List of Members
Institute Name: University of Oxford, Computing LaboratoryDescription:The Computing Laboratory at Oxford University was established in 1957 to teach computing in the Faculty of Mathematics, today it comprises the Programming Research Group (PRG) and the Numerical Analysis Group (NAGp). It has the responsibility for all academic aspects of computing: including teaching, basic research and collaboration with industry on applied research. Courses offered cater for every level of student, from undergraduates to D.Phil candidates.
The PRG, founded in 1965, is known for its pioneering research on programming language semantics, including Scott-Strachey denotational semantics, for its development of the CSP approach to concurrent processes, and for the Z specification language. More recent research has developed the occam language, development methods to ensure the correct production of software and hardware, the functional programming language Orwell, and the 2OBJ logical framework for theorem proving. One of the important characteristics of the PRG is the spirit of free interchange between its members, working on different theories or on different applications. The PRG has more than fifty
research partners throughout the world and has twice earned the Queen's Award for Technical Achievement, in 1990 and 1992. A number of research areas of particular interest have led to the setting up of specific research groups, one of which is the Centre for Requirements and Foundations (CRF).
The CRF was founded, in 1991, in order to study the scientific bases of requirements engineering, to assess the merits of existing methods and tools for capturing and analysing requirements, to apply them to realistic problems, and to develop new methods and tools to take account of the social context as well as of advanced technology. The Director of the Centre is Prof. Joseph Goguen (at present on sabbatical), and the Acting Director is Dr. Lincoln Wallen. Oxford personnel are Ms. Marina Jirotka and Mr. Alan Munro, Research Officers, and graduate students working on their doctorate degrees. Many others are associated with the Centre including academics, industrialists and government representatives from all over the world.
The Centre currently has several on-going projects. `Video-based Requirements Elicitation' is exploring how certain methods in sociology and socio- linguistics can best inform the practise of requirements engineering. `Requirements for Networked Multi-Media Systems' is concerned with deriving requirements for a multi-media communications system that will allow co-workers, geographically separated, to work more closely together. It also addresses the issue of how to derive requirements for new technologies. `Information's Role as a Factor of Competitive Advantage in the Steel Industry - CNRS' is a feasibility study to model different types of information flow, integrating the systems of `technology', `production' and `human resources'. The European steel industry is being used for the case study as a real-world example.
Researchers associated with the project:
Dr. Lincoln Wallen Professor Joseph A. Goguen Ms. Marina Jirotka Mr. Alan J. Munro
Brief CVs of Key Researchers:
Name: Dr. Lincoln A. Wallen
Nationality: British
Academic Qualifications & Experience: Lincoln Wallen was educated as a mathematical physicist graduating in Mathematics and Physics from the University of Durham (England) in 1981 with first class honours and the Chalmers prize for Physics. He then did doctoral research in mathematical logic and artificial intelligence at the University of Edinburgh (Scotland) obtaining a PhD. on applications of proof theory to automated theorem proving. During this time he took up various Research Fellowships at Edinburgh, firstly under Prof. Robin Milner to work on the LCF (Logic for computable functions) project, and secondly under Prof. Alan Bundy to work on problem solving methods and automated theorem proving. From 1987-1989 he was a British Petroleum Venture Research Fellow at the University of Texas at Austin (USA) working with Prof. Edsger W. Dijkstra on the fine structure of mathematical arguments and the proof theory of program derivations. In early 1989 he took up a temporary lectureship in the Dept. of Computer Sciences at Austin. In late 1989 he was appointed a Lecturer in Computation at the University of Oxford and elected a Fellow of St. Catherine's College, Oxford.
He has chaired several SERC committees and panels in Information Science and Engineering ranging from safety-critical systems, to theoretical computer science. He is currently the acting Director of the Centre for Requirements and Foundations within OUCL.
His research interests include the application of proof-theoretical ideas to automated theorem proving, program derivation and mathematical reasoning, philosophy of mathematics and computation, requirements capture and analysis and multimedia systems design. Wallen is the author of a book on automated theorem proving and many published papers. He has delivered invited talks at many conferences and meetings as well as introductory and advanced courses in aspects of mathematical logic applied to Computing Science at national and international summer schools. His recent research concerns the algorithmic structure of theories of arithmetic suitable for program derivation and software engineering tasks; theories of proof-search for type-theoretical formalisms; theorem-proving techniques in general logics; security and integrity in distributed systems, requirements capture and analysis.
Name: Prof. Joseph A. Goguen.
Nationality: American.
Academic Qualifications & Experience: Professor Goguen has been the Professor of Computing Science at Oxford University Computing Laboratory and a Fellow of St. Anne's College since 1988, and the Director of the Centre for Requirements and Foundations since 1991. He is also a Managing Director of Structural Semantics.
Before coming to Oxford Professor Goguen was a Senior Staff Scientist at SRI International, Menlo Park, California; a Senior Member of the Centre for the Study of Language and Information, Stanford University; Professor/Assistant Professor at the University of California; Senior Visiting Member at the University of Edinburgh and on the staff at the Naropa Institute and the T. J. Watson Research Centre. He was student at Harvard College and the University of California.
His research interests include: software engineering, including requirements capture and analysis, specification, correctness and prototyping; theorem proving; algebraic specification; object oriented, relational and functional programming and their combinations; massively parallel computer architecture; hardware verification. With expertise in: fuzzy sets; sociology; philosophy of computation; linguistics.
Professor Goguen is the editor of a book on software technology and co-editor of one on requirements engineering. He has has over 150 articles published in professional journals and holds five journal editorships.
Name: Ms. Marina Jirotka.
Nationality: British.
Academic Qualifications & Experience: Ms. Jirotka is a Research Officer in the Centre for Requirements and Foundations (CRF) of Oxford University Computing Laboratory. She has a background in psychology, social anthropology and computer science. Since 1991 she has been increasingly involved with the theory and practice of requirements for computer systems including research, lecturing, attending conferences and participating on programme committees and was the principal organiser of the requirements engineering workshop held in Oxford in December 1991.
She is involved in a variety of projects ranging from the discussion of innovative approaches to the design of computer software systems with representatives of industry and government departments, to empirical studies of work practices and interaction in real-world settings.
Ms. Jirotka is the author/co-author of numerous papers and co-editor of a book about requirements engineering. She lectures on the internal MSc. course, which also entails giving tutorials and supervising student projects, as well as an external Diploma course at Oxford.
Selected Publications:
Wallen L.A.(1990):Automated Deduction in Non-Classical Logics, MIT Press
Wallen, L.A.(1990): On form formalism and equivalence, in Beauty is our Business: a Birthday Salute to Edsger W. Dijkstra, Feijen, W.H.J. et al (eds.), Springer Verlag, 1990.
Goguen J.A. and Linde C.(1993): Techniques for Requirements Eliciation, in Requirements Engineering 1993, IEEE, 1993, pp.152-164.
Jirotka M. and Goguen J.A. (eds.).(1994): Requirements Engineering: Social and Technical Issues, Academic Press
Joseph Goguen.(1994): Requirements Engineering as the Reconciliation of Social and Technical Issues, in Requirements Engineering: Social and Technical Issues, Jirotka M. and Goguen J.A. (eds.), Academic Press, pp. 165-199.
Jirotka M. and Aylett M.(1995): A Handbook for Video Based Requirements Elicitation, Technical Report, Centre for Requirements and Foundations, Oxford University Computing Laboratory and British Telecom Research Laboratories, forthcoming.
Contact Details:
Principal Investigator: Dr. Lincoln Wallen
Address:Computing Laboratory, Oxford University, Wolfson Building, Parks Road Oxford, OX1 3QD, UNITED KINGDOM
Telephone number: +44 1865 273875
Telefax number: +44 1865 273839
EMail: lw@comlab.ox.ac.uk
List of Members