Call for Papers

The SPIN symposium aims at bringing together researchers and practitioners interested in automated tool-based techniques for the analysis of software as well as models of software, for the purpose of verification and validation. The symposium specifically focuses on concurrent software but does not exclude the analysis of sequential software. Submissions are solicited on theoretical results, novel algorithms, tool development, and empirical evaluation.

The SPIN symposium originated as a workshop focusing on explicit state model checking, specifically as related to the SPIN model checker. However, over the years it has evolved to a broadly-scoped symposium for software analysis using any automated techniques, including model checking, automated theorem proving, and symbolic execution. An overview of the previous SPIN symposia (and early workshops) can be found at: https://spinroot.com/spin/Workshops/. In celebration of the 30th edition of the symposium, SPIN 2024 features a special track for historical accounts and other broad discussions (see below).

Topics

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Insightful surveys or historical accounts on topics of relevance to the symposium, for the special anniversary track (see below)
• Formal verification techniques for automated analysis of (concurrent) software/hardware, including:
  • Model checking
  • Deductive verification
  • Automated theorem proving, including SAT and SMT
  • Abstraction and symbolic execution techniques
  • Static analysis and abstract interpretation
  • Modular and compositional verification techniques
  • Verification of timed and probabilistic systems
  • Automated testing using advanced analysis techniques
  • Program synthesis
  • Derivation of specifications, test cases etc. via formal analysis
  • Formal specification languages, temporal logic, design-by-contract
  • Formal analysis of learned systems
  • Any combination of the above
• Application and/or engineering of verification tools, including:
  • Case studies of interesting systems or with interesting results
  • Implementation of novel verification tools
  • Benchmarks and comparative studies for verification tools
  • Verification tools using modern hardware, e.g.: multi-core CPU, GPU, TPU, cloud, and quantum

Important Dates

• Submissions due: January 15, 2024 January 22, 2024 (23:59:59 Anywhere on Earth) (extended deadline)
• Author notification: February 26, 2024
• Camera ready: March 11, 2024 March 15, 2024
• Symposium: April 10 and 11, 2024.

Submission Categories and Guidelines

Papers should be submitted via the EasyChair SPIN 2024 submission website: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=spin2024.

The proceedings of SPIN 2024 will be published in Springer’s Lecture Notes in Computer Science series. Submissions should adhere to the LNCS format, see Springer’s website for detailed instructions.

With the exception of survey and history papers, the papers should contain original work that has not been submitted or accepted for publication elsewhere.

We are soliciting three categories of papers:

• Full Research Papers describing fully developed work and complete results (16 pages, excluding bibliography);

• Short Papers presenting tools, technology, experiences with lessons learned, new ideas, work in progress with preliminary results, and novel contributions to formal methods (6 pages, excluding bibliography).

• Special anniversary track: to celebrate the 30th edition of SPIN, we invite submissions that present the field of formal methods in a broad sense. These may be historical accounts, discussion of successful research lines, surveys, position papers etc (16 pages, excluding bibliography).

All papers that conform to submission guidelines will be peer-reviewed by members of the program committee. Submissions will be evaluated on the basis of originality, the importance of contribution, soundness, evaluation, quality of presentation, and appropriate comparison to related work.

At least one author of each accepted paper must attend the symposium and present the paper.

A Best Paper award will be announced and handed out at the conference. A selection of the best papers will be invited to a special issue of the International Journal on Software Tools for Technology Transfer (STTT).

Artifacts

SPIN 2024 introduces an artifact evaluation, performed by an Artifact Evaluation Committee (AEC). The AEC evaluates artifacts based on documentation, availability, reproducibility of results and reusability. Papers with an accompanying artifact may be awarded one or more badges from the EAPLS artifact badging scheme https://eapls.org/pages/artifact_badges/. Submission of an artifact is optional. More details can be found on the page about artifacts.