Naumann wins best paper award

The paper "Modular Verification of Higher-Order Methods with Mandatory Calls Specified by Model Programs" was awarded "Best Student Paper" at the ACM International Conference on Object-Oriented Programming, Systems, Languages, and Applications (OOPSLA). Prof David Naumann (Computer Science) is coauthor together with Prof Gary Leavens (Florida Central University) and MS student Steve Shaner (Iowa State University). The paper introduces a precise and modular technique for specifying and verifying so-called callbacks, which are a critical feature of most object-oriented software frameworks such as web and networking middleware for Java and C#.

The 22d annual OOPSLA conference was held October 20--25 in Montreal. It is billed as the premier conference for innovative and thought-provoking ideas, where industry experts and their academic peers gather to improve programming languages and refine the practice of software development. This year's keynote speakers included two Turing Award winners, Frederick Brooks and John McCarthy. Steve Shaner's advisor, Prof Leavens, is an academic grandchild of McCarthy.

A total of 33 research papers were accepted out of 156 submissions. Besides the Best Student Paper there was also an award for most influential paper from 1997.