Course Description
The course title that appears in the Clemson catalog indicates that this is a course on "Software Verification and Validation". Very true! You are in the right place. But what does this mean exactly? Are we interested in testing techniques? Model checking techniques? Theorem proving techniques? Sequential systems? Concurrent systems? "Software Verification and Validation" covers a wide range of topics; the course could focus on any number of things.

To prevent this from becoming a survey course that covers a broad set of topics at a relatively shallow depth, we're going to restrict our attention to a fairly narrow subset. This semester we'll focus on a set of formalisms for specifying, designing, and reasoning about distributed systems. Implementation concerns will play only a minor role. To reflect this focus, the course has been (unofficially) retitled "Foundations of Distributed Computing".

This course is based in large part on Paul Sivilotti's (excellent) course at Ohio State, "Introduction to Distributed Systems". Dr. Sivilotti has been kind enough to share his lecture notes and course materials, on which this course will be closely modeled. Many thanks to Dr. Sivilotti for his help!

Prerequisites
Basic programming skills in Java and C++

Meeting Times and Location
Tuesday, Thursday @ 6:30-7:45pm
114 McAdams Hall

Course Textbook (optional)
There is officially no textbook required for this course. You might, however, try to pick up a copy of Chandy and Misra's textbook, "Parallel Program Design: A Foundation", to use as a reference in reinforcing course lectures. (It's easy to find on Amazon.) Additional reading materials will be assigned throughout the semester.

Parallel Program Design: A Foundation K.M. Chandy and J. Misra Addison-Wesley 1988 (when large dinosaurs roamed the earth)

Instructor Information
Jason O. Hallstrom
301 McAdams Hall
(864) 656-0187
jasonoh at cs.clemson.edu

Office Hours
Tuesday, Thursday @ 1:30-3:30pm
or by appointment