Mark Lawford

B.Sc. (Eng.) (Queen's), M.A.Sc. (Toronto), Ph.D. (Toronto), P.Eng.

Greetings.

I am Professor and Chair of the Department of Computing and Software. I am also a founding member of the

McSCertMcMaster Centre for Software Certification (McSCert).

I joined the department in August 1998 as an Assistant Professor. My PhD was completed under the supervision of Prof. W.M. Wonham in the Systems Control group at the University of Toronto in February 1997. From March 1997 to July 1998 I was a contractor at Ontario Hydro performing Formal Verification of the Darlington Nuclear Generating Station Shutdown System Trip Computer Software. For the small part I played in helping to automate the systematic design verification of safety critical software on that project, I was a co-recipient of an Ontario Hydro New Technology award. My research interests fall under the general headings of Software Engineering and Control of Discrete Event Systems (DES), in particular Software Certification, Formal Methods for Real-Time Systems (synthesis, verification, and model reduction), practical application of formal methods in the software engineering process, computer aided inspection, and supervisory control of modular, nondeterministic and probabilistic DES, and hybrid systems.

I am a licensed Professional Engineer in the province of Ontario and a Senior Member of the IEEE.


Academic Activities:

Publications:

A bibliography of selected papers with abstracts , BibTeX entries and full papers downloads of some of my work.

Research Collaborations:

I currently have a number of ongoing research collaborations:

Some past research collaborations of note have been:

Tools for Matlab/Simulink:

Software Certification Consortium (SCC):

I have been working with my McSCert colleagues (Alan Wassyng and Tom Maibaum) and many others, to establish a Software Certification Consortium (SCC). One of SCC's first initiatives is to issue a Software Grand Challenge to use formal methods to specify, design and implement a Pacemaker. The starting point is an informal requirements document from Boston Scientific and a PIC Microcontroller based hardware reference platform developed at the University of Minnesota. I am currently in the process of getting Pacemaker boards manufactured. Please contact me if you are interested in purchasing one.

Conferences etc.


Publicity


Service:

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council Discovery Grant Selection Committee 330 - Computing and Information Sciences A 2008-2010 Competitions.


Undergraduate Courses:

Term 1:

MECHTRON 3TA4 Embedded Systems Design I

Avenue is the main source for course information.

Term 2:

MECHTRON/SFWR ENG 3DX4 Dynamic Models and Control of Physical Systems

Avenue is the main source for course information.


Past Graduate Course:

CAS 725 Formal Methods for Real-Time Systems - information, lecture slides and assignment hand outs, etc. available on Avenue.

Previous Undergraduate Courses:

SFWR ENG 4G06 Software Engineering Senior Thesis

SFWR ENG 2F03 Mathematical Logic for Software Engineering - information, lecture slides and assignment handouts etc.

SFWR ENG 4A03 Real-Time Systems and Computer Control Systems - information, lecture slides and assignment handouts, etc.

Previous Graduate Course:

CAS 704 Real-Time, Embedded Systems

CS 734 - information, lecture slides and assignment hand outs, etc.


Current Research Engineers, Postdocs and Graduate Students

  • Vera Pantelic, Research Engineer, NSERC APC/Chrysler Leadership in Automotive Powertrain (LEAP) project (On leave 09/2016-08/2017)
  • Lucian Patcas, Reseaerch Engineer, LEAP
  • Matthew Dawson, Research Engineer, FCA Internships
  • Monika Bialy, Ph.D. in Software Engineering, (Co-supervised with Alan Wassyng)
  • Eric Lesiuta, Ph.D. in Software Engineering
  • Nicholas Moore, Ph.D. in Software Engineering
  • Bennett MacKenzie, M.A.Sc. in Software Engineering, LEAP
  • Alexander Schaap, M.A.Sc. in Software Engineering (Co-supervised with Jacques Carette)
  • Asim Shah, M.A.Sc. in Software Engineering (Co-supervised with Alan Wassyng)
  • Stephen Wynn-Williams, M.A.Sc. Software Engineering, LEAP
  • Michael Rowinski, M.Eng. in Mechatronics Engineering (Co-supervised with Alan Wassyng)

  • Recent Graduate Students

  • Alex Korobkine, Research Engineering, Now working as a powertrain engineer at GM's Milford Proving Grounds
  • Grant Whinton, M.A.Sc. in Software Engineering, Now an Engineer at GM Canada's CREC in Oshawa
  • Linna Pang, Ph.D. in Computer Science, Now working at Systemware International
  • Lane Gibson, M.Eng. in Mechatronics, Now working at Systemware International
  • Archana Mallya, M.A.Sc. in Software Engineering
  • Xiayong (Jason) Hu, Ph.D. in Software Engineering, Now Application Architect, Ontario Lab Information System - Minitstry of Health and Long term care
  • Vera Pantelic, Ph.D. in Software Engineering, Now a Research Engineer at McMaster
  • Jenab Baluwala, M.Eng. in Software Engineering
  • Peter Bergstra, M.A.Sc. in Software Engineering (Co-supervised with Nicola Nicolici)
  • Ben Breimer, M.A.Sc. in Software Engineering (Co-supervised with Alan Wassyng) - Now working at Candu Energy
  • Honghan Deng, M.A.Sc. in Software Engineering, Now working at Invensys
  • Colin Eles, M.A.Sc. in Software Engineering, Now working at Electronic Arts
  • Asif Iqbal, M.A.Sc. in Software Engineering (Co-supervised with Alan Wassyng)
  • Lucian Patcas, Ph.D. in Software Engineering (Co-supervised with Tom Maibaum)
  • Steven Postma, Research Engineer, SOSCIP
  • Mitch Shaughnessy, M.Eng. in Mechatronics, Now working at Brock Solutions
  • John Stribbell, M.Eng. in Mechatronics Engineering, Now working at Brock Solutions
  • Billy Taj, M.A.Sc. in Software Engineering
  • Sasan Vakili, M.A.Sc. in Software Engineering
  • Marvin Zuzarte, M.A.Sc. in Software Engineering (Co-supervised with Nicola Nicolici)
  • I have been an avid Linux user/sys admin since 1994. To learn about the Linux operating system, check out the Linux Documentation Project. I currently use Fedora Linux.



    
    I stayed in school this long,
     but still no one can tell me why?
    They figure who would know,
     better than I?
    
    from Autobiography by Sloan off one cord to another
    
    [ CAS | ML | Papers ]