Related papers: A Systems-Theoretical Formalization of Closed Syst…

The opaque nature of many intelligent systems violates established usability principles and thus presents a challenge for human-computer interaction. Research in the field therefore highlights the need for transparency, scrutability,…

The interaction between humans and AI in safety-critical systems presents a unique set of challenges that remain partially addressed by existing frameworks. These challenges stem from the complex interplay of requirements for transparency,…

Specifying the intended behaviour of autonomous systems is becoming increasingly important but is fraught with many challenges. This technical report provides an overview of existing work on specifications of autonomous systems and places a…

Classical models of computation have been successful in capturing the very essence of individual computing devices. Although they are useful to understand computability power and limitations in the small, such models are not suitable to…

Recently, extensive efforts have been made on the application of expert system technique to solving the process planning task in the machining domain. This paper introduces a new formal method to design CAPP expert systems. The formal…

A major determinant of the quality of software systems is the quality of their requirements, which should be both understandable and precise. Most requirements are written in natural language, good for understandability but lacking in…

We develop categorical foundations of discrete dynamical systems, aimed at understanding how the structure of the system affects its dynamics. The key technical innovation is the notion of a cycle set, which provides a formal language in…

While the engineering of operating systems is well understood, their formal structure and properties are not. The latter needs a clear definition of the purpose of an OS and an identification of the core. In this paper I offer definitions…

Formal methods were frequently shown to be effective and, perhaps because of that, practitioners are interested in using them more often. Still, these methods are far less applied than expected, particularly, in critical domains where they…

We dwell on how a definition of a theoretical concept of an operating system, suitable to be incorporated in a mathematical theory of operating systems, could look like. This is considered a valuable preparation for the development of a…

Trust is an absolute necessity for digital communications; but is often viewed as an implicit singular entity. The use of the internet as the primary vehicle for information exchange has made accountability and verifiability of system code…

In the international standard for system and software engineering ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288: 2015, the output of the stakeholder needs and the business or mission analysis technical processes are transformed into a technical view of the system by…

In a Systems Engineering setting, various models are produced using a variety of methods and tools. Focusing on a type of models -- called descriptive models -- which we shall describe, we argue that, while the clarity and precision of…

Complex Systems were identified and studied in different fields, such as physics, biology, and economics. These systems exhibit exciting properties such as self-organization, robust order, and emergence. In recent years, software systems…

Approaching limitations of digital computing technologies have spurred research in neuromorphic and other unconventional approaches to computing. Here we argue that if we want to systematically engineer computing systems that are based on…

Programming requires much more than just writing code in a programming language. It is usually done in the context of a stateful environment, by interacting with a system through a graphical user interface. Yet, this wide space of…

Background: The state of the art in software engineering consists of a myriad of contributions and the gaps between them; it is difficult to characterize. Questions: In order to help understanding the state of the art, can we identify gaps…

This thesis (defended 10/07/2019) develops a theory of networks of hybrid open systems and morphisms. It builds upon a framework of networks of continuous-time open systems as product and interconnection. We work out categorical notions for…

Process science is a highly interdisciplinary field of research. Despite numerous proposals, process science lacks an adequate understanding of the core concepts of the field, including notions such as process, event, and system. A more…

Testing of autonomous systems is extremely important as many of them are both safety-critical and security-critical. The architecture and mechanism of such systems are fundamentally different from traditional control software, which appears…