معرفی
Dr. Andrew Butterfield is a Professor in the School of Computer Science and Statistics at Trinity College Dublin. He serves as Head of the Foundations and Methods Group and is actively involved with Lero: the Irish Software Research Centre. His academic work spans formal methods, functional programming, and theoretical computer science with applications in safety-critical systems.
Butterfield's research primarily focuses on the Unifying Theories of Programming (UTP) paradigm, with specializations in shared-variable concurrency, formal verification of medical device software, and spacecraft operating systems. His work explores composition and local denotational semantics for concurrency, UTP theories for rely/guarantee reasoning, and implementations of proof assistance tools written in Haskell. Current projects include RTEMS-SMP (formal verification of multicore real-time scheduling funded by ESA) and FMHIDA (formal techniques for medical device software development funded by SFI through Lero).
His recent publications reveal a strong emphasis on applying formal methods to real-world problems, with particular attention to concurrency models, medical systems verification, and tool development for UTP. The research shows consistent progression from theoretical foundations toward practical applications in safety-critical domains.
Butterfield has developed several Haskell-based tools including the Theorem Proving Assistant for UTP, UTP Calculator, and Equational Reasoning Support. He has served on numerous program committees including TASE 2019, IWFM, FMICS, and FM, and is on the Editorial Board of Formal Aspects of Computing.
He teaches courses including CS3016: Introduction to Functional Programming and CS2016/3D4 Concurrency and Operating Systems. Previously, he has taught Formal Methods, Functional Programming, Concurrency Theory, and various other computer science subjects. He also serves as School Disability Liaison Officer and Course Director for Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship.
Butterfield leads the Foundations & Methods Group at Trinity and has been involved in significant research projects including Formalising Interfaces between Software and Hardware (FISH) funded by SFI, Unifying Synchronous Systems, and ESA-funded activities on OS kernel formal verification. His work with the Irish School of VDM has produced LaTeX macros and Haskell implementations for formal method applications.