Section: Overall Objectives

Introduction

We want to concentrate on the development of mathematical libraries for theorem proving tools. This objective contributes to two main areas of application: tools for mathematicians and correctness verification tools for software dealing with numerical computation.

In the short term, we aim for mathematical libraries that concern polynomials, algebra, group theory, floating point numbers, real numbers, big integers, probabilities and geometrical objects. In the long run, we think that this will involve any function that may be of use in embedded software for automatics or robotics (in what is called hybrid systems, systems that contain both software and physical components) and in cryptographical systems. We want to integrate these libraries in theorem proving tools because we believe they will become important tools for mathematical practice and for engineers who need to prove the correctness of their algorithms and software.

We believe that theorem proving tools are good tools to produce highly dependable software, because they provide a framework where algorithms and specifications can be studied uniformly and often provide means to mechanically derive programs that are correct by construction.

Mathematical knowledge can also be made concrete in the form of decision procedures, often “satisfiability modulo theory” procedures, which can be connected to theorem proving tools in a way that preserves the trustability of the final results.