SOCLe was created by Damien Azambre (PhD in Computer Science); Pascal Bachand (Master's in Bioinformatics); Raveca Oarga (Master's in Computer Science); and Mathieu Bergeron (Master's in Computer Science). Mr. Bergeron also worked as a research associate with the project from September 2004 to March 2005.

The SOCLe project is a joint initiative between the Valcartier facility of Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC) and the Laboratoire de conception et réalisation d'applications complexes (Complex Applications Design and Research Laboratory -- CRAC) at École Polytechnique.

Launched in 2002, the partnership set out to create a formal verification method for use in the design phase of software development. The result was SOCLe (Secure OCL extensions): an innovative design tool for critical applications, developed at CRAC.

"Software design is a complex task. It calls for enormous resources and is prone to errors whose repercussions are often difficult to predict," says Professor Mullins.

"Designers develop applications using Unified Modeling Language (UML) diagrams into which certain constraints must be specified," Mathieu Bergeron explains. "SOCLe builds rigorous and automatic software verification techniques right into the UML-OCL syntax. The tool analyses the model and performs a diagnosis, allowing design errors to quickly be detected and corrected well before the implementation and testing phases -- which represents substantial savings for software design firms."

For the moment, SOCLe is still in the prototype stage, but given industry enthusiasm for the project, the Polytechnique team could begin marketing the tool in two to three years' time. Discussions are currently under way with the Ottawa IBM research centre regarding the development of an industrial version of SOCLe, with a view to its eventual integration into the IBM modeling tool suite, Rational Software Architect.

"I am very proud of the work accomplished by the students," stated Professor Mullins. "By the end of the OCTAS competition, some of them had been approached by major software design firms. The contest has been an excellent springboard for both the project and for students' careers."

"An exceptional student team put tremendous effort into this project, and they deserved the prize," said Mathieu Bergeron. "The best of luck to all of those to come whose graduate work will focus on the project and its aftermath. I also hope that the prize helps Professor Mullins obtain industry support and bring the fruits of this research to software design practitioners."

L. to r.: Frédéric Pinchaud (scientist, DRDC Valcartier); Damien Azambre; Raveca Oarga; Mathieu Bergeron; Chantal Cantin (Director, École Polytechnique Communications and Public Relations Office and head of the Communications Committee of the Concours des OCTAS); Professor John Mullins; Pascal Bachand; and Robert Charpentier (scientist, DRDC Valcartier).

Organized yearly since 1987 by the FiQ, Québec's largest IT network, the Concours des OCTAS has become the standard for excellence in the province's IT industry. Each year the FiQ honours individuals, companies and organizations for their creativity, vitality and exceptional contribution to the growth of the industry.

Following an agreement between the FiQ and Canadian Information Productivity Awards (CIPA), all OCTAS competition winners will see their projects automatically pass on to the CIPA's final jury.

To find out more on the subject, don't miss the special OCTAS section in the June 8 edition of Le Devoir.

École Polytechnique salutes the SOCLe team's triumph!