Conference Description

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 that share common interests in, and techniques for, tool development and its algorithmic foundations.  The research areas covered by such communities include but are not limited to formal methods, software and hardware verification, static analysis, programming languages, software engineering, real-time systems, communications protocols, and biological systems.  The TACAS forum provides a venue for such communities at which common problems, heuristics, algorithms, data structures, and methodologies can be discussed and explored.  In doing so, TACAS aims to support researchers in their quest to improve the utility, reliability, flexibility, and efficiency of tools and algorithms for building systems.

TACAS is a member conference of the European Joint Conferences on Theory and Practice of Software (ETAPS), which is the primary European forum for academic and industrial researchers working on topics relating to Software Science.  ETAPS 2011 is the fourteenth joint conference in this series. The prior conferences have been ETAPS 1998 in Lisbon, ETAPS 1999 in Amsterdam, ETAPS 2000 in Berlin, ETAPS 2001 in Genova, ETAPS 2002 in Grenoble, ETAPS 2003 in Warsaw, ETAPS 2004 in Barcelona, ETAPS 2005 in Edinburgh, ETAPS 2006 in Vienna, ETAPS 2007 in Minho, ETAPS 2008 in Budapest, ETAPS 2009 in York, and ETAPS 2010 in Paphos.

Call for Papers

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

• Specification and verification techniques for finite and infinite-state systems
• Software and hardware verification
• Theorem-proving and model-checking
• System construction and transformation techniques
• Static and run-time analysis
• Abstraction techniques for modeling and validation
• Compositional and refinement-based methodologies
• Testing and test-case generation
• Analytical techniques for safety, security, or dependability
• Analytical techniques for real-time, hybrid, or stochastic systems
• Integration of formal methods and static analysis in high-level hardware design or software environments
• Tool environments and tool architectures
• SAT and SMT solvers
• Applications and case studies

As TACAS addresses a heterogeneous audience, potential authors are strongly encouraged to write about their ideas and findings in general and jargon-independent, rather than in application- and domain-specific, terms. Authors reporting on tools or case studies are strongly encouraged to indicate how their experimental results can be reproduced and confirmed independently.

Submission Guidelines

As with other ETAPS conferences, TACAS accepts two types of contributions: research papers and tool demonstration papers. Both types of contributions will appear in the proceedings and have oral presentations during the conference.

Submission site is now open:  http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=tacas2011

Research Papers

Research papers cover one or more of the topics above, including tool development and case studies from a perspective of scientific research. Research papers are evaluated by the TACAS Program Committee. Research papers may contain an appendix with ancillary material (e.g. proofs) or a reference to a webpage but referees will decide whether or not to look at such material or webpages. Submitted research papers must:

• be in English and have a maximum of 15 pages (including figures and bibliography; but excluding an optional appendix or URL containing ancillary material such as proofs, both at the discretion of referees),
• present original research which is unpublished and not submitted elsewhere (conferences or journals) -- in particular, simultaneous submission of the same contribution to multiple ETAPS conferences is forbidden,
• use the Springer LNCS style, and
• be submitted electronically in PDF form via the TACAS 2011 Conference Service.

Submissions deviating from these instructions may be rejected without review. Any questions regarding this policy should be directed to the Program Committee Co-Chairs, Parosh Abdulla and Rustan Leino, prior to submitting.

Tool Demonstration Papers

Tool demonstration papers present tools based on aforementioned technologies (e.g., theorem-proving, model-checking, static analysis, or other formal methods) or fall into the above application areas (e.g., system construction and transformation, testing, analysis of real-time, hybrid or biological systems, etc.). Tool demonstration papers are evaluated by the TACAS Tool Chair with the help of the Programme Committee. Submitted tool demonstration papers must:

• be in English and have a maximum of 4 pages,
• have an appendix (not included in the 4 page count) that provides a detailed description of:
  • how the oral presentation will be conducted, e.g. illustrated by a number of snapshots,
  • the availability of the tool, the number and types of users, other information which may illustrate the maturity and robustness of the tool,
  • if applicable, a link to a web-page for the tool
  (The appendix will not be included in the proceedings, but during the evaluation of the tool demonstration papers it will be equally important as the pages submitted for publication in the proceedings.)
• use the Springer LNCS style,
• clearly describe the enhancements and novel features of the tool in case that one of its previous versions has already been presented at meetings or published in some form, and
• be submitted electronically in PDF form via the TACAS 2011 Conference Service.

Submissions deviating from these instructions may be rejected without review. Any questions regarding this policy should be directed to the Tool Chair, Alessandro Cimatti.

Important Dates

ETAPS 2011 conferences and other satellite events will be held from March 26 to April 3, 2011.

As a part of ETAPS, TACAS adheres to ETAPS submission and notification deadlines:

4 October 2010 (23:59 Samoa time)	Submission of abstracts
8 October 2010 (23:59 Samoa time)	Submission of full versions
10 December 2010	Notification of acceptance
3 January 2011	Camera-ready paper versions due
26 March - 3 April 2011	TACAS 2011 conference

The paper submission deadline is strict.  Making the deadline for submission of abstracts a week early allows the program committee to start work before full versions are available.  Of course, there is no need to wait with submission of the full version until the final deadline.

Submission of an abstract implies no obligation to submit a full version; abstracts with no corresponding full versions by the final deadline will be treated as withdrawn, but authors are strongly encouraged, in this case, to explicitly withdraw their submission by sending e-mail to the chairs.

Accepted Papers

Program Committee Co-Chairs

• Parosh A. Abdulla, Uppsala University (Sweden)
• K. Rustan M. Leino, Microsoft Research (USA)

Tool Chair

• Alessandro Cimatti, Istituto per la Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica (Italy)

Invited Speaker

• Andreas Podelski, University of Freiburg (Germany)

Program Committee

• Parosh A. Abdulla (co-chair), Uppsala University (Sweden)
• Nikolaj Bjørner, Microsoft Research (USA)
• Ahmed Bouajjani, LIAFA, University of Paris 7 (France)
• Patricia Bouyer-Decitre, LSV, CNRS and ENS Cachan (France)
• Alessandro Cimatti, Istituto per la Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica (Italy)
• Rance Cleaveland, University of Maryland and Fraunhofer USA Inc. (USA)
• Thierry Coquand, Chalmers University (Sweden)
• Giorgio Delzanno, Universita di Genova (Italy)
• Javier Esparza, Technische Universität München (Germany)
• Orna Grumberg, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology (Israel)
• Peter Habermehl, LIAFA University Paris 7 (France)
• Reiner Hähnle, Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden)
• Naoki Kobayashi, Tohoku University (Japan)
• Kim G. Larsen, Aalborg University (Denmark)
• K. Rustan M. Leino (co-chair), Microsoft Research (USA)
• Rupak Majumdar, Max Planck Institute for Software Systems (Germany)
• Panagiotis Manolios, Northeastern University (USA)
• Richard Mayr, University of Edinburgh (UK)
• Doron Peled, Bar Ilan University (Israel)
• Anna Philippou, University of Cyprus (Cyprus)
• C. R. Ramakrishnan, University at Stony Brook (USA)
• Xavier Rival, INRIA / ENS Paris (France)
• Natasha Sharygina, University of Lugano (Switzerland)
• Armando Solar-Lezama, MIT (USA))
• Bernhard Steffen, Technical University Dortmund (Germany)
• Tomáš Vojnar, Brno University of Technology (Czech Republic)
• Verena Wolf, Saarland University (Germany)
• Lenore Zuck, University of Illinois at Chicago (USA)

TACAS Steering Committee

• Ed Brinksma, ESI and University of Twente (The Netherlands)
• Rance Cleaveland, University of Maryland and Fraunhofer USA Inc. (USA)
• Kim G. Larsen, Aalborg University (Denmark)
• Bernhard Steffen, Technical University Dortmund (Germany)
• Lenore Zuck, University of Illinois at Chicago (USA)