The National Institute of Aerospace (NIA) has an opening for a Postdoctoral Associate to work in the area of Formal Methods.  The position requires collaboration with a team of researchers from NIA, SRI and NASA.  The project "Formal Verification and Automated Testing for Diagnostic and Monitoring Systems Using Hybrid Abstraction" is funded by a NASA grant in Integrated Vehicle Health Management (IVHM).

The objective of this project is the development of methods and tools for the formal verification and automated testing of hybrid systems, and to apply these methods and tools to diagnostic and monitoring systems in vehicles that will operate in the Next Generation of Air Transportation Systems.

The central theme of this project is the use of hybrid abstraction to support both verification and testing. Hybrid abstraction is a promising new static analysis method that allows the principled construction of sound abstractions of hybrid systems, while preserving sufficient properties for analysis.

Discrete abstractions constructed by this method are finite systems that can be analyzed using the capabilities of existing symbolic model checkers, such as SRI's Symbolic Analysis Laboratory (SAL).  However, these systems are likely to be computationally expensive to analyze.  For this reason, we plan to improve SAL with advanced model-checking techniques, such as the saturation procedure for state-space construction and the Multiway Decision Diagrams data-structure available in the tool SMART (Stochastic Model-checking Analyzer for Reliability and Timing), and recent developments on invariant generation.

• Ph.D. degree in Computer Science, or closely related field;
• Research experience in Formal Methods, particularly in symbolic Model Checking and/or SMT solvers;
• Expertise in C++ and/or Scheme programming; and
• Strong verbal and written communication skills

The initial appointment will be for one year.  Screening of applications will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled. Candidates should send a resume, one-page summary of previous accomplishments, description of career goals, and the names and contact information of three current references to:

Cathy Hopkins, Human Resources Director
National Institute of Aerospace
100 Exploration Way
Hampton, VA 23666
FAX: (757) 325-6701
E-mail: HR@nianet.org

NIA, located near NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, is a rapidly-growing, non-profit research and graduate education institute created to perform aerospace and atmospheric research, develop new technologies for the nation, and help inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers.  Additional information about NIA and its research programs is available via the World Wide Web at www.nianet.org.