Shaun AzzopardiUniversity of Gothenburg | GU · Computer Science and Engineering
Shaun Azzopardi
PhD in Computer Science
About
27
Publications
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Introduction
Interested in synthesis, static analysis, runtime verification, computational analysis approaches to law, and smart contracts.
https://shaunazzopardi.github.io/
Publications
Publications (27)
Smart contracts present new challenges for runtime verification techniques, due to features such as immutability of the code and the notion of gas that must be paid for the execution of code. In this paper we present the runtime verification tool ContractLarva and outline its use in instrumenting monitors in smart contracts written in Solidity, for...
Smart contracts have been proposed as executable implementations enforcing real-life contracts. Unfortunately, the semantic gap between these allows for the smart contract to diverge from its intended deontic behaviour. In this paper we show how a deontic contract can be used for real-time monitoring of smart contracts specifically and request-base...
Distributed ledger technologies, e.g. blockchains, are an innovative solution to the problem of trust between different parties. Smart contracts, programs executing on these ledgers present new challenges given their non-traditional execution context – blockchains. The immutability of smart contracts once they are deployed makes their pre-deploymen...
Temporal synthesis attempts to construct reactive programs that satisfy a given declarative (LTL) formula. Practitioners have found it challenging to work exclusively with declarative specifications, and have found languages that combine modelling with declarative specifications more useful. Synthesised controllers may also need to work with pre-ex...
Reconfigurable multi-agent systems consist of a set of autonomous agents, with integrated interaction capabilities that feature opportunistic interaction. Agents seemingly reconfigure their interactions interfaces by forming collectives, and interact based on mutual interests. Finding ways to design and analyse the behaviour of these systems is a v...
Smart contracts exist immutably on blockchains, making their pre-deployment correctness essential. Moreover, they exist openly on blockchains-open for interaction with any other smart contract and off-chain entity. Interaction, for instance with off-chain oracles, can affect the state of the smart contract, and correctness of these smart contracts...
Kotlin was introduced to Android as the recommended language for development. One of the unique functionalities of Kotlin is that of coroutines, which are lightweight tasks that can run concurrently inside threads. Programming using coroutines is difficult, among other things, because they can move between threads and behave unexpectedly. We introd...
Aspect-oriented programming tools aim to provide increased code modularity by enabling programming of cross-cutting concerns separate from the main body of code. Since the inception of runtime verification , aspect-oriented programming has regularly been touted as a perfect accompanying tool, by allowing for non-invasive monitoring in-strumentation...
Business processes have been long researched, with many tools, languages, and diagrammatic notations having been developed for automation. Recently, distributed ledger technology (of which Blockchain is one type) has been proposed for use in the monitoring of business process compliance. Such a set-up is attractive since it allows for immutability...
In this article we explore different issues and design choices that arise when considering how to fully embrace timed aspects in the formalisation of normative systems, e.g., by using deontic modalities, looking primarily through the lens of monitoring. We primarily focus on expressivity and computational aspects, discussing issues such as duration...
In this article we explore different issues and design choices that arise when considering how to fully embrace timed aspects in the formalisation of normative systems, e.g., by using deontic modalities, looking primarily through the lens of monitoring. We primarily focus on expressivity and computational aspects, discussing issues such as duration...
Temporal synthesis attempts to construct reactive programs that satisfy a given declarative (LTL) formula. Practitioners have found it challenging to work exclusively with declarative specifications, and have found languages that combine modelling with declarative specifications more useful. Synthesised controllers may also need to work with pre-ex...
Business processes have been long researched, with many tools, languages, and diagrammatic notations having been developed for automation. Recently, distributed ledger technology (of which Blockchain is one type) has been proposed for use in the monitoring of business process compliance. Such a setup is attractive since it allows for immutability a...
Analysing programs at a high-level of abstraction reduces the effort required for verification, but may abstract away details required for full verification of a specification. Working at a lower level, e.g. through model checking or runtime verifying program code, can avoid this problem of abstraction, at the expense of much larger resource requir...
Runtime verification (RV) is an established approach that utilises monitors synthesized from a property language (e.g. temporal logics or some form of automata) to observe program behaviour at runtime, determining compliance of the program with the property at runtime. An issue with RV is that it introduces overheads at runtime, while identifying a...
Smart contracts present new challenges for runtime verification techniques, due to features such as immutability of the code and the notion of gas that must be paid for the execution of code. In this paper we present the runtime verification tool ContractLarva and outline its use in instrumenting monitors in smart contracts written in Solidity, for...
Controlled natural languages have long been used as a surface form for formal descriptions, allowing easy transitioning between natural language specifications and implementable specifications. In this paper we motivate the use of a controlled natural language in the representation and verification of financial services regulations. The verificatio...
In this paper we give an overview of Valour, a runtime verification tool which has been developed in the context of a project to act as a backend verification tool for financial transaction software. A Valour script is written by the user and is then compiled into a verification system. Although, developed as part of a project, the tool has been de...
Where full static analysis of systems fails to scale up due to system size, dynamic monitoring has been increasingly used to ensure system correctness. The downside is, however, runtime overheads which are induced by the additional monitoring code instrumented. To address this issue, various approaches have been proposed in the literature to use st...
Natural language techniques have been employed in attempts to automatically translate legal texts, and specifically contracts, into formal models that allow automatic reasoning. However, such techniques suffer from incomplete coverage, typically resulting in parts of the text being left uninterpreted, and which, in turn, may result in the formal mo...
Given the complementary nature of static and dynamic analysis, there has been much work on identifying means of combining the two. In particular, the use of static analysis as a means of alleviating the overheads induced by dynamic analysis, typically by trying to prove parts of the properties, which would then not need to be verified at runtime. I...
Although much research has gone into natural language legal document analysis, practical solutions to support legal document drafting and reasoning are still limited in functionality. However given the textual basis of law there is much potential for NLP techniques to aid in the context of drafting legal documents, especially contracts. Furthermore...
Deontic logic as a way of formally reasoning about norms, an important area in AI and law, has traditionally concerned itself about formalising provisions of general statutes. Despite the long history of deontic logic, given the wide scope of the logic, it is difficult, if not impossible, to formalise all these notions in a single formalism, and th...
Given the strict legal frameworks which regulate the movements and management of funds, building financial applications typically proves to be prohibitively expensive for small companies. Not only is it the case that understanding legal requirements and building a framework of compliance checks to ensure that such legislation is adhered to is a com...
Although contract reparations have been extensively studied in the context of deontic logics, there is not much literature using reparations in automata-based deontic approaches. Contract automata are a recent approach to modelling the notion of contract-based interaction between different parties using synchronous com-position. However, it lacks t...
Projects
Projects (4)
There is a gap between natural language representation of contracts and formal languages encoding them, which disallows the automated analysis of natural language text. In this project we developed a tool and exploited natural language techniques to attempt to bridge this gap. Given NLP does not always give complete results, we developed a formal deontic contract logic that allows for reasoning about partially known contracts.
