Undergraduate Course: Communication and Concurrency (INFR10007)

Course Outline
School	School of Informatics	College	College of Science and Engineering
Course type	Standard	Availability	Available to all students
Credit level (Normal year taken)	SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate)	Credits	10
Home subject area	Informatics	Other subject area	None
Course website	http://course.inf.ed.ac.uk/coc	Taught in Gaelic?	No
Course description	The course provides an introduction to the Calculus of Communicating Systems (CCS) giving the theoretical foundation , examples of practical applications and logics for describing important properties. The course focuses on a mathematical model of the behaviour of concurrent systems which treats crucial notions like deadlock and non-determinism, and which reflects the modular construction of systems. The course also focuses on specifying safety and liveness properties of such systems. The approach is a mixture of operational semantics, algebra and logic. It applies alike to hardware and software. Although CCS is one of several alternative approaches, the aim is to treat it in depth rather than to make superficial comparisons with others.

Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites	It is RECOMMENDED that students have passed Language Semantics and Implementation (INFR09014)	Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations		Other requirements	This course is open to all Informatics students including those on joint degrees. For external students where this course is not listed in your DPT, please seek special permission from the course organiser. There are no formal prerequisites although the Language Semantics & Implementation course is particularly relevant. The course requires a reasonable mathematical ability.
Additional Costs	None

Information for Visiting Students
Pre-requisites	None
Displayed in Visiting Students Prospectus?	Yes

Course Delivery Information

Delivery period: 2013/14 Semester 1, Available to all students (SV1)			Learn enabled: No	Quota: None
Web Timetable	Web Timetable
Course Start Date	16/09/2013
Breakdown of Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info)	Total Hours: 100 ( Lecture Hours 20, Summative Assessment Hours 2, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 2, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 76 )
Additional Notes
Breakdown of Assessment Methods (Further Info)	Written Exam 70 %, Coursework 30 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Exam Information
Exam Diet	Paper Name	Hours & Minutes
Main Exam Diet S2 (April/May)		2:00

Delivery period: 2013/14 Semester 1, Part-year visiting students only (VV1)			Learn enabled: No	Quota: None
Web Timetable	Web Timetable
Course Start Date	16/09/2013
Breakdown of Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info)	Total Hours: 100 ( Lecture Hours 20, Summative Assessment Hours 2, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 2, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 76 )
Additional Notes
Breakdown of Assessment Methods (Further Info)	Written Exam 70 %, Coursework 30 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Exam Information
Exam Diet	Paper Name	Hours & Minutes
Main Exam Diet S1 (December)		2:00

Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes
1 - Analyse computation, particularly concurrent systems in the process calculus CCS. The analysis consists of modelling situations by abstracting away from details and recording their fundamentals in a small computationally and mathematically appropriate formalism and then doing the same for their specifications. Finally one understands how to use all this to increase systems reliability. 2 - Define behaviour of a system as a transition graph. 3 - Understand when two systems are behaviourally equivalent. as defined by the notion of bisimulation equivalence. 4 - Verify that two systems are equivalent or prove that they are not. 5 - Specify temporal properties of systems in the branching time logic CTL. 6 - Understand the meaning of temporal formulas. 7 - Show that a system has, or fails to have, a temporal property. 8 - Use tools for systems verification. 9 - Be able to assimilate knowledge about different formalisms and tools and put them to practical use. Understanding how to apply mathematical and logical ideas in systems and other computational contexts.

Assessment Information
Written Examination 70 Assessed Assignments 30 Oral Presentations 0 Assessment Two submissions are required, equally weighted. The first involves extensive use of the Concurrency Workbench. The second tests understanding (e.g., of bisimulation); it is a mixture of exercises, and questions similar to those that may occur in exams. If delivered in semester 1, this course will have an option for semester 1 only visiting undergraduate students, providing assessment prior to the end of the calendar year.

Special Arrangements
None

Additional Information
Academic description	Not entered
Syllabus	Modelling communication: media, agents, ports; Basic definitions; synchronisation; action and transition; the basic calculus; Transitional semantics; derivatives and derivation trees; Bisimulation; modal and temporal logic; Strong bisimulation and strong equivalence; experimenting upon agents; observation equivalence; equality of agents; Communication protocols; specification of systems with evolving structure; *Model checking. Relevant QAA Computing Curriculum Sections: Concurrency and Parallelism; Distributed Computer Systems; Theoretical Computing; Programming Fundamentals
Transferable skills	Not entered
Reading list	* ** R. Milner, Communication and Concurrency, Prentice-Hall 1989. * ** C. Stirling, Modal and Temporal Properties of Processes, Springer Texts in Computer Science 2001. * * C. Fencott, Formal Methods for Concurrency, International Thomson Computer Press 1996. * * M. Hennessy, Algebraic Theory of Processes, MIT Press 1988
Study Abroad	Not entered
Study Pattern	Lectures 20 Tutorials 0 Timetabled Laboratories 0 Non-timetabled assessed assignments 30 Private Study/Other 50 Total 100
Keywords	Not entered

Contacts
Course organiser	Dr Mary Cryan Tel: (0131 6)50 5153 Email: mcryan@inf.ed.ac.uk	Course secretary	Miss Kate Farrow Tel: (0131 6)50 2706 Email: Kate.Farrow@ed.ac.uk