The Symposium on Dependable Software Engineering: Theories, Tools and Applications (SETTA) 2021 will be held in Beijing on November 25-27, 2021, co-located with FM'2021.

Formal methods emerged as an important area in computer science and software engineering about half a century ago. An international community is formed researching, developing and teaching formal theories, techniques and tools for software modeling, specification, design and verification. However, the impact of formal methods on the quality improvement of software systems in practice is lagging behind. This is for instance reflected by the challenges in applying formal techniques and tools to engineering large-scale systems such as Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), Internet-of-Things (IoT), Enterprise Systems, Cloud-Based Systems, and so forth.

The purpose of the SETTA symposium is to bring international researchers together to exchange research results and ideas on bridging the gap between formal methods and software engineering. The interaction with the Chinese computer science and software engineering community is a central focus point. The aim is to show research interests and results from different groups so as to initiate interest-driven research collaboration. The SETTA symposium is aiming at academic excellence and its objective is to become a flagship conference on formal software engineering in China.

To achieve these goals and contribute to the sustainability of the formal methods research, it is important for the symposium to attract young researchers into the community. Thus, this symposium encourages in particular the participation of young researchers and students.

This year, SETTA welcomes submissions to the following two tracks: Journal First Papers and Research Papers.

All submissions must be in the PDF format. Papers should be written in English. Submitted papers must be unpublished and not submitted for publication elsewhere. Accepted papers for both tracks must be presented at the conference.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Requirements specification and analysis
• Formalisms for modeling, design and implementation
• Model checking, theorem proving, and decision procedures
• Scalable approaches to formal system analysis
• Formal approaches to simulation, run-time verification, and testing
• Integration of formal methods into software engineering practice
• Contract-based engineering of components, systems, and systems of systems
• Formal and engineering aspects of software evolution and maintenance
• Parallel and multicore programming
• Embedded, real-time, hybrid, probabilistic, and cyber-physical systems
• Mixed-critical applications and systems
• Formal aspects of service-oriented and cloud computing
• Safety, reliability, robustness, and fault-tolerance
• Dependability of smart software and systems
• Empirical analysis techniques and integration with formal methods
• Applications and industrial experience reports
• Software tools to assist the construction or analysis of software systems

Research papers will be published in the SETTA 2021 proceedings as a volume in Springer's LNCS series. Papers should be submitted electronically through the EasyChair submission web page.

A selection of papers will be invited to a special issue of the Elsevier Journal of Systems Architecture (JSA).

A selection of papers will also be invited to a special issue of the Springer International Journal on Software Tools for Technology Transfer (STTT).

Important dates

Submission Guidelines

Authors are invited to submit papers on original research, industrial applications, or position papers proposing challenges in fundamental research and technology. The latter two types of submissions are expected to contribute to the development of formal methods and applications thereof in software engineering. This is done by either substantiating the advantages of integrating formal methods into the development cycle or through delineating the need for research by demonstrating weaknesses of existing technologies, especially when addressing new application domains.

Submissions can take the form of either regular or short papers. Regular papers should not exceed 16 pages (excluding references) in LNCS format. Short papers can discuss ongoing research at an early stage, including PhD projects. Short papers should not exceed 6 pages (excluding references) in LNCS format.

See the LNCS authors' instructions for details on the LNCS format.

The journal first papers track of SETTA 2021 is implemented in partnership with the Journal of Computer Science and Technology (JCST). Accepted papers to this track will be presented and discussed at the conference SETTA 2021. Papers should be submitted electronically through the journal's submission web page.

Important dates

Submission Guidelines

To submit to this track, authors have to make a journal submission to the Journal of Computer Science and Technology, and select the type of submission to be for the SETTA 2021 special issue. It is recommended that submitted papers follow the JCST's submission guidelines and do not exceed 15 pages including references.

All questions about submissions should be emailed to setta2021@easy*chair.org (remove *).