System Validation (Canvas Network)

Anyone who has ever designed an embedded system or a communication protocol involving several components executing simultaneously knows that such software is inherently susceptible to bugs. Typical problems include race conditions, deadlocks, and unexpected interplay between different components. The parallel nature of these systems makes it notoriously hard to detect such bugs using testing (timing, e.g., plays a crucial role). This course is designed to provide an introduction to the problems that arise in the design of such systems. It provides ways to model such systems and reason about them.