About this course: Have you ever experienced software systems failing? Websites crash, calendar not synchronising, or even a power blackout. Of course you have! But did you know that many of these errors are the result of communication errors either within a system or between systems? Depending on the system, the impact of software failures can be huge, even resulting in massive economic damage or loss of lives. Software, and in particular the communication between software-intensive systems, is very complex and very difficult to get right. However, we _need_ dependability in the systems we use, directly or indirectly, to support us in our everyday lives. System Validation helps you to design embedded system behaviour that is structurally sound. It also enforces you to make the behaviour simple and insightful; systems that are designed for sound behaviour are also much easier to maintain and adapt. System Validation is the field that studies the fundamentals of system communication and information processing. The techniques put forward in system validaton allow to prove the absence of errors. This first course ’Automata and behavioural equivalences', builds the foundation of the subsequent courses, showing you how to look at system behaviour as state machines. It discusses behavioural equivalences and illustrate these in a number of examples and quizzes. This course explains labelled transition systems or automata to model behaviour for especially software controlled systems. An important question is when two behaviours represented by such automata are equal. The answer to this question is not at all straightforward, but the resulting equivalences are used as powerful tools to simplify complex behaviour. This allows us to exactly investigate and understand the behavioural properties of such systems precisely. Especially, in the combination with hiding of behaviour, equivalence reduction is a unique technique to obtain insight in the behaviour of systems, far more effective than simulation or testing. Using this insight we can make the models correct. Such models form an excellent basis for the production of concise, reliable and maintainable software. This course is part I of the set of courses for System Validation. System Validation, as a set of courses, is part of a larger EIT Digital online programme called 'Internet of Things through Embedded Systems'.
Who is this class for: This class is for first year Master students in Electrical Engineering or Computer Science. Note that as a consequence, quiz questions are more exam questions where you have to construct the answer based on the principles that are taught in the web lectures, rather than to recall the literal text of the teacher.
Taught by: Jan Friso Groote, Full professor
Mathematics and Computer Science, Eindhoven University of Technology
| Level | Intermediate |
| Commitment | 3 weeks, 3 to 5 hours per week |
| Language | English |
| How To Pass | Pass all graded assignments to complete the course. |
| User Ratings |
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Thanks! Very well done for an introductory course.
thx a lot prof.
I really like the subject of the course. The presentation was really good. However, some of the concepts were not so easy to understand. The course does not provide any reading, so I had to watch the lectures again if I forget some of the details. Eventually I've started taking detailed notes and added screenshots to my notebook. I wish I could have more exercises just for practice that would not be graded. That would provide a safe env. to learn and practice before taking final tests. Some of the answers to exercises were very helpful to learn the concepts better. So, more such practical exercises would be helpful.
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It will be better if these materials could be summarized into a table at the end of the course.