CFP for the 9th TESTS AND PROOFS (TAP 2015)

[Geoff Sutcliffe]

****************************************************
*
*  9th International Conference
*  on
*  TESTS AND PROOFS (TAP 2015)
*
*  http://tap2015.in.tum.de/

*
*  Part of STAF 2015, L'Aquila, Italy, July 20-24, 2015
*  
*  http://www.disim.univaq.it/staf2015/

*
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*
*  Call for Papers
*
*  Abstract submission: February 13, 2015
*  Paper submission:    February 20, 2015
*
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Scope
=====

The TAP conference is devoted to the synergy of proofs and tests, to
the application of techniques from both sides and their combination
for the advancement of software quality.

Testing and proving seem to be orthogonal techniques: Once a program
has been proven to be correct then additional testing seems pointless;
however, when such a proof in not feasible, then testing the program
seems to be the only option. This view has dominated the research
community for a long time, and has resulted in distinct communities
pursuing the different research areas.

The development of both approaches has led to the discovery of common
issues and to the realization of potential synergy. Perhaps the use of
model checking in testing was one of the first signs that a
counterexample to a proof may be interpreted as a test case. Recent
breakthroughs in deductive techniques such as satisfiability modulo
theories, abstract interpretation, and interactive theorem proving
have paved the way for new and practically effective methods of
powering testing techniques. Moreover, since formal, proof-based
verification is costly, testing invariants and background theories can
be helpful to detect errors early and to improve cost effectiveness.
Summing up, in the past few years an increasing number of research
efforts have encountered the need for combining proofs and tests,
dropping earlier dogmatic views of incompatibility and taking instead
the best of what each of these software engineering domains has to
offer.

The TAP conference aims to bring together researchers and
practitioners working in the converging fields of testing and proving
by offering a generous forum for the presentation of ongoing research,
for tutorials on established technologies and for informal
discussions.

Topics of Interest
==================

Topics of interest cover theory definitions, tool constructions and
experimentations, and include among others:

- Bridging the gap between concrete and symbolic techniques, e.g.
  using proof search in satisfiability modulo theories solvers to
  enhance various testing techniques
- Transfer of concepts from testing to proving (e.g., coverage
  criteria) and from proving to testing
- Program proving with the aid of testing techniques
- Verification and testing techniques combining proofs and tests
- Generation of test data, oracles, or preambles by deductive
  techniques such as: theorem proving, model checking, symbolic
  execution, constraint logic programming
- Model-based testing and verification
- Generation of specifications by deduction
- Automatic bug finding
- Debugging of programs combining static and dynamic analysis
- Case studies combining tests and proofs
- Domain specific applications of testing and proving to new
  application domains such as validating security protocols,
  vulnerability detection of programs, security
- Testing of verification environments and reasoning engines like
  solvers and theorem provers
- New approaches such as crowd-sourcing and serious games to
  infer intended semantics and assess correctness
- Formal frameworks
- Tool descriptions and experience reports

Important Dates:
================

Abstract submission:     February 13, 2015
Paper submission:         February 20, 2015
Notification:                   April 13, 2015
Camera-ready version: May 3, 2015
STAF conference:          July 20-24, 2015

Program Co-Chairs:
===============

Jasmin C. Blanchette (TU Muenchen, Inria)
Nikolai Kosmatov (CEA LIST)

Program Committee:
==================

Bernhard K. Aichernig
Dirk Beyer
Nikolaj Bjorner
Jasmin C. Blanchette
Achim D. Brucker
Koen Claessen
Robert Clariso
Marco Comini
Catherine Dubois
Juhan Ernits
Gordon Fraser
Angelo Gargantini
Christoph Gladisch
Martin Gogolla
Arnaud Gotlieb
Reiner Haehnle
Bart Jacobs
Thierry Jeron
Jacques Julliand
Gregory Kapfhammer
Nikolai Kosmatov
Victor Kuliamin
Panagiotis Manolios
Karl Meinke
Alexandre Petrenko
Andrew Reynolds
Martina Seidl
Nikolai Tillmann
T.H. Tse
Margus Veanes
Luca Vigano
Burkhart Wolff
Fatiha Zaidi

Submission:
===========

Please submit your papers via EasyChair:

https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=tap2015


TAP 2015 will accept three kinds of submissions:

- Regular research papers: full papers with at most 16 pages in LNCS
  format (PDF), which have to be original, unpublished and not
  submitted elsewhere. Research papers should clearly describe the
  addressed problem, the relevant state-of-the-art, the
  scientifically-founded solution, and the benefits of the presented
  approach.

- Short contributions: work in progress, (industrial) experience
  reports or tool demonstrations, position statements; an extended
  abstract with at most 6 pages in LNCS format (PDF) is expected. The
  same evaluation criteria apply to short papers as to regular
  research papers. Short papers will be reviewed to the same standards
  of quality as regular research papers.

- Tutorial proposals: TAP 2015 further invites one-hour tutorial
  presentations surveying the state-of-the-art of any research field
  related to the topics of TAP. Tutorial proposals shall have a
  maximum length of 3 pages in LNCS format (PDF) and provide
  information about the content, a short outline, information about
  the speakers and previous related tutorials given by the speakers
  (if any).

Accepted full and short papers will be published in the Springer LNCS
series and will be available at the conference. Accepted tutorials
will be assigned a slot of 60 minutes during the conference.

The content of last year's proceedings is available at

http://www.informatik.uni-trier.de/~ley/db/conf/tap/tap2014.html