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BCS-FACS
BCS Formal Aspects of Computing Science
AbbreviationFACS
Named afterFormal methods
Formation16 March 1978;46 years ago(1978-03-16)
TypeSpecialist group
PurposeSupport forformal methodsactivities, especially meetings
HeadquartersBCSLondon office
Location
Region served
United Kingdom
ServicesMeeting organization, publications
MethodsFormal methods
FieldsComputer science,software engineering,formal methods
Official language
English
Chair
Jonathan Bowen
Treasurer
John Cooke
Secretary
Roger Carsley
Key people
Tim Denvir,Jawed Siddiqi
Main organ
FACS FACTS
Parent organization
BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT
AffiliationsFormal Methods Europe;
London Mathematical Society
Websitefacs.bcs.org

BCS-FACSis theBCSFormal Aspects of Computing ScienceSpecialist Group.

Overview

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The FACS group, inaugurated on 16 March 1978,[1]organizes meetings for its members and others onformal methodsand relatedcomputer sciencetopics. There is an associated journal,Formal Aspects of Computing,published bySpringer,and a more informalFACS FACTSnewsletter.[2]

The group celebrated its 20th anniversary with a meeting at theRoyal SocietyinLondonin 1998, with presentations by four eminent computer scientists,Mike Gordon,Tony Hoare,Robin MilnerandGordon Plotkin,allFellows of the Royal Society.

From 2002 to 2008 and since 2013 again, the Chair of BCS-FACS has beenJonathan Bowen.Jawed Siddiqiwas chair during 2008–2013. In December 2002, BCS-FACS organized a conference on theFormal Aspects of Security(FASec'02)[3]atRoyal Holloway,University of London.[4]In 2004, FACS organized a major event atLondon South Bank Universityto celebrate its own 25th anniversary and also25 Years ofCSP(CSP25),[5]attended by the originator of CSP,Sir Tony Hoare,and others in the field.[6]

The group liaises with other related groups such as theCentre for Software Reliability,Formal Methods Europe,theLondon Mathematical SocietyComputer Committee, theSafety-Critical Systems Club,and theZ User Group.It has held joint meetings with other BCS specialist groups such as theAdvanced Programming GroupandBCSWomen.

FACS sponsors and supports meetings, such as the Refinement Workshop.[7]It has often held a Christmas event each year, with a theme related to formal aspects of computing — for example, teaching formal methods[8]and formal methods in industry.[9]BCS-FACS supported the ABZ 2008 conference at the BCS London premises.[10]In 2015, FACS hosted a two-day ProCoS Workshop on "Provably Correct Systems", with many former members of theESPRITProCoS I and II projects and Working Group of the 1990s.[11]

Evening seminars

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John C. Reynolds(1935–2013), American computer scientist, who delivered the first BCS-FACSPeter LandinSemantics Seminarin 2010.[12]
Joe Stoyspeaking on the pioneer computer scientistChristopher Strachey(1916–1975) for his centenary, during a BCS-FACS evening seminar at the BCS London office on 15 November 2016.

In recent years, a series of evening seminars have been held, mainly at the BCS London office. Speakers have included leading computer scientists, mainly from theUnited Kingdombut some from abroad, includingSamson AbramskyFRS,Jean-Raymond Abrial(France/Switzerland),Farhad Arbab,Troy Astarte,Dines Bjørner(Denmark),Robin Bloomfield,Richard Bornat(twice),Egon Börger(Italy),Jonathan Bowen,Jan Broenink(Netherlands),Michael Butler,Muffy CalderOBE(twice),Jack Copeland(New Zealand),Tim Denvir,Cedric Fournet(France),Mike GordonFRS,Anthony Hall,Mark Harman,Martin Henson,Rob Hierons,Jane Hillston,Mike Hinchey,SirTony HoareFRS,Mike Holcombe,Michael Jackson,Cliff Jones,Marta Kwiatkowska(twice),Zhiming Liu,Tom Maibaum,Ursula MartinCBE,Peter Mosses,Ben Moszkowski,Peter O'HearnFRS,Steve Reeves(New Zealand),John Reynolds(USA),Peter Ryan,Steve Schneider,Joe Stoy,David Turner,John Tucker,Phil Wadler,among others. In 2010, a book of chapters based on some of these talks was published.[13] Talks have been held annually withFormal Methods Europeand theLondon Mathematical Society(at the LMS headquarters in central London). Since 2010, there has been anAnnual Peter Landin Semantics Seminarheld each December in memory of the British computer scientistPeter Landin(1930–2009).[14]

FACS FACTS newsletter

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TheFACS FACTSnewsletter (ISSN0950-1231) is published periodically, originally on paper and now online.[2]The editors are Tim Denvir and Brian Monahan.[15]

F. X. Reidhas been a regularFACS FACTSnewsletter contributor in the past. For example, he has been an enthusiast for theCOMEFROMstatement and an expert on its semantics.[16]Apparently reports of FXR's death in 2006[17]were untrue and his musings continued after this time in the newsletter.

See also

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References

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  1. ^Cooke, D.J.; Simpson, D. (April 1990). "FACS at ten".FACS FACTS:The Newsletter of the BCS FormalAspects of Computing Science SG.Series II.1(1): 4–6.
  2. ^ab"Back issues of FACS FACTS".BCS-FACS.Retrieved3 August2022.
  3. ^"FASec'02 conference".Archive.org.London South Bank University.2002. Archived fromthe originalon 27 September 2007.
  4. ^Ali E. Abdallah, Peter Ryan and Steve Schneider (editors),Formal Aspects of Security.Springer,Lecture Notes in Computer Science,Volume 2629, 2003.ISBN3-540-20693-0.
  5. ^"CSP25 conference".Archive.org.London South Bank University.2004. Archived fromthe originalon 8 October 2007.
  6. ^Ali E. Abdallah,Cliff B. Jonesand Jeff W. Sanders (editors),Communicating Sequential Processes: The First 25 Years.Springer,Lecture Notes in Computer Science,Volume 3525, 2005.ISBN3-540-25813-2.
  7. ^John Derrick, Eerke Boiten,Jim Woodcockand Joakim von Wright (editors),REFINE 2002: The BCS FACS Refinement Workshop.Electronic Notes in Theoretical Computer Science,70(3).Elsevier Science Publishers,July 2002.
  8. ^Paul Boca, Jonathan P. Bowen, and David A. Duce (editors),Teaching Formal Methods: Practice and Experience,BCS London, UK, 15 December 2006.Electronic Workshops in Computing(eWiC), BCS, 2006.
  9. ^Paul Boca, Jonathan P. Bowen, and Peter Gorm Larsen (editors),FACS 2007 Christmas Workshop: Formal Methods in Industry,BCS London, UK, 17 December 2007.Electronic Workshops in Computing(eWiC), BCS, 2007.
  10. ^"ABZ 2008 Conference".September 2008. Archived fromthe originalon 18 January 2008.Retrieved25 August2017.
  11. ^Hinchey, Michael G.;Bowen, Jonathan P.;Olderog, Ernst-Rüdiger,eds. (2017).Provably Correct Systems.NASAMonographs in Systems and Software Engineering.Springer.ISBN978-3319486277.
  12. ^"Peter Landin Annual Semantics Seminar".BCS-FACS.London, UK: BCS. 6 December 2010. Archived fromthe originalon 6 March 2012.
  13. ^Boca, Paul; Bowen, Jonathan P.; Siddiqi, Jawed, eds. (2010).Formal Methods: State of the Art and New Directions.London:Springer-Verlag.Bibcode:2010fmso.book.....B.doi:10.1007/978-1-84882-736-3.ISBN978-1-84882-735-6.e-ISBN978-1-84882-736-3.
  14. ^"BCS FACS Annual Peter Landin Semantics seminar".BCS-FACS.British Computer Society.2012.Retrieved4 December2012.
  15. ^"FACS: Committee and contact details".BCS.Retrieved25 January2021.
  16. ^Reid, F. X. (March 2006)."On the Formal Semantics of the COMEFROM Statement"(PDF).FACS FACTS.No. 2006–1. BCS-FACS. pp. 18–20.Retrieved7 November2012.
  17. ^Zemantics, Victor (March 2006)."Obituary: F.X. Reid"(PDF).FACS FACTS.No. 2006–1. BCS-FACS. pp. 12–14.Retrieved7 November2012.
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