Software Verification

Textbooks and Software

The primary text is Software Foundations by Pierce et al., a software verification and programming languages course available free and online. We'll be using:

• Volume 1: Logical Foundations;
• Volume 2: Programming Language Foundations (excerpts); and
• Volume 3: Verified Functional Algorithms (excerpts).

Before or just after the first day of class, I encourage you to download and install the Coq proof assistant (version 8.8), the tool upon which Software Foundations is based.

Two IDEs for Coq are available, the Emacs-based ProofGeneral and CoqIDE (bundled with Coq). I recommend CoqIDE for new Coq users (this is also the IDE we'll be using in class); ProofGeneral is good but requires more setup and some Emacs experience.

Periodically I may assign additional supplementary (optional but recommended) readings from Types and Programming Languages, Benjamin Pierce, and from The Formal Semantics of Programming Languages, Glynn Winskel. Both of these books are available on Amazon.

Prerequisites

CS 3200 but also: Some mathematical maturity (at the level of "I've seen and done proofs before"), facility with a couple different programming languages, and a desire to learn.

Course Structure

The course consists of twice-weekly lectures (Mondays and Wednesdays) and a weekly lab (Fridays), during which I'll help with problems you may encounter while completing the homeworks. Ocassionally during the weekly Friday lab, we'll cover material that we didn't get a chance to cover during the MW lectures.

In addition to the weekly homework assignments, drawn primarily from Software Foundations, there will be:

• an in-class written exam (Week 6, approximately 15% of your grade); and
• a take-home programming exam (Week 7, approximately 15% of your grade);
• a final project (finals week, approximately 20%).

The weekly homeworks and attendance at lecture and lab are worth approximately 50%.

Blackboard will be used only to report grades. Up-to-date information on all other aspects of the course (assignment due dates, etc.) will be posted on this website.

Homework Rubric

Homework will be graded on a 0-4 scale with 4 being the best and 0 the worst. To get an A in the course, your homework grade needs to be close to 4.

In general, points are assigned to homeworks rougly according to the following rubric:

Point Grade	What's Required To Get It
4	Complete all or nearly all 1- through 4-star exercises in the assigned chapters, including all advanced but not necessarily all optional exercises.
3	Complete all or nearly all 1- through 3-star exercises in the assigned chapters, not necessarily including advanced or optional exercises.
2	Complete all or nearly all 1- through 2-star exercises in the assigned chapters, not including advanced and optional exercises.
1	Complete all or nearly all 1-star exercises in the assigned chapters, not including advanced and optional exercises.
0	Fail to complete nearly all 1-star exercises, or fail to turn in the assignment.
5 (=4+1EC)	Complete all 1- through 5-star exercises in the assigned chapters, including all advanced exercises.

"All or nearly all" means that you miss perhaps one or two exercises, at most a handful.

From Point Grades to Letter Grades

The following table gives a rough mapping of point grades to letter grades, to give you a sense how much effort is required to get, e.g., a homework grade of A. Disclaimer: I reserve the right to change this mapping. However, I will likely revise it only in a way that is beneficial to you.

Average Point Grade	Letter Grade
>= 3.5	A
>= 2.5	B
>= 1.5	C
>= 0.5	D
< 0.5	F

Schedule

The schedule is subject to revision.

Student Outcomes vs. Course Learning Outcomes

1. An ability to analyze a complex computing problem and to apply principles of computing and other relevant disciplines to identify solutions. Students will be able to:

• Apply principles of mathematics and computing such as induction to prove properties of programs written in a functional programming language
• Apply an understanding of fundamental computer science data structures such as inductively defined lists to prove the correctness of an implementation of a sorting algorithm such as insertion sort
• Analyze the type system and operational semantics of a small imperative language in order to prove metatheoretic properties like type soundness
• Analyze a program in order to identify specifications such as Hoare-logic pre- and post-conditions that capture the program's expected behavior

3. An ability to communicate effectively in a variety of professional contexts. Students will:

• Give a presentation on the results of a final project related to software verification

6. An ability to apply computer science theory and software development fundamentals to produce computing-based solutions. Students will be able to:

• Use an interactive theorem prover to construct a computer-checked proof of type soundness for a small arithmetic expression language
• Use an interactive theorem prover to construct a computer-checked proof of type soundness for the simply-typed lambda calculus
• Use an interactive theorem prover to construct a computer-checked Hoare-logic proof for a small imperative program
• Use an interactive theorem prover or some other formal methods tool to reason about a software system of their choosing, in the context of an open-ended final project

Homework and Collaboration Policies

Academic Honesty Policy

Acceptable Collaboration Matrix

	Instructor/GA	Noninstructor (e.g., Another Student)
You	all collaboration allowed	high-level discussion (of the problems, not your code!) allowed but only after you've started the assignment; must be documented in README as described below

You may discuss the homework with other students in the class, but only after you've attempted the problems on your own first. If you do discuss the homework problems with others, write the names of the students you spoke with, along with a brief summary of what you discussed, in a README comment at the top of each submission. Example:

(* README Gordon Stewart, Assn #1
I worked with X and Y. We swapped tips regarding the use of Coq's "rewrite" tactic. *)

However, under no circumstances are you permitted to share or directly copy code or other written homework material, except with course instructors. If I discover that you've cheated on an assignment, you'll get an automatic F for the course along with an immediate referral to the Office of Community Standards, which will likely take disciplinary action against you. Remember: homework is there to give *you* practice in the new ideas and techniques covered by the course; it does you no good if you don't engage!

In general, students in EECS courses such as this one must adhere to the Russ College of Engineering and Technology Honor Code, and to the OU Student Code of Conduct. If you haven't ever read these documents, please do so.

Students with Disabilities

If you suspect you may need an accommodation based on the impact of a disability, please contact me privately to discuss your specific needs. If you're not yet registered as a student with a disability, contact the Office of Student Accessibility Services first.