Report on the PhD Activities
Giovanna BrocciaFebruary 11, 2019
Research Activities
Giovanna Broccia’s PhD thesis is focused on the design of a safety-critical human multitasking model, namely a model which describes the cognitive mechanisms involved in a multitasking interaction with one or more safety-critical systems. The semantics of the formal model is defined as a prob-abilistic transition system, whose transition relation is defined by a set of inference rules. Each rule models a different cognitive processes involved in multitasking.
Such model has been implemented as a Java simulator, that can be used to have a quick feedback on whether users can safely complete multiple tasks at the same time and as an executable framework in Real-Time Maude (a model checker) which enables us to analyse multitasking through simulation and reachability analysis.
We validate the algorithm underlying the model, against data gathered from an experimental study where users were asked to interact with two concurrent tasks: a main critical task, and a distractor task. The results of our simulations agree with the data gathered from the experimental study. Finally, we illustrate our framework by modelling and analysing three case studies in Real-Time Maude:
• the interaction of a user with a GPS navigation system while driving; • a medical operator setting multiple infusion pumps simultaneously; • some typical concurrent tasks of an air traffic control operator
We use model checking to show that some potential problems in such safety-critical multitasking scenarios could have serious consequences.
Training Activities
Schools:
Bertinoro International Spring School 2016 (BISS 2016) The school was held in the University Residential Center di Bertinoro (FC) (6 -11 March). The candidate attended the following 3 courses (and she passed the related exam):
1. Algorithmic methods for mining large graphs
Lecturer: Prof. Aristides Gionis (Aalto University, Finland) 2. Advanced Topics in Programming Languages
Lecturer: Prof. Giuseppe Castagna (Universit Paris Diderot - Paris 7, France)
3. Models and Languages for Service-Oriented and Cloud Computing Lecturer: Prof. Gianluigi Zavattaro (University of Bologna, Italy)
Courses:
• Course “Machine Learning Techniques and Selected Appli-cations for Big Data”
Lecturer: Prof. Stan Matwin (Dalhousie University, Canada) • Course “ Design and analysis of secure systems”
Lecturer: Prof. Joshua Guttman (Worcester Polytechnic Institute, USA)
Seminars Cycles:
• Mauriana Pesaresi seminars (2016)
• PhD+ seminars 2016
• Modeling and Analysing Variability in Product Families (2016)
• Research, Innovation and Future of ICT 2018
Other exams:
• Algorithmic
• Computer architecture
• Computability and Complexity
Period Abroad
• University of Edinburgh, School of Informatics (1 September 2018 - 1 October 2018)
• ´Ecole Polytechnique, Inria Saclay ˆIle-De-France (11 June 2018 - 24 June 2018)
• University of Minho, School of Engineering (13 February 2018 - 31 March 2018)
• University of Oslo, Department of Informatics (6 February 2017 - 13 May 2017)
Publications
• G. Broccia, P. Milazzo, P. C. ¨Olveczky. “Formal Modeling and Analy-sis of Safety-Critical Human Multitasking” in Innovations in Systems and Software Engineering, a NASA Journal (under minor review) • G. Broccia. “A Formal Framework for Modelling and Analysing
Safety-Critical Human Multitasking” Ph.D. Thesis (submitted and revised), University of Pisa
• G.Broccia, P. Masci, P. Milazzo. “Modeling and Analysis of Human Memory Load in Multitasking Scenarios: Late-Breaking Results” in Proceedings of the ACM SIGCHI Symposium on Engineering Interac-tive Computing Systems (EICS 2018): 9-15. ACM
• G. Broccia, P. Milazzo, P. C. ¨Olveczky. “An Executable Formal Framework for Safety-Critical Human Multitasking” in NASA For-mal Methods Symposium (NFM 2018): 54-69. Springer, Cham. • G. Broccia, P. Milazzo, P. C. ¨Olveczky. “An Algorithm for Simulating
Human Selective Attention” in International Conference on Software Engineering and Formal Methods (SEFM 2017) : 48-55. Springer, Cham.
• G. Broccia. “Model-Based Analysis of Driver Distraction by Info-tainment Systems in Automotive Domain” in Proceedings of the 2017 ACM SIGCHI Symposium on Engineering Interactive Computing Sys-tems (EICS 2017): 133-136
• P. Milazzo, G. Pardini, G. Broccia. “Towards a High-Level Model Checking Language: Object-orientation, Data Structures and Local Variable Pruning” in International Workshop on Formal Methods for Industrial Critical Systems and Automated Verification of Critical Sys-tems (FMICS-AVoCS 2016)
