TEACHING FORMAL METHODS: Lessons To Learn

Abstract

Formal methods should be taught as part of any degree in computing science or software engineering. We believe that discrete mathematics is the foundation upon which software development can be lifted up to the heights of a true engineering discipline. The transfer of formal methods to industry cannot be expected to occur without first transferring, from academia to industry, graduates who are well grounded in such mathematical techniques. These graduates must bring a positive, yet realistic, view on the application of formal methods. Our goal is to produce software engineers who will go out into industry understanding the principles of specification, design and implementation. As these graduates develop their engineering skills, in an industrial setting, they should have the means, and the motivation, to integrate formality and rigour into any environment in which they are found. In this way, the formal methods should start to 'sell themselves'. This paper reports on our first attempt to teach a formal methods course as part of a degree in software engineering. Rather than concentrating on one particular method, we worked on a set of small case studies, using the mathematics in a flexible and intuitive manner, where the students could appreciate the need for formality. Each case study was intended to illustrate, in turn, the need for some fundamental formalism. An unexpected result was that we also identified weaknesses in our understanding of formal methods: students' naive questioning helped us to identify how the methods, and the teaching of these methods, could be improved. In brief, it was not just the students who were learning!

Teaching Some Informatics Concepts Using Formal System

“…To demonstrate this directly is not easy because it re�uires checking all possible inference rules to MI in an exhaustive way, yet it cannot guarantee whether MU is not derivable from MI in a finite number of steps or not. In fact, we can point out that we need to analyze the properties of the inference rules of the system in order to show that any theorem in the MIU system needs to start with M. However, it is only a necessary condition to become a theorem in the system because there is a wff that starts with M such as MU which is not a theorem (Gibson and Méry, 1998).…”

Teaching Formal Methods to Software Engineers through Collaborative Learning (Short Paper)

“…Mandrioli [15] suggests adopting an incremental approach and increasing the level of user-friendliness (for example, by favoring state-based notations over formulae) without forsaking the rigor of mathematical modeling. Liu et al [14] suggest gradually introducing students to the most complex concepts, increasing the number of exercise sessions, and helping students understand the power and effectiveness of formal techniques through short and simple examples from daily life (also previously suggested by Gibson and Mery [7]). Others propose to increase tool support during teaching activities.…”

When Students Choose to Use Event-B in their Software Engineering Projects

“…This paper reports on the continuation of a sequence of publications detailing the author's experience with teaching formal methods. In 1998 [1] reports on the design and implementation of a first (for the authors) formal methods course: "Our approach to teaching formal methods tries to give an overall picture rather than concentrating on any one method, language or tool. We believe in letting the students discover the concepts and principles themselves, wherever possible" Two years later, our approach to teaching formal methods was integrated into a module dedicated to requirements engineering [2]: "Students are encouraged to question the need for formality -each requirements engineering method is a compromise and the use of formal models needs to be placed within the context of the choices that a requirements engineer has to make" In [3] there is an overview of our approach to weaving formal methods throughout a software engineering programme, using problem based learning, and discussion of the impact of formal methods on the quality of the software that the students build: "Anecdotal evidence suggests that the better students adopt formal engineering practices (like the specification of invariants) in projects on other courses which follow their work on the formal methods problems (without being told to do so).…”