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High-Assurance Software

HASLab is focused on the design and implementation of high-assurance software systems: software that is correct by design and resilient to environment faults and malicious attacks. 

To accomplish this mission, HASLab covers three main competences — Cybersecurity, Distributed Systems, and Software Engineering — complemented by other competences such as Human-Computer Interaction, Programming Languages, or the Mathematics of Computing. 

Software Engineering – methods, techniques, and tools for rigorous software development, that can be applied to the internal functionality of a component, its composition with other components, as well as the interaction with the user.

Distributed Systems – improving the reliability and scalability of software, by exploring properties inherent to the distribution and replication of computer systems.

Cybersecurity – minimize the vulnerability of software components to hostile attacks, by deploying structures and cryptographic protocols whose security properties are formally proven.

Through a multidisciplinary approach that is based on solid theoretical foundations, we aim to provide solutions — theory, methods, languages, tools — for the development of complete ICT systems that provide strong guarantees to their owners and users. Prominent application areas of HASLab research include the development of safety and security critical software systems, the operation of secure cloud infrastructures, and the privacy-preserving management and processing of big data.

Latest News
Computer Science

Improving database performance: INESC TEC research at international conference

In our daily lives, we barely notice the structures that support sectors like commerce, banking, or others, as well as high transactional data loads. In general, we only become aware of them during disruptions, which end up influencing the normal functioning of said services.

28th August 2023

Summer on Campus: High school students take their first steps in computing with INESC TEC

High school students from the northern region of Portugal spent a week at the University of Minho, and they had the opportunity to explore their areas of interest.  

14th August 2023

INESC TEC leads digital capacity-building project in AI and HPC

27th July 2023

Computer Science

INESC TEC participates in conference on computer science education

Experts in the fields of education and computing gathered at the Super Bock Arena Auditorium to discuss the challenges associated with integrating computer science education into schools. José Nuno Oliveira, senior researcher at INESC TEC High-Assurance Software Laboratory (HASLab) attended the TNT | The New Trivium conference, which took place on June 3.

04th July 2023

Computer Science

INESC TEC contributes to improving safety in urban mobility

A team of INESC TEC researchers participated in the creation of a solution that aims to improve railway safety through the automatic validation of transport networks. The solution, developed within the scope of the DigiLightRail project - and in partnership with Efacec - focuses on the definition of signalling and interlocking rules, towards reducing accidents in urban mobility caused by failures in signalling systems.   

28th June 2023

Team
001

Laboratory

CLOUDinha

Publications

HASLab Publications

View all Publications

2023

TADA: A Toolkit for Approximate Distributed Agreement

Authors
da Conceição, EL; Nunes Alonso, A; Oliveira, RC; Pereira, JO;

Publication
Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)

Abstract

2023

TADA: A Toolkit for Approximate Distributed Agreement

Authors
da Conceição, EL; Nunes Alonso, A; Oliveira, RC; Pereira, JO;

Publication
Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)

Abstract

2023

TADA: A Toolkit for Approximate Distributed Agreement

Authors
da Conceição, EL; Alonso, AN; Oliveira, RC; Pereira, JO;

Publication
Distributed Applications and Interoperable Systems - 23rd IFIP WG 6.1 International Conference, DAIS 2023, Held as Part of the 18th International Federated Conference on Distributed Computing Techniques, DisCoTec 2023, Lisbon, Portugal, June 19-23, 2023, Proceedings

Abstract

2023

A verified VCGen based on dynamic logic: An exercise in meta-verification with Why3

Authors
Frade, MJ; Pinto, JS;

Publication
JOURNAL OF LOGICAL AND ALGEBRAIC METHODS IN PROGRAMMING

Abstract
With the incresasing importance of program verification, an issue that has been receiving more attention is the certification of verification tools, addressing the vernacular question: Who verifies the verifier?. In this paper we approach this meta-verification problem by focusing on a fundamental component of program verifiers: the Verification Conditions Generator (VCGen), responsible for producing a set of proof obligations from a program and a specification. The semantic foundations of VCGens lie in program logics, such as Hoare logic, Dynamic logic, or Separation logic, and related predicate transformers. Dynamic logic is the basis of the KeY system, one of the foremost deductive verifiers, whose logic makes use of the notion of update, which is quite intricate to formalize. In this paper we derive systematically, based on a KeY-style dynamic logic, a correct-by-construction VCGen for a toy programming language. Our workflow covers the entire process, from the logic to the VCGen. It is implemented in the Why3 tool, which is itself a program verifier. We prove the soundness and (an appropriate notion of) completeness of the logic, then define a VCGen for our language and establish its soundness. Dynamic logic is one of a variety of research topics that our dear friend and colleague Luis Soares Barbosa has, over the years, initiated and promoted at the University of Minho. It is a pleasure for us to dedicate this work to him on the occasion of his 60th birthday.

2023

Using survey data to estimate the impact of the omicron variant on vaccine efficacy against COVID-19 infection

Authors
Rufino, J; Baquero, C; Frey, D; Glorioso, CA; Ortega, A; Rescic, N; Roberts, JC; Lillo, RE; Menezes, R; Champati, JP; Anta, AF;

Publication
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS

Abstract
Symptoms-based detection of SARS-CoV-2 infection is not a substitute for precise diagnostic tests but can provide insight into the likely level of infection in a given population. This study uses symptoms data collected in the Global COVID-19 Trends and Impact Surveys (UMD Global CTIS), and data on variants sequencing from GISAID. This work, conducted in January of 2022 during the emergence of the Omicron variant (subvariant BA.1), aims to improve the quality of infection detection from the available symptoms and to use the resulting estimates of infection levels to assess the changes in vaccine efficacy during a change of dominant variant; from the Delta dominant to the Omicron dominant period. Our approach produced a new symptoms-based classifier, Random Forest, that was compared to a ground-truth subset of cases with known diagnostic test status. This classifier was compared with other competing classifiers and shown to exhibit an increased performance with respect to the ground-truth data. Using the Random Forest classifier, and knowing the vaccination status of the subjects, we then proceeded to analyse the evolution of vaccine efficacy towards infection during different periods, geographies and dominant variants. In South Africa, where the first significant wave of Omicron occurred, a significant reduction of vaccine efficacy is observed from August-September 2021 to December 2021. For instance, the efficacy drops from 0.81 to 0.30 for those vaccinated with 2 doses (of Pfizer/BioNTech), and from 0.51 to 0.09 for those vaccinated with one dose (of Pfizer/BioNTech or Johnson & Johnson). We also extended the study to other countries in which Omicron has been detected, comparing the situation in October 2021 (before Omicron) with that of December 2021. While the reduction measured is smaller than in South Africa, we still found, for instance, an average drop in vaccine efficacy from 0.53 to 0.45 among those vaccinated with two doses. Moreover, we found a significant negative (Pearson) correlation of around - 0.6 between the measured prevalence of Omicron in several countries and the vaccine efficacy in those same countries. This prediction, in January of 2022, of the decreased vaccine efficacy towards Omicron is in line with the subsequent increase of Omicron infections in the first half of 2022.

Facts & Figures

0Book Chapters

2020

14Proceedings in indexed conferences

2020

16Academic Staff

2020

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