SE4935 Formal Methods for Systems Architecting

This course provides students with an introduction to the application of formal methods to system architecture model and design analysis. Students are exposed to theories and practices that use mathematics and formal logic for the formulation, interrogation, assessment and measurement of properties of architecture models and the designs they describe. Drawing on their academic and professional experiences, students practice writing specifications of architecting best practices and lessons learned in both natural language and formal mathematical notation, and applying them in systems engineering tools. DoD system models rich in design patterns are used as a basis for formulation. The aim of this course is to apply systematic and formal thinking to the development and evaluation of system architectures.

Prerequisite

SE4150 and SE3100 or SI4021, or equivalent

Lecture Hours

4

Lab Hours

0

Course Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Formulate logical expressions about architecture data models.

• Apply formal logical expressions to the assessment of architecture model maturity.

• Synthesize methods and techniques for adding precision to ambiguous system-wide suitability characteristics.

• Extract and formally codify best practices and lessons learned for greater reuse and knowledge transfer.

• Interrogate and demonstrate the presence or absence of specific conditions of concern in a model or design using various techniques.

• Formally model system behaviors as separate concerns from system interaction towards better prediction of emergent behavior.

• Apply appropriate tools to implement formal specifications for architecture models and designs.