News

Raymond Hu has been awarded a New Investigator research grant worth £646,000 by EPSRC. The project is called "DymSUM - Distributed Dynamic Software Updates using Multiparty Session Types" and investigates a theory-based approach to how distributed software can evolve while running. The project involves collaboration with industrial partners at Monzo Bank and SAP.

Distributed systems are at the heart of our infrastructures and society, encompassing, for example, the many Internet and mobile applications that we rely on in our daily lives. A crucial characteristic of modern Distributed Systems is dynamic evolution: many important Distributed Systems are designed to evolve - while the system remains running - in both their program source code (e.g., updates to add or improve features and fix bugs) and execution configuration (e.g., migration of communication links and processes).

The project focuses on what are known as Multiparty session types (MSTs). They are a type systems approach to message passing programming. This offers a theoretical grounding for formalising communication protocols and verifying that distributed programs are protocol-compliant. This project will investigate the development of MST-based techniques and tools for formal specification and safe implementation of dynamically-evolving Distributed Sysstems (DDS). The project will support a PDRA and a PhD for three years, starting later this year.