The Bachelor Project Opportunities sketched here by
Jetty Kleijn, a member of the groups
Foundations
of Software Technology and
Theoretical Computer Science,
are all concerned with the theory, application, and/or implementation of
Distributed and Concurrent Systems.
The two main models in the proposed projects are
Team Automata
and
Petri Nets.
Team Automata
--- Background:
Originally introduced to provide a framework for the modelling of the
components of groupware systems and their interconnections, team
automata can be used also to model the collaboration between system
components in general. A team automaton is a composition of automata
(which may be team automata themselves) with input, output, and
internal actions. Their interactions are formulated in terms of
synchronizations of common actions (a synchronization strategy).
--- Project proposal TA: Develop and implement an algorithm to verify simple properties of a system consisting of interacting components (specified as a team automaton). The main goal is to identify synchronization strategies that guarantee that the realizable behaviour satisfies certain desirable properties.
Petri Nets
--- Background:
Petri nets provide a mathematical modeling language
for the description of discrete distributed systems.
Similar to UML activity diagrams, Petri nets are a graphical model.
Petri nets however have a precisely defined execution semantics
and are suitable to study fundamental aspects of system behaviour
like conflict (choice), causality (dependence), and concurrency.
Project proposals:
--- PN1
Investigate relations between UML and Petri nets.
--- PN2
Make on-line an inventory of (and implement) meaningful examples
as a support for the 3rd year course Theory of Concurrency.
NB: Both PN1 and PN2 are suitable for students who have not yet finished the 3rd year course Theory of Concurrency, but are this semester (spring 2009) active participants of that course.
--- PN3 (with dr. Michel Chaudron)
Model and analyse (parts of) software development processes; validate and
compare the results with actual practice.
--- PN4
Apply PN modelling techniques in other application areas
like workflow modelling, hardware design, and biology
(the latter in collaboration with the group Imaging and BioInformatics).
--- PN5 (theory)
Investigate fundamental properties of Petri Nets with localities, a
biologically motivated extension of Place/Transition Nets
For questions, remarks etc. contact: kleijn@liacs.nl.