Seventh Workshop on Quantitative Aspects of Programming Languages (QAPL 2009) March 28-29, 2009 York, UK

• History
• Scope
• Topics
• Invited speaker
• Submissions
• Important dates
• Program chair
• Program committee
• Schedule

Previous editions:

• QAPL 2008, Budapest, Hungary.
• QAPL 2007, Braga, Portugal. (ENTCS 190(3))
• QAPL 2006, Vienna, Austria. (ENTCS 164(3))
• QAPL 2005, Edinburgh, UK. (ENTCS 153(2))
• QAPL 2004, Barcelona, Spain. (ENTCS 112)
• QAPL 2001, Florence, Italy. (ENTCS 59(3))

Scope

• the design of probabilistic, real-time, quantum languages and the definition of semantical models for such languages;
• the discussion of methodologies for the analysis of probabilistic and timing properties (e.g. security, safety, schedulability) and of other quantifiable properties such as reliability (for hardware components), trustworthiness (in information security) and resource usage (e.g., worst-case memory/stack/cache requirements);
• the probabilistic analysis of systems which do not explicitly incorporate quantitative aspects (e.g. performance, reliability and risk analysis);
• applications to safety-critical systems, communication protocols, control systems, asynchronous hardware, and to any other domain involving quantitative issues.

Topics

Invited speaker

• Vincent Danos, Universite Paris Diderot - Paris 7, France.
  Internal coarse-graining of rule-based models

  The rule-based approach allows for descriptions of protein-protein interaction networks despite their combinatorial complexity. Using such descriptions we propose an abstract interpretation framework to extract reduced differential systems. We show that our approach is sound in that the solutions of the reduced system are projections of solutions of the concrete system. Importantly, the concrete system is never explicitly computed. We also Ūnd that the approach yields a spectacular compression on a realistic example.

• Jane Hillston, University of Edinburgh, UK.
  Process Algebras for Collective Dynamics

  Stochastic process algebras have been successfully applied to quantitative evaluation of systems for over a decade. For example, in the context of performance analysis, PEPA has been used to describe both software and hardware systems and has helped to incorporate early performance prediction into the design process.

  By modelling systems as collections of individual agents, the process algebra approach allows the modeller to capture the exact form of interactions and constraints between entities. However, there are situations where, although we model the behaviour of individuals, we aim to analyse the behaviour of the populations to which they belong. These systems are characterised by their collective dynamics. Examples range from representing the biochemical signalling that underlies many cellular processes to studying the scalability of software systems under increasing numbers of clients.

  In this talk I will discuss recent work on such population-oriented models described in stochastic process algebra. The semantics of individual-oriented stochastic process algebra models generally give rise to discrete state space, continuous time Markov chains. In the context of collective dyanamics, an alternative mathematical framework based on sets of ordinary differential equations can be more appropriate. I will discuss the relationship between these alternative forms of representation and show that the new approach becomes feasible in many cases when the previous discrete approach becomes impossible due to problems of state space explosion.

Submissions

1. Regular paper submissions must be original work, and must not have been previously published, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere. Regular paper submission must not exceed 15 pages, possibly followed by a clearly marked appendix which will be removed for the proceedings and contains technical material for the reviewers.
2. A presentation reports on recent or ongoing work on relevant topics and ideas, for timely discussion and feedback at the workshop. There is no restriction as for previous/future publication of the contents of a presentation. Typically, a presentation is based on a paper which recently appeared (or which is going to appear) in the proceedings of another recognized conference, or which has not yet been submitted. The (extended) abstract of presentation submissions should not exceed 4 pages.

Important dates