When a program is sliced it contracts. This contraction is crucial on all of slicing's applications.
A slice is defined by a criterion fro extracting the slice and thereby contracting the program. However, using current techniques the abstraction level of the slicing criteria is very low. The CONTRACTS project aims to use concept assignment to address this problem.
CONTRACTS is a joint project with Dr Nic Gold at UMIST. Nic brings the expertise in Concept assignment to the project while Mark Harman brings the expertise in slicing. That's also a kind of unstated contract.
The CONTRACTS proposal starts October 2004. CONTRACTS is funded by the EPSRC. It was ranked number one by the prioritization panel which considered it.
This is a network project that aims to bring together researchers working on Analysis, Slicing and Transformation to see how these techniques can be combined and enhanced.
ASTRENet starts Autumn 2004. ASTRENet is funded by the EPSRC.
This project was a small source of funding to hold a workshop on Search Based Software Engineering. The workshop was jointly funded by the EPSRC and DaimlerChrysler. It was held in September 2003 at the Cumberland Lodge.
TeTra aims to improve software testability using transformations. The transformations to be used are novel because they need not preserve traditional notion of equivalence. In the conventional sense they are not therefore meaning preserving transformations. However, they are adequate test set preserving.
The approach is also novel because the transformations are not an end but a means to an end; once the test data is generated, the transformed program can be discarded.
TeTra started in January 2003. TeTra is funded by the EPSRC. It was ranked number one by the prioritization panel which considered it.
A few details are available on the TeTra page.
GUSTT is an EPSRC funded project concerned with algorithms and applications of amorphous slicing.
More details are available on the GUSTT page.
Start date: October 1st 1999
Completion date: September 30th 2002.
GUSTT was rated as "Outstanding" on completion (the top rating).
SEMINAL is an EPSRC funded network concerned with the application of Metaheuristic Algorithms to problems in Software Engineering. We plan to see if Software Engineering problems can be thought of as `search' problems, in which near optimal solutions can be located using Genetic Algorithms, Simulated Annealing and Tabu Search.
More details are available on the SEMINAL page.
Start date: November 1st 1999.
Completion date: October 31st 2001.
SEMINAL was rated as "Tending to outstanding" (the second highest rank) on completion.
The goal of this project is to use genetic algorithms to optimise program transformation, specialisation and simplification.
The project is funded by the Brunel Research Initiative and Enterprise Fund (BRIEF) for the first year and by the Department of Information Systems and Computing (DISC).
More details are available on the GASE page.
Start date: Dec 2000/Jan 2001
Completion date: Dec 2004
VASTT is an informal group of London-based academics and researchers who meet on an ad hoc basis to discuss work related to Verification, Analysis, Slicing, Testing and Transformation.
More details are available on the VASTT page.
Start date: Some time in summer 1998
Completion date: None
Project project is the name for a loose association of UK academics working on program slicing and relating program analysis and manipulation techniques.
Project project has been subsumed by VASTT, but the Project Project web page still has some information explaining the interest in slicing and transformation.
Start date: October 1st 1994
Completion date: Some time in summer 1998