Informatics UNDIP invites French ENAC researchers in an international guest lecture themed Formal Methods for Frugal Computing
Posted on: 2025-11-26 16:53:43
Semarang, October 9, 2025-the Informatics Study Program, Faculty of Science and Mathematics (FSM), Diponegoro University again shows its commitment to improving international academic quality through Visiting Lecturer activities held online through the Zoom Meeting platform. On this occasion, the Department of Informatics presented an international speaker, Dorra Ben Khalifa, Ph.D., academics and researchers from ENAC – the French National School of Civil Aviation, Toulouse, France. Dr. Ben Khalifa is part of the ENAC Research Laboratory with a research focus on formal methods, static analysis, energy-efficient numerical computation, to precision optimization for embedded systems and artificial intelligence. He has a very strong academic track record, including a Ph.D. from the University of Perpignan with a dissertation on Fast and Efficient Bit-Level Precision Tuning, as well as numerous publications at reputable international conferences and journals.
In addition, Dr. Ben Khalifa is also active as a reviewer and member of the program committee at major conferences such as CAV, TOSEM, and OOPSLA, as well as developing research software such as POPiX, PoPiNNS, and Candy that are widely used in numerical precision optimization research. On this occasion, Dr. Ben Khalifa presented a material entitled “Formal Methods for Frugal Computing in Numerical Software”, an important topic in the development of modern computing technology. In his presentation, he explained how mathematical approaches such as model checking, deductive verification, and abstract interpretation become important tools in ensuring the security, accuracy, and reliability of software. Dr. Ben Khalifa emphasizes that as the software complexity of safety-critical systems such as aviation, healthcare, and transportation increases, formal methods have a key role to play in preventing potentially catastrophic numerical errors. He also introduced the concept of frugal computing, which is an energy-efficient computing approach that is increasingly relevant in the midst of high global energy consumption by large-scale computing. Through techniques such as precision tuning and mixed-precision computing, computing systems can run more efficiently, faster, and more energy-efficiently without sacrificing accuracy.
The Visiting Lecturer activity began at 13.00 WIB with a participant registration session and continued with the opening by the MC. The event was then officially opened by the chairman of the Department of Informatics FSM Undip, Dr. Aris Sugiharto, S.Si., M.Kom., which affirms that this international guest lecture is part of the Department's strategy in increasing student access to global research developments while expanding world academic networks. The event, which was attended by 118 participants from students and lecturers, took place enthusiastically and interactively. After the photo session, the activity continued with the delivery of the main material by Dr. Ben. In the session, he showed how static analysis techniques are able to detect numerical errors automatically and how the research tools he developed can synthesize fixed-point codes with a guaranteed level of accuracy. The systematic and state-of-the-art research-based delivery of materials provides participants with in-depth insights into the challenges and opportunities in the fields of precision computing and energy efficiency.
The activity officially closed at 16.00 WIB, with the hope that the material presented can be an inspiration for students to expand research in the field of formal methods, numerical computing, and energy optimization. Through the implementation of this Visiting Lecturer activity, the Department of Informatics FSM Undip reaffirms its commitment to supporting Diponegoro University's vision towards a World Class University (WCU). The involvement of international academics, the delivery of materials that are in line with global research developments, and the high enthusiasm of the participants are proof that the Department of Informatics continues to strive to improve academic competitiveness and global reputation on an ongoing basis.
