BATH, United Kingdom--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Altran Praxis, the international specialist in embedded and critical systems engineering, has been named the winner of the Microsoft Research Verified Software Milestone Award. The recipients of the inaugural award are Tokeneer Project Leader Dr. Janet Barnes FBCS CEng and Principal Engineer Dr. Rod Chapman FBCS CEng, for their work on the project to deliver a highly secure biometric software system.
The Tokeneer Project is a software system that demonstrates the use of biometrics and smart card technology to protect and secure an enclave. The project was conducted by Altran Praxis for the US National Security Agency and examines the economic feasibility of developing systems that can be assured to the higher levels of the Common Criteria Security Evaluation, the ISO/IEC 15408 standard for computer security certification.
The award recognises the significant technological advances made in the last five years towards the goals of the Verified Software Initiative. The accolade was awarded to Dr. Barnes and Dr. Chapman in recognition of their technical leadership, management of the public release and promotion of the project.
Professor Sir Tony Hoare, Microsoft Research, commented: "Congratulations to Janet and Rod as well-deserved recipients of this award. And thanks to Altran Praxis and the US National Security Agency for their commitment to their project. It has given a persuasive demonstration of the cost effectiveness of formal methods in application to security software, and complements similar experience at Microsoft.”
Keith Williams, Altran Group Solution Executive Director – Embedded & Critical Systems and Altran Praxis Managing Director added: “Tokeneer demonstrates the cost-effective application of software verification tools in an industrial context, and represents a significant contribution to the Verified Software Initiative. Working with the NSA, we were pleased to make the project’s results available to the public and the scientific community. It is an example of our software engineering expertise on the world stage, and we are extremely proud to have both Rod and Janet’s leadership and expertise recognised with this award.”
The formal presentation of the award will be made at the 11th International Workshop on Automated Verification of Critical Systems, hosted by the University of Newcastle, 12 to 15 September, 2011.
The full text of the award citation can be found at:
http://dream.inf.ed.ac.uk/vsi/
More information about the Tokeneer Project can be found at:
http://www.altran-praxis.com/security.aspx
More information about Altran Praxis can be found at:
http://www.altran-praxis.com/
About Altran Praxis
Altran Praxis is a specialist systems and software house, focussed on the engineering of systems with demanding safety, security or innovation requirements. Altran Praxis leads the world in specific areas of advanced systems engineering and innovation such as: ultra low defect software engineering, Human Machine Interface (HMI), safety engineering for complex or novel systems, systems engineering and methods/tools (such as SPARK). Altran Praxis offers clients a range of services including turnkey systems development, consultancy, training and R&D. Key market sectors are aerospace and defence, rail, nuclear, air traffic management, automotive, medical and security. The company operates globally with active projects in the US, Asia and Europe. The headquarters of Altran Praxis are in Bath (UK) with offices in Sophia Antipolis, London, Paris, Loughborough and Bangalore.
Altran Praxis is an expertise centre within the Altran Group (altran.com) — a global leader in innovation engineering, employing over 17,000 staff across the world.