Recent Papers

Dependability

· John Knight and Panayiotis Steele
The ACCESS Safety Case Toolset (Abstract)
Submitted to International System Safety Conference, Las Vegas, NV (August 2011) (PDF)

· Richard Hawkins, Tim Kelly, John Knight, and Patrick Graydon
A New Approach to Creating Clear Safety Arguments
Safety-critical Systems Symposium, Southampton, UK (February 2011) (PDF)

· Patrick Graydon, John Knight, and Mitchell Green
Certification and Safety Cases
International System Safety Conference, Minneapolis, MN (September 2010) (PDF)

· Patrick Graydon, John Knight and Xiang Yin
Practical Limits On Software Dependability: A Case Study
15th International Conference on Reliable Software Technologies – Ada-Europe 2010 (June 2010) (PDF)

· Patrick Graydon and John Knight
Process Synthesis in Assurance Based Development of Dependable Systems
EDCC 2009: Eighth European Dependable Computing Conference Valencia, Spain (May 2010) (PDF)

· Xiang Yin and John Knight
Formal Verification of Large Software Systems
NFM 2010: Second NASA Formal Methods Symposium
Washington DC (April 2010) (PDF)

· Patrick Graydon, John Knight, and Kimberly Wasson
A Flexible Approach to Authorization of UAS Software
DASC 2009:28th Digital Avionics Systems Conference, Orlando FL (October 2009) (PDF)

· Xiang Yin, John C. Knight, and Westley Weimer
Exploiting Refactoring in Formal Verification
DSN 2009: The International Symposium on Dependable Systems and Networks Lisbon, Portugal (June 2009) (PDF)

· John Knight
Advances in Software Technology Since 1992
FAA 2008 National Software and Airborne Electronic Hardware Conference, Denver, CO (July 2008) (PDF)

· Patrick Graydon and John Knight
Success Arguments: Establishing Confidence in Software Development
University of Virginia, Department of Computer Science, Technical Report CS-2008-10 (July 2008) (PDF)

· Xiang Yin, John C. Knight, Elisabeth A. Nguyen, and Westley Weimer
Formal Verification By Reverse Synthesis
SAFECOMP 2008: The 27th International Conference on Computer Safety, Reliability and Security Newcastle, UK (September 2008) (PDF)

· John C. Knight and Patrick Graydon
Engineering, Communications, and Safety
2008 Australian Conference on Safety Related Programmable Systems, Adelaide, Australia (August 2007) (PDF)

· Patrick J. Graydon, John C. Knight and Elisabeth A. Strunk
Assurance Based Development of Critical Systems
2007 International Symposium on Dependable Systems and Networks (DSN), Edinburgh, Scotland (June 2007) (PDF)

· Carlo A. Furia, Matteo Rossi, Elisabeth A. Strunk, Dino Mandrioli, John C. Knight
Raising Formal Methods To The Requirements Level
University of Virginia Technical Report CS-2006-24, Politecnico di Milano Technical Report 2006.64, (PDF)

· Elisabeth A. Strunk, Carlo A. Furia, Matteo Rossi, John C. Knight, Dino Mandrioli
The Engineering Roles of Requirements and Specification
University of Virginia Technical Report CS-2006-21, Politecnico di Milano Technical Report 2006.61, (PDF)

· Elisabeth A. Strunk and John C. Knight
The Essential Synthesis of Problem Frames and Assurance Cases
Expert Systems: The Journal of Knowledge Engineering Volume 25, Number 1 (February 2008), (PDF)

· William S. Greenwell and John C. Knight
Framing analysis of software failure with safety cases
Submitted to: Journal of Reliability Engineering and System Safety (PDF)

· Elisabeth A. Strunk and John C. Knight
Dependability Through Assured Reconfiguration in Embedded System Software
IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing, Vol. 3, No. 3, pp 172-187 (July 2006) (PDF)

· William S. Greenwell, John C. Knight, C. Michael Holloway, and Jacob Pease
A Taxonomy of Fallacies in System Safety Arguments
24th International System Safety Conference, Albuequerque, NM (August 2006) (PDF)

· Elisabeth A. Strunk and John C. Knight
The Essential Synthesis of Problem Frames and Assurance Cases
2nd International Workshop on Applications and Advances in Problem Frames, co-located with 29th International Conference on Software Engineering, Shanghai, China (May 23 2006) (PDF)

· Strunk, Elisabeth A., Xiang Yin, and John C. Knight
Echo: A Practical Approach to Formal Verification
FMICS-05: Tenth International Workshop on Formal Methods for Industrial Critical Systems, Lisbon, Portugal (September 2005) (PDF)

· Kimberly S. Wasson, Kendra N. Schmid, Robyn R. Lutz, John C. Knight
Using Occurrence Properties of Defect Report Data to Improve Requirements
RE-2005: International Requirements Engineering Conference, Paris, France (September 2005) (PDF)

· Strunk, Elisabeth A., John C. Knight, and M. Anthony Aiello
Assured Reconfiguration of Fail-Stop Systems
DSN 2005: The International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks, Yokohama, Japan (June 2005) (PDF)

· Strunk, Elisabeth A., John C. Knight, and M. Anthony Aiello
Distributed Reconfigurable Avionics Architectures
23rd Digital Avionics Systems Conference, Salt Lake City, UT (October 2004) (PDF)

· Knight, John C., Elisabeth A. Strunk, William S. Greenwell, and Kimberly S. Wasson
Specification and Analysis of Data for Safety-Critical Systems
22nd International System Safety Conference, Providence RI (August 2004) (PDF)

· Greenwell, William S., Elisabeth A. Strunk, and John C. Knight
Failure Analysis and the Safety-Case Lifecycle
IFIP Working Conference on Human Error, Safety and System Development (HESSD)Toulouse, France (August 2004) (PDF)

· Strunk, Elisabeth A. and John C. Knight
Assured Reconfiguration of Embedded Real-Time Software
The International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks (DSN 2004)Florence, Italy, (June 2004)  (PDF)

· Greenwell, William S., John C. Knight and Elisabeth A. Strunk
Risk-Based Classification of Incidents
IRIA 03 Workshop on Investigation and Reporting of Incidents and Accidents, Williamsburg, VA (September 2003) (PDF)

· Wasson, Kimberly S., John C. Knight, Elisabeth A. Strunk, and Sean R. Travis
Tools Supporting the Communication of Critical Application Domain Knowledge in High Consequence Systems Development
SAFECOMP 2003, The 22nd International Conference on Computer Safety, Reliability and Security, Edinburgh, Scotland (September 2003) (PDF)

· Hanks, Kimberly S., and John C. Knight
Improving Communication of Critical Domain Knowledge in High-Consequence Software Development: An Empirical Study
21st International System Safety Conference, Ottawa, Canada (August 2003) (PDF)

· Strunk, Elisabeth A., and John C. Knight
Functionality/Dependability Co-design in Real-Time Embedded Software
Workshop on Co-design for Embedded Real-time Systems (CERTS'03), Co-located with the Euromicro International Conference on Real-Time Systems (July 2003) (PDF)

· Greenwell, William S. and John C. Knight
What Should Aviation Safety Incidents Teach Us
Technical Report CS-2003-12, University of Virginia, Department of Computer Science (April 2003) (PDF)

· Knight, J.C. and S.M. Parikh
Simulation technology for free flight system performance and survivability analysis
21st Digital Avionics Systems Conference, Irvine, CA (November 2002) (PDF)

· Knight, J.C.,Software
Challenges in Aviation Systems (summary of keynote presentation)
International Conference of Computer Safety, Reliability and Security, Catania, Italy (September 2002) (PDF)

· Hanks, Kimberly S., John C. Knight, C. Michael Holloway
The Role of Natural Language in Accident Investigation and Reporting Guidelines
2002 Workshop on the Investigation and Reporting of Incidents and Accidents, Glasgow, Scotland (July, 2002) (PDF)

· Hanks, Kimberly, S., John C. Knight
In Search of Best Practices for the Use of Natural Language in the Development of High-Consequence Systems
Fastabstracts, International Conference of Dependable Systems and Networks, Bethesda, MD (June, 2002) (PDF)

· Knight, J.C.,
Safety Critical Systems: Challenges and Directions (summary of state-of-the-art presentation)
International Conference on Software Engineering, Orlando, FL (May 2002) (PDF)

· Hanks, Kimberly S., John C. Knight, and Elisabeth A. Strunk
Erroneous Requirements: A Linguistic Basis for Their Occurrence and an Approach to Their Reduction
Software Engineering Workshop, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (December, 2001) (PDF)

· Hanks, Kimberly S., John C. Knight, and Elisabeth A. Strunk
A Linguistic Analysis of Requirements Errors and Its Application
University of Virginia, Department of Computer Science, Technical Report CS-2001-30 (November 2001)(PDF)

· Knight, John C., Kimberly S. Hanks, and Sean R. Travis
Tool Support for Production Use of Formal Techniques
International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering, Hong Kong (November 2001) (PDF)

· Hanks, Kimberly, S., John C. Knight
Improving Dependability through the Application of Rigorous Theoretical Linguistics to Requirements Capture,
Fastabstracts: International Conference of Dependable Systems and Networks, Goteborg, Sweden (July, 2001) (PDF)

· Knight J.C., P.T. Fletcher, and B. Hicks
Tool Support for Production Use of Formal Techniques
Short paper, FM `99: World Congress on Formal Methods, Toulouse, France, (September 1999) (PDF)

· Knight, J.C. and M.F. Dunn
Software quality through domain-driven certification
Annals of Software Engineering, vol. 5 (1998) pp. 293-315.

· Ammann, P., D.L. Lukes, and J.C. Knight
Applying Data Redundancy to Differential Equation Solvers
Annals of Software Engineering, vol. 4 (1998) pp. 65-77.

· Knight, J.C., C.L. DeJong, M.S. Gibble, and L.G. Nakano
Why Are Formal Methods Not Used More Widely?
Fourth NASA Formal Methods Workshop, Hampton, VA (September 1997) (PDF)

· Knight, J.C. and L.G. Nakano
Software Test Techniques for System Fault-Tree Analysis
SAFECOMP `97, York, UK (September 1997) (PDF)

· Knight, J.C. and S.S. Brilliant
Preliminary Evaluation of a Formal Approach to User Interface Specification
Tenth International Conference of Z Users, LNCS 1212 Springer Verlag, Reading, UK (April 1997) (PDF)

· Brilliant, S.S., J.C. Knight, and M.E. Elder
Formal Specification of a User Interface
American Nuclear Society Meeting on Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control, and Human Machine Interface Technologies, May 1996, University Park, PA.

· Elder, M.C. and J.C. Knight
Specification of User Interfaces for Safety-Critical Systems
MRCAS `95, Second International Symposium on Medical Robotics and Computer Assisted Surgery, November 1995, Baltimore, MD.

· Wika, K.G. and J.C. Knight
On the Enforcement of Software Safety Policies
10th Annual IEEE Conference on Computer Assurance (COMPASS `95), June 1995, Gaithersburg, MD.

· Wika, K.G. and J.C. Knight
Software Safety in a Medical Application
MRCAS '94, First International Symposium on Medical Robotics and Computer Assisted Surgery, September 1994, Pittsburgh, PA.

· Dunn, M.F. and J.C. Knight
The Role of Domain Analysis in Quality Assurance
Twelfth Pacific Northwest Software Quality Conference, September 1994, Portland OR.

· Knight J.C., A.G. Cass, A.M. Fernandez, and K.G. Wika
Testing a Safety-Critical Application
ISSTA `94, International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis (workshop section), August 1994, Seattle, WA.

· Ammann, P.E., S.S. Brilliant, and J.C. Knight
The Effect Of Imperfect Error Detection On Reliability Assessment Via Life Testing
IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, Vol. 20, No. 2, (February 1994).

· Myers, E.A. and J.C. Knight
An Improved Software Inspection Technique And An Empirical Evaluation Of Its Effectiveness
Communications of the ACMVol. 36, No. 11, pp. 50-61 (November, 1993).

Survivability

· Anh Nguyen-Tuong, Andrew Wang, Jason D. Hiser, John Knight and Jack Davidson
On the Effectiveness of the Metamorphic Shield: The effects of continuously changing the attack surface
Workshop on Survivability in Cyberspace, CPSWEEK 2010, Stockholm, Sweden (April 2010) (PDF)

· Eric Weatherwax, John Knight, and Anh Nguyen-Tuong
A Model of Secretless Security in N-Variant Systems
Second Workshop on Compiler and Architectural Techniques for Application Reliability and Security (CATARS - 2) in Conjunction with the 39th Annual IEEE/IFIP International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks (DSN 2009) (PDF)

· Daniel Williams, Wei Hu, Jack W. Davidson, Jason D. Hiser, John C. Knight, Anh Nguyen-Tuong,
Security through Diversity: Leveraging Virtual Machine Technology
IEEE Security and Privacy, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 26-33, Jan./Feb. 2009

· Anh Nguyen-Tuong, David Evans, John C. Knight, Benjamin Cox, Jack W. Davidson
Security through Redundant Data Diversity
The 38th Annual IEEE/IFIP International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks, DSN 2008, Anchorage, AK (June 2008) (PDF)

· J. Rowanhill, G. Wasson, Z. Hill, J. Basney, Y. Kiryakov, J. Knight, A. Nguyen-Tuong, A. Grimshaw and M. Humphrey
Dynamic System-wide Reconfiguration of Grid Deployments in Response to Intrusion Detections
High Performance Computing Conference (HPCC 2007), Sept 26-28, 2007. Houston, TX. (PDF)

· Z. Hill, J. Rowanhill, A. Nguyen-Tuong, J. Basney, G. Wasson, J. Knight and M. Humphrey
Meeting Virtual Organization Performance Goals through Adaptive Grid Reconfiguration
8th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Grid Computing (Grid 2007), Austin, TX, Sept 19-21, 2007 (PDF)

· Benjamin Cox, David Evans, Adrian Filipi, Jonathan Rowanhill, Wei Hu, Jack Davidson, John Knight, Anh Nguyen-Tuong, and Jason Hiser
N-Variant Systems A Secretless Framework for Security through Diversity
15th USENIX Security Symposium Vancouver, BC (August 2006) (PDF)

· Wei Hu, Jason Hiser, Dan Williams, Adrian Filipi, Jack W. Davidson, David Evans, John C. Knight, Anh Nguyen-Tuong, and Jonathan Rowanhill
Secure and Practical Defense Against Code-injection Attacks Using Software Dynamic Translation
Second International Conference on Virtual Execution Environments. Ottawa, Canada, June 14-16, 2006. (PDF)

· A. Grimshaw, M. Humphrey, J.C. Knight, A. Nguyen-Tuong, J. Rowanhill, G. Wasson, and J. Basney
The Development of Dependable and Survivable Grids
2005 Workshop on Dynamic Data Driven Applications (associated with the 2005 International Conference on Computational Science). Emory University, Atlanta, GA. May 22-25, 2005 (PDF)

· David Evans, Adrian Filipi, Jonathan Rowanhill, Anh Nguyen-Tuong, John C. Knight, Jack W. Davidson
Secretless Security Structures
University of Virginia Computer Science Technical Report CS-2005-17, April 2005

· Scandariato, Riccardo and John C. Knight
An Automated Defense System to Counter Internet Worms
Proceedings of SRDS 2004, 23rd Symposium on Reliable Distributed Systems Florianopolis, Brazil (October 2004) (PDF)

· Knight, John C. and Elisabeth A. Strunk
Achieving Critical System Survivability through Software Architectures
Architecting Dependable Systems, (R. de Lemos, C. Gacek, and A. Romanovsky Eds) Springer Verlag (2004) (PDF) © Springer-Verlag, http://www.springer.de/comp/lncs/index.html)

· Rowanhill, Jonathan C., Philip E. Varner and John C. Knight
Efficient Hierarchic Management For Reconfiguration of Networked Information Systems
The International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks (DSN 2004) Florence, Italy, (June 2004) (PDF)

· Hill, Jonathan C., John C. Knight
Selective Notification: Combining Forms of Decoupled Addressing for Internet-Scale Command and Alert Dissemination
Technical Report CS-2003-14, Department of Computer Science, University of Virginia, (April 2003) (PDF)

· Knight, John, Elisabeth A. Strunk and Kevin J. Sullivan
Towards a Rigorous Definition of Information System Survivability
DISCEX 2003, Washington DC (April 2003) (PDF)

· Knight, John C., Dennis Heimbigner, Alexander Wolf, Antonio Carzaniga, Jonathan Hill, Premkumar Devanbu, Michael Gertz
The Willow Architecture: Comprehensive Survivability for Large-Scale Distributed Applications
Intrusion Tolerance Workshop, DSN-2002 The International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks, Washington DC (June 2002) (PDF)

· Varner, Philip E., John C. Knight
Security Monitoring, Visualization, and System Survivability
Information Survivability Workshop - 2001 (Final Date TBD) (PDF)

· Knight, John C., Dennis Heimbigner, Alexander Wolf, Antonio Carzaniga, Jonathan Hill, Premkumar Devanbu, Michael Gertz
The Willow Survivability Architecture
Information Survivability Workshop - 2001 (Final Date TBD) (PDF)

· Knight, John C., Matthew C. Elder
Fault Tolerant Distributed Information Systems
International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering, Hong Kong (November 2001) (PDF)

· Wang, C., J. Davidson, J. Hill, J. Knight
Protection of Software-based Survivability Mechanisms
International Conference of Dependable Systems and Networks, Goteborg, Sweden (July, 2001) (PDF)

· Knight, John C., Kevin J. Sullivan, Matthew C. Elder, Chenxi Wang
Survivability Architectures: Issues and Approaches
DARPA Information Survivability Conference and Exposition (DISCEX 2000), Hilton Head SC (January 2000) (PDF)

· Knight, J.C. and K.J. Sullivan
On the Definition of Survivability
University of Virginia, Department of Computer Science, Technical Report CS-TR-33-00 (PDF)

· Wang, C., J.C. Knight, M. Elder
On Viral Propagation and the Effect of Immunization
16th ACM Annual Computer Applications Conference, New Orleans, LA (December 2000) (PDF)

· Sullivan, K., J.C. Knight, X. Du, and S. Geist
Information Survivability Control Systems
Twenty-first International Conference on Software Engineering, (May 1999), Los Angeles, CA, IEEE Computer Society Press (PDF)

· Knight, J., M. Elder, X. Du
Error Recovery in Critical Infrastructure Systems
Computer Security, Dependability, & Assurance: From Needs to Solutions IEEE Computer Society (Order Number PR00337) (PDF)

· Knight, John C., Elder, Matthew C., Flinn, James, Marx, Patrick
Analysis of Four Critical Infrastructure Applications
Computer Science Report No. CS-97-27, September 19, 1998 (Available by request, send e-mail to knight at cs dot virginia dot edu)

Education

· Knight, J.C.
On Our Failure to Embrace Advances in Software Technology
Safety-Critical Systems Club Newsletter, Fiftieth Issue, November 2007 (PDF)

· Cohoon, J.P. and J.C. Knight
Connecting Discrete Mathematics and Software Engineering
36th Annual Frontiers in Education Conference, San Diego, CA (October 2006) (PDF)

· Knight, J.C.
Should Software Engineers Be Licensed?
Safety-Critical Systems Club Newsletter, Volume 14, Number 1, September 2004 (PDF)(Note that this article appeared in this newsletter only. It was reported incorrectly in theOctober 19, 2005 issue of Computer Weekly as an address).

· Knight, J.C. and N.G. Leveson
Software and Higher Education
Inside Risks Column, CACM Vol. 49, No. 1 (January 2006) (PDF)

· Knight, J.C. and T.B. Horton
Evaluating A Software Engineering Project Course Model Based On Studio Presentations
35th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, Indianapolis, IN (October 2005) (PDF)

· Knight, J.C.
Focusing Software Education on Engineering
ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, Volume 30 Number 2 (March 2005) (PDF)

· Knight, J.C.
Should Software Engineers Be Licensed?
Safety-Critical Systems Club Newsletter, Volume 14, Number 1, September 2004 (PDF)(Note that this article appeared in this newsletter only. It was reported incorrectly in the October 19, 2005 issue of Computer Weekly as an address).

· Horton, Thomas B., John C. Knight
A Software Engineering Project Course Model Based on Studio Presentations
33rd ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, Boulder, CO (November 2003) (PDF)

· Knight, J.C. and N.G. Leveson
Should Software Engineers Be Licensed? Communications of the ACM, Vol 45, No. 11, November 2002 (PDF)

 

Other Areas

· Knight, John C
Desert Island Books
Annals of Software (PDF)

· French, J.C., J. C. Knight, A. L. Powell
Applying Hypertext Structures to Software Documentation
Journal of Information Processing and Management, Vol. 33, No. 2 (1997) pp. 219-231.

· Sullivan K.J., and J.C. Knight
Assessment of an Architectural Approach to Large-Scale Systematic Reuse
Eighteenth International Conference on Software Engineering, (March 1996), Berlin, Germany.

· Powell, A.L., J.C. French, and J.C. Knight
A Systematic Approach to Creating and Maintaining Software Documentation
ACM Symposium on Applied Computing, February 1996, Philadelphia, PA.

· Dunn, M.F. and J.C. Knight
Automating The Detection Of Reusable Parts In Existing Software
15th International Conference on Software Engineering May 1993, Baltimore, MD.

Recent Ph.D. Dissertations & M.S. Theses by my Students

· Weatherwax, Eric. Modeling Secretless Security in N-Variant Systems M.S. Thesis, May 2009 (PDF)

· Greenwell, William. Pandora: An Approach to Analyzing Safety-Related Digital-System Failures Ph.D. Dissertation, August 2006 (PDF)

· Graydon, Patrick. Formal Specification of Static Configuration Data M.S. Thesis, June 2006 (PDF)

· Wasson, Kimberly. CLEAR Requirements: Improving Validity Using Cognitive Linguistic Elicitation and Representation Ph.D. Dissertation, May 2006 (PDF

· Strunk, Elisabeth. Reconfiguration Assurance in Embedded System Software Ph.D. Dissertation, May 2005 (PDF)

· Rowanhill, Jonathan. Survivability Management Architecture for Very Large Distributed Systems Ph.D. Dissertation, July 2004 (PDF)

· Greenwell, William S. Learning Lessons from Accidents and Incidents Involving Safety-Critical Software Systems M.S. Thesis, May 2003 (PDF)

· Varner, Philip E. Policy Specification for Non-Local Fault Tolerance in Large Distributed Information Systems M.S. Thesis, May 2003 (PDF)

· Strunk, Elisabeth A. The Role of Natural Language in a Software Product M.S. Thesis, May 2002 (PDF)

· Elder, Matthew C. Fault Tolerance in Critical Information Systems Ph.D. Dissertation, May 2001 (PDF)

· Wang, Chenxi A Security Architecture for Survivability Mechanisms Ph.D. Dissertation, October 2000 (PDF)

These papers are included here as a convenience. You are legally obliged to respect the copyright laws in using this material. The copyright for all conference and journal papers lies with the publisher.

John C. Knight
University of Virginia
Department of Computer Science