CS 4830 — System Specification, Verification, and Synthesis
4 semester hoursUndergraduateLecturetypical days: M/W/ThBostonTraditional
Covers the fundamental topics in formal modeling and specification (transition systems, temporal logic, regular and omega-regular languages, safety and liveness properties, etc.); computer-aided verification (state-space exploration, model checking, bounded-model checking, binary-decision diagrams, symbolic model checking, etc.); compositionality and assume-guarantee reasoning; contracts; and component-based design. Also covers fundamental topics in computer-aided synthesis of correct-by-construction systems, starting from high-level formal specifications or from example scenarios. Designing large and complex systems (digital circuits, embedded control systems such as automated vehicles, computerized healthcare devices such as pacemakers, cyber-physical systems such as automated intersections, etc.) and their software cannot be done by hand. Instead, designers use computer-aided techniques that allow them to build system models and verify correctness of the design before the real system is actually built.
Prerequisites
- CS 3000 (min D-)
Offering history
| Term | Sections | Enrolled | Capacity | Full | Open seats/section |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fall 2023 | 1 | 6 | 8 | 75% | 2.0 |
| Spring 2026 | 1 | 2 | 20 | 10% | 18.0 |
Snapshots from scheduled scrapes — not live seat availability. "Full" can exceed 100% when sections over-enroll.
Meeting times
Share of recent sections by weekday: M 100% · T 0% · W 100% · Th 75% · F 0%
Common patterns: MWR (75% of sections), MW (25% of sections) — in patterns, R means Thursday
Professors
Fall
- Stavros Trypakis (100% of students) · reviews
Spring
- Stavros Trypakis (100% of students) · reviews
Percentages are each professor's average share of the season's enrolled students in recent terms.
Links
Official catalog (CS course descriptions) · Student reviews on RateMyHusky · All CS courses · Plan it at numap.app