Ben Hocking Email & Phone Number

Charlottesville, VA, US

• In this role, I lead and contribute to a variety of safety-critical and security-critical software engineering projects, specializing in formal methods, safety case engineering, and system validation. Key projects.
• Principal Investigator on an AFRL-funded project researching formal verification for autonomous vehicles, with a focus on the verification and validation of aerospace system technologies.
• Principal Investigator on an AFRL-funded project focused on the formal verification and development of assurance arguments for a neural network control system (NNCS) with run-time assurance (RTA), ensuring compliance.
• Principal Investigator for a NASA-funded project on Argument-Driven Application of Formal Methods, exploring how formal methods enhance rigorous safety arguments and vice-versa.
• Principal Investigator on a DARPA-funded project dedicated to reverse engineering binaries of unknown provenance using PEASOUP tools, converting them into SPARK Ada, and verifying critical security properties to ensure.
• Principal Investigator on Toyota-funded projects, applying formal verification techniques to automotive software and developing safety cases for safety compliance in automotive software.

Charlottesville, VA, US

• I taught an undergraduate Computer Science Discrete Mathematics course, where I:
• Designed and delivered lectures on key topics like set theory, logic, algorithms, and formal methods.
• Developed course materials, including problem sets and exams, and integrated tools like LEAN and Dafny to teach formal verification, enhancing students' understanding of formal methods and computer science.

• I developed software that enabled scientists, engineers, and academics to integrate their computational models into commercial products. Key projects included:
• Design Assessment of Reliability With INspection (DARWIN): Contributed to risk analysis research for gas turbines in aircraft by simulating crack growth in engine components. This helped identify high-risk components.
• Numerical Evaluation of Stochastic Structures Under Stress (NESSUS): Participated in modeling the interaction of random variables under different distributions, focusing on strain and stress simulations. The research.

Charlottesville, VA, US

• My research primarily focused on designing and implementing software, scripts, and tests to simulate neural networks modeling the CA3 region of the mammalian hippocampus, where I:
• Developed and optimized neural network models using metaheuristic state space searches.
• Applied genetic algorithms to fine-tune simulation parameters, enhancing model accuracy.In addition to my primary research, I worked on interdisciplinary projects, where I:
• Created a database and web interface for an archeology project at the Chaco Culture National Historical Park in New Mexico, traveling there multiple times to support fieldwork and collaborate with researchers.
• Developed software to support psychological experiments.As a teaching assistant, I:
• Taught Introduction to Artificial Intelligence, Methods in Software Development, and VB for Business Applications.

Doctor Of Philosophy (Phd), Computer Science

Mcs, Computer Science

Ms, Physics/Astronomy

Bs, Physics