In this talk I outline how rigorous, mathematically based techniques for software construction can speed up the requirements elicitation process, automate significant parts of software design, and establish (with mathematical certainty) that an implementation meets its requirements. I shall elaborate, using examples derived from practice, how these methods can transition from academic esoterica into Industrial practice. I shall demonstrate an analysis tool for software-intensive systems called Salsa, which has been successfully applied to real problems at Ford Motor Company. I discuss how the patented technology underlying Salsa was transitioned to Industry within two years of the tool's initial conception. Finally, I shall talk about the SINS project of the Naval Research Laboratory where we apply the tools and methods related to this technology for the specification and construction of secure and survivable agent-based middleware for real-time distributed applications.
Ramesh Bharadwaj holds the BE, ME, and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering. His PhD thesis supervisor was Prof. David Parnas, a pioneer in the field of Software Engineering. He has hands-on experience in systems development, having worked for several years in Industry as a hardware engineer, senior systems programmer, and senior software engineer. He also spent two years managing software development projects for a bibliographic services company. Dr. Bharadwaj has held research and development positions at the Philips Research Laboratories in Eindhoven, the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Bombay, Stanford University in California, and AT&T Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey. He is currently a researcher at the Center for High Assurance Computer Systems of the US Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC. He also holds an Adjunct Associate Professorship at the Department of Computer Science of The George Washington University in Washington, DC.