Formal Techniques in Real-Time and Fault-Tolerant Systems

The six Schools and Symposia on Formal Techniques in Real Time and Fault Tolerant Systems (FTRTFT) have seen the eld develop from tentative explo- tions to a far higher degree of maturity, and from being under the scrutiny of a few interested software designers and academics to becoming a well-established area of inquiry. A number of new topics, such as hybrid systems, have been g- minated at these meetings and cross-links explored with related subjects such as scheduling theory. There has certainly been progress during these 12 years, but it is sobering to see how far and how fast practice has moved ahead in the same time, and how much more work remains to be done before the design of a mission-critical system can be based entirely on sound engineering principles underpinned by solid scienti c theory. The Sixth School and Symposium were organized by the Tata Research - velopment and Design Centre in Pune, India. The lectures at the School were given by Ian Hayes (U. of Queensland), Paritosh Pandya (Tata Institute of F- damental Research), Willem-Paul de Roever (Christian Albrechts U. ) and Joseph Sifakis (VERIMAG). There were three invited lectures at the Symposium, by Werner Damm (U. of Oldenburg), Nicholas Halbwachs (VERIMAG) and Yoram Moses (Technion). A sizable number of submissions were received for the Symposium from a- hors representing 16 di erent countries.