****************************************************************** FM 2021: 24th International Symposium on Formal Methods Beijng, China, November 20 - 26, 2021 https://lcs.ios.ac.cn/fm2021/ ****************************************************************** 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. We are monitoring closely the COVID-19 situation and, although we hope for an in-person event, we are also planning carefully for a virtual event or a hybrid virtual/person event, in case there will be travel restrictions or health advisories following the global Covid-19 crisis. We will announce a decision on the nature of the meeting in due course. ---------------- Important Dates ---------------- 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 ---------------- Topics of Interest ---------------- 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. ---------------- Submission Guidelines ---------------- 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. ---------------- Best Paper Award ---------------- At the conference, the PC Chairs will present an award to the authors of the submission selected as the FM 2021 Best Paper. ---------------- Publication ---------------- 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. ---------------- Invited Speakers ---------------- ● Prof. Clark Barrett, Stanford University, USA ● Prof. Mingsheng Ying, University of Technology Sydney, Australia ● Prof. Assia Mahboubi, INRIA, France ● Prof. Paula Herber, University of Münster, Germany ---------------- General Chair ---------------- Huimin Lin, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China ---------------- Program Committee Chairs ---------------- Marieke Huisman, University of Twente, Netherlands Corina Pasareanu, Carnegie Mellon University, USA Naijun Zhan, Chinese Academy of Science, China ---------------- Program Committee ---------------- Bernhard K. Aichernig, TU Graz, Austria Christel Baier, TU Dresden, Germany Gustavo Betarte, Universidad de la República, Uruguay Ivana Cerna, Masaryk University, Czech Pedro R. D'Argenio, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba – CONICET, Argentina Alessandro Fantechi, DINFO - Universita' di Firenze, Italy Bernd Fischer, Stellenbosch University, South Africa Martin Fränzle, Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Germany Vijay Ganesh, University of Waterloo, Canada Fatemeh Ghassemi, University of Tehran, Iran Stefania Gnesi, ISTI-CNR, Italy Ichiro Hasuo, National Institute of Informatics, Japan Paula Herber, University of Münster, Germany Peter Höfner, Australian National University, Australia Marieke Huisman, University of Twente, Netherlands Nils Jansen, Radboud University, Netherlands Einar Broch Johnsen, University of Oslo, Norway Jan Kofron, Charles University, Czech Dorel Lucanu, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Romania Radu Mateescu, INRIA, France Anastasia Mavridou, SGT Inc. / NASA Ames Research Center, USA Annabelle McIver, Macquarie University, Australia Rosemary Monahan, Maynooth University, Ireland Nina Narodytska, VMware Research, USA David Naumann, Stevens Institute of Technology, USA Jose Oliveira, University of Minho, Portugal Jun Pang, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg Dave Parker, University of Birmingham, UK Corina Pasareanu, CMU/NASA Ames Research Center, USA Gustavo Petri, IRIF, Université Paris Diderot, France Akshay Rajhans, MathWorks, USA Tamara Rezk, INRIA, France Partha Roop, University of Auckland, New Zealand Jun Sun, Singapore Management University, Singapore Maurice H. ter Beek, ISTI-CNR, Italy Elena Troubitsyna, KTH, Sweden Sebastian Uchitel, University of Buenos Aires and Imperial College London, UK Mattias Ulbrich, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany Tarmo Uustalu, Reykjavik University, Iceland Jaco van de Pol, Aarhus University, Denmark Michael Whalen, University of Minnesota, USA Ji Wang, National Laboratory for Parallel and Distributed Processing, China Anton Wijs, Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands Jim Woodcock, University of York, UK Naijun Zhan, Institute of Software, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China Lijun Zhang, Institute of Software, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China ---------------- Publicity Chair ---------------- Eunsuk Kang, Carnegie Mellon University, US Jun Pang, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg ---------------- Local Organizers ---------------- 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 ---------------- Web Team ---------------- Bohua Zhan, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China Bai Xue, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China Andrea Turrini, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China