Title: Some Problems in Software Safety

Speaker: Zhuojun Liu （Professor of Systems Sciences, Academy of Maths and Systems Sciences, CAS）

Date and Time: 15:00, 29th July 2014

Venue: Seminar Room (334), Level 3, Building 5, Institute of Software, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Abstract：

Software, hardware, firmware are well-known basic terms in computer science. Twenty years ago, Nancy G. Leveson coined also the term safeware. Leveson is a professor of aeronautics and astronautics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA, and a fellow of the National Academy of Engineering, USA. In her monograph safeware published in 1995, Leveson presented a technical roadmap of implanting safety into systems and software.

Despite tremendous effort from scientists and engineers, software-intensive civil and military complex systems cannot be, and never will be, made accident-free. This talk intends to discuss some key problems in software safety from the perspective of system safety. We argue that there should be safety assurance not only in the functionality of software but also in the development process of software.

We shall examine some accident cases related to software, analyse the difference between software safety and hardware safety, and review the basics of software safety processes. With the pervasiveness of software, software safety and safeware will attract more and more attention. This brings not only challenges, but also opportunities.