[funded PhD] Abstract domains for hybrid systems verification, starting in Jan 15, 2014

[funded PhD] Abstract domains for hybrid systems verification

Reachability analysis is a major problem in the verification of hybrid systems. Set integration and abstract interpretation approaches can be seen as complementary and their combination has the potential to significantly improve the efficiency of verification algorithms. This PhD thesis aims at studying and developing new abstract domains for both continuous and discrete variables in a hybrid system.

This thesis is funded within the ANR project "MALTHY" (Jan 2014 - Jan 2018) that focuses on advancing the state of the art in real-time and hybrid model checking by employing advanced methods and tools from the mathematical sciences of algebra and geometry.

Research will take place at the VERIMAG laboratory in Grenoble, France (2 years) and at the R&D center of Object Direct in Grenoble (1 year). VERIMAG is a joint research laboratory of Université Joseph Fourier (UJF) and CNRS (French National Center for Scientific Research). The term of the PhD funding is 3 years. The R&D Center of Object Direct in Grenoble is to enlarge its offer and reinforce its activity of innovative and sector-based software editing. The R&D center concentrates on the three main following research topics: Data Smart Analysis, Software Engineering (formal methods, model-based design, algorithmic complexity, code optimization, mobile software applications, cloud computing) and Natural User Interfaces.

The selected applicant will be registered as PhD student at UJF and the thesis will be co-advised by Thao Dang (CNRS researcher and the Principal Investigator of the project MALTHY) and Vasiliki Sfyrla (a research scientist at Object Direct).

Applicants must have a Master’s degree (French M2R or equivalent) in Computer Science or a closely related field and must be self-motivated and willing to take the initiative in research. Background in dynamical systems and computational geometry is desirable.

Starting date: from January 15, 2014.

If interested, please send a CV, research statement, Master thesis (if available), and the names of two references with their email addresses to Thao Dang (thao.dang@imag.fr) and Vasiliki Sfyrla (vsfyrla@objetdirect.com).