Dr Anthony Simons
MA, PhD
School of Computer Science
Senior Lecturer
Deputy Director of UG Admissions
Member of the AI x Software Engineering & Testing research group
a.j.simons@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 1838
+44 114 222 1838
Regent Court (CS)
Full contact details
Dr Anthony Simons
School of Computer Science
Regent Court (CS)
211 Portobello
Sheffield
S1 4DP
School of Computer Science
Regent Court (CS)
211 Portobello
Sheffield
S1 4DP
- Profile
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I am an academic software engineer with research interests in model-based testing and model-driven engineering. Previously, I worked in object-oriented analysis and design and in object-oriented type theory. Before that, I worked in automatic speech recognition.
My research in Model-Based Testing has resulted in two standalone unit testing tools for Java, called JWalk and CatWalk, and one tool for certifying webservice behaviour, for the EU Broker@Cloud. My research in Model-Driven Engineering has resulted in an abstract language for representing software system designs called ReMoDeL and a set of tools for model-transformation, which cross-check different models and generate concrete systems from the designs.
- Research interests
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Dr Simons' research focuses on turning formal results from verification and testing into practical benefits for software engineering. His current research areas include model-based testing and model-driven engineering, with applications to Cloud computing.
He has also published widely in object-oriented software engineering, including type theory and software development methods. He is inventor of the JWalk automatic software testing tool for Java; and the JAST library for processing XML in Java. He is co-author of the OPEN Toolbox of Techniques.
- Publications
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Journal articles
- Regression analysis of predictions and forecasts of cloud data center KPIs using the boosted decision tree algorithm. IEEE Transactions on Big Data, 9(4), 1071-1085. View this article in WRRO
- Kalman filter based prediction and forecasting of cloud server KPIs. IEEE Transactions on Services Computing, 16(4), 2742-2754. View this article in WRRO
- Sequence labeling to detect stuttering events in read speech. Computer Speech & Language, 62.
- A verified and optimized Stream X-Machine testing method, with application to cloud service certification. Software Testing, Verification and Reliability, 30(3). View this article in WRRO
- An algebra to represent task flow models. Journal of Advance Computational Research, 3(2), 63-74. View this article in WRRO
- Testing software services in cloud ecosystems. International Journal of Cloud Applications and Computing, 6(1), 42-58. View this article in WRRO
- Rapid development of service-based cloud applications. International Journal of Systems and Service-Oriented Engineering, 5(4), 1-25. View this article in WRRO
- An Implementation of the Task Algebra, a Formal Specification for the Task Model in the Discovery Method. Journal of Applied Research and Technology, 12(5), 908-918. View this article in WRRO
- Guest editor's introduction to the special section on TAIC-PART 2010 - Testing: Academic and Industrial Conference-Practice and Research Techniques. Software - Practice and Experience, 43(9), 1101-1102.
- Z2SAL: a translation-based model checker for Z. Formal Aspects of Computing, 1-29.
- Using Formal Specifications to Support Testing. ACM COMPUT SURV, 41(2).
- JWalk: a tool for lazy, systematic testing of java classes by design introspection and user interaction. AUTOMAT SOFTW ENG, 14(4), 369-418.
- A theory of regression testing for behaviourally compatible object types. SOFTWARE TESTING VERIFICATION & RELIABILITY, 16(3), 133-156.
- Verification and validation for quality of UML 2.0 models. By Bhuvan Unhelkar. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ, U.S.A., 2005. ISBN: 0-471-72783-0, 271 pp. Software Testing, Verification and Reliability, 16(1), 62-64. View this article in WRRO
- The theory of classification part 18: Polymorphism through the looking glass. Journal of Object Technology, 4(4), 7-18.
- The theory of classification part 18: The theory of classification part 18: polymorphism through the looking glass. The Journal of Object Technology, 4(4), 7-18. View this article in WRRO
- Extreme programming refactored: the case against XP. Matt Stephens and Doug Rosenberg. Apress, Berkeley, CA, U.S.A., 2003. ISBN: 1-59059-096-1, pp. 400.. Software Testing, Verification and Reliability, 15(1), 63-64. View this article in WRRO
- The theory of classification part 16: Rules of extension and the typing of inheritance. Journal of Object Technology, 4(1), 13-25.
- The theory of classification part 19: The proliferation of parameters. Journal of Object Technology, 4(5), 37-48.
- The theory of classification part 17: Multiple inheritance and the resolution of inheritance conflicts. Journal of Object Technology, 4(2), 15-26.
- The Theory of Classification part 20: Modular checking of classtypes. Journal of Object Technology, 4(7), 7-18.
- The theory of classification: Part 14: Modification and objects like myself. Journal of Object Technology, 3(8), 15-26.
- The theory of classification - Part 10: Method combination and super-reference. Journal of Object Technology, 3(1), 43-53.
- The theory of classification part 12: Building the class hierarchy. Journal of Object Technology, 3(5), 13-24.
- The Theory of Classification part 11: Adding class types to object implementations. Journal of Object Technology, 3(3), 7-19.
- The theory of classification part 15: Mixins and the superclass interface. Journal of Object Technology, 3(10), 7-18.
- The theory of classification part 13: Template classes and genericity. Journal of Object Technology, 3(7), 15-25.
- The theory of classification part 7: A class is a type family. Journal of Object Technology, 2(3), 13-22.
- The theory of classification part 6: The subtyping inquisition. Journal of Object Technology, 2(2), 17-26.
- The theory of classification part 5: Axioms, assertions and subtyping. Journal of Object Technology, 2(1), 13-21.
- The theory of classification part 9: Inheritance and self-reference. Journal of Object Technology, 2(6), 25-34.
- The theory of classification part 8: Classification and inheritance. Journal of Object Technology, 2(4), 55-64.
- The theory of classification part 2: The scratch-built typechecker. Journal of Object Technology, 1(2), 47-54.
- The theory of classification part 1: Perspectives on type compatibility. Journal of Object Technology, 1(1), 55-61.
- The theory of classification part 4: Object types and subtyping. Journal of Object Technology, 1(5), 27-33.
- The theory of classification part 3: Object encodings and recursion. Journal of Object Technology, 1(4), 49-57.
- The OPEN software engineering process architecture: From activities to techniques. J RES PRACT INF TECH, 32(1), 47-68.
- Using design patterns to reveal the competence of object-oriented methods in system-level design. COMPUT SYST SCI ENG, 14(6), 343-352.
- Control-flow semantics of use cases in UML. INFORM SOFTWARE TECH, 41(10), 651-659.
- Instantiating the process metamodel. JOOP Journal of Object Oriented Programming, 12(3), 51-57.
- Metalevel relationship cardinalities. JOURNAL OF OBJECT-ORIENTED PROGRAMMING, 12(1), 51-58.
- Borrow, copy or steal? Loans and larceny in the orthodox canonical form. ACM SIGPLAN NOTICES, 33(10), 65-83.
- OPEN: toward method convergence?. Computer, 29(4), 86-89. View this article in WRRO
- An optimizing delivery system for object-oriented software. Object Oriented Systems, 1(1), 21-44.
Book chapters
- Rapid Development of Service-Based Cloud Applications, Big Data (pp. 392-417). IGI Global
- On the role of ontologies in the design of service based cloud applications In Lopes L, Žilinskas J, Costan A, Cascella RG, Kecskemeti G, Jeannot E, Cannataro M, Ricci L, Benkner S, Petit S , Scarano V et al (Ed.), Lecture Notes in Computer Science (pp. 1-12). Springer International Publishing View this article in WRRO
- MELO 2011 - 1st Workshop on Model-Driven Engineering, Logic and Optimization, Lecture Notes in Computer Science (pp. 379-380). Springer Berlin Heidelberg
- 30 things that go wrong in object modelling with UML 1.3 In Kilov H, Rumpe B & Simmonds I (Ed.), Behavioral Specifications of Businesses and Systems (pp. 237-257). Springer US View this article in WRRO
- “The Truth Is Out There?”: A Survey of Business Objects, OOIS’98 (pp. 183-200). Springer London
- “Can you have it all?”: Managing the time and budget against quality issue in a dynamic business object architecture development In Hawkins C, Ross M & Staples G (Ed.), Software Quality Management VI (pp. 121-134). Springer London View this article in WRRO
- A Theory of Class In Patel D, Sun Y & Patel S (Ed.), OOIS’96 (pp. 44-56). Springer London View this article in WRRO
Conference proceedings
- Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Model-Based Software and Systems Engineering. 13th International Conference on Model-Based Software and Systems Engineering, 26 February 2025 - 28 February 2025.
- ReMoDeL: a pure functional object-oriented concept language for models, metamodels and model transformation. Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Model-Based Software and Systems Engineering MODELSWARD, Vol. 1 (pp 242-249). Porto, Portugal, 26 February 2025 - 26 February 2025. View this article in WRRO
- Data aware simulation of complex systems on GPUs. 2019 International Conference on High Performance Computing & Simulation (HPCS) (pp 567-574). Dublin, Ireland, 15 July 2019 - 15 July 2019. View this article in WRRO
- A lightly supervised approach to detect stuttering in children's speech. Proceedings of Interspeech 2018 (pp 3433-3437). Hyderabad, India, 2 September 2018 - 2 September 2018. View this article in WRRO
- A formula-driven scalable benchmark model for ABM, applied to FLAME GPU. Euro-Par 2017: Parallel Processing Workshops (pp 703-714). Santiago de Compostela, Spain, 28 August 2017 - 28 August 2017. View this article in WRRO
- Automatic recognition of children’s read speech for stuttering application. 6th. Workshop on Child Computer Interaction (WOCCI 2017), eds. K. Evanini, M. Najafian, S. Safavi and K. Berkling, Vol. WOCCI (pp 1-6). Glasgow, 13 November 2017 - 13 November 2017. View this article in WRRO
- A Development Framework Enabling the Design of Service-Based Cloud Applications. Advances in Service-Oriented and Cloud Computing, Vol. 508 (pp 139-152). Manchester, UK View this article in WRRO
- X-Machine Based Testing for Cloud Services. Advances in Service-Oriented and Cloud Computing, Vol. 508 (pp 175-189). Manchester, UK View this article in WRRO
- Cloud Service Brokerage-2014: Towards the Multi-cloud Ecosystem. Advances in Service-Oriented and Cloud Computing, Vol. 508 (pp 121-123). Manchester, UK View this article in WRRO
- Model-Based Testing for Composite Web Services in Cloud Brokerage Scenarios. Advances in Service-Oriented and Cloud Computing, Vol. 508 (pp 190-205). Manchester, UK View this article in WRRO
- Leveraging Platform Basic Services in Cloud Application Platforms for the Development of Cloud Applications.. IEEE 6th International Conference on Cloud Computing Technology and Science (pp 751-754). Singapore, 15 December 2014 - 15 December 2014. View this article in WRRO
- Advanced service brokerage capabilities as the catalyst for future cloud service ecosystems.. Proceedings of the 2nd International Workshop on CrossCloud Systems. Bordeaux, France, 8 December 2014 - 8 December 2014. View this article in WRRO
- Experiences using Z2SAL. Proceedings - ICACSIS 2014: 2014 International Conference on Advanced Computer Science and Information Systems (pp 225-231). Jakarta, Indonesia, 18 October 2014 - 19 October 2014.
- Brokerage for quality assurance and optimisation of cloud services: An analysis of key requirements. Lecture Notes in Computer Science Including Subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics, Vol. 8377 LNCS (pp 150-162)
- Euro-Par 2014: Parallel Processing Workshops
- Cloud Service Brokerage 2013 - Methods and Mechanisms. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 8377 (pp 135-136). Berlin, 2 December 2013 - 2 December 2013.
- Model-Based Testing in Cloud Brokerage Scenarios. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 8377 (pp 192-208). Berlin, 2 December 2013 - 2 December 2013.
- Cloud application portability: An initial view. ACM International Conference Proceeding Series (pp 275-282), 19 September 2013 - 21 September 2013.
- SLAs for cross-layer adaptation and monitoring of service-based applications: A case study. ACM International Conference Proceeding Series (pp 28-32)
- An extensible architecture for run-time monitoring of conversational Web services. ACM International Conference Proceeding Series (pp 9-16)
- Towards run-time monitoring of web services conformance to business-level agreements. Lecture Notes in Computer Science Including Subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics, Vol. 6303 LNCS (pp 203-206)
- Dynamic analysis of algebraic structure to optimize test generation and test case selection. Taic Part 2009 Testing Academic and Industrial Conference Practice and Research Techniques (pp 33-42)
- What makes testing work: Nine case studies of software development teams. Taic Part 2009 Testing Academic and Industrial Conference Practice and Research Techniques (pp 167-175)
- Leveraging Semantic Web Service Descriptions for Validation by Automated Functional Testing. SEMANTIC WEB: RESEARCH AND APPLICATIONS, Vol. 5554 (pp 593-607)
- Feedback-Based Specification, Coding and Testing with JWalk. TACI PART 2008:TESTING: ACADEMIC AND INDUSTRIAL CONFERENCE PRACTICE AND RESEARCH TECHNIQUES, PROCEEDINGS (pp 69-73)
- Z2SAL-Building a Model Checker for Z. ABSTRACT STATE MACHINES, B AND Z, PROCEEDINGS, Vol. 5238 (pp 280-293)
- A Pilot Study of Comparative Customer Comprehension between Extreme X-Machine and UML Models. ESEM'08: PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2008 ACM-IEEE INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON EMPIRICAL SOFTWARE ENGINEERING AND MEASUREMENT (pp 270-272)
- Benchmarking effectiveness for object-oriented unit testing. 2008 IEEE International Conference on Software Testing Verification and Validation Workshop Icstw 08 (pp 375-379)
- Lazy systematic unit testing: JWalk versus JUnit. TAIC PART 2007 - Testing: Academic and Industrial Conference - Practice and Research Techniques, Proceedings (pp 138-138)
- Issues in implementing a model checker for Z. Formal Methods and Software Engineering: 8th International Conference on Formal Engineering Methods, ICFEM 2006, Macao, China, November 1-3, 2006, Proceedings, Vol. LNPSE 4260 (pp 678-696). Macao, China, 1 November 2006 - 1 November 2006. View this article in WRRO
- Using Alloy to model-check visual design notations. Sixth Mexican International Conference on Computer Science, Proceedings (pp 121-128)
- Testing with guarantees and the failure of regression testing in eXtreme Programming. EXTREME PROGRAMMING AND AGILE PROCESSES IN SOFTWARE ENGINEERING, PROCEEDINGS, Vol. 3556 (pp 118-126)
- Plug and Play Safely: Rules for Behavioural Compatibility. IASTED SEA 2002 (pp 263-268). Cambridge, MA
- On the compositional properties of UML statechart diagrams. Electronic Workshops in Computing. York, UK, 17 January 2000 - 17 January 2000. View this article in WRRO
- Use cases considered harmful. TOOLS 29: TECHNOLOGY OF OBJECT-ORIENTED LANGUAGES AND SYSTEMS, PROCEEDINGS, Vol. 29 (pp 194-203)
- Borrow, copy or steal?: loans and larceny in the orthodox canonical form. OOPSLA '98: Proceedings of the 13th ACM SIGPLAN conference on Object-oriented programming, systems, languages, and applications (pp 65-83). Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, 18 October 1998 - 18 October 1998. View this article in WRRO
- Design Patterns as litmus paper to test the strength of object-oriented methods. OOIS'98: 1998 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OBJECT ORIENTED INFORMATION SYSTEMS, PROCEEDINGS (pp 129-147)
- A Speech Recognition Strategy Based on Making Acoustic Evidence and Phonetic Knowledge Explicit (pp 123-128)
- A speech recognition strategy based on making acoustic evidence and phonetic knowledge explicit. Proceedings of European Conference on Speech Technology (pp 1373-1376). Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, 1 September 1987 - 1 September 1987. View this article in WRRO
- Detecting stuttering events in transcripts of children’s speech. SLSP 2017: Statistical Language and Speech Processing, Vol. 10583 (volume 10583) (pp 217-228). Le Mans, France, 23 October 2017 - 23 October 2017. View this article in WRRO
- Method of Object Testing, Integration and Verification. FORTEST Workshop on testing. York, 13 September 2002.
Preprints
- Regression Analysis of Predictions and Forecasts of Cloud Data centre KPIs using the Boosted Tree Decision Algorithm, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
- Regression analysis of predictions and forecasts of cloud data center KPIs using the boosted decision tree algorithm. IEEE Transactions on Big Data, 9(4), 1071-1085. View this article in WRRO
- Grants
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- Ferromone Trails Concept, Department for Transport (DFT), 02/2017 to 06/2017, £24,635, as PI
- Future Engineering System: ATI, InnovateUK, 04/2016 to 03/2019, £199,874, as PI
- Broker@Cloud: Continuous Quality Assurance and Optimisation for Cloud Brokers, EC- FP7, 11/2012 to 12/2015, £323,688, as PI
- Professional activities and memberships
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- Member of the Testing research group
- Research Track Director for the South-East European Research Centre
- Director of Undergraduate Admissions, Department of Computer Science
- Sheffield International College Liaison Officer
- Previous Director of Teaching, Department of Computer Science
- Previous European Liaison Officer, Department of Computer Scienc