Professor Hong Zhu

Professor of Computer Science

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

Hong Zhu

Role

I am the Chair of the Cloud Computing and Cybersecurity research group, which is established in 2020 and evolved from the Applied Formal Methods (AFM) research group established in 2002. I also teach on cloud computing and software engineering modules in both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes of computer science. 

Areas of expertise

Software Engineering:

  • Software development methdology,
  • Software testing,
  • Software Design,
  • Software modelling,
  • Software languages,
  • Cloud native software

Teaching and supervision

Courses

Modules taught

  • Requirements Specification and Software Design (Module Leader, Lecturer, Practical class tutor) 
  • Software Analysis and Test (Module Leader, Lecturer, Practical class tutor)
  • Software Engineering (Module Leader) 
  • Introduction to Distributed Systems (Module Leader, Lecturer, Practical class tutor)
  • Big Data and The Cloud (Module Leader, Lecturer, Practical class tutor)

Supervision

I am continually supervising several PhD students

Research

My research interests are in software engineering, which include software development methdologies, especially for cloud and web based software, software languages for modelling, design and programming, software automation for testing, etc. 

 

Example of recent work include:

Cloud Software Development Languages and Environments

The project is a departmental REF 2020 key project. It aims at developing programming languages and integrated development environment for cloud native software. It consists of two parts: 

  • CAOPLE: A novel programming language for cloud native applications in the microserivces architecture. It is based on the service agent model of concurrent and distributed programming model. 
  • CIDE: A novel integrated DevOps environment for cloud software development. It integrates software development environment with cluster management, monitoring and operation tools in one environemnt so that staging and operation activities can be shifted left. 

For more information, visit the CAOPLE site.

Formal Methods for Cloud Software

The project is also a depatmental REF 2020 key project. It aims at developing a formal method and supporting tools for develop cloud native software. The main focus is one algebraic approach. The main outcomes so far include the following:

  • SOFIA: A service oriented formal specification language in algebraic theory. It is designed to formally specify services in the algebraic approach. 
  • Tr2Ont: A technique and tool for transformation of algebraic specifications into ontological description of web services. 
  • Metrics and tools for measureing the quality of algebraic specifications and ontological descriptions of web services;
  • Automatic testing of web services based on algebraic specifications. 

Groups

Projects

  • Analysis and Testing of Artificial Intelligence Applications
  • Case Studies with Analysis And Testing AI applications

Publications

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Professional information

Memberships of professional bodies

  • Senior member of IEEE,
  • Professional member of ACM,
  • Member of BCS

Conferences

The following are selected recent participations in international conferences:

  • PC Chair: IEEE EDGE 2019: The 3rd IEEE International Conference On Edge Computing, July 8-13, 2019, Milan, Italy. 
  • General Co-Chair: IEEE SOSE 2019: The 13th IEEE International Symposium on Service-Oriented System Engineering, San Francisco, USA, April 4-8, 2019. 
  • General Co-Chair: IEEE AITest 2019: The 1st IEEE International Conference on Artificial Intelligence Testing, San Francisco, USA, April 4-8, 2019. 
  • PC Chair: IEEE EDGE 2018: The 2nd IEEE International Conference On Edge Computing, San Francisco, CA, USA. July 2-7, 2018.  
  • General Co-Chair: IEEE SETA 2018: IEEE Symposium on Software Engineering Technologies & Applications at the 42nd IEEE International Conference on Computers, Software and Applications (COMPSAC 2018), Tokyo, Japan, July 23-27, 2018.
  • General Co-Chair: IEEE EDGE 2017: The 1st IEEE International Conference on Edge Computing, Hawai, USA. 25 - 30 Jun 2017. 
  • General Co-Chair: IEEE SETA 2017: IEEE Symposium on Software Engineering Technologies & Applications at the 41st IEEE International Conference on Computers, Software and Applications (COMPSAC 2017), Turin, Italy, July 4-8, 2017. 
  • General Co-Chair: IEEE MS 2016: The 5th IEEE International Conference on Mobile Services, San Francisco, CA, USA, 27 June-2 July 2016. 
  • PC Co-Chair: IEEE ICSW 2015: IEEE International Conference on Web Services, New York, USA, Jun 27 - Jul 2, 2015. 

Further details