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From: Paul "E." Black <black@lal.cs.byu.edu>
Date: Wed, 7 Dec 1994 12:57:33 -0700
Message-Id: <9412071957.AA04189@puma.cs.byu.edu>
To: info-hol@leopard.cs.byu.edu
Subject: Call for Papers: new Center for High Integrity Software


>From: salamon@sst.ncsl.nist.gov (Wayne Salamon)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Call for Papers: High Integrity Software
Date: 5 Dec 1994 16:08:53 GMT
Organization: NIST

                                 THE CENTER FOR
                     HIGH INTEGRITY SOFTWARE SYSTEMS ASSURANCE

                           A Center Established by the
               National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
                            Technology Administration
                             Department of Commerce

                             CALL FOR WHITE PAPERS

NIST is establishing the Center for High Integrity Software Systems
Assurance (CHISSA) as a collaborative approach for government,
industry, and academia to make available the technology which is
necessary for assuring high integrity software in an ever growing
number of applications.

Good dependability techniques developed in the laboratory have not
made it into use by development organizations.  Conversely, very
real problems faced by development organizations are not being
addressed by the research community.  A major goal of CHISSA is to
make it easier for researchers to collaborate with developers to

1)      see how research results perform in practice,
2)      improve the dependability of the resulting applications, and 
3)      direct the researchers' efforts more towards helping the
        developers with their real problems.

Activities from all aspects of modern society require high
integrity software (e.g., software which must and can be trusted to
work dependably).  High integrity software controls a wide range of
essential activities including banking and commerce, manufacturing,
education, transportation, health care, and entertainment.  It is
imperative that the tools and methodologies used to build and
evolve these software systems be able to ensure very high quality,
reliability, security, and safety.

The emergence of the National Information Infrastructure (NII) and
the surge in applications for use on the NII and in other
distributed environments (e.g., health care systems, manufacturing,
finance, education, the Intelligent Vehicle Highway Systems (IVHS))
will greatly magnify these issues since they will inevitably
stimulate the use of automated systems involving critical hardware
and software functions.  CHISSA will be a focal point for
addressing the need to significantly improve the robustness,
safety, and security of these critical software systems.

CHISSA will pursue visionary solutions to industry-defined problems
in the assurance of software-intensive systems.  CHISSA will foster
and coordinate activities relating to high integrity software
system technology.  It will help guide research and development,
analysis, and testing techniques, conduct assessments on software
system technology, and provide transfer of those technologies
deemed useful to the industrial sector.  CHISSA will cooperate with
other Federal agencies, industry, and the research community to
develop standards and guidelines for high integrity software. 
Issues concerning the linkage between software assurance and the
systems in which that software is embedded will be addressed as
well.  NIST will ensure that CHISSA partners have equitable access
to CHISSA solutions.

The program will have three major components:
1)      promotion of high integrity software systems research and
        development;
2)      improvement of software system technology assessment; and 
3)      acceleration of the transfer and use of high integrity
        software systems technology.


NIST, with industry, academia, and other Federal agencies'
guidance, will establish the initial technology objectives and the
demonstration environment that will form the foundation of CHISSA. 
Guidance from industry, academia, and other Federal agencies is
requested in this call for White Papers.

CHISSA will enable immediate and direct guidance, collaboration,
and technology transfer of high integrity software system
technology among universities, industry, and government.  NIST will
be responsible for facilitating collaboration and technology
transfer.  The scope of work performed under the auspices of CHISSA
will include research, technology assessment, and technology
transfer.

Specific goals are to: 
        identify research topics which will potentially have a high
        payoff for industry. 

        identify and address the issues that arise between software
        and other system components. 

        identify technology already in use in actual applications and
        assess its applicability to other application domains.

        identify and provide facilities for accelerated technology
        transfer.
        
        identify methods for and encourage promotion of continuous
        training in the area of high assurance software systems for
        engineers and scientists.

        determine how to structure a CHISSA demonstration facility.

White Papers will be used by the NIST CHISSA Director and the
Steering Committee to help select a small set of areas within
CHISSA's broader charter for initial focus.  A White Paper should
not be a proposal for funding.  The White Papers will be used to
develop a research agenda, plan workshops and conferences,
determine possible CHISSA partners, determine strategies for
technology transfer, and develop a proposed Cooperative Research
and Development Agreement (CRADA) between CHISSA and its partners.

A White Paper should do at least one of the following:
        identify one or more problems in producing high integrity
        software systems.

        identify one or more technologies needed by industry to
        produce high integrity software systems.

White Papers should clearly describe the importance of the effort
to industry.  If a technology is involved, the maturity of the
technology, and the steps needed to transition it to industry
should be discussed.  Submissions from industry should identify
problems where the state-of-the-practice is inadequate, and where
known research efforts fall short of the mark in addressing the
real issues.  In all cases the White Paper should describe CHISSA's
role in bridging the gap.

A White Paper may propose a specific short- or long-term project
for collaboration.  A White Paper may propose collaborative
programs in areas identified in the examples in this announcement;
White Papers in other innovative areas of high integrity software
system technology are also welcome.  Examples of specific areas of
interest to CHISSA include, but are not limited to:

        methods for the modeling, analysis, and certification of high
        integrity attributes (timeliness, fault-tolerance, safety,
        security).

        methods for assessing the correctness, consistency, and
        completeness of requirements specifications.
 
        methods for ensuring that the implementation correctly
        implements the requirements specification.
 
        methods for achieving dependability in real-time distributed
        environments.
 
        methods for ensuring safety, security, or performance in
        critical systems, particularly in the presence of faults,
        unpredictable workloads, or operator errors.

        identification of the best or acceptable practices for the
        software engineering of dependable systems. 
 
        methods for validating and testing dependable software based
        systems.

CHISSA will create an environment for highly productive focused
research and development through coordination of efforts between
research and industry.  CHISSA will provide a major forum in which
alternative theories and results can be openly discussed and
evaluated.

CHISSA will share designs, prototypes, tests and measurement
techniques with American industry, helping the private sector to
implement highly dependable systems and products.

CHISSA will use its close working relationships with academia,
industry, and government centers to enable coordination of efforts
and utilization of the most modern and efficient ideas, tools, and
techniques available.

While CHISSA invites White Papers to be submitted at any time, the
Steering Committee will develop CHISSA's initial focus and research
agenda from those submitted no later than January 21, 1995:

Please submit White Papers to the CHISSA Director:

        Mrs. Dolores Wallace, CHISSA Director
        National Institute of Standards and Technology
        Room B266, Technology Building
        Gaithersburg, MD 20899
        Internet:      dwallace@nist.gov
        Fax:           (301) 926-3696
        Telephone:     (301) 975-3340

The Steering Committee consists of representatives of industry,
academia, and government:
        Mr. Jon Dehn                  Loral Corporation
        Ms. Helen Gill                National Science Foundation
        Dr. George Gilley             Aerospace Corporation
        Mr. Charles Howell            Mitre Corporation
        Dr. John Knight               University of Virginia
        Dr. Gary Koob                 Office of Naval Research
	Dr. Joseph Profeta            Union Switch and Signal
        Dr. John Salasin              Advanced Research Projects Agency
        Dr. Fred Schneider            Cornell University
        Dr. Dan Siewiorek             Carnegie Mellon University
        Dr. Charles Weinstock         Software Engineering Institute


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  | Wayne J. Salamon          | National Institute of Standards & Technology |
  | salamon@sst.ncsl.nist.gov | Technology Building, Room B263               |
  | (301) 975-4432            | Gaithersburg, MD 20899                       |
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