Dear colleagues, would you please forward this e-mail to the students of yours that may be interested by these 3-year PhD positions, proposed at Onera (the French Aerospace Research Center) in Toulouse. Fluency in French *or* in English is mandatory. This subjects are part of a research agenda aiming at helping define and verify large and complex (non-software) systems by using categorical methods as already used in computer science. Best regards, dc -- David CHEMOUIL ONERA/DTIM - 2 avenue Édouard Belin - F-31055 Toulouse Tel: +33 (0) 5 6225 2936 - Fax: +33 (0) 5 6225 2593 http://www.onera.fr/staff/david-chemouil FOUNDATIONS FOR SPACE SYSTEMS MODELING —PhD Position at ONERA, Toulouse, France— Reference: TIS-DTIM2009-02 Application deadline: 2009-05-31 PhD direction: David Chemouil and Virginie Wiels (ONERA), Jean-Paul Bodeveix (IRIT) Contact: David Chemouil ONERA/DTIM 2 avenue Édouard Belin F-31055 Toulouse, France david.chemouil+phd[AT]onera.fr http://www.onera.fr/staff/david-chemouil Subject: The development of space systems (including on-board and ground systems) requires complex engineering and relies upon various disciplines. Until now, the success of such projects has relied upon the quality and experience of engineers as well as on partly-automated development processes. However, although some technical artifacts (e.g: mathematical model of a battery, satellite simulator) are used in such developments, there is still —and mainly— a huge amount of paper documentation expressed in natural language. This complexity and diversity of technical means mitigate the validation of a whole space system. Systems model-based development, inspired by similar approaches in the software field, is gaining more and more importance both in the industrial and academic communities. However, the mainstream solutions currently proposed are still unsatisfactory, notably on two major points: – on one hand, the requirement capture phase and its further refinement towards a formal specification are not well taken into account; – on the other hand, there is still a lack of formal semantics for architectural models. Both these points have obviously a strong impact on the verification and validation of such systems. The objective of this PhD is to propose relevant concepts for a modeling language addressing these questions. The solution to the first problem may rely on goal-oriented requirement engineering, in the style of KAOS or Tropos methods... The second question will be addressed by devising formal architectural concepts with further (semi-)automated verification in mind. Categorical and/or algebraic approaches, process calculi, model-oriented techniques (such as the B method) will be favoured. Results from software engineering, such as component-based development will be taken into account. The results of the PhD will be backed up by a case study and may be implemented in a software prototype. Candidate profile: MSc in computer science, having followed some “theory” courses (e.g logic, λ-calculus, process algebra, algebraic specification, B or Z method, etc.). Fluency in English. Gross salary: ranging 1680-2140 EUR /month depending on the profile. 3-year position. Localisation: Onera is the French Aerospace Research Center, affiliated to the French Ministry of Defence. The PhD will be carried out at Toulouse premises. Located in southwest France, Toulouse is a lively city, the 4th most important town in France, and the 2nd one as far as the student population is concerned (see <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toulouse>). A FORMAL SETTING FOR VIEWPOINT COMPOSITION —PhD Position at ONERA, Toulouse, France— Reference: TIS-DTIM2009-01 Application deadline: 2009-05-31 PhD direction: David Chemouil and Virginie Wiels (ONERA), Sergei Soloviev(IRIT) Contact: David Chemouil ONERA/DTIM 2 avenue Édouard Belin F-31055 Toulouse, France david.chemouil+phd[AT]onera.fr http://www.onera.fr/staff/david-chemouil Subject: A current approach to the engineering of systems (software systems, sociotechnical systems, systems of systems, etc.) consists in modeling them, during specification and design phases, according to various viewpoints. This approach aims at helping engineers handle extremely complex systems by providing them with a view corresponding to their sole business (e.g air or space regulation, dependability, realtime performance, etc.), abstracting from other concerns. Of course, the viewpoints that are useful may strongly vary on the context, henceforth entailing the recurring definition of new multi-view modeling languages. This definition is usually ad-hoc, which forces language designers either to ignore semantic matters and remain on a purely syntactic definition, or to propose a new formal semantics and demonstrate a certain number of otherwise standard results. The aim of this PhD is to propose a theoretical setting to assist in the creation of multi-view languages out of “small” predefined modeling languages (each one being concerned with only one topic). The major question is then to determine under which conditions it is possible to deduce the formal semantics of the multi-view language from the semantics of its constituent languages. Another way to state this problem is to say that we aim at provding a formal semantics to aspect-oriented metamodeling. The foreseen theoretical solutions essentially rely on categorical approaches: algebraic speci- fication, theory of institutions, graph grammars, etc. The results of the PhD will be backed up by a case study and may be implemented in a software prototype. Candidate profile: MSc in computer science or in logic, having followed some “theory” courses (e.g logic, λ-calculus, process algebra, algebraic specification, etc.). Fluency in English. Gross salary: ranging 1680-2140 EUR /month depending on the profile. 3-year position. Localisation: Onera is the French Aerospace Research Center, affiliated to the French Ministry of Defence. The PhD will be carried out at Toulouse premises. Located in southwest France, Toulouse is a lively city, the 4th most important town in France, and the 2nd one as far as the student population is concerned (see <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toulouse>).