Staff Profile

Ani received a BSc (Hons) in Mathematics from the University of London King's College in 1982, and an MSc in Information Systems Engineering from South Bank Polytechnic in 1984. His PhD was in Formal Modelling and Analysis of Dynamic Reconfiguration of Dependable Systems from Newcastle University in 2013, supervised by Professor John Fitzgerald.

For his PhD, Ani extended the process algebra CCS with a special process (termed a fraction process) and overloaded the semantics of the parallel composition operator in order to model the runtime evolution of a system abstractly. Thus, the dynamic reconfiguration of a system that was unforeseen when the system was originally designed can be modelled abstractly. Furthermore, the functional interference between application and reconfiguration tasks that can occur during dynamic reconfiguration is modelled using interleaved transitions.

Prior to his PhD, Ani worked on a variety of R & D projects: at MARI Advanced Microelectronics Ltd (1985 - 1989), he researched into the instrumentation of an object-oriented distributed system, specification of a distributed meta IPSE using Z, enterprise modelling, and a documentation system for IBCN software. At York University (1989 - 1992), he worked on a modelling framework for hard real-time systems. Ani subsequently developed a variety of database applications for accounting, HR, and payroll.

Following his PhD, Ani developed timed models of causality using structured occurrence nets (SONs) as a research associate on the EPSRC-funded UNCOVER project. On the EPSRC IAA Complex Investigations project, he extended the SONCraft tool - developed by Bowen Li in UNCOVER - to implement probability in simple SONs. Currently on the EPSRC IAA - Complex Scenarios project, he is working with Professor Maciej Koutny and Professor Brian Randell to develop a confusion-tolerant method of calculating probabilities in structured acyclic nets for different concurrency models, and is implementing the method as a SONCraft facility. Ani is also continuing his research into the dynamic reconfiguration of dependable systems. Ani's research interests include formal modelling, analysis, and implementation of dynamically reconfigurable dependable real-time systems using process algebras, structured acyclic nets, the Vienna Development Method, model checking, and schedulability analysis.

• Article

  • Bhattacharyya A, Mokhov A, Pierce K. An empirical comparison of formalisms for modelling and analysis of dynamic reconfiguration of dependable systems. Formal Aspects of Computing 2017, 29(2), 251-307.

• Book Chapters

  • Bhattacharyya A, Koutny M. Confusion-Tolerant Computation of Probability in Acyclic Nets. In: Transactions on Petri Nets and Other Models of Concurrency. Berlin: Springer, 2023, pp.212-245.
  • Mazzara M, Abouzaid F, Dragoni N, Bhattacharyya A. Toward Design, Modelling and Analysis of Dynamic Workflow Reconfiguration: A process Algebra Perspective. In: Web Services and Formal Methods. Berlin; New York: Springer-Verlag, 2012, pp.64-78. In Press.

• Conference Proceedings (inc. Abstracts)

  • Li B, Randell B, Bhattacharyya A, Alharbi T, Koutny M. SONCraft: A Tool for Construction, Simulation and Analysis of Structured Occurrence Nets. In: 18th International Conference on Application of Concurrency to System Design. 2018, Bratislava, Slovakia: IEEE.
  • Bhattacharyya A, Li B, Randell B. Time in Structured Occurrence Nets. In: International Workshop on Petri Nets and Software Engineering (PNSE’16). 2016, Torun, Poland: CEUR-WS.org.
  • Mazzara M, Abouzaid F, Dragoni N, Bhattacharyya A. Design, Modelling and Analysis of a Workflow Reconfiguration. In: Petri Nets and Software Engineering. 2011, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: CEUR-WS, RWTH Aachen University.
  • Mazzara M, Bhattacharyya A. On Modelling and Analysis of Dynamic Reconfiguration of Dependable Real-Time Systems. In: Third International Conference on Dependability (DEPEND). 2010, Venice/Mestre, Italy: IEEE Computer Society.
  • Bhattacharyya A, Fitzgerald JS. Development of a formalism for modelling and analysis of dynamic reconfiguration of dependable real-time systems: a technical diary. In: SERENE '08: Proceedings of the 2008 RISE/EFTS Joint International Workshop on Software Engineering for Resilient Systems. 2008, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: ACM.

• Reports

  • Bhattacharyya A, Koutny M, Randell B. Towards a Framework for Monotonic Approximations. Newcastle upon Tyne: School of Computing Science, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, 2017. School of Computing Science Technical Report Series 1506.
  • Bhattacharyya A, Li B, Randell B. Time in Structured Occurrence Nets. Newcastle upon Tyne: School of Computing Science University of Newcastle upon Tyne, 2016. School of Computing Science Technical Report Series 1495.
  • Bhattacharyya A, Mokhov A, Pierce K. A Comparison of Formalisms for Modelling and Analysis of Dynamic Reconfiguration of Dependable Systems. Newcastle upon Tyne: School of Computing Science, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, 2015. School of Computing Science Technical Report Series 1462.
  • Abouzaid F, Bhattacharyya A, Dragoni N, Fitzgerald JS, Mazzara M, Zhou M. A Case Study of Workflow Reconfiguration: Design, Modelling, Analysis and Implementation. Newcastle upon Tyne: School of Computing Science, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, 2011. School of Computing Science Technical Report Series 1265.