Information Systems Research and Development at CCLRC: Accelerating Innovation through Technology Transfer

Abstract

The recent explosion of interest in the internet as the means for enabling new methods of working, be it e-Commerce, e-Science, e-Government, or eEducation, witnesses the immense impact that computing technology can have when translated from one domain to another. The meteoric rise (and corresponding fall) of the dot-com market over the last few years exemplifies the scale of commercial investment available in pursuit of early market share where there is widespread belief in the future viability of an emerging technology. However, the typical lifecycle of such technology translation presents unique challenges for organisations wishing to remain at the leading edge of computing technology today. Timescales, which are often measured in decades up to some critical moment of take-off, can be astonishingly quick once a technology is seen to fly. Previous examples of this kind of revolution in computing technology are Object Oriented Programming and Graphical User Interfaces, both of which were in gestation for several decades before their almost instantaneous widespread up-take in the early and mid 1980s. Formal methods, in the form of various technologies, have now had a significant presence in academic spheres, and some considerable success in particular commercial domains, for more than two decades. However, formal techniques have not, as yet, achieved any significant penetration into the mainstream IT systems market as a whole. In a workshop targeted primarily on formal methods for industrially critical systems, it is also interesting to consider the expansion of the application of formal techniques into other areas of software systems development. At CCLRC, we promote high quality scientific and engineering research by providing facilities and technical expertise in support of the basic, strategic