Integration and Evolution of Software Models with Executable Logic

BSF application number: 2017742, NSF application number: 1814457 Abstract : CCF-BSF:SHF:Small:Integration and Evolution of Software Models with Executable Logic Mira Balaban, Ben-Gurion University, ISRAEL Michael Kifer, SUNY Stony Brook, USA Our society, our well-being, our lives already almost entirely depend on software and this trend is only going to accelerate. Quite soon autonomous vehicles will dominate our every day experience, phones will know more about us than we do, and our refrigerators will talk to our kitchen stoves. Needless to say that all these devices better be driven by reliable software. Model Based Software Engineering (MBSE) is one of the leading approaches to tackling the growing complexity of the software. It views software development as a process that goes through multiple layers of abstraction supported by a variety of model level services.

The BSE approach has triggered many efforts aiming to develop both the necessary formal methods as well as tool support.

The problem, in our view, is that all these disparate efforts provide one-of-a-kind solution to isolated problems and none is treating the problem holistically. As a result, model-driven development processes are not common and the existing environments provide little support for this. The objective of the proposed research is to change this state of affairs and commence the process of developing both logical foundations and a prototype realization of reasoning services for model engineering, with emphasis on mediation based integration, partitioning, and evolution of software models. In this schema of things, the logic rule language FOML/PathLP will play the central role of an executable modeling specification language that will support a variety of modeling integration, reasoning and evolution services. The expected outcome of this project will be a theory, algorithms, and a prototype for mediated reasoning services for logic-based systems engineering, which will support integration and evolution of modeling services.

Broader impact. The success of the efforts initiated by this proposal has the potential to affect all aspects of our lives by helping make software more reliable. Software reliability immediately translates into saved lives, smaller budgets, less wasted energy, and greater prosperity overall. True model-level support will become available to software engineers, exposing them to the full power of models. This is expected to trigger the development of more powerful model engineering services, leading to a qualitative leap in software reliability. The impact of this is hard to underestimate, as software permeates virtually all aspects of our society.