Michael W Whalen

PhD

Accepting PhD Students

PhD projects

AMASE: Model based safety analysis
ARCHER: Compositional verification of systems-of-systems
SNOW CRASH: White box fuzz testing

19972021

Research activity per year

Personal profile

Research interests

Software plays an increasing role in the operation of critical systems. As these systems become more complex, ensuring software correctness becomes much more difficult. I am interested in automated formal techniques for precisely specifying, implementing, and verifying software. To support these activities, I have developed several translation and analysis tools to support formal reasoning and test case generation. I have significant experience in applying formal verification and auto-test generation techniques to production DO178B Level A and B avionics software development efforts.

I am a part of the Critical Systems Group (CriSys) whose research interests are in the general area of software engineering; in particular, software development for critical software applications - applications where incorrect operation of the software could lead to loss of life, substantial material or environmental damage, or large monetary losses. The long-term goal of our research activities is the development of a comprehensive framework for the development of software for critical software systems. Our work has focused on some of the most difficult and least understood aspects of software development - requirements specification and validation/verification. For more information, and possible student research opportunities please visit the Crisys Group Page.

Teaching

Csci8802: Advanced Software Engineering.  University of Minnesota, Spring Semester 2015

SEng 5861: Software Architecture.  University of Minnesota, Fall Semester 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010

SEng 5841: Model-Based Software Development and Analysis.  University of Minnesota, Spring Semester 2007 

Professional Information

Miscellaneous Awards and Honors:

2016 Featured Faculty Member on the University of Minnesota “Driven To Discover” Campaign

2015 Dagstuhl Seminar Participant: Qualification of Formal Methods Tools

2014 Shonan Seminar Participant: Integration of Formal Methods and Testing for Model-Based Systems Engineering

2014 Inducted to IFIP 2.9 Working Group on Requirements

2013 MODELS Conference Best Reviewer Award

2012 Requirements Engineering Conference Ready-Set-Transfer contest winner

2012 Dagstuhl Seminar Participant: Architecture-Driven Semantic Analysis of Embedded Systems

2012 Senior Member IEEE
2010 Dagstuhl Seminar Participant: Practical Software Testing

Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

  • SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being

Education/Academic qualification

PhD, Trustworthy Translation of the Requirements State Machine Language without Events, University of Minnesota

Award Date: Mar 31 2005

Research Interest Keywords

  • Model Checking
  • Software Testing
  • Requirements Engineering
  • Safety Critical Systems

Fingerprint

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Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years

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  • AADL-Based safety analysis using formal methods applied to aircraft digital systems

    Stewart, D., Liu, J., Cofer, D., Heimdahl, M., Whalen, M. W. & Peterson, M., Sep 1 2021, In: Reliability Engineering and System Safety. 213, 107649.

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    26 Scopus citations
  • Composition of Fault Forests

    Stewart, D., Whalen, M., Heimdahl, M., Liu, J. & Cofer, D., Aug 25 2021, Computer Safety, Reliability, and Security - 40th International Conference, SAFECOMP 2021, Proceedings. Habli, I., Sujan, M. & Bitsch, F. (eds.). Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, p. 258-275 18 p. (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics); vol. 12852 LNCS).

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

    1 Scopus citations
  • Java Ranger: Statically summarizing regions for efficient symbolic execution of Java

    Sharma, V., Hussein, S., Whalen, M. W., McCamant, S. & Visser, W., Nov 8 2020, ESEC/FSE 2020 - Proceedings of the 28th ACM Joint Meeting European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering. Devanbu, P., Cohen, M. & Zimmermann, T. (eds.). Association for Computing Machinery, Inc, p. 123-134 12 p. (ESEC/FSE 2020 - Proceedings of the 28th ACM Joint Meeting European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering).

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

    17 Scopus citations
  • Java Ranger at SV-COMP 2020 (Competition Contribution)

    Sharma, V., Hussein, S., Whalen, M. W., McCamant, S. & Visser, W., 2020, Tools and Algorithms for the Construction and Analysis of Systems- 26th International Conference, TACAS 2020, held as part of the European Joint Conferences on Theory and Practice of Software, ETAPS 2020, Proceedings, Part II. Biere, A. & Parker, D. (eds.). Springer, p. 393-397 5 p. (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics); vol. 12079 LNCS).

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

    Open Access
    10 Scopus citations
  • A Formal Approach to Constructing Secure Air Vehicle Software

    Cofer, D., Gacek, A., Backes, J., Whalen, M. W., Pike, L., Foltzer, A., Podhradsky, M., Klein, G., Kuz, I., Andronick, J., Heiser, G. & Stuart, D., Nov 2018, Computer, 51, 11, p. 14-23 10 p.

    Research output: Contribution to specialist publicationArticle

    31 Scopus citations