ETAPS 2014: 5-13 April 2014, Grenoble, France

TACAS 2014

20th International Conference on Tools and Algorithms for the Construction and Analysis of Systems (TACAS)

TACAS is a forum for researchers, developers and users interested in rigorously based tools and algorithms for the construction and analysis of systems. The conference serves to bridge the gaps between different communities with this common interest and to support them in their quest to improve the utility, reliability, flexibility and efficiency of tools and algorithms for building systems.

Theoretical papers with clear relevance for tool construction and analysis, as well as tool descriptions and case studies with a conceptual message, are all encouraged. The topics covered by the conference include, but are not limited to:

  • Specification and verification techniques;
  • Software and hardware verification;
  • Analytical techniques for real-time, hybrid, or stochastic systems;
  • Analytical techniques for safety, security, or dependability;
  • Model-checking;
  • Theorem-proving;
  • SAT and SMT solvers;
  • Static and dynamic program analysis;
  • Testing;
  • Abstraction techniques for modeling and verification;
  • Compositional and refinement-based methodologies;
  • System construction and transformation techniques;
  • Tool environments and tool architectures;
  • Applications and case studies.

Important Dates and Submission

See the common call for papers of ETAPS 2014. Submit your paper via the TACAS 2014 author interface of EasyChair.

TACAS 2014 will not use a rebuttal phase.

TACAS paper categories

TACAS accepts four types of submissions: research papers, case study papers, regular tool papers, and tool demonstration papers. Papers of all four types will appear in the proceedings and have presentations during the conference.

  • Research papers clearly identify and justify a principled advance to the theoretical foundations for the construction and analysis of systems and, where applicable, are supported by experimental validation. Research papers can have a maximum of 15 pages.
  • Case study papers report on case studies (preferably in a "real life" setting). They should provide information about the following aspects: the system being studied and why it is of interest, the goals of the study, the challenges the system poses to automated analysis, research methodologies and the approach used, the degree to which goals were attained, and how the results can be generalized to other problems and domains. Case study papers can have a maximum of 15 pages.
  • Regular tool papers present a new tool, a new tool component, or novel extensions to an existing tool. They should provide a short description of the theoretical foundations with relevant citations, and emphasize the design and implementation concerns including software architecture and core data structures. A regular tool paper should give a clear account of the tool's functionality, discuss the tool's practical capabilities with reference to the type and size of problems it can handle, experience with realistic case studies, and where applicable, provide a rigorous experimental evaluation. Papers that present extensions to existing tools should clearly focus on the improvements or extensions with respect to previously published versions of the tool, preferably substantiated by data on enhancements in terms of resources and capabilities. We strongly suggest authors make their tools available via the web, even if only for the evaluation process. Tool papers can have a maximum of 15 pages.
  • Tool demonstration papers focus on the usage aspects of tools. The described tools must be publicly available. Theoretical foundations and experimental evaluation are not required, however, a motivation as to why the tool is interesting and significant should be provided. Tool demonstration papers can have a maximum of 6 pages. They should have an appendix of up to 6 additional pages with details on the actual demonstration.

All papers will be evaluated by the TACAS programme committee, coordinated by the TACAS co-chairs for research papers and case study papers, and by the TACAS tool chair for regular tool papers and tool demonstration papers.

Competition on Software Verification

TACAS 2014 hosts the third competition on software verification with the goal to evaluate technology transfer and compare state-of-the-art software verifiers with respect to effectiveness and efficiency. More information can be found on the webpage of the competition.

Invited Speaker

Orna Kupferman (Hebrew University Jerusalem, Israel)

Programme Chairs:

Erika Ábrahám (RWTH Aachen University, Germany)
Klaus Havelund (NASA JPL, USA)

Tool Chair:

Nikolaj Bjørner (Microsoft Research, USA)

Programme Committee:

Christel Baier (Technische Universität Dresden, Germany)
Saddek Bensalem (VERIMAG/UJF, France)
Nathalie Bertrand (Inria/IRISA, France)
Armin Biere (Johannes Kepler University, Austria)
Nikolaj Bjørner (Microsoft Research, USA)
Alessandro Cimatti (Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Italy)
Rance Cleaveland (University of Maryland, USA)
Cindy Eisner (IBM Research - Haifa, Israel)
Martin Fränzle (Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg, Germany)
Patrice Godefroid (Microsoft Research, Redmond, USA)
Susanne Graf (Verimag, France)
Orna Grumberg (Technion, Israel)
Boudewijn Haverkort (University of Twente, The Netherlands)
Gerard Holzmann (NASA JPL, USA)
Barbara Jobstmann (Verimag/CNRS, France and EPFL, Switzerland)
Joost-Pieter Katoen (RWTH Aachen University, Germany, and University of Twente, The Netherlands)
Kim Larsen (Aalborg University, Denmark)
Roland Meyer (TU Kaiserslautern, Germany)
Corina Pasareanu (NASA Ames Research Center, USA)
Doron Peled (Bar Ilan University, Israel)
Paul Pettersson (Mälardalen University, Sweden)
Nir Piterman (University of Leicester, UK)
Jaco van de Pol (University of Twente, The Netherlands)
Sriram Sankaranarayanan (University of Colorado Boulder, USA)
Natasha Sharygina (Universita della Svizzera Italiana, Switzerland)
Scott Smolka (Stony Brook University, USA)
Bernhard Steffen (TU Dortmund, Germany)
Mariëlle Stoelinga (University of Twente, The Netherlands)
Cesare Tinelli (The University of Iowa, USA)
Frits Vaandrager (Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands)
Willem Visser (University of Stellenbosch, South Africa)
Ralf Wimmer (University of Freiburg, Germany)
Lenore Zuck (University of Illinois at Chicago, USA)

Steering Committee:

Rance Cleaveland (University of Maryland, USA)
Holger Hermanns (Saarland University, Germany)
Kim G. Larsen (Aalborg University, Denmark)
Bernhard Steffen (TU Dortmund, Germany) 
Lenore Zuck (University of Illinois at Chicago, USA)