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University of Oxford Software Engineering Centre
The Software Engineering Centre is part of the Oxford University Computing Laboratory. The Laboratory is the academic computing department for the University, and is graded by the UK government as 5* in research and Excellent in teaching (both the highest grades). It was founded forty years ago, and has a tradition of combining first-class theoretical work with practical application in industry. It has twice been given the Queen's Award for Technological Achievement: first for its work with Inmos on the transputer, and second for work with IBM on formalising the CICS transaction processing system.
The Laboratory is known for its research in programming techniques, including formal methods for sequential and concurrent systems (Z and CSP), model checking distributed systems (FDR), novel techniques for requirements engineering, critical systems development (analysing safety and security), hardware compilation (Handel-C), and theoretical underpinnings (denotational semantics and the Unifying Theory of Programming).
The Software Engineering Centre was recently nominated as the UK's Centre of Excellence by the government. Its mission is to transfer modern software engineering techniques to industry through a mixture of education, training, research, and consulting. It has connections with over fifty national and international companies.
The Centre is involved in a number of relevant projects. The Linking Tools project, funded by the UK EPSRC, applies Hoare & He's Unifying Theory to combining Z and CSP and linking model-checking and theorem-proving tools. The Smart Card project, funded by a major bank, has recently assured a smart card product up to ITSEC Level E6; the first product ever to achieve this highest level of assurance. The FMERail project, funded by the European Commission, has been applying formal methods to the assurance of railway infrastructure, using a variety of techniques, including model-checking assisted by theorem-proving.