“Expect to have a hard time deciding which talk to attend!” – Interview with Dr. Leonidas Kosmidis, Barcelona Supercomputing Center

Posted on September 17, 2024

The High Integrity Software Conference (HISC) – brought to you by AdaCore and Capgemini – is a unique gathering of software engineering practitioners from all safety critical domains.

With panels, exhibitions, and lightning talks from industry leaders, attendees will walk away with exclusive insights and important techniques applicable across industry sectors.

In this blog, Dr Leonidas Kosmidis, Senior Researcher at Barcelona Supercomputing Center and HISC speaker, shares his thoughts on the critical importance of software resilience and how the HISC fosters the strong collaboration our industry needs to achieve it.

"High Integrity Software" is the core theme of the conference. How will this focus address attendees’ biggest challenges and opportunities? Why is this theme so crucial in today’s technology landscape?

Our world is becoming increasingly software-defined, with more and more critical infrastructure depending on software. Recent events such as the CrowdStrike incident show the importance of high-integrity software, and the technologies presented in the conference will help achieve that.

What is the most disruptive technology impacting your and/or your clients’ businesses at the moment? What can conference-goers expect to find in the programme on the topic?

Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) are an essential performance-enabling hardware technology – increasingly considered for adoption in safety-critical systems to provide the performance required for autonomous operations.

However, programming GPUs requires error prone, low-level operations using unsafe languages, which creates a challenge with respect to high integrity.

The conference program includes several contributions on safe languages and their features, which can provide a viable path to the development, verification, and certification of systems dealing with these issues.

In what ways does the High Integrity Software Conference foster collaboration and networking among its attendees? Can you provide examples of past success stories or unique opportunities for professional growth that participants have experienced?

Unlike other conferences which focus on specific critical sectors (e.g. automotive, avionics, space etc.), HISC is a unique conference bringing together practitioners from all safety critical domains. In addition to its laid-back atmosphere and community feeling, it fosters cross-pollination and collaboration between different industries.

As a speaker, what are the key insights you expect attendees to take away from the event? And what are the most exciting slots on the agenda they won’t want to miss?

The event puts together a unique line up of speakers covering a wide range of high integrity solutions, providing the state of the art in this area. Don't miss the exciting keynotes and expect to have a hard time deciding which talk from the two parallel tracks you will attend!

I'm looking forward to the talks on safe languages, which are necessary for achieving high integrity. Specifically, ‘Rust for Certifiable Software: Bridging Communities’ from Jose Ruiz, Embedded Product Manager at AdaCore – as this language seems to be recently on the rise.

Register now for the High Integrity Software Conference (HISC).

Back for another year in a brand new, larger venue, the HISC will take place on Tuesday 22^nd October at the International Convention Centre (ICC) Wales.

In addition to sharing exclusive insights and opinions, cross-industry leaders will demonstrate state-of-the-art high assurance software throughout the conference exhibition space. Providing networking opportunities to form new collaborations and disseminate high integrity software-related research.

Register now to avoid disappointment.