Luca de Alfaro, professor of computer science and engineering in the Baskin School of Engineering, has received a 2020 Test-of-Time Award from the IEEE Symposium on Logic in Computer Science (LICS) for a paper on concurrent games presented at the conference in 2000. He also received a 2020 Test-of-Time Award for a paper presented in 2001 at the International Conference on Embedded Software (EMSOFT).
The LICS Test-of-Time Award recognizes papers published in the LICS proceedings within the previous 20 years that have best met the "test of time" as shown by the influence they have had in the years since their publication.
De Alfaro’s research interests include game theory, system modeling and analysis, image processing, reputation systems, crowdsourcing, and machine learning. The LICS Test-of-Time Award recognizes a paper by de Alfaro and coauthor Thomas Henzinger from the 2000 LICS conference held in Santa Barbara. The paper, “Concurrent Omega-Regular Structure,” addressed a key issue for “concurrent games” used to model interactions between systems and their environments.
The LICS committee noted that the paper “studied the theoretical properties of the games and provided clever algorithms for computing the sets of winning states for three different qualitative modes of winning, reflecting different probabilistic guarantees. By settling several fundamental results of this theory, this is a landmark paper that has been extended to include further qualitative parameters (energy and other weighted games), richer winning conditions, and applications beyond traditional synthesis and control.”
De Alfaro and Henzinger gave an acceptance talk at the LICS 2020 conference, held online in early July.
The EMSOFT paper, “Interface Theories for Component-Based Design,” was also coauthored with Henzinger. The authors will be honored at the Embedded Systems Week virtual conference (ESWEEK 2020) in September 2020.
