Simula and Inria join forces in software engineering

18 February 2021
Two research groups at Simula have together with an Inria team been granted status as an Inria Associate Team. This prestigious program is an instrument for stimulating close collaboration between Inria and carefully selected groups at other leading research institutions.

The associated team Resilient Software Science (RESIST) will research the foundations of “Resilient Software” – software systems which can resist failures without significantly degrading their functionality. Over the past years, resilient software systems have become extremely important in various application domains. By combining Inria’s and Simula´s combined expertise in software engineering, resilient software, and AI-based software testing, the RESIST associate team will address the following challenges:

  • Utilizing observation data for assessing resilience under varying conditions
  • Digital twins for continuous improvement of resilient autonomous/smart systems
  • Resilient autonomous systems in the digital and physical world

The goal for “RESIST” is to explore the science of resilient software by foundational work on advanced a priori testing methods such as metamorphic testing and a posteriori continuous improvements through digital twins. 

The appointment of the associate team comes after a long-standing research collaboration between Simula and Inria’s center in Rennes within software validation and verification. The mechanism of associate teams refers  to a renewable joint research project, running for three years at a time, between an existing Inria project team and a research team from abroad. The two partners jointly define a scientific ambition with a clear added value for each institution, a research plan, and a bilateral exchange programme. 

The RESIST associate team will be composed of sixteen researchers, ten from the Simula departments VIAS and COMPLEX and six researchers from the DiverSE team at Inria Rennes. The associate team will be jointly led by Associate Professor Mathieu Acher at the University of Rennes, and Research Professor Arnaud Gotlieb from Simula. 

The National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Automation (Inria) is France’s leading research institute within computer science and applied mathematics. With a headcount of around 3500 researchers and engineers, Inria is a European research powerhouse with a strong track record of excellence in basic research and applied industrial research.

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