VOLT 2012
                      Co-located  with  ICST  2012
                http://www.model-based-testing.de/volt12 
  1st Workshop on the Verification and Validation of Model Transformations
  
                       Montréal, Québec, Canada
                            April 21, 2012

*** Call for Papers ***

Model transformation is at the heart of Model-Driven Development (MDD). Many experts have identified the verification of model transformation as one of the grand challenges of the domain. Despite some recent activity in the field, the work on the verification of model transformation remains scattered and a clear perspective on the subject in still not in sight. VOLT 2012 is the first workshop to offer researchers a dedicated forum to present, discuss, classify, integrate, and advance verification techniques of model transformation relevant to industry.

If we generically consider a model transformation as an algorithm describing a set of computations, then testing it or proving some of its properties can be envisaged through model checking or theorem proving. However, a model transformation performs a particular kind of computation where: (1) it operates on models, thus data at a high-level of abstraction rich in semantics and (2) from a pragmatic point of view, often only the initial input and the final output is of interest, glossing away from intermediate steps. These are primary fundamental differences between the verification of model transformation and typical model-based testing or model checking. A particular point of interest for VOLT is that model transformation is used to perform specific computations in the context of MDD, such as model refinement, refactoring, translation, synthesis, simulation, or synchronization. Thus useful verification techniques for model transformation can be specific to these activities.

VOLT’s interest spans both to academic and industrial practices. Part of the workshop is used as a forum for discussing practical applications of model transformation. The goal of the forum is to collect enough industrial case studies so that those problems can be stated at a theoretical level. In order to discuss these and further similar questions, we would like to invite submissions related to the following topics:

- Application of model checking or theorem proving to model transformation: what are the relevant properties to prove?
- Application of testing techniques to model transformation
- Verification of transformations of models expressed in languages defined using MOF or EMF
- Syntactic and semantic preservation of model transformations, particularly when translating models into different languages
- Verification of domain-specific model transformation, in contrast to general-purpose transformations
- Taxonomies of techniques for the verification of model transformation
- Case studies and experience reports
- Tools and automation
- Theoretical considerations

*** Publication ***

Submissions must follow the IEEE double column format. Authors may submit short papers (4 pages) or long papers (8 pages). The two best papers will be published in the Satellite Event Proceedings (LNCS) of the ICST conference.

*** Workshop Format ***

VOLT 2012 is a one-day workshop that is divided into two parts: paper presentations and discussions in working groups. We anticipate an enjoyable and exciting event where all participants will leave with answers or well-founded doubts ;) on model transformation and their validation & verification.

*** Important Dates ***

Submission: January 30, 2012
Notification to authors: February 27, 2012
Final version: March 19, 2012

*** Organization Committee ***

Levi Lúcio (McGill University, Canada)
Eugene Syriani (University of Alabama, USA)
Stephan Weißleder (Fraunhofer FIRST, Germany)

*** Program Committee ***
Moussa Amrani (University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg)
Márk Asztalos (Budapest University of Eco. Sc., Hungary)
Marsha Chechik (University of Toronto, Canada)
Antonio Cicchetti (Malardalen University, Sweden)
Jürgen Dingel (Queen’s University, Canada)
Frank Fleury (SINTEF, Norway)
Martin Gogolla (University of Bremen, Germany)
Jeff Gray (University of Alabama, USA)
Zhenjiang Hu (National Institute of Informatics, Japan)
Antti Huima (Conformiq Software, USA)
Akram Idani (Grenoble INP, France)
Yves Le Traon (University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg)
Tihamér Levendovsky (Vanderbilt University, USA)
Levi Lúcio (McGill University, Canada)
Matteo Risoldi (University of Geneva, Switzerland)
Shane Sendall (Snowie Group, Switzerland)
Eugene Syriani (University of Alabama, USA)
Antonio Vallecillo (University of Málaga, Spain)
Hans Vangheluwe (University of Antwerp, Belgium)
Stephan Weißleder (Fraunhofer FIRST, Germany)