Formal Methods for the Informal Engineer: Workshop Recommendations
This addresses the need for reliable software in biomedical applications, but it is incremental as it focuses on recommendations rather than new methods or results.
The workshop explored the potential role of verified software in the biomedical software ecosystem as the field transitions to driving mission-critical platforms, resulting in five concrete recommendations for incorporating formal methods into project planning and development.
Formal Methods for the Informal Engineer (FMIE) was a workshop held at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in 2021 to explore the potential role of verified software in the biomedical software ecosystem. The motivation for organizing FMIE was the recognition that the life sciences and medicine are undergoing a transition from being passive consumers of software and AI/ML technologies to fundamental drivers of new platforms, including those which will need to be mission and safety-critical. Drawing on conversations leading up to and during the workshop, we make five concrete recommendations to help software leaders organically incorporate tools, techniques, and perspectives from formal methods into their project planning and development trajectories.