IN9110 – Specification and Verification of Parallel Systems

Schedule, syllabus and examination date

Course content

The course covers principles and techniques central to the automatic and formal verification of parallel and concurrent systems. In particular, logics that allow to concisely specify expected behavior, often in terms of temporal logic or related formalism. Furthermore, the lecture tackles the verification or model-checking problem, i.e. how to establish that a system model adheres to a given specification. The lecture also introduces various algorithmic approaches to battle the state-space explosion problem to handle systems with large state spaces.

Learning outcome

After the successful completion of the course you will:

  • have gained an understanding of different established (temporal) logics and their features used to specify reactive behavior
  • have gained insight into the principles and established state-of-the art techiques for algorithmic analysis of concurrent systems ("model checking")
  • have gained in-depth understanding of principles of the semantics of concurrent systems and their semantics
  • be able to understand further approaches encountered in the scientific literature and adapt analyses to a specific setting, based on the underlying principles covered in the course
  • be able to apply different state-of-the-art formalisms used in the field of automatic verification of systems and have an understanding to choose among them depending of the purpose and/or the system to be analyzed. PhD-students will work out an advanced topic in the field (typically a fundamental research paper, handbook article or similar), and present this in class.

Admission to the course

PhD candidates from the University of Oslo should apply for classes and register for examinations through Studentweb.

If a course has limited intake capacity, priority will be given to PhD candidates who follow an individual education plan where this particular course is included. Some national researchers’ schools may have specific rules for ranking applicants for courses with limited intake capacity.

PhD candidates who have been admitted to another higher education institution must apply for a position as a visiting student within a given deadline.

IN2010 – Algorithms and Data Structures (former INF2220), IN1150 – Logical Methods, IN2100 – Logic for Distributed Systems (formerly INF3232/INF3230)

Overlapping courses

Teaching

3 hours of lectures each week. The course material is given in lectures with active participation in the lectures. Study of some selected smaller subtopics and its presentation will be decided individually.

Examination

Oral exam.

It will also be counted as one of your three attempts to sit the exam for this course, if you sit the exam for one of the following courses: IN5110 – Kravspesifikasjon og verifikasjon av parallelle systemer, INF5140 – Specification and verification of parallel systems (continued), INF9140 – Specification and verification of parallel systems (continued)

Examination support material

No examination support material is allowed.

Language of examination

The examination text is given in English, and you submit your response in English.

Grading scale

Grades are awarded on a pass/fail scale. Read more about the grading system.

Resit an examination

Students who can document a valid reason for absence from the regular examination are offered a postponed examination at the beginning of the next semester.Re-scheduled examinations are not offered to students who withdraw during, or did not pass the original examination.

More about examinations at UiO

You will find further guides and resources at the web page on examinations at UiO.

Last updated from FS (Felles studentsystem) Oct. 14, 2026 11:25:34 PM

Facts about this course

Level
PhD
Credits
10
Teaching

Autumn 2027

Examination
Autumn
Teaching language
English

Contact

Department of Informatics