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Structural Operational Semantics 2006
A Satellite Workshop of CONCUR 2006

August 26, 2006, Bonn, Germany


Photos by Mohammed Mousavi

Invited Talks
& Accepted Papers

Programme

Preliminary Proceedings

Final Proceedings
in ENTCS 175(1)

Special issue of
Information & Computation

Invited speakers

Bartek Klin (Warsaw, PL)
Robin Milner (Cambridge, UK)
(a joint Express-Infinity-SOS talk)

Program Committee

Rocco De Nicola (Florence, IT)
Wan Fokkink (Amsterdam, NL)
Rob van Glabbeek (NICTA, AU, co-chair)
Reiko Heckel (Leicester, UK)
Matthew Hennessy (Sussex, UK)
Ugo Montanari (Pisa, IT)
Peter Mosses (Swansea, UK, co-chair)
MohammadReza Mousavi (Eindhoven, NL)
David Sands (Chalmers, SE)
Irek Ulidowski (Leicester, UK)
Shoji Yuen (Nagoya, JP)

Contact email

sos2006@cs.stanford.edu

Workshop organisers

Rob van Glabbeek
National ICT Australia
Locked Bag 6016
University of New South Wales
Sydney, NSW 1466
Australia

Peter D. Mosses
Department of Computer Science
Swansea University
Singleton Park
Swansea SA2 8PP
United Kingdom

Webpage:
http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~rvg/SOS2006

Aim: Structural operational semantics (SOS) provides a framework for giving operational semantics to programming and specification languages. A growing number of programming languages from commercial and academic spheres have been given usable semantic descriptions by means of structural operational semantics. Because of its intuitive appeal and flexibility, structural operational semantics has found considerable application in the study of the semantics of concurrent processes. Moreover, it is becoming a viable alternative to denotational semantics in the static analysis of programs, and in proving compiler correctness.

Recently, structural operational semantics has been successfully applied as a formal tool to establish results that hold for classes of process description languages. This has allowed for the generalisation of well-known results in the field of process algebra, and for the development of a meta-theory for process calculi based on the realization that many of the results in this field only depend upon general semantic properties of language constructs.

This workshop aims at being a forum for researchers, students and practitioners interested in new developments, and directions for future investigation, in the field of structural operational semantics. One of the specific goals of the workshop is to establish synergies between the concurrency and programming language communities working on the theory and practice of SOS. Moreover, it aims at widening the knowledge of SOS among postgraduate students and young researchers worldwide.

Specific topics of interest include (but are not limited to):

  • programming languages
  • process algebras
  • higher-order formalisms
  • rule formats for operational specifications
  • meaning of operational specifications
  • comparisons between denotational, axiomatic and SOS
  • compositionality of modal logics with respect to operational specifications
  • congruence with respect to behavioural equivalences
  • conservative extensions
  • derivation of proof rules from operational specifications
  • software tools that automate, or are based on, SOS.
Papers reporting on applications of SOS to software engineering and other areas of computer science are welcome.

History: The first SOS Workshop took place on the 30th of August 2004 in London as one of the satellite workshops of CONCUR 2004, and was attended by over 30 participants. The second SOS Workshop occurred on the 10th of July 2005 as a satellite workshop of ICALP 2005, and accepted 7 out of 19 submissions.

Paper submission: We solicit unpublished papers reporting on original research on the general theme of SOS. Prospective authors should register their intention to submit a paper by uploading a title and abstract here by Friday 26 May 2006. Papers should take the form of a pdf file in ENTCS format, whose length should not exceed 15 pages (not including an optional "Appendix for referees" containing proofs that will not be included in the final paper). We will also consider 5-page papers describing tools to be demonstrated at the workshop. Submissions from PC members are allowed.

Proceedings: Preliminary proceedings will be available at the meeting. The final proceedings of the workshop will appear as a volume in the ENTCS series. Instructions for authors are here. Here is the stylefile entcsmacro.sty that authors should use in preparing the final version of their paper.

If the quality and quantity of the submissions warrant it, the co-chairs plan to arrange a special issue of an archival journal devoted to full versions of selected papers from the workshop.

Important Dates:

  • Submission of abstract: Friday 26 May 2006
  • Submission: Sunday 4 June 2006, midnight GMT
  • Notification: Wednesday 28 June 2006
  • Final version: Friday 14 July 2006
  • Workshop: Saturday 26 August 2006
  • Final ENTCS version: Friday 29 September 2006.


Rob van Glabbeek, Formal Methods Group, National ICT Australia.