Software Engineering Institute

March 12, 2021—The SEI today released videos and presentations from its AADL/ACVIP User Days 2021. The event, conducted virtually in early February, was a free, two-day forum for presenting the latest on the Architecture Analysis and Design Language (AADL), the Architecture-Centric Virtual Integration Process (ACVIP), and associated tools. Presentation slides and videos from a dozen sessions are now available on the SEI’s website.

AADL is an SAE International standard for describing both the software architecture and execution platform architectures of performance-critical, embedded, real-time systems, such as aircraft avionics. It allows the analysis of such systems prior to development. ACVIP enables analysis of the virtual integration of system components in the early phases and throughout the lifecycle to detect and remove defects otherwise not found until actual integration and testing. With embedded systems growing in scope and cost within the Department of Defense (DoD), the ability to find problems early in the development lifecycle can save time and money. 

AADL/ACVIP User Days 2021 gathered software engineers to learn about the current state of AADL practice and how it can help users describe software architectures and execution platforms. Though this third occurrence of the event was held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it had more attendees than the previous User Days. "The virtual format of the event allowed us to reach to a larger community, with more than 150 participating from DoD contractors but also industry and academic partners," said Jerome Hugues, a senior architecture researcher at the SEI and chair of AADL/ACVIP User Days 2021.

The first day of the event featured a keynote speech by Patrick Mason, deputy program executive officer for aviation, U.S. Army. Mason described how the U.S. Army Program Executive Office, Aviation, is using AADL and ACVIP to ensure they have robust modeling tools and optimized design languages and transitioning them into an operationalized framework. "AADL and ACVIP, along with SysML and some other design tools,” said Mason in his remarks, “are vital as we look [at] how we do embedded systems."

Other AADL and ACVIP topics on day one included the U.S. Army Science and Technology Program, the transition of research to practice, technical debt, cyber resilience, automated testing and retesting, and avionics.

The second day included another keynote speech by Darren Cofer, a fellow at Collins Aerospace. He discussed the development of an engineering environment based on AADL for building cyber-resilient systems, as part of a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) program.

The other sessions presented on day two included SysML models, cyber-resilience testing, core AADL concepts and capabilities, and ACVIP basics. 

Feedback from attendees noted that the event’s presentations were valuable to both new and experienced software engineers.

Access all the videos and presentations from AADL/ACVIP User Days 2021 and learn more about AADL in the SEI's Digital Library.