MOTIVATION

Software cybernetics explores the interplay between software/software behavior and control. The fundamental question of interest is: when and, quantitatively speaking, how can software behavior, software processes, or software systems be adapted or evolved to meet old and new objectives in the presence of changes in the environment, such as disturbances, faults, or expanded requirements? This emerging and inter-disciplinary area addresses issues and questions on 1) the formalization and quantification of feedback and self-adaptive control mechanisms in software, 2) the adaptation of control theory principles to software processes and systems, 3) the application of software engineering principles and theories to control systems, and 4) the integration of the theories of software engineering and control engineering.

This workshop is the successor of two previous workshops on software cybernetics whch were held in conjunction with COMPSAC 2004 and COMPSAC 2005 -- the 28th and 29th IEEE International Computer Software and Application Conference. Besides the technological motivation described above, this workshop is also motivated by the enthusiastic participation and success of the first and the second IWSCs.

This workshop will serve as a platform for interaction among like-minded researchers and practitioners to 1) define/understand the emerging themes and directions of software cybernetics, 2) set forth the fundamental principles of control and software engineering on which software cybernetics must build, 3) articulate the on-going work in the area of software cybernetics, and 4) chart out an agenda for future theoretical and experimental research in this area.  

BACKGROUND

Software technology and software systems greatly impact technological products, economic activities, defense, scientific research, and social life. The complexity of software continues to grow. Failures of software projects and software systems may incur high financial costs and even human life. There is no doubt that various software development processes and the complicated behavior of software systems must be kept functional and even evolved in the context of a changing environment. Conceptually, this is precisely the purpose of control theory, and hence the marriage of software and control engineering can be seen as the first stage in the development of software cybernetics.

Presently, most software development follows ad hoc approaches and depends heavily on software development personnel and company resources. Feedback mechanisms, ubiquitous in software processes and systems, have not been formalized, quantified, or optimized. Since feedback and optimization are two central themes in control and decision theories, a natural question to further ask is: what roles can feedback control based approaches play in the control of various software processes and systems and, more fundamentally, in their development?

Further, the widespread deployment of computers and embedded software in control systems poses a challenge to existing control theories that do not account for the special characteristics of software. In order to achieve satisfactory control of processes or, for example, the future intelligent home, the evolutional nature of software should be considered in synthesizing control policies. An important example of such a synthesis is the improvement of the reliability of fly-by-wire systems in modern aircraft whose underlying control laws should be robust to certain classes of software faults. It seems reasonable to consider software problems in the light of control theoretic formulation.

Software cybernetics unifies and expands various seemingly unrelated research topics under different umbrellas, such as adaptive software, adaptive rejuvenation, active security enhancement, supervisory control approaches applied to software synthesis, etc. It also gives birth to new and challenging research topics, such as feedback control of the software test process and adaptive testing.

SCOPE

The objectives of this workshop are:

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

IMPORTANT DATES

June 16, 2006

SUBMISSION

Papers must be submitted electronically via the IWSC 2006 Submission Page. Please follow the instructions posted on the web site. The format of submitted papers should follow the guidelines for IEEE conference proceedings. All papers will be carefully reviewed by at least three reviewers. Papers will be accepted (and can be submitted) as either regular papers, short papers, or fast abstracts. Acceptance and final category depends on reviewer feedback.

Accepted papers or fast abstracts will be published in the workshop proceedings of the 30th IEEE Computer Software and Applications Conference (COMPSAC 2006). At least one of the authors of each accepted paper or fast abstract must register as a full participant of the workshop to have the paper or fast abstract published in the proceedings.