This course tries to make students familiar with state-of-the-art techniques in modelling concurrent systems. This is done by comparing some of the more successful models of concurrency found in the literature. The focus will be on the rationale behind the design decisions underlying those models, viewed from philosophical, mathematical and computational perspectives. The course contains important background knowledge for students aiming at a scientific career in which the design of mathematical models of system behaviour is a component.

Topics chosen from: semantic models of concurrent and distributed systems (e.g. process algebra, event structures, Petri nets, Chu spaces), operational and denotational semantics, semantic equivalences and implementation relations, linear versus branching time, interleaving versus partial order semantics, true concurrency, algorithms for equivalence checking and their complexity, modal and temporal logic for concurrent systems.