Fewer bugs, more bytes
JARA-CSD expert Joost-Pieter Katoen on the path to realizing a prototype
The movement of a robot from point A to point B is by no means a given. The greater the distance and the more dynamic the environment, the more limited its perception and the higher the probability of a collision. In an increasingly automated world, this poses a problem.
JARA-CSD member Professor Joost-Pieter Katoen aims to minimize this probability by reducing programming errors. It is precisely these programming errors that he specializes in, and with success. Together with his team, he identifies these errors. Since 2005, Katoen has held the Chair of Computer Science 2 (Software Modeling and Verification), which essentially deals with error correction in software.
More specifically, Katoen's chair investigates so-called probabilistic programs, i.e. programs that occasionally make random decisions to control complex processes. Professor Joost-Pieter Katoen's research proposal, titled "A Deductive Verifier for Probabilistic Programs (VeriProb)," is now being supported by the European Research Council (ERC) with a Proof-of-Concept Grant. This grant builds on the ERC Advanced Grant received in 2018, titled "FRAPPANT Formal Reasoning about Probabilistic Programs: Breaking new ground for Automation," which runs until November 2024.
The renewed funding aims to convert the knowledge gained from the Advanced Grant and the developed tool called "Caesar," which can be used to improve probabilistic systems, into a prototype. The next step is to make this prototype available to the industry.
Further information is available on the RWTH Aachen University website: https://www.rwth-aachen.de/go/id/bfqqei?#aaaaaaaaabfqqgs (German)