Formal Methods Organizations

Please contact Jonathan Bowen 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.

See ForTIA (Formal Techniques Industry Association) established in 2003

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)

APCB (Association de Pilotage des Conférences B / The International B Conference Steering Committee)

Organizes "La Conférence Internationale B" / "The International B Conference" on the B-Method, now combined with the International Conference of Z Users as the ZB Conference.

BCS (British Computer Society)

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

BCTCS (British Colloquium for Theoretical Computer Science)

Organizes annual meetings since 1985.

CoFI (Common Framework Initiative)

Voluntary organization, sponsored by IFIP WG1.3. Founded as an open collaborative effort to produce a Common Framework for Algebraic Specification and Development, including CoLogNET (Computational Logic Network)

European FP5 Network of Excellence in Computational Logic, with nine major areas including Formal Methods, Specification and Verification (Area 7).

CUE Initiative (China, USA, Europe)

International Working Group on the scientific foundations of informatics as an engineering discipline. See online forums.

EACSL (European Association of Computer Science Logic);

European association; organizes conference series on Computer Science Logic (CSL)

EAPLS (European Association for Programming Languages and Systems)

European group; see Calendar of Events including Formal Methods.

EASST (European Association of Software Science and Technology)

European non-profit group promoting research, development and applications in the area of systematic and rigorous engineering of software and systems.

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 Specialist Group; publishes the Formal Aspects of Computing journal, and the FACS FACTS newsletter.

FME (Formal Methods Europe)

European group; organizes regular FME conferences.

FMnet (Formal Methods Network)

Informal European/international network of formal methods researchers. See mailing list.

ForTIA (Formal Techniques Industry Association)

Established by CoLogNET in 2003 to support the industrial use of formal methods.

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).

IET Institution of Engineering and Technology)

New institution formed in 2006 from the IEE (Institute of Electrical Engineers) and IIE. UK-based professional body; previously published the Software Engineering Journal with the BCS, now replaced by the IEE Proceedings - Software.

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).

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.

SEEFM (South-East European Network on Formal Methods)

South-Eastern European countries interested in formal methods; organizes South-East European Workshop on Formal Methods.

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, now the ZB Conference in collaboration with the APCB.