Collaborative Research with UK MOD
– an Academic’s Experience
John Fitzgerald
Newcastle University
John.Fitzgerald@ncl.ac.uk

1. The University, School, and Group
2. Our Research and its Impact
3. A Short History of UK MOD Engagement:
– DIRC and DeVito
– Dynamic Coalitions
– Software Systems Dependability
– Land Open Systems
– Benware (as opposed to Malware!)
4. Reflection
5. Some Recommendations
Outline

Newcastle University
• Schools of Medicine, Surgery, Physical
Sciences: 1834-1871
• Regionally important subjects: first professors
in geology, mining, naval architecture,
engineering, agriculture
• ~5000 staff, ~16000 undergraduate,
~6000 postgraduate students
• Russell Group research-intensive
university, ~£126m research awards
• A Civic University: research is driven
by societal challenges:
• Sustainability
• Ageing & Health
• Social Renewal

Computing Science
www.ncl.ac.uk/computing
Origins:
1957 Computing Laboratory
1969 among first UK Computing graduates
1990s: world leading research in dependability,
middleware & distributed computing, later
bioinformatics and digital interaction.
Today:
Research Ranking 2014: 9th in UK overall (out of 89)
1st in business and societal impact
~600 undergraduate, 150 MSc, 100 PhD students
Only CS Department in England with 2 national centres
for doctoral training: Cloud & Big Data; Digital Civics
Growth:
2017: new home on ‘Science Central’ site
2019: 40% more academic staff
Goal is World Top 50 in CS

Fitzgerald’s Job
Chair of Formal Methods in
Computing Science
Lead for Computing in Newcastle
Science Central
process CallCentreProc = begin
…
actions
MERGE1(r) =
(dcl e: set of ERUId @ e := findIdleERUs();
(do
e = {} -> DECISION2(r)
|
e <> {} ->
(dcl e1: ERUId @ e1 :=
allocateIdleERU(e, r); MERGE2(e1, r))
end)) …
process InitiateRescue =
CallCentreProc [| SEND_CHANNELS |]
RadioSystemProc [| RCV_CHANNELS |] ERUsProc

Our Group’s Research
We create design technology (formal
foundations, methods, tools) for
demanding ICT products:
• Systems of Systems
• Cyber-Physical Systems
We focus on model-based design:
• Models that enable collaboration on
shared design goals
• Work across traditional engineering
divides
• Tools to analyse models and manage
development risk

Assisted mode for complex operations for a dredging excavator
Design Space Exploration optimised end-stop protection parameters
Koenraad Rambout (Verhaert): “A lot of time was saved on building physical
prototypes. This ensures much faster iterations on physical models compared
to traditional approaches. This enabled us to easily swap between different
design solutions (e.g. hydraulic vs. electrical drives)”
Example: Dredging Excavator

Our Group’s Impact
形式仕様と実装のコミットした累計行数 / 仕様変更数 / 各種イベント
0
10,000
20,000
30,000
40,000
50,000
60,000
70,000
80,000
90,000
100,000
110,000
120,000
130,000
140,000
2004/7
2004/8
2004/9
2004/10
2004/11
2004/12
2005/1
2005/2
2005/3
2005/4
2005/5
2005/6
2005/7
2005/8
2005/9
2005/10
2005/11
2005/12
2006/1
2006/2
2006/3
2006/4
コミットした累計行数
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
仕様変更数
仕様変更
形式仕様
実装
外部仕様書1.0
形式仕様本開発スタート
形式仕様書1.0
OS定義書1.0
RR1.0
RR2.0パイロット移動機メーカ
RR3.0パイロット移動機メーカ
RR4.0パイロット移動機メーカ
RR5.0全移動機メーカ
2課+椎木さんレビュー 設計者・評価者レビューα版評価
クロスチェック評価 ・ カバレッジ評価
RR7.0全移動機メーカ
設計構想会議
本開発準備フェーズ (3M) 本開発フェーズ (8M)
内部リリース後フェーズ (6M) 外部リリース後フェーズ (6M)
Early detection of design errors
(Chess, Neopost, Bang & Olufsen)
Chess: “Debugging in the co-simulation
environment is much quicker than debugging
real-time embedded control software. … the
initial implementation worked the first time…
fault handling usually takes several cycles to
work properly.”
FeliCa contactless technology
(Sony Corporation)
>200 million mobile phones, VDM design
applied to firmware, significant productivity
gains, no related defects since deployment
Sony: “… formal methods are suitable for
reaching high quality within the Japanese
traditional philosophy of Kaizen.”
New Applications include:
• Railway interlocking
• Agriculture
• HVAC (Building Mgmt)
• Electric road vehicles

1. The University, School, and Group
2. Our Research and its Impact
3. A Short History of UK MOD Engagement:
– DIRC and DeVito
– Dynamic Coalitions
– Software Systems Dependability
– Land Open Systems
– Benware (as opposed to Malware!)
4. Reflection
5. Some Recommendations
Outline

DIRC & DeVito
Project: Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration on System
Dependability
Scheme: EPSRC (UK civil research funding); MOD
engagement/contribution
S&T Advances: World-leading dependability methods and tools
(technical, sociological, ethnographic)
Interaction:
• Champion (Tom McCutcheon!); focussed problem definition
(dynamic coalitions)
• Subsequent engagement through DeVito staff development
programme in DSTL
• Early-career MOD scientists made exceptionally strong S&T
research networks

Dynamic Coalitions
Projects:
1. A Dynamic Coalitions Workbench
2. Trusted Dynamic Coalitions
Schemes:
1. Direct small project funding by Dstl
2. EPSRC targeted call on data Intensive
Systems (joint with Dstl)
S&T Advances:
• First formal descriptions on
information flow in dynamic coalitions
• Managing trust in DCs using
provenance metadata
Interaction:
• User studies with students, Dstl
researchers, defence staff with
operational experience
• “I wish I’d had this in Basrah”
Σauth :: coals : Cid –m→ Coalition
agents: Aid –m→ Agent
inv- Σauth (co,ag) Δ
U{c.mem|c∈ rng co}⊆ dom ag
Coalition :: mem : Aid-set
threshold : ℜ
inv- Coalition (-,t) Δ 0≤t ≤1
InfoX (f,t:Aid, is:Item-set)
ext wr agents: Aid –m→ Agent
pre {f,t} ⊆ dom agents and
forall i ∈ is • agents(f).clearance(i) and
is ⊆ agents(f) …
Outcomes:
• Publications
• Software tools
• Applications in
emergency response.

SSEI
Projects:
1. Interface Contracts for Architectural Specification and Assessment
2. Dependability-Explicit Metadata
Scheme: System Software Engineering Initiative
• Contract let by UK MOD to a consortium of all the bidders, BAESYSTEMS
leading 12 main partners (3 universities, 9 businesses) and 20 more
(3+17).
• 5 layers of management; 3 governing groups
S&T Advances (Newcastle work):
• Architectural Frameworks for Dependable Systems
• Data to govern system dynamic reconfiguration in presence of threats
Interaction: meetings, reports, demonstrations
Outcomes: Best Practice guidance, technical reports
(for us – ideas that led to 2 large EU-funded non-defence projects:
COMPASS and INTO-CPS).

LOSA
Project: Land Open Systems
Architecture (LOSA) dependability
Scheme: DSTL contract let through DE&S
S&T Advances:
• first demonstration of Systems of Systems
dependability methods applied to generic
land architectures (soldier, base, vehicle)
• Experimental exploration of cyber-physical
modelling in land domain.
Interaction: meetings, standards case
study, demonstrations
Outcomes: publications, MSc projects,
reports

BenWare
Probes
MLC
TLC/AI
GUI
Probes Probes ProbesProbes Probes
MLC
MLC
TLC/AI
Project: Scheme: Insider Threats:
Identifying Anomalous Human
Behaviour in Heterogeneous Systems
Using Beneficial Intelligent Software
(Ben-ware)
Scheme: Centre for Defence
Enterprise
S&T Advances:
• Mix of Computing, AI, Human-Computer
Interaction, Criminology
• Dependable detection of anomalies
Interaction: meetings, demos
Outcomes: publications, reports

1. The University, School, and Group
2. Our Research and its Impact
3. A Short History of UK MOD Engagement:
– DIRC and DeVito
– Dynamic Coalitions
– Software Systems Dependability
– Land Open Systems
– Benware (as opposed to Malware!)
4. Reflection
5. Some Recommendations
Outline

Many Positives
• Interesting Problems
• Researchers cannot resist a challenge!
• The chance to up-skill government in important areas of the
nation’s life
• Work with government, not for government
• Security Clearances have not been essential
• Can lead to much more refined specifications of problems
• Certainly gets much wider involvement
• Provide expert-validated case studies

Some Recommendations
• Focus on creating the social network and mutual
understanding
• A wide variety of forms of engagement:
• Graduate development placements in world-leading labs
• Strategic long-term working relationships with senior MOD technical
staff
• Focussed innovation projects
• Influence government research funders via specialist programmes
• Specialist doctoral programmes and fellowships
• Present challenges in public-domain ways as much as
possible

Some Recommendations
• Avoid mega-projects that try to achieve too much and have
complex structures
• Academics should not be victims of “mysterious” internal politics
• Provide supportive, points of contact for projects
• Either one POC or if more ensure they are not in competition with
one another!
• Proactvely help the researchers to speak to the best people in MOD
• … and help them to learn to communicate effectively in your MOD
culture
• Understand the academic motivations:
• Exciting problems
• Publications
• Impact through demonstrable take-up in the public domain

Thank You