List of Members
Institute Name: University of York, Department of Computer ScienceDescription:The University of York is a post-war university which has developed a record of excellence in both teaching and research, and attracts able staff from all over the world. The Department of Computer Science at the university has a strong research record. In the 1992 Research Assessment Exercise it was rated as grade 5 (the highest grade). It is successful and expanding, having high quality teaching and internationally recognised research. It has twenty-nine members of the academic staff, including three professors, two readers and five senior lecturers. It has a number of large research groups, of which the High Integrity Systems Engineering group will be the main participant in this network, although staff from other groups will also be involved.
The Department teaches Computer Science as an engineering discipline, and Information Technology with particular emphasis on its use in Business Management; it offers undergraduate (MEng, BEng, BSc and BA) and postgraduate (EngDip, MSc, MPhil and DPhil) degrees. In 1992/93 there were 270 students on undergraduate courses, 60 on postgraduate taught courses, and 49 full-time research students. An Advanced MSc course started in October 1994 in the area of Software Engineering for Safety-Critical Systems.
The High Integrity Systems Engineering group undertakes research into all aspects of high integrity computer-based systems, with an emphasis on safety-critical systems. The broad aim of the work is to provide theoretically sound but practical methods and tools to aid the development of high integrity systems. Technically the work undertaken by the group covers formal methods of specifying and verifying software, requirements analysis, support environments, reuse, safety analysis, tool support for system certification, real-time systems, and architectural level specification. Financially, the group has support from a number of governmental and industrial sources. It includes: the Dependable Computer Systems Centre (DCSC), funded by British Aerospace, operated in conjunction with the University of Newcastle upon Tyne; the University Technology Centre funded by Rolls-Royce.
Researchers associated with the project:
Prof. J.A. McDermid Dr. L.S. Brooks Dr. A.J. Vickers
Brief CVs of Key Researchers:
Name: Prof. J.A. McDermid
Nationality: British
Academic Qualifications & Experience: John McDermid holds a MA, a PhD and a CEng and is a fellow of IEE and BCS and member of the ACM. Dr. John McDermid has been Professor of Software Engineering at the University of York since 1987. Prior to coming to York he worked for SD-Scicon and the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment (now the DRA Malvern). At the University he runs the High Integrity Systems Engineering group, concentrating on safety-critical and dependable systems. He is also: the technical director of the British Aerospace Dependable Computing Systems Centre at the Universities of York and Newcastle; the technical director of the Rolls-Royce University Technology Centre at York; and a director of York Software Engineering Ltd. He is active in the professional community, and has assisted the IEE and BCS in major studies of safety-critical systems. He has published widely, being the author or editor of six books, and the author or co-author of about one hundred and fifty papers and articles.
Selected Publications:
McDermid, J. A. (1994): Requirements Analysis: Orthodoxy, Fundamentalism and Heresy. In M. Jaroticka & J. Goguen (Eds.), Requirements Engineering: Social and Technical Issues (pp. 17-40). Academic Press.
McDermid, J.A., Vickers, A.J., Whittle, B.R. (1994):Requirements Elicitation and Analysis: Goals, Principles and Approaches, proc. Workshop on Requirements Elicitation for Software Systems, Keele University UK
Morris, P., Coombes, A., & McDermid, J. A. (1994): Causality as a Means for the Expression of Requirements for Safety-Critical Systems. In proc. COMPASS '94, Gaithersburg, MD.
Brooks, L., & Jones M. (1994): Addressing Organisational Context in Requirements Analysis Using Cognitive Mapping, proc. Workshop on Requirements Elicitation for Software Systems, Keele University UK
Jones M., & Brooks, L.(1995): CSCW and Requirement Analysis: Requirements as Cooperation/Requirements for Collaboration, to appear in CSCW Requirements and Evaluation, (eds) MacLeaod & Thomas, Spinger Verlag, forthcoming.
Contact Details:
Principal Investigator: Prof. John McDermid,
Address:Department of Computer Science, University of York, Heslington York, YO1 5DD, UNITED KINGDOM
Telephone number: + 44 1904 432726
Telefax number: + 44 1904 432708
EMail: jam@cs.york.ac.uk
List of Members