Models, Mindsets, Meta: The What, the How, and the Why Not?

Book excerpt: This Festschrift volume is published in honor of Bernhard Steffen, Professor at the Technical University of Dortmund, on the occasion of his 60th birthday. His vision as well as his theoretical and practical work span the development and implementation of novel, specific algorithms, and the establishment of cross-community relationships with the effect to obtain simpler, yet more powerful solutions. He initiated many new lines of research through seminal papers that pioneered various fields, starting with the Concurrency Workbench, a model checking toolbox that significantly influenced the research and development of mode based high assurance systems worldwide. The contributions in this volume reflect the breadth and impact of his work. The introductory paper by the volume editors, the 23 full papers and two personal statements relate to Bernhard’s research and life. This volume, the talks and the entire B-Day at ISoLA 2018 are a tribute to the first 30 years of Bernhard’s passion, impact and vision for many facets of computer science in general and for formal methods in particular. Impact and vision include the many roles that formal methods-supported software development should play in education, in industry and in society.