Robi Malik

Senior Lecturer

I joined the Department of Computer Science of the University of Waikato in February 2003.

I studied Computer Science at the University of Kaiserslautern in Germany, where I obtained my Ph.D. degree in 1998.

Before coming to New Zealand, I spent a couple of years working for Siemens Corporate Research in Munich, Germany, where I was involved in the research and software development for a modelling and verification tool for discrete event systems.

My main interest of research has been the analysis and synthesis of finite-state systems, and the development of efficient algorithms and tools for this purpose. I am particularly interested in compositional verification of the nonblocking property and compositional synthesis of discrete event systems. Recently, I have also been working on extended finite-state machine models for discrete event systems.

Contact

Address	Robi Malik Department of Software Engineering The University of Waikato Private Bag 3105 Hamilton New Zealand
Office	G 2.23
Phone	+64 (0)7 838 4796
Fax	+64 (0)7 858 5095
e-Mail

Teaching

In 2021, I am teaching:

• COMPX 102-21H: Object-Oriented Programming

In previous years, I have been teaching:

• COMPX 102: Object-Oriented Programming
• COMPX 552: Model Checking
• COMPX 585: Research in Computer Science 1

• COMP 104: Introduction to Computer Science 2
• COMP 140: Foundations of Computer Science
• COMP 209: Object Oriented Programming
• COMP 222: Logic and Programming
• COMP 231: Software Engineering Development
• COMP 233: Internet Programming
• COMP 242: Software Engineering Process
• COMP 314: Software Engineering Project
• COMP 340: Reasoning about Programs
• COMP 424/524: Topics in Software Engineering
• COMP 452/552: Model Checking

Publications

• Robi Malik, Marcelo Teixeira. Optimal Modular Control of Discrete Event Systems with Distinguishers and Approximations. Discrete Event Dynamic Systems, 31 (4), 659–691, 2021. [Online Access]
• Sahar Mohajerani, Robi Malik, Andrew Wintenberg, Stéphane Lafortune, Necmiye Ozay. Divergent stutter bisimulation abstraction for controller synthesis with linear temporal logic specifications. Automatica, 130, 109723, 2021. [Online Access]
• Robi Malik. Supervisor Reduction by Hiding Events. IFAC-PapersOnLine 53 6, Supplement, 1–6, 2020. [Online Access]
• Christopher Jun-Wen Chew, Vimal Kumar, Panos Patros, Robi Malik. ESCAPADE: Encryption-Type-Ransomware: System Call Based Pattern Detection. In: M. Kutyłowski, J. Zhang, C. Chen (eds.), International Conference on Network and System Security (NSS 2020), Springer LNCS, volume 12570, 2020. [Online Access]
• Robi Malik, Marcelo Teixeira. Synthesis of least restrictive controllable supervisors for extended finite-state machines with variable abstraction. Discrete Event Dynamic Systems, 30 (2), 211–241, 2020. [Online Access]
• Robi Malik, Simon Ware. On the computation of counterexamples in compositional nonblocking verification. Discrete Event Dynamic Systems, 30 (2), 301–334, 2020. [Online Access]
• Marcelo Rosa, Marcelo Teixeira, Robi Malik. Exploiting Approximations in Supervisory Control with Distinguishers. 14th International Workshop on Discrete Event Systems (WODES'18), 24–29, Sorento Coast, Italy, 30 May – 1 June 2018. [Online Access]
• Robi Malik, Patrícia Pena. Optimal Task Scheduling in a Flexible Manufacturing System using Model Checking. 14th International Workshop on Discrete Event Systems (WODES'18), 241–246, Sorento Coast, Italy, 30 May – 1 June 2018. [Online Access]
• Robi Malik, Simon Ware. Counterexample Computation in Compositional Nonblocking Verification 14th International Workshop on Discrete Event Systems (WODES'18), 427–432, Sorento Coast, Italy, 30 May – 1 June 2018. [Online Access]
• Robi Malik, Knut Åkesson, Hugo Flordal, Martin Fabian. Supremica—an efficient tool for large-scale discrete event systems. IFAC-PapersOnLine, 50 (1), 5794–5799, 2017. [Online Access]
• Sahar Mohajerani, Robi Malik, Martin Fabian. Compositional synthesis of supervisors in the form of state machines and state maps. Automatica, 76, 277–281, 2017. [Online Access]
• Robi Malik, Marcelo Teixeira. Modular supervisor synthesis for extended finite-state machines subject to controllability. 13th International Workshop on Discrete Event Systems (WODES'16), 117–122, Xi'an, China, 30 May – 1 June 2016. [Online Access]
• Robi Malik. Programming a Fast Explicit Conflict Checker. 13th International Workshop on Discrete Event Systems (WODES'16), 464–469, Xi'an, China, 30 May – 1 June 2016. [Online Access]
• Sahar Mohajerani, Robi Malik, Martin Fabian. A framework for compositional nonblocking verification of extended finite-state machines. Discrete Event Dynamic Systems, 26 (1), 33–84, 2016. [Online Access]
• Robi Malik. Advanced selfloop removal in compositional nonblocking verification of discrete event systems. 11th International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE 2015), 819–824, Göteborg, Sweden, 24–28 August 2015. [Online Access]
• Colin Pilbrow, Robi Malik. An algorithm for compositional nonblocking verification using special events. Science of Computer Programming, 113 (2), 119–148, December 2015. [Online Access]
• Robi Malik, Ryan Leduc. Hierarchical modelling of manufacturing systems using discrete event systems and the conflict preorder. Discrete Event Dynamic Systems, 25 (1), 177–201, 2015. [Online Access]
• Simon Ware, Robi Malik. An algorithm to test the conflict preorder. Science of Computer Programming, 89 A, 23–40, September 2014. [Online Access]
• Simon Ware, Robi Malik. Progressive events in supervisory control and compositional verification. Control Theory and Technology, 12 (3), 317–329, August 2014. [Online Access]
• Patrícia N. Pena, Hugo J. Bravo, Antonio E. C. da Cunha, Robi Malik, Stéphane Lafortune, José E. R. Cury. Verification of the observer property in discrete event systems. IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, August 2014. [Online Access]
• Simon Ware, Robi Malik. Supervisory control with progressive events. 7th IEEE International Conference on Control and Automation (ICCA 2014), 1461–1466, Taichung, Taiwan, 18–20 June 2014. [Online Access]
• Huailiang Liu, Ryan Leduc, Robi Malik, S. Laurie Ricker. Incremental verification of co-observability in discrete-event Systems. 2014 American Control Conference (ACC'14), 5446–5452, Portland, OR, USA, 4–6 June 2014. [Online Access]
• H. J. Bravo, P. N. Pena, A. E. C. da Cunha, R. Malik, J. E. R. Cury. Generalised search for the observer property in discrete event systems. 12th International Workshop on Discrete Event Systems (WODES'14), 350–355, Paris, France, 14–16 May 2014. [Online Access]
• Sahar Mohajerani, Robi Malik, Martin Fabian. An algorithm for compositional nonblocking verification of extended finite-state machines. 12th International Workshop on Discrete Event Systems (WODES'14), 376–382, Paris, France, 14–16 May 2014. [Online Access]
• Sahar Mohajerani, Robi Malik, Martin Fabian. A framework for compositional synthesis of modular nonblocking supervisors. IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, 59 (1), 150–162, January 2014. [Online Access]
• Simon Ware, Robi Malik. Compositional verification of the generalized nonblocking property using abstraction and canonical automata. International Journal of Foundations of Computer Science, 24 (8), 1183–1208, 2013. [Online Access]
• Simon Ware, Robi Malik, Sahar Mohajerani, Martin Fabian. Certainly unsupervisable states. 2nd International Workshop on Formal Techniques for Safety-Critical Systems (FTSCS 2013), 3–18, Queenstown, New Zealand, 29–30 October 2013. [Online Access]
• Colin Pilbrow, Robi Malik. Compositional nonblocking verification with always enabled events and selfloop-only events. 2nd International Workshop on Formal Techniques for Safety-Critical Systems (FTSCS 2013), 147–162, Queenstown, New Zealand, 29–30 October 2013. [Online Access]
• Robi Malik, Ryan Leduc. Compositional nonblocking verification using generalised nonblocking abstractions. IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, 58 (8), 1–13, August 2013. [Online Access, Final Draft]
• Sahar Mohajerani, Robi Malik, Martin Fabian. Compositional nonblocking verification for extended finite-state automata using partial unfolding. 9th International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE 2013), 930–935, Madison WI, USA, 17–21 August 2013. [Online Access]
• Marcelo Teixeira, Robi Malik, José E. R. Cury, Max H. de Queiroz. Variable abstraction and approximations in supervisory control synthesis. 2013 American Control Conference (ACC'13), 120–125, Washington, DC, USA, 2013. [Online Access, Final Draft]
• Robi Malik, Ryan Leduc. Hierarchical Interface-Based Supervisory Control using the conflict preorder. 11th International Workshop on Discrete Event Systems (WODES'12), 163–168, Guadalajara, Mexico, 3–5 October 2012. [Online Access]
• Sahar Mohajerani, Robi Malik, Martin Fabian. An algorithm for weak synthesis observation equivalence for compositional supervisor synthesis. 11th International Workshop on Discrete Event Systems (WODES'12), 239–244, Guadalajara, Mexico, 3–5 October 2012. [Online Access]
• Hugo J. Bravo, Antonio E. C. da Cunha, Patrícia N. Pena, Robi Malik, José E. R. Cury. Generalised verification of the observer property in discrete event systems. 11th International Workshop on Discrete Event Systems (WODES'12), 337–342, Guadalajara, Mexico, 3–5 October 2012. [Online Access]
• Sahar Mohajerani, Robi Malik, Martin Fabian. Transition removal for compositional supervisor synthesis. 8th International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE 2012), Seoul, South Korea, 20–24 August 2012. [Online Access, Final Draft]
• Simon Ware, Robi Malik, Conflict-preserving abstraction of discrete event systems using annotated automata. Discrete Event Dynamic Systems, 22 (4), 451–477, 2012. [Online Access]
• Simon Ware, Robi Malik. A state-based characterisation of the conflict preorder. 10th International Workshop on the Foundations of Coordination Languages and Software Architectures (FOCLASA 2011), 34–48, Aachen, Germany, 10 September 2011. [Online Access]
• Robi Malik, Martin Fabian, Knut Åkesson. Modelling large-scale discrete-event systems using modules, aliases, and extended finite-state automata. 18th IFAC World Congress (IFAC 2011), 7000–7005, Milan, Italy, 28 August – 2 September 2011. [Online Access]
• Sahar Mohajerani, Robi Malik, Martin Fabian. Nondeterminism avoidance in compositional synthesis of discrete event systems. 7th International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE 2011), 19–24, Trieste, Italy, 24–27 August 2011. [Online Access]
• Lucien Ouedraogo, Ratnesh Kumar, Robi Malik, Knut Åkesson. Nonblocking and safe control of discrete-event systems modeled as Extended Finite Automata. IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering, 8 (3), 560–569, 2011. [Online Access]
• Sahar Mohajerani, Robi Malik, Simon Ware, Martin Fabian. On the use of observation equivalence in synthesis abstraction. 3rd International Workshop on Dependable Control of Discrete Systems (DCDS 2011), 84–89, Saarbrücken, Germany, 15–17 June 2011. [Online Access, Final Draft]
• Sahar Mohajerani, Robi Malik, Simon Ware, Martin Fabian. Compositional synthesis of discrete event systems using synthesis abstraction. 23rd Chinese Decision and Control Conference, (CCDC 2011), Mianyang, China, 23–25 May 2011. [Online Access]
• Simon Ware, Robi Malik. A Process-Algebraic Semantics for Generalised Nonblocking. CATS 2011 – Computing: The Australasian Theory Symposium, 75–84, Perth, Australia, 17–20 January 2011. [Download]
• Ryan Leduc, Robi Malik. A compositional approach for verifying hierarchical interface-based supervisory control. 10th International Workshop on Discrete Event Systems (WODES'10), 114–120, Berlin, Germany, 30 August – 1 September 2010. [Online Access]
• Simon Ware, Robi Malik. Compositional nonblocking verification using annotated automata. 10th International Workshop on Discrete Event Systems (WODES'10), 374–379, Berlin, Germany, 30 August – 1 September 2010. [Online Access]
• Patrícia N. Pena, José E. R. Cury, Robi Malik, Stéphane Lafortune. Efficient computation of observer projections using OP-Verifiers. 10th International Workshop on Discrete Event Systems (WODES'10), 416–421, Berlin, Germany, 30 August – 1 September 2010. [Online Access]
• Lucien Ouedraogo, Ratnesh Kumar, Robi Malik, Knut Åkesson. Symbolic approach to nonblocking and safe control of Extended Finite Automata. 6th International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE 2010), 471–476, Toronto, ON, Canada, 21–24 August 2010. [Online Access]
• Annika Hinze, Judy Bowen, Yuting Wang, Robi Malik. Model-driven GUI & interaction design using emulation. 2nd ACM SIGCHI Symposium on Engineering Interactive Computing Systems (EICS'10), 273–278, Berlin, Germany, 19–23 June 2010. [Online Access]
• Robi Malik, Ryan Leduc. A compositional approach for verifying generalised nonblocking. 7th IEEE International Conference on Control and Automation (ICCA'09), 448–453, Christchurch, New Zealand, 9–11 December 2009. [Online Access]
• Hugo Flordal, Robi Malik. Compositional verification in supervisory control. SIAM Journal of Control and Optimization, 48 (3), 1914–1938, 2009. [Online Access]
• Robi Malik, Hugo Flordal. Yet another approach to compositional synthesis of discrete event systems. 9th International Workshop on Discrete Event Systems (WODES'08), 16–21, Göteborg, Sweden, 28–30 May 2008. [Online Access]
• Simon Ware, Robi Malik. The use of language projection for compositional verification of discrete event systems. 9th International Workshop on Discrete Event Systems (WODES'08), 322–327, Göteborg, Sweden, 28–30 May 2008. [Online Access]
• Robi Malik, Ryan Leduc. Generalised nonblocking. 9th International Workshop on Discrete Event Systems (WODES'08), 340–345, Göteborg, Sweden, 28–30 May 2008. [Online Access]
• Hugo Flordal, Robi Malik, Martin Fabian, Knut Åkesson, Compositional synthesis of maximally permissive supervisors using supervision equivalence. Discrete Event Dynamic Systems, 17 (4), 475–504, 2007. [Online Access, Final Draft]
• Robi Malik, Hugo Flordal, Patrícia Pena, Conflicts and projections. 1st IFAC Workshop on Dependable Control of Discrete Systems (DCDS'07), 63–68, Paris, France, 2007. [Online Access]
• Petra Malik, Robi Malik, David Streader, Steve Reeves, Modular synthesis of discrete controllers. 12th IEEE International Conference on Engineering of Complex Computer Systems (ICECCS'07), 25–34, Auckland, New Zealand, 2007. [Online Access]
• Hugo Flordal, Robi Malik, Modular nonblocking verification using conflict equivalence. 8th Workshop on Discrete Event Systems (WODES'06), 100–106, Ann Arbor, USA, 2006. [Online Access]
• Petra Malik, Robi Malik, Modular control-loop detection. 8th Workshop on Discrete Event Systems (WODES'06), 119–124, Ann Arbor, USA, 2006. [Online Access]
• Hugo Flordal, Robi Malik, Supervision equivalence. 8th Workshop on Discrete Event Systems (WODES'06), 155–160, Ann Arbor, USA, 2006. [Online Access]
• Knut Åkesson, Martin Fabian, Hugo Flordal, Robi Malik, Supremica—an integrated environment for verification, synthesis and simulation of discrete event systems. 8th Workshop on Discrete Event Systems (WODES'06), 384–385, Ann Arbor, USA, 2006. [Online Access]
• Robi Malik, David Streader, Steve Reeves. Conflicts and fair testing. International Journal of Foundations of Computer Science, 17 (4), 797–813, 2006. [Online Access, Final Draft]
• Annika Hinze, Petra Malik, Robi Malik, Interaction design for a mobile context-aware system using discrete event modelling. 29th Australasian Computer Science Conference (ACSC 2006), Hobart, Australia, 2006. [Online Access]
• Robi Malik, Partha S. Roop. Adaptive techniques for specification matching in embedded systems: a comparative study. 5th International Conference on Integrated Formal Methods (IFM 2005), 33–52, Eindhoven, The Netherlands, November 29 – December 2, 2005. [Online Access]
• Robi Malik, David Streader, Steve Reeves. Fair testing revisited: a process-algebraic characterisation of conflicts. 2nd International Symposium on Automated Technology for Verification and Analysis (ATVA 2004), 120–134, Taipei, Taiwan, Springer LNCS, volume 3299, 2004. [Online Access]
• Robi Malik. On the set of certain conflicts of a given language. 7th Workshop on Discrete Event Systems (WODES'04), 277–282, Reims, France, 2004. [Online Access]
• Bertil A. Brandin, Robi Malik, Petra Malik. Incremental verification and synthesis of discrete-event systems guided by counter-examples. IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, 12 (3), 387–401, 2004. [Online Access, Final Draft]
• R. Malik, R. Mühlfeld. A case study in verification of UML statecharts: the PROFIsafe protocol. Journal of Universal Computer Science, 9 (2), 138–151, 2003. [Online Access]
  (A Preliminary version of this paper appeared in FM-Tools 2002 Workshop, 89–93, 2002. [Download])
• Rami Debouk, Robi Malik, Bertil Brandin. A modular architecture for diagnosis of discrete event systems. 41st IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC'02), 417–422, Las Vegas, USA, 2002. [Online Access]
• P. Dietrich, R. Malik, W.M. Wonham, B.A. Brandin. Implementation considerations in supervisory control. In: B. Caillaud, P. Darondeau, L. Lavagno, X. Xie, Synthesis and control of discrete event systems. 185–201, Kluwer, 2002. [Online Access]
• B.A. Brandin, R. Malik, P. Dietrich. Incremental system verification and synthesis of minimally restrictive behaviours. American Control Conference (ACC'00), 4056–4061, Chicago, USA, 2000. [Online Access]
• Robi Malik. Automated deduction of finite-state control programs for reactive systems. 15th International Conference on Automated Deduction (CADE-15), 302–316, Lindau, Germany, 1998. [Online Access]
• Robi Malik. Automatische Synthese diskreter Steuerungen aus logischen Spezifikationen. Shaker Verlag, Aachen, 1998.

Working Papers and Student Reports

• Robi Malik, Marcelo Teixeira. Framework and Proofs for Synthesis of Least Restrictive Controllable Supervisors for Extended Finite-State Machines with Variable Abstraction. Working paper series, No. 03/2018; Department of Computer Science, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand, 2018. [Online Access]
• Robi Malik. The explicit conflict check algorithm implemented in the Waters library. Working paper series, No. 01/2018; Department of Computer Science, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand, 2018. [Online Access]
• Sahar Mohajerani, Robi Malik, Martin Fabian. Compositional supervisor synthesis with state merging and transition removal. Working paper series, No. 02/2016; Department of Computer Science, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand, 2016. [Online Access]
• Robi Malik, Marcelo Teixeira. An algorithm for the synthesis of least restrictive controllable supervisors for extended finite-state machines. Working paper series, No. 01/2016; Department of Computer Science, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand, 2016. [Online Access]
• Adrian Shaw. Partial Order Reduction with Compositional Verification. Masters Thesis, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand, 2014. [Online Access]
• Colin Pilbrow. Compositional nonblocking verification with always enabled and selfloop-only events. Working paper series, No. 07/2013; Department of Computer Science, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand, 2013. [Online Access]
• Sahar Mohajerani, Robi Malik, Martin Fabian. Partial unfolding for compositional nonblocking verification of extended finite-state machines. Working paper series, No. 01/2013; Department of Computer Science, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand, 2013. [Online Access]
• Sahar Mohajerani, Robi Malik, Martin Fabian. Synthesis equivalence of triples. Working paper series, No. 04/2012; Department of Computer Science, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand, 2012. [Online Access]
• Sahar Mohajerani, Robi Malik, Martin Fabian. Synthesis observation equivalence and weak synthesis observation equivalence. Working paper series, No. 03/2012; Department of Computer Science, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand, 2012. [Online Access]
• Sahar Mohajerani, Robi Malik, Martin Fabian. Five abstraction rules to remove transitions while preserving compositional synthesis results. Working paper series, No. 01/2012; Department of Computer Science, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand, 2012. [Online Access]
• Rachel Francis. An implementation of a compositional approach for verifying generalised nonblocking. Working paper series, No. 04/2011; Department of Computer Science, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand, 2011. [Online Access]
• Sahar Mohajerani, Robi Malik, Simon Ware, Martin Fabian. Three variations of observation equivalence preserving synthesis abstraction. Working paper series, No. 01/2011; Department of Computer Science, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand, 2011. [Online Access]
• Robi Malik. The language of certain conflicts of a nondeterministic process. Working paper series, No. 05/2010; Department of Computer Science, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand, 2010. [Online Access]
• Robi Malik, Ryan Leduc. Seven abstraction rules preserving generalised nonblocking. Working paper series, No. 07/2009; Department of Computer Science, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand, 2009. [Online Access]
• Robi Malik, Hugo Flordal. Compositional synthesis of discrete event systems via synthesis equivalence. Working paper series, No. 05/2008; Department of Computer Science, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand, 2008. [Online Access]
• Simon Ware. Modular finite-state machine analysis. Honours project report, Department of Computer Science, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand, 2007. [Download]
• Annika Hinze, Petra Malik, Robi Malik. Towards a TIP 3.0 service-oriented architecture: interaction design. Working paper series, No. 08/2005; Department of Computer Science, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand, 2005. [Online Access]

Robi Malik, Department of Computer Science, The University of Waikato;
Last modified: 7 July 2023