MACAO, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) -- The seventh International Symposium on Automated Technology for Verification and Analysis (ATVA) was held at the Macao polytechnic Institute (IPM), the Macao Post Daily reported on Wednesday.

    The four-day research event, which was organized by the United Nations University-International Institute for Software Technology(UNU-IIST), was kicked off yesterday.

    The forum was aimed at encouraging the research and application of formal methods for the improvement of software and hardware in computer-based systems, the daily quoted the organizer as saying.

    The annual symposium was also part of the ATVA's effort to promote research on the practical aspect of automated analysis, verification and synthesis in East Asia by providing a forum for interaction between regional and international research communities and industry in the field.

    The first three ATVA symposiums were held in Taiwan between 2003 and 2005. The event took place in Beijing, Tokyo and Seoul respectively in the past three year.