PhD position available in Software Engineering at Inria Bordeaux

Towards a certifying open platform for home automation 

PhD fellowship, Phoenix Research Group, INRIA Bordeaux, France

Starting date: October 2012

Duration : 36 months

Application deadline: May 04, 2012

Emerging computing platforms rely on an increasing number of networked entities and become more and more critical as they get intertwined with people’s daily activities (e.g., home automation). However, the current technologies do not facilitate the emergence of these computing platforms because they are often closed, and not easily adaptable to specific user needs. Moreover they do not provide any formal guarantee of reliability or safety. The Phoenix research group addresses these challenges using techniques and tools from programming languages, generative programming and formal methods. In particular, we have developed two mature technologies: (1) DiaSuite, a development environment dedicated to the orchestration of networked entities and (2) DiaSuiteBox, an open platform for home automation.

The main goal of this PhD thesis is to identify the critical reliability and safety properties of a home automation system and to define a concept of certification for this domain. The proposed certification process should not hinder our open-ended innovation model geared towards producing a constant flow of new applications. To do so, we envision a certification process  that is as automated as possible,  relying on generative programming techniques and static analysis. The contributions of this thesis will be integrated into (1) the DiaSuiteBox open platform to certify each application automatically and (2) the DiaSuite development environment to guide the developer in producing certifiable applications.

The candidates are expected to have prior experience and/or interests in one or more of the following areas:  static analysis ; semantics of programming languages ; software system design; software development methodologies.

For further details and to apply, please visit this web page.