Prof. Lionel Briand receives a FNR PEARL Grant to establish a software verification and testing laboratory

Prof Lionel Briand has been repeatedly ranked one of the top five software systems engineering researchers in the world by the journal of Systems and Software (Elsevier). He is both a Canadian and French citizen, studied and earned his doctorate in Paris where he was born. He has worked in France, the US, Germany, Canada, and Norway, where he held his last position as the scientific director of the Certus center at Simula Research Laboratory.

His experience spans academic research, university teaching at all levels, scientific management, and industry-driven research and innovation. Now endowed with a PEARL Grant from the Fonds National de la Recherche Luxembourg (FNR), Lionel Briand is coming to Luxembourg. At the University of Luxembourg’s Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT), he will hold a professorship and set up a laboratory for software verification & validation (V&V). FNR is funding the project over a period of five years with a total of 4.6 million euros.

Our modern world and all industry sectors ranging from automotive to medical devices increasingly depend on complex software systems. This includes the control of manufacturing, vehicles and devices, logistics centres, telephone and internet nodes, and even major financial centres such as Luxembourg, London, New York and Tokyo. Such systems need to be highly dependable, that is reliable, robust, safe, and secure. “Software-intensive systems have become so complex that software engineers often have great difficulties to ensure their systems’ dependability,” Lionel Briand says. “To deliver predictably dependable software-intensive systems in a reasonably cost-effective manner, we need proven software verification and test technologies that are highly automated.”

“Lionel Briand will now set up a lab at SnT dedicated exclusively to software verification, testing, and dependability,” SnT director Prof. Björn Ottersten adds. Together with industrial and public partners, Ottersten continues, SnT is for example working on highly complex software for controlling satellites or financial transactions in banking. Ensuring acceptable dependability is clearly of existential importance here. “We are very happy to have Lionel Briand, one of the world’s top experts in the field, with us here in Luxembourg.

This new SnT laboratory is made possible by the FNR PEARL program. “PEARL gives us optimal conditions to attract internationally renowned and experienced scientists”, FNR President Yves Elsen explains. “With scientists such as Lionel Briand, we strengthen our scientific performance. Luxembourg will thus become an increasingly attractive workplace for young researchers as well, who follow those with a high international reputation.”

Briand is also convinced that SnT provides optimal working conditions to perform research with high impact on society and industry: “There are many scientists at SnT and the University of Luxembourg with whom I’ll be able to establish fruitful collaborations. In addition, the SnT offers a unique infrastructure and an interdisciplinary approach to support collaborative projects with industry, thus increasing the impact of our research.”

About SnT

Launched in 2009 by the University of Luxembourg, SnT is an internationally leading research facility that together with external partners establishes Luxembourg as a European centre of excellence and innovation for secure, reliable, and trustworthy information and communications technologies (ICT). To create great impact, SnT follows an interdisciplinary research approach, taking not only technical aspects into account but also addressing business, human, and regulatory issues. SnT provides a platform for interaction and collaboration between university researchers and external partners.

http://snt.uni.lu

About FNR

Since 1999, the Fonds National de la Recherche (FNR) supports the development of a diversity of knowledge and expertise in Luxembourg. During the ten years of its existence, the FNR has consistently invested in improving the research environment in the Grand Duchy, not least in order to compete successfully in an international environment. The instruments of FNR cover all scientific areas including humanities and social sciences. Here, however, strategically important research domains are emphasized. A performance contract, signed with the Ministry of Higher Education and Research, is the financial framework for the strategic objectives of the FNR. During the past thirteen years, the FNR has been able to develop many thematic and structural funding measures, which promote the reputation of Luxembourg as a location for research.

http://www.fnr.lu

Photo: Prof. Lionel Briand  (c) University of Luxembourg