Computer Aided Verification

This course covers fundamental algorithms and modeling techniques for formal verification of computer systems. In particular, it covers topics such as model checking, satisfiability (SAT) solving and satisfiability modulo theories (SMT). These techniques have become essential tools for the design and analysis of both hardware designs and software systems. These methods allow the designer exhaustively check if a system satisfies its specification, or to systematically seek for cases where it fails to do so. The emphasis is on the underlying logical and automata-theoretic concepts, the algorithmic solutions, and heuristics to cope with the high computational complexity. Students will experiment with checking the system correctness by writing formal proofs manually and by applying fully automated verification tools.