Welcome to the UMN Critical Systems Group!

The Critical Systems Group (CriSys) research interests are in the general area of software engineering; in particular, software development for critical software applications - applications where incorrect operation of the software could lead to loss of life, substantial material or environmental damage, or large monetary losses. The long-term goal of our research activities is the development of a comprehensive framework for the development of software for critical software systems. Our work has focused on some of the most difficult and least understood aspects of software development - requirements specification and validation/verification.

To explore these topics, Professor Mats Heimdahl established the Critical Systems Research Groups at the University of Minnesota. The group has been consistently funded at a level of 4-6 supported research assistants and occupies its own well-equipped laboratory. Funding for CriSys has come from a wide variety of sources including the National Science Foundation (NSF), NASA, DOD, Minnesota Department of Transportation, and the University of Minnesota.

Our research covers all aspects of the Software Engineering field - from automated software testing to compiler optimization - and falls at points at each end of the range from purely theoretical to industry-ready toolboxes. Our research is multidisciplinary, including techniques and researchers from data mining, artificial intelligence, programming languages, statistics, mathematics, physics, interface design, law, and many more. We are always interested in new opportunities for collaboration with industry and academia. Join us today!