Prof. Vasco Amaral

Visit Professor Vasco Amaral Homepage
Institution: NOVA-LINCS FCT, Universidade Nova de Lisboa (Portugal)

Speaker's Bio - Abstract

Vasco Amaral is presently Assistant Professor at FCT/UNL and full member of the CITI (Research Center for Informatics and Information Technologies) Portuguese Research Institution. Holds a PhD. by the University of Mannheim in Germany, worked in the past as software engineer on High Energy Physics Computing and Very Large Databases at CERN (Switzerland), DESY (Germany), and LIP (Portugal). Has been working in the last years on the general topic of Software Languages Engineering, centered on the use of Model-Driven Development (MDD) approaches, at both the Foundations and Application level.

Vasco is presently focusing his research on the topics of Verification, Model Composition and Transformations, Multi-Paradigm Modeling, DSL Engineering approaches, DSL Experimental Evaluation, and MDD education. Is organizer of several events like MPM@MODELS, PPPJ, INFORUM and served in the past as part of the scientific Committee of events and journals like ICEIS, DEXA, BIRD, ANT, ISDTA, Journal of Visual Languages Computing and MODEVVA@MODELS.

Dr. Michał Antkiewicz

Visit Michał Antkiewicz Homepage
Institution: Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, University of Waterloo (Canada)

Speaker's Bio - Abstract

Michał Antkiewicz is a Research Engineer in the Network for the Engineering of Complex Software-Intensive Systems (NECSIS) within Theme 3 on Variability and Uncertainty at the University of Waterloo, Canada. Michał is a researcher, software developer, mentor, consultant, and an entrepreneur.

During his PhD (prof. Krzysztof Czarnecki), Michał and his colleagues built the widely referenced Feature Modeling Plug-in, which had a meta-circular design based on cardinality-based feature models and an extensible metamodel backed by a SAT-based reasoner. Later, he designed and implemented a very influential approach for introducing variability into arbitrary MOF-based models and automatic instantiation of model variants given feature configuration called model templates. The commonly used term "presence condition" originates from that work. The approach was also the basis for the OMG Common Variability Language standard. For his PhD thesis, Michał developed a method for engineering of framework-specific modeling languages (FSMLs), which encode the valid framework API usage patterns. The implementation of FSMLs performed reverse-, forward-, and round-trip engineering between models and the corresponding API-related code. Later, Michał applied a similar approach to reverse engineering models from rich-text documents. Michał also worked on the design space of heterogeneous synchronization.

Currently, Michał works on the Clafer modeling language and its applications to feature modeling, metamodeling, architecture modeling, and design exploration and multi-objective optimization. Michał contributed to the design of the syntax and category-theoretical semantics of the language. The design of Clafer represents a non-standard and radical view on modeling: Clafer language only has a single but versatile modeling construct: a clafer. Clafer naturally supports modeling with partial types (i.e., concrete-to-abstract modeling and example-driven modeling) as well as modeling or variability and uncertainty (i.e., partial models). The language is supported by reasoners (Alloy-based, SMT-based, and Choco3-based) and a suite of web-based tools.

Prof. Didier Buchs

Visit Professor Didier Buchs Homepage
Institution: Computer Science Department, University of Geneva (Switzerland)

Speaker's Bio - Abstract

Didier Buchs obtained a PhD degree in Computer Science from the University of Geneva in 1989. He was a researcher at 'Laboratoire de recherche en Informatique' of University of Paris Sud (Orsay) from 1989 to 1991 and the leader of the research team working on formal methods and concurrency at University of Geneva from 1991 to 1993. He has been a 'collaborateur scientifique' at the Software Engineering Laboratory of EPFL from 1993 (Adjoint Scientifique since 1997) to 2002 developping methods and tools for distributed embedded systems.

His current interest is principally on formal specification methods, validation techniques and testing techniques for real size distributed systems. These research topics produce a number of significant results such that the development of a specification language CO-OPN as well as its supporting environment CoopnBuilder (previously called SANDS, CoopnTools). Currently a model checker, called Alpina, for high level Petri nets is under development .

Prof. Miguel Goulão

Visit Professor Miguel Goulão Homepage
Institution: NOVA-LINCS, Universidade Nova de Lisboa (Portugal)

Speaker's Bio - Abstract

Miguel Goulão was born in Lisbon, Portugal, in June, 20, 1972. He received his MSc degree in Electrotechnical and Computers Engineering from Instituto Superior Técnico, and his PhD degree from Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade Nova de Lisboa (FCT/UNL), in 2008. He is an Assistant Professor of the Informatics Department of FCT/UNL. He conducts his research in Centro de Informática e Tecnologias de Informação (CITI), since 2000. He is a co-founder of the QUASAR research team. Before joining FCT and CITI, he worked as a junior researcher at the Software Engineering Group at INESC. His main research interests revolve around Experimental Software Engineering (ESE) and span from the evolution in ESE to its applications to several Software Engineering areas. For the last 18 years, Miguel has been working in Object-Oriented Design, Software Process Improvement, Software Evolution and Reengineering, Component-Based Software Engineering, and, more recently, in Software Languages Engineering, using Experimental Software Engineering approaches to improve the validation of claims in those areas. He has published over 40 papers in peer reviewed international journals, conferences, and workshops, and served as PC member on several occasions. He also served as General Chair of SEDES'2012, PC Co-Chair of QUATIC’2004 and QUATIC’2010, as organizing co-chair of QUATIC’2007, and as member of the organizing committee of CSMR’2001 and UML’2004. He was a co-author of the paper receiving the best paper award, in CAiSE 2014, and of the paper receiving the János Szentes Award for the best paper on Software Metrics presented at the 6th European Conference on Software Quality, in 1999.

Prof. Thomas Kuehne

Visit Professor Thomas Kuehne Homepage
Institution: School of Engineering and Computer Science, University of Wellington (New Zealand)

Speaker's Bio - Abstract

Since November 2007 Thomas has been an Associate Professor at the Victoria University of Wellington. Before that he was an Assistant Professor at the Technische Universität Darmstadt, an Acting Professor at the Software Engineering Department of the University of Mannheim and the Technische Universität Darmstadt, a researcher at the University of Kaiserslautern and a Lecturer in Computing at Staffordshire University. Thomas' research interests include object-technology, programming languages, component architectures, (meta-) modelling, and model-driven development. Among several other recent highlights activities, Thomas was in 2011 the organizer of MODELS 2011, was editor for the SoSyM Theme Issue on Metamodeling for the Springer Verlag journal Software and Systems Modeling, PC chair (foundations track) for ECMFA 2010. Was author of several papers among which, the well known in the MDD community "Matters of (Meta-)Modeling" Journal on Software and Systems Modeling, in 2006.

Dr. Bernhard Schätz

Visit Bernhard Schätz Homepage
Institution: Institut für Informatik Technische Universität München, Germany

Speaker's Bio - Abstract

After his graduation in Computer Science, he worked on formal foundations of models for reactive systems in the project “Methods and Tools for the Use of Parallel Computer Architectures” of the German Research Community (DFG). 1998 he received his Ph.D. in Computer Science at the TU Munchen. Currently, he works as senior researcher at the chair of Prof. Broy for Software & Systems Engineering, TU Munchen, focusing on the application of formal techniques in the engineering process. His work aims at the construction of CASE tools for a model-based software engineering process for embedded systems. His current research interests are: General: Specification and verification of reactive computing systems, especially distributed systems; Different specification paradigms for distributed systems (CSP, CSS, stream processing functions, temporal logics, traces,...); Methodological aspects of correct distributed systems design; Model-Based Systems Development of Embedded Systems; Service-Based Software and Systems Engineering; and Computer-aided/tool-supported design and verification of distributed systems

Prof. Eugene Syriani

Visit Professor Eugene Syriani Homepage
Institution: Université de Montréal

Speaker's Bio - Abstract

I received my Ph.D. in 2011 from School of Computer Science at McGill University. I am currently a member of the Modeling, Simulation, and Design Lab under the supervision of Prof. Hans Vangheluwe. My academic work is sponsored by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

My current research interests are Model Transformation, Model-driven Engineering and Simulation-based Design. I am in particular interested in the engineering of model transformation languages. My contribution in the field resides in the engineering of model transformation languages, following multi-paradigm modelling principles. I have developed a framework for producing transformation languages tailored for the specific needs. This is based on T-Core, a collection primitive transformation constructs scriptable with Python. MoTif is another transformation language built on top of the framework. It is a completely modelled language with a transformation-specific meta-model for the syntax. Its semantics and execution engine are defined by weaving of T-Core with a simulation formalism. I also have over five years of industry experience in different service-oriented software companies in Montreal.

Dr. Gareth Thomas

Visit Gareth Thomas Homepage
Institution: MathWorks

Speaker's Bio - Abstract

Gareth joined MathWorks in 2009 as an application engineer and is currently MathWorks' worldwide industry manager for academia. Research-wise, his main focus is rapid prototyping and automatic code generation. Prior to MathWorks, he worked in Scotland for two years, in a small R&D team building Diver Detection Systems (Oceanscan), gaining experience by travelling around the world and working with different development teams and on different development platforms. He also worked at Nokia Siemens Networks (Portugal) as a software engineer and as Innovation Officer. He got this job in rapid prototyping and code generation as his final thesis at Insituto Superior Tecnico in Portugal: Hardware-in-the-loop simulation of an autonomous catamaran — Advanced control theory for obstacle avoidance systems applied on autonomous vehicles (catamaran).

Prof. Hans Vangheluwe

Visit Professor Hans Vangheluwe Homepage
Institutions: University of Antwerp (Belgium) and McGill University, Montréal (Canada)

Speaker's Bio - Abstract

Hans Vangheluwe is a Professor in the department of Mathematics and Computer Science at the University of Antwerp (Belgium), an Associate Professor in the School of Computer Science at McGill University (Canada) and an Adjunct Professor at the National University of Defense Technology (NUDT) in Changsha, China. He heads the Modelling, Simulation and Design (MSDL) research lab.

He has been the Principal Investigator of a number of research projects focused on the development of a multi-formalism theory and enabling technology for Modelling and Simulation. Some of this work has led to the WEST++ tool, which was commercialised for use in the design and optimization of bioactivated sludge Waste Water Treatment Plants.

He was the co-founder and coordinator of the European Union's ESPRIT Basic Research Working Group 8467 ``Simulation in Europe'', a founding member of the Modelica Design Team, and an advisor to national and international granting agencies in Europe and North America. He is an Associate Editor of Software and Systems Modeling, of the International Journal of Critical Computer-Based Systems, of Simulation: Transactions of the Society for Computer Simulation, and of the International Journal of Adaptive, Resilient and Autonomic Systems. In a variety of projects, often with industrial partners, he develops and applies the model-based theory and techniques of Computer Automated Multi-Paradigm Modelling (CAMPaM). His current interests are in domain-specific modelling and simulation, including the development of graphical user interfaces for multiple platforms.The MSDL's tool AToM3 (A Tool for Multi-formalism and Meta-Modelling), developed in collaboration with Prof. Juan de Lara uses meta-modelling and graph transformation to specify and generate domain-specific environments. Recently, he has become active in the design of Automotive applications.

Prof. Pieter Van Gorp

Visit Professor Pieter Van Gorp Homepage
Institutions: Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands

Speaker's Bio - Abstract

Pieter Van Gorp is investigating and extending the applicability of graph transformation technology to software modeling and health information system challenges since 2002. Since 2008, he is an assistant professor in the School of Industrial Engineering at Eindhoven University of Technology. Previously he held a postdoc position at the University of Antwerp, where he also obtained his Ph.D. degree in Software Engineering (Computer Science). Van Gorp has published various conference and journal papers. To inspire and evaluate his conceptual contributions, he has developed various software prototypes, including SHARE (for executing research prototypes in the cloud) and MyPHRMachines (for securely analyzing Personal Health Records in the cloud). He also teaches various courses, covering topics such as model-driven engineering, business process simulation and Health Informatics. Van Gorp participates in the organization of national and international research events. For example, he has been the primary organizer of various editions of the Transformation Tools Contest and he has chaired the program committee of ECMFA 2013. He is also a frequent reviewer for international conferences such as ICMT and journals such as SoSyM.

Prof. Dániel Varró

Visit Professor Dániel Varró Homepage
Institution: Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Hungary

Speaker's Bio - Abstract

Dr. Dániel Varró is an associate professor at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. His main research interest is model-driven systems and services engineering with special focus on model transformations. He regularly serves on the programme committee of various international conferences in the field like MODELS, ASE, FASE and ICMT and serves on the editorial board of the Software and Systems Modeling journal (Springer). He is a programme committee co-chair of FASE 2013 and ICMT 2014 conferences. He delivered a keynote talk at IEEE CSMR 2012 conference and at various international workshops (recently, VOLT 2013, GT-VMT 2014). He is a founder of the VIATRA2 model transformation tool and the EMF-IncQuery framework, and the principal investigator at his university of the SENSORIA, DIANA, SecureChange and MONDO European Projects. He is a three time recipient of the IBM Faculty Award. Previously, he was a visiting researcher at SRI International, at the University of Paderborn and twice at TU Berlin. In 2014, he serves as a visiting professor at McGill University and Université de Montréal.

Dr. Joachim Denil

Visit Joachim Denil Homepage
Institution: University of Antwerp (Belgium)

Speaker's Bio - Abstract

Joachim Denil is a Post-Doc in the department of Mathematics and Computer Science and the faculty of applied engineering at the University of Antwerp (Belgium). He is a member of the Modelling, Simulation and Design (MSDL) research lab. He works on the MBSE4Mechatronics research project. Joachim received his PhD from the University of Antwerp on the topic of Design, Verification and Deployment of Software-Intensive Systems: A Multi-Paradigm Modelling Approach. Joachim also worked as a post-doc at the MSDL-lab at McGill on the NECSIS project. His main research interest is multi-paradigm modelling methods, techniques and tools for software-intensive and cyber-physical systems including design-space exploration, consistency, virtual prototyping, etc.

David Lawrence

Institution: Computer Science Department, University of Geneva (Switzerland)

Speaker's Bio - Abstract

David Lawrence is a PhD student and teaching assistant in the department of Computer Science at the University of Geneva. Moreover, he is a member of the Software Modeling and Verification group (SMV) located at the University of Geneva.

In his master thesis, he studied an embedded software verification technique. In this approach, dynamic testing is performed on a system by using software instrumentation to improve the observability and the development board as a testing environment. The latter master thesis was performed in collaboration with Honeywell International Sarl.

Performing his PhD with Honeywell International Sarl as well, he takes strong interests in tests generation and embedded/cyber-physical systems modeling.

Bart Meyers

Visit Bart Meyers Homepage
Institution: University of Antwerp (Belgium)

Speaker's Bio - Abstract

Bart Meyers is a PhD student and teaching assistant in the department of Mathematics and Computer Science at the University of Antwerp (Belgium). He is a member of the Modelling, Simulation and Design (MSDL) research lab.

Bart's research interests are in the field of language engineering in the context of domain-specific modeling. More specifically, he investigates the composition and the evolution of modeling languages.

Simon Van Mierlo

Visit Simon Van Mierlo Homepage
Institution: University of Antwerp (Belgium)

Speaker's Bio - Abstract

Simon Van Mierlo is a PhD student in the department of Mathematics and Computer Science at the University of Antwerp (Belgium). He is a member of the Modelling, Simulation and Design (MSDL) research lab.

In his master thesis, he worked on the evolution of modelling languages, developing a co-evolution technique applicable on models and transformations using model transformations, in particular higher-order transformations. He is currently continuing his work on modelling language engineering as the developer of a new metamodelling framework called the Modelverse.

The topic of his PhD is the explicit modelling of model debugging and experimentation. The goal of the project is to develop debugging environments for a number of well-known formalisms, and combinations of formalisms, by explicitly modelling the environment as a Statechart.

Yentl Van Tendeloo

Visit Yentl Van Tendeloo Homepage
Institution: University of Antwerp (Belgium)

Speaker's Bio - Abstract

Yentl Van Tendeloo is a PhD student in the department of Mathematics and Computer Science at the University of Antwerp (Belgium). He is a member of the Modelling, Simulation and Design (MSDL) research lab.

He extended MSDL's PythonPDEVS simulator with distributed simulation algorithms, inclusion of domain-specific hints in the models, efficient simulation algorithms and added support for activity tracking.

His current research interests are in supporting a distributed implementation of the ModelVerse: a conceptual framework and a repository of multi-paradigm models.