Marco Autili

Research activity:

• Context-aware Programming and Resource-oriented Analysis ;
• Component Based Software Engineering (CBSE);
• Component Adaptation;
• Software Architecture (SA);
• Service Oriented Architecture (SOA);
• Temporal Property Specification.

Currently, he is working on a static analysis framework for inspecting Java programs and characterizing them with respect to their resource consumption in a given execution environment. The framework is based on a resource model for specifying resource provisions and consumptions, and a parametrical transition system for performing the actual analysis. These two components are integrated in a larger framework that provides a complete system for programming, analyzing/reasoning and adapting Java applications with respect to heterogeneous execution contexts.

In 2007 he has been working at INRIA Rocquencourt - Paris, FRANCE – within the ARLES project research team. In collaboration with the ARLES team, his research activity focused on the definition of a meta-model for (mobile and adaptable) context-aware software services and for a suitable middleware supporting such services. This research activity contributed to the ongoing work for the IST PLASTIC project.

His research activity started by focussing on the application of formal methods to the automatic verification, analysis and synthesis of component-based systems. He is strongly focussed on the components adaptation. He is still working on an architectural approach to assembly Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) - black-box - components in an automatic and correct way. This approach is based on a distributed software adaptor (i.e. a set of component distributed filter) synthesis algorithm. In collaboration with M. Tivoli and his supervisor P. Inverardi, he has designed and developed a tool (called SYNTHESIS) that automatically derives the assembly code for a set of COTS (i.e. black-box) components in order to validate expected system temporal properties. The approach assumes to have a specification of the system to be assembled in terms of sequence charts specification and a specification of the properties to be validated in terms of coordination policies to be enforced on the interacting part of the system. SYNTHESIS has been applied to real-scale case study but in very specific contexts.

His research is also concentrated on system requirements specifications. Within this context, he is focussed on the non trivial and error prone task of specifying temporal properties. In collaboration with P. Pelliccione and his supervisor P. Inverardi he fully formalized a simple but expressive scenario-based visual language for specifying temporal properties. It is called Property Sequence Chart (PSC) and it is an extended graphical notation of a subset of the UML 2.0 Sequence Diagrams. They also implemented an algorithm for translating the specified properties into Buchi automata. They have validated the expressiveness of our approach with respect to well known property specification patterns..

He is also working on the development of a ``conversational" tool called Wizard Property Sequence Chart (WPSC). Inspired to the human nature, by mean of natural language posed questions, based on expertise in requirements formalization and on descriptions of the set of patterns for specifying temporal properties commonly used in practice, WPSC forces to make decisions that break the uncertainty and the ambiguity intrinsical parts of the user requirements. WPSC strives to guide developers while moving from user requirements to (architecture-level) system requirements. As system requirements specification language the tool makes use of PSC.

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::last modified: february 01st, 2012