Safety-Critical Software Development (Computer Science)

如果运行时错误或故障可能导致死亡、伤害、财产损失或环境危害，则系统或子系统可能被称为“安全关键”。建立此类系统的一种方法是消除或最小化可能导致事故的危险情况发生的可能性。本研究的长期目标是提供一种方法，包括一个集成的工具集；建立这样的系统，确保由计算机造成的危害风险是可接受的。以前的工作涉及正式建模和分析过程，用于识别软件危害和安全关键软件需求，分析软件的完整性和健壮性需求，验证和评估安全性，以及将安全性设计到软件中，包括运行时支持环境和软件容错。本研究将把这些技术扩展到分布式系统，并将需求分析过程应用到一系列需求说明语言中。互动部分包括教授关于软件可靠性和安全性的研究生课程，在地区大学进行客座讲座，并与女教员和研究人员就测试领域的安全相关工作开展富有成效的互动。该项目进一步推进了VPW计划的目标，即(1)为女性提供在工程和NSF支持的科学学科中发展职业的机会；(2)通过为在工业、政府和学术机构工作的女性科学家和工程师提供更大的知名度，鼓励女性在科学和工程领域追求职业。通过鼓励妇女参与科学，这是对国家未来科学活力的宝贵投资。

A system or subsystem may be termed "safety-critical" if a run-time error or failure can result in death, injury, loss of property, or environmental harm. One approach to building such systems is to eliminate or minimize the probability of hazardous conditions occurring that could lead to accidents. The long-term goal of this research is to provide a methodology, including an integrated tool set; for building such systems that ensures that the risk of harm caused by the computer is acceptable. Previous work has involved formal modeling and analysis procedures for identifying software hazards and safety-critical software requirements, analyzing software requirements for completeness and robustness, verifying and assessing safety, and designing safety into software including run-time support environments and software fault tolerance. This research will extend these techniques to distributed systems and apply the requirements analysis procedures to a family of requirements specification languages. The interactive component involves teaching a graduate course in software reliability and safety, giving guest lectures at area universities, and initiating productive interaction on safety-related work in the field of testing with women faculty and researchers. This project furthers VPW program objectives which are (1) to provide opportunities for women to advance their careers in engineering and in the disciplines of science supported by NSF and (2) to encourage women to pursue careers in science and engineering by providing greater visibility for women scientists and engineers employed in industry, government, and academic institutions. By encouraging the participation of women in science, it is a valuable investment in the Nation's future scientific vitality.