Specification Elicitation:
Develop tools and workflows for extracting formal specifications from ambiguous, distributed, or implicit sources (e.g., documentation, legacy systems, human stakeholders). Projects may include structured editors, GUIs, or pipelines that translate informal requirements into formal representations (e.g., Lean), building on approaches like “SpecIDE.”
Specification validation:
Design methods to verify that extracted specifications are correct and complete. This includes techniques for testing, cross-checking, or formally validating whether a specification accurately captures intended system behavior.
Spec-Driven Development & Evaluation:
Explore workflows where specifications generate multiple candidate implementations, which are then evaluated against each other. Projects may involve building infrastructure to compare robustness, correctness, or performance across implementations derived from the same spec.
For further reading, see: Approximately Aligned Decoding, Zero-DoF Programming
Adversarial Robustness for FM & QA Tools:
Investigate failure modes in formal methods pipelines, LLM-assisted tooling, and QA systems. Projects may focus on adversarial inputs, robustness guarantees, or identifying weaknesses in automated reasoning and verification systems.
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What’s in it for the mentors?:
A team executing your research vision. You propose the project; an Apart project manager and mentees run it with you. You’re directing the research, not running the project solo.
A dedicated project manager. An Apart Research Project Manager (RPM) handles the operational side of running a research team, so that you can focus on the research direction.
A working trial of potential hires. Historically, organizations running programs like this have used them functionally as work trials. Over four months you’ll work closely with mentees who’ve already passed our bar, giving you a clear read on who might be a fit for your team.
Project resources for the team: compute, and API credits.
Possibly a stipend. By default mentor roles aren’t paid, but if compensation would enable your participation, indicate this in the application form.
please email any questions to secure-program-synthesis-fellowship@apartresearch.com
Apart has a Secure Program Synthesis fellowship coming up, mentor application deadline is May 5th
https://apartresearch.com/fellowships/the-secure-program-synthesis-fellowship
please email any questions to
secure-program-synthesis-fellowship@apartresearch.comthere will be an associated hackathon late may