Reducing the risks associated with developing large-scale, critical software-integrated systems. Industry, government and defence increasingly rely on large-scale, critical software-integrated systems. The scale and complexity of these systems means current methods of analysing, designing and assuring their dependability are struggling to provide the constructive support and assurance that is demanded. Consequently, there are significant risks of cost and schedule overruns and of system problems ....Reducing the risks associated with developing large-scale, critical software-integrated systems. Industry, government and defence increasingly rely on large-scale, critical software-integrated systems. The scale and complexity of these systems means current methods of analysing, designing and assuring their dependability are struggling to provide the constructive support and assurance that is demanded. Consequently, there are significant risks of cost and schedule overruns and of system problems and failures. This project builds on results from our current collaboration - a new method for modelling, analysis and defect detection for the requirements of large-scale systems. We will develop and scale-up to industry strength, simpler, more powerful, strategies for analysing, designing and providing the high level of assurance required.Read moreRead less
Cost-effective use of assertions in the verification and validation of distributed and real-time systems. The project will reinforce Australia as a world leader in empirical software engineering and software verification and validation research, thus building on Australia's strengths in ICT research and innovation. Through the involvement of a local software verification and validation company and through industrial case studies, this project will also improve the software verification and valid ....Cost-effective use of assertions in the verification and validation of distributed and real-time systems. The project will reinforce Australia as a world leader in empirical software engineering and software verification and validation research, thus building on Australia's strengths in ICT research and innovation. Through the involvement of a local software verification and validation company and through industrial case studies, this project will also improve the software verification and validation capabilities of local industry, allow them to save software development costs, and improve the quality of the software produced.Read moreRead less
Practical Tools and Techniques for the Testing of Concurrent Software Components. This project will develop tools and techniques for the practical, systematic testing of concurrent software components. Testing is a major means for ensuring that software performs as expected, but testing concurrent software is poorly understood even though the majority of complex, computer-based systems are concurrent in nature. The complexities arising from the non-deterministic nature of such software means tha ....Practical Tools and Techniques for the Testing of Concurrent Software Components. This project will develop tools and techniques for the practical, systematic testing of concurrent software components. Testing is a major means for ensuring that software performs as expected, but testing concurrent software is poorly understood even though the majority of complex, computer-based systems are concurrent in nature. The complexities arising from the non-deterministic nature of such software means that testing tools and techniques used for simpler, sequential software are inadequate. The outcomes of this project will consist of practical techniques for the effective testing of concurrent software components in general and tools for the testing of Java components in particular.Read moreRead less
Effective software process improvement in a large-scale defence contracting environment. Most organisations struggle to consistently develop high-quality software on schedule and within budget. Continuing changes in technologies and customer expectations complicate this challenge. Software process improvement frameworks aim to guide organisations towards best practice. This project will assess practical experience with individual software process improvement frameworks in a large-scale defence c ....Effective software process improvement in a large-scale defence contracting environment. Most organisations struggle to consistently develop high-quality software on schedule and within budget. Continuing changes in technologies and customer expectations complicate this challenge. Software process improvement frameworks aim to guide organisations towards best practice. This project will assess practical experience with individual software process improvement frameworks in a large-scale defence contracting environment, with the goal of developing an effective strategy for integrating them. The outcomes will include documented experience with specific process improvement frameworks and a strategy for an overall framework that combines them.Read moreRead less
Formalizing Software Design Pattern Concepts and Pattern Specifications using Metamodeling. Software design is currently an ad-hoc process that relies too heavily on each designer's personal experience. Software design patterns capture design know-how and make it reusable by identifying the problem and context in which a family of solutions can be applied. This project will use a formal metamodeling approach to define the concepts underlying software design patterns and hence will create precise ....Formalizing Software Design Pattern Concepts and Pattern Specifications using Metamodeling. Software design is currently an ad-hoc process that relies too heavily on each designer's personal experience. Software design patterns capture design know-how and make it reusable by identifying the problem and context in which a family of solutions can be applied. This project will use a formal metamodeling approach to define the concepts underlying software design patterns and hence will create precise and rigorous pattern specifications. Through this approach, we will incorporate patterns into the Unified Modeling Language (UML), the dominant object-oriented modeling language. Our pattern specifications will assist UML tool developers integrate software design patterns into their tools.Read moreRead less
Enhancing model-driven architecture with support for verification and validation. The proposed project will augment emerging methodologies for applying model-driven architecture to include verification and validation tools and techniques. This will decrease the time and effort required to develop software systems, and lead to better quality systems. It will evaluate and integrate existing verification and validation tools and techniques into the standards currently being developed to facilitate ....Enhancing model-driven architecture with support for verification and validation. The proposed project will augment emerging methodologies for applying model-driven architecture to include verification and validation tools and techniques. This will decrease the time and effort required to develop software systems, and lead to better quality systems. It will evaluate and integrate existing verification and validation tools and techniques into the standards currently being developed to facilitate model-driven architecture. This will strengthen Australia's software-based industries and its prominent role in defining international standards in this area.Read moreRead less
Building dependability into complex, computer-based systems. Air traffic control, telecommunications, defence, power distribution and many other vital infrastructures all rely on complex computer-based systems. Whenever one of these systems fails, it can cause major disruption to society, create large financial losses and even pose risks to life.
This project will integrate and improve methods for modelling and analysing computer-based systems in terms of their requirements and architectures ....Building dependability into complex, computer-based systems. Air traffic control, telecommunications, defence, power distribution and many other vital infrastructures all rely on complex computer-based systems. Whenever one of these systems fails, it can cause major disruption to society, create large financial losses and even pose risks to life.
This project will integrate and improve methods for modelling and analysing computer-based systems in terms of their requirements and architectures, focusing on how to achieve and maintain dependability in the context of on-going change and failure to meet requirements. These methods will be based on sound mathematical foundations and proven engineering approaches applicable to industrial-scale complex systems.Read moreRead less
Diagnosis of Reference Flow Control Alerts for the Identification of Malicious Event Sequences (DiagRF). There are a reported two billion computer attacks worldwide per year. Many of these attacks require a skilled human to decipher them and to develop the "signatures" by which they can be detected. The main outcome of this project will be fundamental knowledge regarding how information flows can be tracked and then forensically analysed in a distributed computer system or network in order to ....Diagnosis of Reference Flow Control Alerts for the Identification of Malicious Event Sequences (DiagRF). There are a reported two billion computer attacks worldwide per year. Many of these attacks require a skilled human to decipher them and to develop the "signatures" by which they can be detected. The main outcome of this project will be fundamental knowledge regarding how information flows can be tracked and then forensically analysed in a distributed computer system or network in order to enable the automatic characterization of certain classes of attacks. This new approach will enable the automatic development of attack signatures and thus the detection of such attacks. The project will lead to the development of a prototype which implements the automatic analysis and characterization of such attacks to provide proof of concept.Read moreRead less
Analysing and Generating Fault-Tolerant Real-Time Systems. Safety-critical real-time systems are being deployed increasingly in diverse areas such as controlling critical infrastructure like transportation (e.g., railway signalling) as well as in defence applications (e.g., fly-by-wire). Such systems must be dependable and hence must be built using fault-tolerant strategies.
This project is researching frontier ICT technologies for analysing, designing and generating fault-tolerant systems, con ....Analysing and Generating Fault-Tolerant Real-Time Systems. Safety-critical real-time systems are being deployed increasingly in diverse areas such as controlling critical infrastructure like transportation (e.g., railway signalling) as well as in defence applications (e.g., fly-by-wire). Such systems must be dependable and hence must be built using fault-tolerant strategies.
This project is researching frontier ICT technologies for analysing, designing and generating fault-tolerant systems, concentrating on their software control components.Read moreRead less
Information Security Evaluation of Embedded Computer Software. Safeguarding classified electronic communications is of major national importance. This research, into security evaluation of computer software, is supported by the Defence Signals Directorate, which verifies the security of communications devices used by Australia's government and armed forces. As such devices become increasingly sophisticated, traditional security evaluation techniques have become unacceptably difficult and costl ....Information Security Evaluation of Embedded Computer Software. Safeguarding classified electronic communications is of major national importance. This research, into security evaluation of computer software, is supported by the Defence Signals Directorate, which verifies the security of communications devices used by Australia's government and armed forces. As such devices become increasingly sophisticated, traditional security evaluation techniques have become unacceptably difficult and costly. Hardware evaluation techniques, based on tracing paths through circuitry diagrams, have proven unsuitable for software evaluations. Consequently, devising new tools and techniques for information security evaluation of embedded computer software is essential for preserving Australia's national security.Read moreRead less