Introduction

NSA's twelfth annual HCSS Conference will be held May 6-11, 2012 at the Historic Inns of Annapolis in Annapolis, Maryland. You are invited to submit a proposal to present a talk at this year's conference. As an added feature at the 2012 HCSS Conference, you are also invited to participate in a poster session. See details below for more information.

Background

Our security, safety, privacy, and well-being are all increasingly dependent upon the correctness, reliability, and integrity of software-intensive systems of all kinds, including cyber-physical systems (CPS). Our systems must be capable of interacting correctly, safely, and securely with humans and the physical world even while they operate in changing, difficult-to-predict, and possibly malicious environments. New foundations in science, technology, and advanced practice continue to be needed. Moreover, these methods and tools have to be transitioned into mainstream use to build and assure these systems—and to move towards more effective models for acceptance and certification.

Conference Scope, Goals, and Vision

The High Confidence Software and Systems (HCSS) Conference, now in its second decade, draws together researchers, practitioners, and management leaders from government, universities, and industry. The conference provides a forum for dialogue centered upon the development of scientific foundations for the assured engineering of software-intensive complex computing systems and the transition of science into practice.

The technical emphasis of the HCSS conference is on mathematically-based tools and techniques, scientific foundations supporting evidence creation, systems assurance, and security. The HCSS vision is one of engaging and growing a community—including researchers and skilled practitioners—that is focused around the creation of dependable systems that are capable, efficient, and responsive; that can work in dangerous or inaccessible environments; that can support large-scale, distributed coordination; that augment human capabilities; that can advance the mission of national security; and that enhance quality of life, safety, and security.

Conference Themes

The 2012 HCSS Conference week will highlight daily themes including technology transfer, formal synthesis, compositional reasoning, and will conclude with a one-day workshop on designed-in security.

Conference Presentations

The conference program features invited speakers, panel discussions, poster presentations, and a relevant and compelling technical track.

Technical Track Presentations

Technical track features two kinds of talks:

• Experience reports. These talks inform participants about how emerging HCSS and CPS techniques play out in real-world applications, focusing especially on lessons learned and insights gained. While experience reports do not have to be highly technical, they should emphasize substantive reflection on all aspects of experience, building on data and direct experience. Experience reports can focus on topics such as transitioning science into practice, architecture and requirements, use of advanced languages and tools, evaluation and assessment, team practice and tooling, supply-chain issues, and so on.
• Technical talks. These talks focus on informing the audience regarding specific techniques or methods, ideally from the point of view of someone with experience in practice. There is a wide range of relevant topics and themes including local reasoning, compositional reasoning, theorem proving, separation logic, analysis, synthesis, analytics, and modeling particular techniques. They should nonetheless be accessible to the broad HCSS and CPS audience.

If you are interested in offering a talk on one of this year's conference topics or themes—or nominating someone else to be invited to do so—please upload a one page or less abstract of your proposed talk or a one paragraph description of your nominee’s proposed talk by Tuesday, March 6, 2012 to http://archive.cps-vo.org/group/hcss_conferences/cfp_submissions. Slide presentations and supporting documents of accepted talks should be submitted in pdf format no later than Friday, April 13, 2012.

Poster Presentations

If you are interested in participating in the poster session, please upload an abstract of your proposed poster theme with title by Tuesday, March 6, 2012 at http://archive.cps-vo.org/group/hcss_conferences/poster_submissions. Posters should provide an overview of the HCSS Conference theme or research topic and/or results, with effective use of appropriate graphics. Only a limited number of posters will be accepted due to space availability.

All posters for display should be printed in a 3’x4’ size format. Notifications of accepted posters will be made by Friday, March 30, 2012. Content designs of accepted posters can be submitted electronically in either Adobe InDesign (preferred) or pdf formats also by Friday, April 13, 2012. The conference organizers will print posters free of charge if design content is electronically submitted by the April 13 due date. After April 13, poster session participants will be responsible for the printing and delivery of their own posters. The conference organizers will provide easels and basic setup for all poster displays. Poster session participants should contact the conference organizers in advance if additional materials or props are desired.

Additional Information

Further instructions for electronically submitting final slide presentations of accepted talks and poster designs will be provided in the notification message that will be sent on Friday, March 30, 2012. Abstracts of accepted talks and posters will be printed in the 2012 HCSS Conference proceedings.

Important Dates

Tuesday, March 6, 2012 — Abstracts of proposed talks and poster topics submission deadline
Friday, March 30, 2012 — Notifications of acceptance/rejection
Friday, April 13, 2012 — Final slide presentations and poster designs submission deadline
May 6-11, 2012 — HCSS Conference opens

Planning Committee

Co-Chairs
John Launchbury, Galois
Ray Richards, Rockwell Collins

Steering Group
Kathleen Fisher, DARPA
Helen Gill, NSF
Brad Martin, NSA
Bill Scherlis, CMU
Frank Seaton Taylor, NSA
Tim Thimmesch, NSA

Organizers
Katie Dey
Anne Dyson
Frankie Denise King

Sponsor Agency
National Security Agency