcino Cunha (http://www.di.uminho.pt/~mac/), University of Minho, Portugal
Ekkart Kindler (http://www.imm.dtu.dk/~ekki/), Technical University of
Denmark, Denmark

Program committee members
----------------------------------

Anthony Anjorin, Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany
Anthony Cleve, University of Namur, Belgium
Romina Eramo, University of L'Aquila, Italy
Jeremy Gibbons, University of Oxford, UK
Holger Giese, Hasso Plattner Institute, Germany
Soichiro Hidaka, NII, Japan
Michael Johnson, Macquarie University, Australia
Peter McBrien, Imperial College, UK
Hugo Pacheco, Cornell University, USA
Jorge Pérez, Universidad de Chile, Chile
Arend Rensink, Twente University, Netherlands
Perdita Stevens, University of Edinburgh, UK
James Terwilliger, Microsoft, USA
Meng Wang, University of Kent, UK
Jens Weber, University of Victoria, Canada
Yingfei Xiong, Peking University, China


====================================================================

GCM 2015: 6th International Workshop on GRAPH COMPUTATION MODELS
Monday, July 20th, 2015, L'Aquila, Italy
http://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/~det/GCM2015/cfp.html


The aim of GCM 2015 is to bring together researchers interested
in all aspects of computation models based on graphs and graph
transformation techniques. The workshop promotes the
cross-fertilizing exchange of ideas and experiences among
researchers and students from the different communities
interested in the foundations, applications, and implementations
of graph computation models and related areas. Previous editions
of the GCM series were held in Natal, Brazil (GCM 2006), in
Leicester, UK (GCM 2008), in Enschede, The Netherlands
(GCM 2010), in Bremen, Germany (GCM 2012) and in York, UK
(GCM 2014).


Topics of interest
-------------------------

* Foundations: models of graph transformation; logics for graphs
and graph transformation; analysis and verification of graph
transformation systems; foundations of programming languages;
parallel, concurrent, and distributed graph transformation; term
graph rewriting; formal graph languages.

* Applications: visual programming; design and implementation
of graph-based languages; model-driven engineering; software
architectures; software validation; graph-based security
models; workflow and business processes; dynamic graph
algorithms; bioinformatics and computational chemistry;
case-studies.

Important Dates
-----------------------

# Abstract submission: 8 May 2015
# Paper submission: 15 May 2015
# Notification: 12 June 2015
# Final version: 26 June 2015
# Workshop: 20 July 2015

Submission and Publication
----------------------------------------

Authors are invited to submit two types of papers, (1) regular
papers of at most 15 pages and (2) position papers, system
descriptions or work-in-progress papers of at most 5 pages.
Papers should be in LNCS format (LLNCS style) and
submitted as PDF files via the EasyChair submission page.
Electronic proceedings will be available at the time of the
workshop. After the workshop, selected authors will be invited
to submit revised versions of their papers. Accepted selected
contributions will be published in an issue of the international
journal Electronic Communications of the EASST.

Programme Committee
----------------------------------

Rachid Echahed (Laboratoire d'Informatique de Grenoble, France)
Maribel Fernandez (King's College London, United Kingdom)
Annegret Habel (Universität Oldenburg, Germany)
Dirk Janssens (Universiteit Antwerpen, Belgium)
Barbara König (Universität Duisburg-Essen, Germany)
Hans-Jörg Kreowski (Universität Bremen, Germany)
Mohamed Mosbah (LaBRI, Université de Bordeaux, France)
Detlef Plump (The University of York, United Kingdom, chair)

For more information, please contact the PC chair:
detlef.plump at york.ac.uk

====================================================================

MORSE 2015: 2nd International Workshop on Model-Driven Robot Software
Engineering
Monday, July 20th, 2015, L'Aquila, Italy
http://swt4.informatik.uni-mannheim.de/morse2015/

Robots are already an indispensable part of modern production
facilities and will soon become an essential part of daily life.
Currently, however, there is a lack of standardization with respect to
hardware/software platforms for robots, leading to a vast landscape of
isolated, incompatible, task-specific and, thus, non-reusable
solutions. There is consequently a need for a new engineering
methodology for the design, implementation, and execution of software
systems for future robotic platforms. Model-Driven Robot Software
Engineering (MORSE) is a promising new research field combining
Model-Driven Software Engineering and Robotics. Its objectives are to
adapt software reuse approaches, such as Model Driven Architecture,
Domain-Specific Languages, and Model-Driven Software Development, for
the development of robot software. As well as making “robot apps”
easier to develop and evolve, this will allow formal methods, such as
model checking, to be used in their certification and verification. The
goal of the MORSE workshop series is to discuss how model driven
software engineering technologies can make it easier for third-party
developers to create and evolve “robot apps” for standard robot
platforms.

Submissions are encouraged in, but not limited to, the following areas:

Robotic Platforms: MDA, Models, Processes and Tools
- Hardware/Software Abstractions and Architectures, Metamodels
- Code-, and Application-Reuse, Managed Redundancy and Deployment
- Variability, Self-Adaptivity and Evolution in Robotic Systems
- Programming Languages, Paradigms, and Models, DSLs

Modelling in Robotics
- Conceptual Modeling and Ontologies for Robotics
- Reference Models for Sensors and Actuators
- Knowledge Representation and Reasoning, Context Models
- Localization, Mapping, and Navigation
- Autonomous Robots, Robot Learning and Artificial Intelligence

Robot Ecosystems
- Robots in the Web of Things
- Product-Line Development
- End-User Customization and Multi-Tenancy
- Robot Operating System (ROS)

Multi-Robot Systems
- Cooperative Perception, Planning, Task Allocation, and Coordination
- Robot Swarms, Multi-Agent Robotic Systems

Model-Driven Quality Assurance of Robotic Systems
- Verification, Validation, Testing, Simulation, Debugging, and Profiling
- Handling Emergent Behaviour and Uncertainty
- Software Quality

Case Studies and Standard Examples
- Case studies in the use of standard robot platforms
- Standard example proposals



Submission Information

Papers should be submitted electronically by May 8th, 2015 in PDF
format via EasyChair. Submitted papers must conform to the Springer
LNCS style. The maximum length of a submission is 12 pages. The
accepted papers will be digitally published in the CEUR Workshop
Proceedings publication service. Authors of accepted papers will be
expected to attend the workshop.



====================================================================

PAME 2015: 1st International Workshop on Patterns in Model Engineering
Tuesday, July 21st, 2015, L'Aquila, Italy

http://www-ens.iro.umontreal.ca/~syriani/pame2015/

The field of Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) has evolved tremendously
since its early stages in 2002. Current development activities in MDE
span very different techniques such as metamodeling, model
transformation, domain-specific modeling, model evolution, model
verification and validation. Various languages have been proposed to
implement artifacts produced by these activities. Having been applied
in a variety of different application domains, good practices and
idioms have been proposed for some of these languages in order to
improve the quality of modeling artifacts produced. Some
language-specific idioms can be re-used and applied across different
languages, to then become generalized to design patterns. Although
some preliminary work on design patterns has been proposed, this is an
area of MDE that yet needs to be explored. With the growing maturity
of MDE, it is high time to further investigate the discovery,
definition, purpose and application of design patterns in model
engineering activities.

PAME is intended to be the first forum for practitioners in MDE to
discuss patterns that occur often during the different modeling
activities. The aim of this workshop is to provide an arena for
proposing and discussing good practices, patterns, pattern-based
modeling, as well as start the initiative of developing a "language"
for discussing and describing relevant problems and their solutions in
the form of patterns.

PAME 2015 will be a true 'working' workshop, therefore we invite
submissions in the form of:
- Pattern Description, in some kind of standard format (e.g., Gang of
Four) that is relevant to modeling. This might be a modeling pattern,
a metamodeling pattern, a transformation pattern, a query pattern,
etc.
- Challenge Problem, related to patterns and modeling. This will
require a precise statement of the problem, a motivation for why the
problem is relevant and interesting to the modeling communities, and a
concrete example of the problem.
- Proposal for Evaluating Patterns, a technique or method that could
be used, an example of an evaluation, a case study of how a particular
pattern was validated with users, etc.

All submissions will be no more than 3 pages in Springer LNCS format.

*** Submission ***

Submissions have to be done through Easychair.
A post-workshop version of the papers may be produced between a
pattern proposer and a research who presented an evaluation technique,
and will be published in CEUR (http://ceur-ws.org).
The organizers are planning to write a vision paper with interested
participants of PAME to be published in the Journal of Object
technology.

*** Workshop Format ***

PAME 2015 aims to favor discussions and experience exchanges in a
highly interactive fashion.
The workshop day will be divided into a presentation session from
selected invited participants, another session to allow submitters to
briefly present their point of view, and finally discussions in three
working groups to discuss the three themes of the workshop based on
the morning discussions and presentations.

*** Important Dates ***

Submission: May 8, 2015
Author notification: June 5, 2015
Final version: June 19, 2015
Workshop: July 21, 2015

*** Organization Committee ***

Eugene SYRIANI, University of Montreal, Canada
Richard PAIGE, University of York, UK
Steffen ZSCHALER, King's College London, UK
Huseyin ERGIN, University of Alabama, USA


====================================================================

VAO 2015: 3rd International Workshop on
View-Based, Aspect-Oriented and Orthographic Software Modelling
Tuesday, July 21st, 2015, L'Aquila, Italy
http://vao.ipd.kit.edu/

In Model-Driven Engineering, the functionality of complex systems lies
beyond the representative capabilities of a single model. Therefore,
an increasing variety of heterogeneous models and languages are used
in the various phases of software development. Information about a
system is consequently spread across these various models with
possible overlaps, redundancies, and inconsistencies. To cope with
this complexity, which normally exceeds the cognitive capacity of a
single individual, various approaches have been developed to
re-organize information during systems development.

Different approaches that allow system modelling from various
perspectives or according to separate concerns focus on such diverse
issues that it is difficult to compare and evaluate them. Some of them
present solutions for a specific set of modelling languages or views,
but make it hard to assess the applicability in other scenarios.
Others provide means to define new views on models, but do not
consider how redundancy-free models can be established.


Goal

The goal of this workshop is to bring together researchers and
practitioners with an interest in model-driven software development to
foster a fruitful cross-pollination of ideas between different
communities dealing with the separation and integration of views,
concerns, and roles in system modelling. In breakout sessions,
potential topics for scientific exchange will be elicited, possible
comparison criteria will be collected, and ideas for future
colaborations will be discussed.

In order to provide a foundation for these discussions, we encourage
submissions on new concepts, implementations or formalism as well as
submissions on controversial positions, requirements for a common
case-study or case-study scenarios. Submissions should contribute to
investigating and discussing the benefits and drawbacks of different
multi-view modelling approaches or identifying best practices.


Topics

The workshop is interested in submissions on all topics related to
model-driven development that deal with the separation and integration
of different perspectives, languages, abstractions, views or concerns.
More specifically, this includes:
– bridging the gap between different views or metamodels,
– generating, defining and evolving different views, models and metamodels,
– round-trip engineering and co-evolution of different models,
– composition of different views, models and metamodels,
– (bidirectional) transformations of metamodels,
– avoiding inconsistencies, overlap and redundancies between modelling
artefacts,
– using role modeling concepts for model-driven engineering,
– generating models and metamodels for multiple views or formalisms,
– separating and re-integrating cross-cutting concerns or model weaving,
– dynamic information hiding for partial views,
– coupling of software and non-software models

Contributions

Submissions to the workshop are possible in two categories.
- Research papers should describe original work on a problem or
solution that pertains to the systematic separation or integration of
models, concerns, views, or other modelling artefacts on six to eight
pages.
- Position papers should present a well-defined position on how
various modelling languages, viewpoints, heterogeneous subsystems, or
concerns should be handled in MDE on two to four pages.

All paper submissions have to adhere to the ACM SIG Proceedings Style
(alternate format).


Important Dates

Abstract submission: 24 April 2015
Paper submission: 8 May 2015
Author notification: 5 June 2015
Camera-ready submission: 19 June 2015
Workshop date: 21 July 2015


Organizers

• Uwe Aßmann (Dresden University of Technology, Germany)
• Erik Burger (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany)
• Thomas Goldschmidt (ABB Corporate Research, Ladenburg, Germany)
• Ralf H. Reussner (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany)


====================================================================

VOLT 2015: 4th International Workshop on the Verification of Model
Transformation
Thursday, July 23rd, 2015, L'Aquila, Italy
http://volt2015.big.tuwien.ac.at/


Model transformations are everywhere in software development. They
have been described as the “heart and soul of Model-Driven Development
(MDD)”. It is generally accepted that MDD is a very promising means
for raising the level of abstraction of current software development
techniques, while making it more reliable, efficient, safe and
cost-effective. Several experts have identified the verification of
model transformations as one of the grand challenges of the domain.
Despite some recent activity in the field, the work on the
verification of model transformations remains scattered and a clear
perspective on the subject is still not in sight. Furthermore, current
model transformation tools lack verification techniques to support
such activities.

If we generically consider a model transformation as an algorithm
describing specific model manipulations, then testing it or proving
some of its properties can be envisaged. However, a model
transformation performs particular computations where: (1) it
typically operates on models, thus on data at a high-level of
abstraction rich in semantics and (2) from a pragmatic point of view,
often only the initial input and the final output is of interest and
none of the intermediate steps matters. Moreover, a particular subject
of interest is the fact that model transformations are used to perform
specific computations in the context of MDD, such as model refinement,
refactoring, translation, synthesis, simulation, or synchronization.
In this sense, we feel that useful verification techniques for model
transformations can and possibly should be specific to these
activities.

The Fourth International Workshop on the Verification Of modeL
Transformation (VOLT 2015) is the venue to offer researchers a
dedicated forum to classify, discuss, propose, and advance
verification techniques dedicated to model transformations. VOLT 2014
promotes discussions between theoreticians and practitioners from
academy and industry, given its ideal co-location with STAF and in
particular ECMFA, ICGT, ICMT, TTC, and TAP. VOLT’s interest spans both
to academic and industrial practices. One of the goals of the forum is
to collect enough industrial case studies so that those problems can
be stated at a theoretical level.

In order to discuss these and further similar questions, we would like
to invite submissions in the form of regular papers, short papers
(ongoing work, position statements), and demonstration papers (about
novel tool features) related to the following topics:


- Application of formal verification (e.g., theorem proving,
model-checking or abstract interpretations) to model transformations:
 * Verification of model transformations expressed in languages such
as ATL, QVT, TGG, Viatra, Kermeta, Epsilon, etc.;
 * Verification of Domain-Specific Model Transformations, in contrast
to general-purpose transformations;
 * Verification techniques dedicated to model transformation;
- Taxonomies of techniques for model transformation verification:
 * Properties relevant to techniques for model transformation verification;
 * Reviews and surveys on the practice of verification for model
transformations;
- Comparisons between formal verification techniques for model
transformation versus general-purpose programming languages;
- Case studies, comparisons, and experience reports;
- Tools and automation.

As a special issue this year, we also strongly encourage solutions to
the following model transformation verification challenges:
- a purely structural translation (aka. structural bridge) consisting
of the classical UML2RDMS transformation;
- an operational semantics of a Domain-Specific Language allowing to
play to the well-known PacMan game;
- a translational semantics providing executability of (a significant
portion of) Activity Diagrams in terms of Petri Nets.

All cases are well-documented transformations, so that contestants can
focus on the verification tasks rather than the (correct)
transformation design.

More details about the transformations, as well as the associated
requirements, are provided on the Workshop's webpage.

*** Submission ***

To comply with STAF's special theme of "reproducibility", submitted
papers should fall down in one of these paper category, depending on
the nature of the contribution:
- Regular papers (up to 10 pages) which presents novel innovative
approaches, should integrate our case studies either as a running
example, or as a minimal case study for validation;
- Short papers (up to 8 pages) which presents new ideas or ongoing
research, are submitted to the same requirements as regular papers.
- Tool/Demo papers (up to 6 pages) which should demonstrate our case
studies by formally analysing their associated properties within a
specific tool.

All submissions should follow the Springer LNCS format and be
submitted through the EasyChair installation:
https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=volt2015

A pre-workshop version of the papers will be available on the workshop
website and a post-workshop version will be published as CEUR workshop
proceedings (http://ceur-ws.org).

We are aiming at a joint article comprising all solutions for the Case Studies.

*** Workshop Format ***

VOLT 2015 is a one-day workshop, divided into two parts: keynote,
paper presentations, and tool demonstrations (morning) and discussions
in working groups (afternoon).

*** Important Dates ***

Submission: May 8, 2015
Author notification: June 5, 2015
Final version: July 8, 2015
Workshop: July 23, 2015

*** Organization Committee ***

Moussa AMRANI, University of Namur, Belgium
Eugene SYRIANI, University of Montréal, Canada
Manuel WIMMER, Vienna University of Technology, Austria

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Davide Di Ruscio, PhD in Computer Science
Department of Information Engineering Computer Science and Mathematics
University of L'Aquila
Via Vetoio, Coppito I-67010 L'Aquila (Italy)
Email: davide.diruscio at univaq.it
WWW:   http://www.di.univaq.it/diruscio
Skype: davidediruscio
Twitter: DDiRuscio
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