The use of graphs and graph-like structures as a formalism for specification and modelling is widespread in all areas of computer science as well as in many fields of computational research and engineering. Relevant examples include software architectures, pointer structures, state space and control/data flow graphs, UML and other domain-specific models, network layouts, topologies of cyber-physical environments, quantum computing and molecular structures. Often, these graphs undergo dynamic change, ranging from reconfiguration and evolution to various kinds of behaviour, all of which may be captured by rule-based graph manipulation. Thus, graphs and graph transformation form a fundamental universal modelling paradigm that serves as a means for formal reasoning and analysis, ranging from the verification of certain properties of interest to the discovery of fundamentally new insights.

The International Conference on Graph Transformation aims at fostering exchange and collaboration of researchers from different backgrounds working with graphs and graph transformation, either in contributing to their theoretical foundations or by applying established formalisms to classical or novel areas. The conference not only serves as a well-established scientific publication outlet, but also as a platform to boost inter- and intra-disciplinary research and to leeway for new ideas.

The 15th International Conference on Graph Transformation (ICGT 2022) will be held in Nantes, France, as part of STAF 2022 (Software Technologies: Applications and Foundations). The conference takes place under the auspices of EATCS and IFIP WG 1.3.

STAF 2022 took place at the Cité des Congrès de Nantes which is conveniently located in the city center. All conferences and workshops took place in Room 150 in the lower foyer (cf. detailed floor plan).

In the program below, presenters are marked in bold.

Day 1 - July 7, 2022

Day 2 - July 8, 2022

Accepted papers

Frank Drewes, Berthold Hoffmann and Mark Minas: Acyclic Contextual Hyperedge Replacement: Decidability of Acyclicity and Generative Power
Gabriele Taentzer, Stefan John and Jens Kosiol: A Generic Construction for Crossovers of Graph-like Structures
Matthias Barkowsky and Holger Giese: Towards Development with Multi-Version Models: Detecting Merge Conflicts and Checking Well-Formedness
Reiko Heckel, Andrea Corradini and Fabio Gadducci: Graph Rewriting Components
Reiko Heckel, Nitia Rahmi, Zobia Erum and Albert Pul: Visual Smart Contracts for DAML
Okan Özkan: Decidability of Resilience for Well-structured Graph Transformation Systems
Kristopher Brown, Evan Patterson, Tyler Hanks and James Fairbanks: Computational category theoretic rewriting
Sven Schneider, Maria Maximova and Holger Giese: Invariant Analysis for Multi Agent Graph Transformation Systems using k-Induction
Sven Schneider, Maria Maximova and Holger Giese: Probabilistic Metric Temporal Graph Logic
Paul Wilson and Fabio Zanasi: Categories of Differentiable Polynomial Circuits for Machine Learning
Jens Weber: Tool support for Fully-Persistent Graph Rewriting - GrapeVine

Program Chairs

• Nicolas Behr (CNRS, IRIF, Université Paris Cité, France)
• Daniel Strüber (Chalmers | University of Gothenburg, Sweden; Radboud University, Netherlands)

Program Committee

• Paolo Baldan (Università degli Studi di Padova, Italy)
• Paolo Bottoni (Sapienza Università di Roma, Italy)
• Andrea Corradini (University of Pisa, Italy)
• Juan de Lara (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain)
• Juergen Dingel (Queen’s University Kingston, Ontario, Canada)
• Fabio Gadducci (University of Pisa, Italy)
• Holger Giese (Hasso Plattner Institute, University of Potsdam, Germany)
• Russ Harmer (CNRS, ENS Lyon, Université de Lyon, France)
• Reiko Heckel (University of Leicester, United Kingdom)
• Thomas Hildebrandt (University of Copenhagen, Denmark)
• Wolfram Kahl (McMaster University, Canada)
• Timo Kehrer (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany)
• Aleks Kissinger (University of Oxford, United Kingdom)
• Barbara König (Universität Duisburg-Essen, Germany)
• Leen Lambers (Technical University of Brandenburg (BTU) Cottbus-Sentenberg, Germany)
• Yngve Lamo (Western Norway University of Applied Sciences Bergen, Norway)
• Koko Muroya (RIMS, Kyoto University)
• Fernando Orejas (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya)
• Detlef Plump (University of York, United Kingdom)
• Arend Rensink (University of Twente Enschede, Netherlands)
• Leila Ribeiro (Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) Porto Alegre, Brazil)
• Andy Schürr (Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany)
• Gabriele Taentzer (Philipps-Universität Marburg, Germany)
• Matthias Tichy (Universität Ulm, Germany)
• Uwe Wolter (University of Bergen, Norway)
• Steffen Zschaler (King’s College London, United Kingdom)

Steering Committee

• Paolo Bottoni (Sapienza Università di Roma, Italy)
• Andrea Corradini (University of Pisa, Italy)
• Gregor Engels (University of Paderborn, Germany)
• Holger Giese (Hasso Plattner Institute, University of Potsdam, Germany)
• Reiko Heckel (University of Leicester, United Kingdom)
• Dirk Janssens (University of Antwerp, Belgium)
• Barbara König (Universität Duisburg-Essen, Germany)
• Hans-Jörg Kreowski (University of Bremen, Germany)
• Leen Lambers (Technical University of Brandenburg (BTU) Cottbus-Sentenberg, Germany)
• Ugo Montanari (University of Pisa, Italy)
• Mohamed Mosbah (University of Bordeaux, France)
• Manfred Nagl (RWTH Aachen University, Germany)
• Fernando Orejas (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya)
• Francesco Parisi-Presicce (Sapienza University of Rome, Italy)
• John Pfaltz (University of Virginia, USA)
• Detlef Plump (University of York, United Kingdom)
• Arend Rensink (University of Twente Enschede, Netherlands)
• Leila Ribeiro (Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) Porto Alegre, Brazil)
• Grzegorz Rozenberg (University of Leiden, the Netherlands)
• Andy Schürr (Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany)
• Gabriele Taentzer (Philipps-Universität Marburg, Germany)
• Jens Weber (University of Victoria, Canada)
• Bernhard Westfechtel (University of Bayreuth, Germany)

Topics of interest

In order to foster a lively exchange of perspectives on the subject of the conference, the programme committee of ICGT 2022 encouraged all kinds of contributions related to graphs and graph transformation, either from a theoretical point of view or a practical one.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to the following subjects:

• General models of graph transformation (e.g. adhesive categories and hyperedge replacement systems)
• Analysis and verification of graph transformation systems
• Graph theoretical properties of graph languages
• Automata on graphs and parsing of graph languages
• Logical aspects of graph transformation
• Computational models based on graphs
• Structuring and modularization of graph transformation
• Hierarchical graphs and decomposition of graphs
• Parallel, concurrent, and distributed graph transformation
• Term graph and string diagram rewriting
• Petri nets and other models of concurrency
• Business process models and notations
• Bigraphs and bigraphical reactive systems
• Graph databases and graph queries
• Model-driven development and model transformation
• Model checking, program analysis and verification, simulation and animation
• Syntax, semantics and implementation of programming languages, including domain-specific and visual languages
• Graph transformation languages and tool support
• Efficient algorithms (e.g. pattern matching, graph traversal, network analysis)
• Applications and case studies in software engineering (e.g. software architectures, refactoring, access control, and service-orientation)
• Applications to computing paradigms (e.g. bio-inspired, quantum, ubiquitous, and visual)
• Graph transformation and artificial intelligence (e.g., AI for graph transformations, applying graph transformations in AI engineering and search-based software engineering)

Special interest topic for ICGT 2022: Executable Applied Category Theory

A special focus of this conference consisted of new approaches to formalizing the knowledge in the research field of graph transformation theory via proof assistants such as Coq. Referring to the homepage of the GReTA-ExACT workgroup for further information, a long-term goal of this kind of approach will consist in establishing a Coq-enriched wiki for our research field akin to the nLab. This platform will serve as a sustainable mechanism for curating applied and mathematical knowledge in graph transformation research, and eventually as a research tool in its own right, notably through the provision of interactive database-supported proof construction. Another avenue of research will concern executable applied category theory (ExACT), i.e., code extraction from formalized categorical structures, with the perspective of curating a database of correct-by-construction reference prototype algorithms for various forms of graph transformation semantics and graph-like data structures. To introduce the initiative and facilitate the broad involvement of the ICGT community and collect feedback from participants regarding the scope and format of such a wiki project, a peer-reviewed brainstorming session was held as one of the events at the conference.

Submission Guidelines

Papers were to be submitted via EasyChair using Springer’s LNCS format (cf. LNCS Overleaf template). For regular and tool demonstration papers, simultaneous submission to other conferences with proceedings or submission of material that had already been published elsewhere was not allowed. The page limits were strict and included references. At least one author for each accepted paper had to register before the early registration deadline and present the paper during the conference.

Papers were solicited in three categories:

• Regular papers (limited to 16 pages in Springer LNCS format) describe innovative contributions and are evaluated with respect to their originality, significance, and technical soundness. We also solicit case studies describing applications of graph transformation in any application domain. Additional material intended for reviewers but not for publication in the final version may be included in a clearly marked appendix.

• Tool presentation papers (limited to 8 pages in Springer LNCS format) demonstrate the main features and functionality of graph-based tools. A tool presentation paper may have an appendix with a detailed demo description (up to 4 pages), which will be reviewed but not included in the proceedings.

• New ideas papers (limited to 2 pages in Springer LNCS format) report on relevant contributions to the theory or applications of graph transformation, which may have been published (or accepted for publication) in a peer-reviewed conference other than ICGT, as a book chapter or journal article since 2018. Papers in this category will be selected for presentation at the conference according to their relevance to the graph transformation community, and they will be considered for the special issues. Submissions will consist of a 2-page abstract. In case of extended abstracts of published papers, the submission must refer to the published paper and include the original paper in PDF.

Special Issue

Authors of the best papers at the conference will be invited to prepare and submit extended journal versions to be considered for publication in a special issue after an independent round of peer review. The special issue will be published in the Journal of Logical and Algebraic Methods in Programming (Elsevier).

Past ICGT Conferences

• ICGT 2021: 14th International Conference on Graph Transformation, held as part of STAF 2021 (online), LNCS 12741
• ICGT 2020: 13th International Conference on Graph Transformation, held as part of STAF 2020 (online), LNCS 12150
• ICGT 2019: 12th International Conference on Graph Transformation, held as part of STAF 2019 (Eindhoven, The Netherlands), LNCS 11629
• ICGT 2018: 11th International Conference on Graph Transformation, held as part of STAF 2018 (Toulouse, France), LNCS 10887
• ICGT 2017: 10th International Conference on Graph Transformation, held as part of STAF 2017 (Marburg, Germany), LNCS 10373
• ICGT 2016: 9th International Conference on Graph Transformation, held as part of STAF 2016 (Vienna, Austria), LNCS 9761
• ICGT 2015: 8th International Conference on Graph Transformation, held as part of STAF 2015 (L’Aquila, Italy), LNCS 9151
• ICGT 2014: 7th International Conference on Graph Transformation, held as part of STAF 2014 (York, UK), LNCS 8571
• ICGT 2012: 6th International Conference on Graph Transformation (Bremen, Germany), LNCS 7562
• ICGT 2010: 5th International Conference on Graph Transformation (Twente, NL), LNCS 6372
• ICGT 2008: 4th International Conference on Graph Transformation (Leicester, UK), LNCS 5214
• ICGT 2006: 3rd International Conference on Graph Transformation (Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brasil), LNCS 4178
• ICGT 2004: 2nd International Conference on Graph Transformation (Rome, Italy), LNCS 3256
• ICGT 2002: 1st International Conference on Graph Transformation (Barcelona, Spain), LNCS 2505

Predecessor Workshops

• 1998: 6th International Workshop on Graph-Grammars and Their Application to Computer Science (Paderborn, Germany), LNCS 1764
• 1994: 5th International Workshop on Graph-Grammars and Their Application to Computer Science (Williamsburg, VA, USA), LNCS 1073
• 1990: 4th International Workshop on Graph-Grammars and Their Application to Computer Science (Bremen, Germany), LNCS 532
• 1986: 3rd International Workshop on Graph-Grammars and Their Application to Computer Science (Warrenton, VA, USA), LNCS 291
• 1982: 2nd International Workshop on Graph-Grammars and Their Application to Computer Science (Haus Ohrbeck, Germany), LNCS 153
• 1978: International Workshop on Graph-Grammars and Their Application to Computer Science and Biology (Bad Honnef, Germany), LNCS 73