SSFM
RESEARCH GROUP FOR SYSTEM SPECIFICATIONS AND FORMAL METHODS
*
Department of Computer Science
University of Pretoria
SSFM@cs.up.ac.za

CURRENT MEMBERS
Stefan Gruner,
    Nils Timm,
    and several postgraduate project students

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Recent Papers| Recent Editorials| Prototype Software

FORMAL METHODS
theoretical computer science in application|
development, and testing, of formal systems|
between theoretical and applied informatics|
FORMAL
with mathematical rigour|
with logical rigour|
METHOD
(Greek hodos), path, way|
(Greek meta), toward something, behind, beyond|
scientific, objective, testable and repeatable|
SYSTEM
(Greek systema), the composite, togetherness|
set of entities with non-arbitrary relations|
FORMAL SYSTEM
formal notation|
formal calculus|
NOTATION
well-defined language {syntax} for descriptions|
non-ambigous and lexically precise modelling|
CALCULUS
well-defined language [semantics] for reasoning|
tool-supported discovery of relevant properties|
deduction, derivation of logical conclusions|
rule-based relation among formal entities|
MOREOVER
We also contribute to science-philosophical discourses
concerning computing-science as a scholarly discipline|
We regard LEIBNIZ and FREGE as forefathers of our work|


Footnote
* The group was founded in August 2009 as research group for 'Software Science and Formal Methods'. In August 2013, due to some internal re-organisation in the Department of Computer Science, the group was re-named as research group for 'System Specifications and Formal Methods', such as to make room for a new software engineering research group. Our established acronym 'SSFM' has been preserved in the re-organisation.