[fg-arc] FORTE 2021: Last CfP

[Willemse, T.A.C.]

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*FORTE 2021* <https://www.discotec.org/2021/forte> - 41st International
Conference on Formal Techniques for Distributed Objects, Components, and
Systems

June 14-18, 2021, Valletta, Malta

FORTE 2021 is one of the three conferences of DisCoTec 2021
<https://www.discotec.org/2021/>,

the 16th International Federated Conference on Distributed Computing
Techniques

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*Important dates*

January 29, 2021 - abstract submission
February 5, 2021 - paper submission
April 2, 2021 - notification
April 23, 2021 - camera ready

See the conference website for up-to-date information.


*Keynote Speakers*

- Gilles Fedak, iExec, FR
- Mira Mezini, Technical University of Darmstadt, DE
- Alexandra Silva, University College London, UK


*Scope*

FORTE 2021 is a forum for fundamental research on theory, models, tools,
and applications for distributed systems.

The conference solicits original contributions that advance the science and
technology for distributed systems, with special interest in:

   - Software quality, reliability, availability, and safety
   - Security, privacy, and trust in distributed and/or communicating
     systems
   - Service-oriented, ubiquitous, and cloud computing systems
   - Component- and model-based design
   - Object technology, modularity, software adaptation
   - Self-stabilization and self-healing/organizing
   - Verification, validation, formal analysis, and testing of the above.

Aligned with the above, FORTE covers *models and formal specification*,
*testing* and *verification methods* for distributed computing. Application
domains are multiple, and include all kinds of application-level
distributed systems, telecommunication services, Internet, embedded and
real-time systems, as well as networking and communication security and
reliability.

Contributions that *combine theory and practice* and that exploit formal
methods and theoretical foundations to present novel solutions to problems
arising from the development of distributed systems are very much
encouraged.


*Main Topics of Interest*

Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

- *Languages and semantic foundations*
   New modeling and language concepts for distribution and concurrency;
   semantics for different types of languages, including programming
   languages, modeling languages, and domain-specific languages; real-time and
   probability aspects
- *Formal methods and techniques*
   Design, specification, analysis, verification, validation, testing and
   runtime verification of various types of distributed systems, including
   communications and network protocols, service-oriented systems, adaptive
   distributed systems, cyber-physical systems and sensor networks
- *Foundations of security*
   New principles for qualitative and quantitative security analysis of
   distributed systems, including formal models based on probabilistic concepts
- *Applications of formal methods*
   Applying formal methods and techniques for studying quality,
   reliability, availability, and safety of distributed systems
- *Practical experience with formal methods*
   Industrial applications, case studies and software tools for applying
   formal methods and description techniques to the development and analysis
   of real distributed systems.
- *Emerging challenges and hot topics in distributed systems* (broadly
   construed)
   Formal specification, verification and analysis of emerging systems and
   applications, such as, for instance, software-defined networks, distributed
   ledgers, smart contracts, and blockchain technologies.


*Submission Guidelines*

Contributions must be written in English according to one of the three
categories described below. They should report on original, unpublished
work, not submitted for publication elsewhere (cf. IFIP codes of conduct
<http://www.ifip.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=219&Itemid=564>,
under Links).

Submissions must be prepared as a PDF using Springer’s LNCS style.
Submissions not adhering to the specified constraints of their respective
category may be rejected without review.


*Submission Categories*

FORTE accepts contributions in three categories: *full papers*, *short
papers*, and *journal-first papers*. These categories and their associated
criteria are described in detail below.

Notice that *short* and *journal-first* papers must be explicitly marked as
such in the submission’s title.

* Full papers * (page limit: up to 15 pages + 2 pages references)

A full paper submission describes thorough and complete research results in
the scope of the conference.

* Short papers * (page limit: up to 6 pages + 2 pages references)

A short paper submission can be one of the following:
   - *Rough diamonds*: Extended abstracts presenting innovative and
      promising ideas, possibly in an early form and without supporting
      evidence.
    - *Tool (demonstration) papers*: Extended abstracts describing (or
      demonstrating) new tools (or tool components) that implement (or build
      upon) theoretical foundations.
    - *Position papers* : Extended abstracts describing (i) calls to
      action, or (ii) substantiated reflections on current and/or future
      research perspectives related to FORTE.

Short paper submissions must be marked as such in the submission’s title.

* "Journal First" papers* (page limit: up to 4 pages, including references)

This category aims at including published journal papers in the FORTE 2020
program. The objective is to offer FORTE attendees a richer program and
further opportunities for interaction.
Authors of published papers in high-quality journals can submit a proposal
to present their journal paper in FORTE. The journal paper must adhere to
the following four criteria:

   - It should be clearly in the scope of the conference.
   - It should be recent: only journal papers available after January 1,
     2019 (online or paper) can be presented.
   - It reports new research results that significantly extend prior
     work. As such, the journal paper does not simply extend prior work with
     material presented for completeness only (such as omitted proofs,
     algorithms, minor enhancements, or empirical results).
   - It has not been presented at, and is not under consideration for,
     journal-first programs of other similar conferences or workshops.

A journal-first submission is a concise but compelling summary of the 
published journal paper, which makes it clear why a related presentation 
would enrich the program of FORTE.

Journal-first submissions must be marked as such in the submission’s title,
and must explicitly include pointers to the journal publication (such as a 
DOI) but also to related conference and workshop papers, as appropriate.
They will be judged on the basis of the above criteria, but also considering
relevance and the potential of enriching and complementing the conference
program.


*Publication*

All accepted papers, including short papers and journal-first submissions,
will be published in the FORTE 2021 formal proceedings, which will appear
in Springer’s LNCS-IFIP volume series.


*Special Issue*

Selected papers will be invited to a special issue of *Logical Methods in
Computer Science* <https://lmcs.episciences.org/>.


*Submission Link*

https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=forte21


*Program committee chairs*
   - Kirstin Peters (TU Darmstadt, DE)
   - Tim Willemse (Eindhoven University of Technology, NL)

*Program committee members*
   -  Luís Soares Barbosa (University of Minho)
   - Jiri Barnat (Masaryk University)
   - Pedro R.D'Argenio (Universidad Nacional de Córdoba)
   - Mila Dalla Preda (University of Verona)
   - Wan Fokkink (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
   - Daniele Gorla (University of Rome "La Sapienza")
   - Artem Khyzha (Tel Aviv University)
   - Barbara König (University of Duisburg-Essen)
   - Bas Luttik (Eindhoven University of Technology)
   - Stephan Merz (Inria Nancy)
   - Roland Meyer (TU Braunschweig)
   - Mohammadreza Mousavi (University of Leicester)
   - Thomas Neele (Royal Holloway, University of London)
   - Ana-Maria Oprescu (University of Amsterdam)
   - Catuscia Palamidessi (INRIA)
   - Anna Philippou (University of Cyprus)
   - Jorge A.Pérez (University of Groningen)
   - Anne Remke (WWU Münster)
   - Kristin Yvonne Rozier (Iowa State University)
   - Cristina Seceleanu (Mälardalen University)
   - Maurice H. ter Beek (ISTI-CNR, Pisa)
   - Simone Tini (University of Insubria)
   - Rob van Glabbeek (Data61 - CSIRO)
   - Björn Victor (Uppsala University)
   - Georg Weissenbacher (Vienna University of Technology)


*Steering committee*

   - Ahmed Bouajjani (University Paris Diderot, France)
   - Christel Baier (University Dresden, Germany)
   - Frank de Boer (CWI, Netherlands)
   - Luís Caires (Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal)
   - Einar Broch Johnsen (University of Oslo, Norway)
   - Ivan Lanese (University of Bologna/INRIA, Italy – Chair)
   - Jorge A. Pérez (University of Groningen, The Netherlands)
   - Alexandra Silva (University College London, UK)
   - Ana Sokolova (University of Salzburg, Austria)
   - Jean-Bernard Stefani (INRIA, France)
   - Nobuko Yoshida (Imperial College London, UK)
   - Heike Wehrheim (Paderborn University, Germany)


*More Information*

For additional information, please contact the Program Committee Co-chairs:
forte21 at easychair dot org