Group Aichernig - Formal Methods

The group headed by Bernhard K. Aichernig specialises in the research and application of formal methods for software development. The group's work covers activities in all development phases, ranging from requirements engineering, over testing and verification, to reverse engineering. 

As shown in the figure below, the research activities can be grouped into three categories. Specification & Design concentrates on the early phases of development and considers objectives, such as finding a suitable abstraction for a given problem. Falsification mainly deals with software testing and related techniques, such as model learning. Resarch belonging to this category offers for instance methods for automated test-case generation, with the goal of efficiently finding defects. Verification in contrast aims to show that a software system or component does not contain flaws. Proof-based development for instance provides techniques to create software that is correct-by-design.   

The group has a strong theoretical background in formal methods, but also applies their research in industry, e.g. in the automotive domain.