Formal Methods Organizations

Please mail J.P.Bowen@reading.ac.uk if you know of relevant on-line information not included here.

This document contains some pointers to organizations and groups concerned with formal methods (to a greater or lesser extent), especially those that are on-line, available around the world on the World Wide Web.

ACM (Association for Computing Machinery).

US-based international professional body.

ACS (Australian Computer Society)

Publishes the Australian Computer Journal that includes formal methods papers.

ANSI (American National Standards Institution)

NCTIS/J21 Technical Committee on Formal Specification Languages (FSLs) from the National Committee for Information Technology Standards (NCITS), USA; US-based international committee; concerned with standards for Formal Description Techniques (FDTs, including VDM-SL and the Z notation); email Randolph Johnson drj@tycho.ncsc.mil.

BCS (British Computer Society)

UK-based professional body; publishes the Software Engineering Journal with the IEE. See also uk.bcs.announce newsgroup and FACS specialist group.

EACSL (European Association of Computer Science Logic);

European association; organizes conference series on Computer Science Logic (CSL); email csl95@uni-paderborn.de.

EAPLS (European Association for Programming Languages and Systems).

European group; see Calendar of Events including Formal Methods.

EATCS (European Associatation of Theoretical Computer Science).

European group; see leaflet; publishes Theoretical Computer Science and the Bulletin of the EATCS; organizes regular ICALP meetings; see also the Hyper Bulletin of the EATCS.

ENCRESS (European Network of Clubs for REliability and Safety of Software)

European network sponsored by the ESSI Programme of the EC; email Chris Dale c.dale@csr.city.ac.uk.

ERCIM (European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics)

Information technology and applied mathematics, including program verification; aims to foster collaborative work within the European research community and to increase co-operation with European industry. See the Working Group on Formal Methods for Industrial Critical Systems who organize the FMICS workshops.

EUROMICRO

European professional organization; publishes a EUROMICRO journal; organizes events and conferences.

ESRA (European Safety and Reliability Association)

European association; associated with the journal Reliability Engineering & System Safety; contact details not known.

EWICS TC7 (European Workshop on Industrial Computer Systems, Technical Committee 7)

European technical committee; concerned with Reliability, Safety and Security, especially standards and guidelines.

FACS (Formal Aspects of Computing Science).

UK-based BCS Special Interest Group; publishes the Formal Aspects of Computing journal, and the FACS Europe newsletter with FME; email FACS@lut.ac.uk.

FME (Formal Methods Europe)

European group; publishes the FACS Europe newsletter with BCS-FACS; organizes regular FME symposia; chair: Prof. Peter Lucas, email lucas@ist.tu-graz.ac.at. See also information from other Hubs such as The Netherlands and Ireland.

IEE (Institute of Electrical Engineers).

UK-based professional body; publishes the Software Engineering Journal with the BCS.

IEEE Computer Society (Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers).

US-based international professional body; publishes Transactions on Software Engineering. Part of the IEEE. See also the Technical Council on Software Engineering (TCSE).

IFIP (International Federation for Information Processing)

Fosters international co-operation; organizes a World Computer Congress every two years;

See Technical Committees and Working Groups. E.g.:

TC-1: Foundations of Computer Science. In particular:
- WG 1.3: Foundations of Systems Specification.
TC-2: Software: Theory and Practice. In particular:
- WG 2.1: Algorithmic Languages and Calculi.
- WG 2.2: Formal Description of Programming Concepts.
- WG 2.3: Programming Methodology.
TC-10: Computer Systems Technology. In particular:
- WG 10.2: System Description and Design Tools.

IMA (Institute of Mathematics and its Applications)

UK professional organization for mathematicians; publishes the IMA Bulletin; organizes a conference series on the Mathematics of Dependable Systems (MDS); email imacrh@v-e.anglia.ac.uk.

IFMSIG (Irish Formal Methods Special Interest Group)

Organizes the Irish Workshop on Formal Methods.

NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology)

US-based standards institute; has published An International Survey of Industrial Applications of Formal Methods.

ProCoS-WG (Provably Correct Systems).

European ESPRIT Working Group; organized regular meetings, 1993-1997.

SCSC (Safety Critical Systems Club)

UK-based club; publishes a regular newsletter, Safety Systems, and organizes regular meetings including the Safety-critical Systems Symposium (SSS); email csr@newscastle.ac.uk.

SEA (Software Engineering Association)

Formerly UKSoft; informal grouping of academic and practitioners working in the area of software engineering; promotes and fosters software engineering research, practice and education in the UK and internationally.

SIAM (Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics).

US society; publishes journals and newsletters; organizes conferences.

SIGACT (Special Interest Group on Algorithms and Computation Theory). ACM special interest group for Theoretical Computer Science.

ZUG (Z User Group).

Concerned with the formal Z notation; organizes regular Z User Meetings.