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Jay Modi Memorial Lecture: “Confluences in Programming Languages Research”

Monday, May 16, 2016

11:00 AM-1:00 PM

The College of Computing & Informatics Presents:
8th Annual Jay Modi Memorial Lecture

“Confluences in Programming Languages Research”
A lecture by David Walker, PhD, Princeton University

Monday, May 16, 2016 at 11 a.m.
A lunch reception will follow the presentation

Paul Peck Alumni Center
3142 Market Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104

RSVP online at bit.ly/jaymodi2016

About the Talk:
A confluence occurs when two rivers flow together; downstream the combined forces gather strength and propel their waters forward with increased vigor. In academic research, according to George Varghese, a confluence occurs after some trigger, perhaps a discovery or change in technology, and brings two previously separate branches of research together. In this talk, I will discuss confluences in programming languages research. Here, confluences often occur when basic research finds application in some important new domain. Two prime examples from my own career involve the confluence of research in type theory and secure system design, triggered in part by new theoretical tools for reasoning about programming language safety, and the confluence of formal methods and networking, triggered by the rise of data centers. These experiences may shed light on what to teach our students and what is next for programming languages research.

About the Speaker:
David Walker is a Professor of Computer Science at Princeton University. He received his bachelor’s degree from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, and his doctoral and master’s degrees in computer science from Cornell, before joining Princeton in 2002. Prof. Walker studies programming language theory, design and implementation, with an emphasis on the design of domain-specific languages. His awards include an NSF Career Award, a Sloan Fellowship and the 2015 ACM SIGPLAN Robin Milner Young Researcher Award. Together with his collaborators, he has also won a 10-year retrospective award for the most influential paper at ACM POPL 1998, a best paper award at ACM PLDI 2007, and a Community Award for his work at USENIX NSDI 2013. He served as an associate editor for ACM TOPLAS from 2007-2015 and as program chair for ACM POPL in 2015.

This lecture is held to honor former Drexel Computer Science Professor Pragnesh Jay Modi (1975-2007) and his contributions to the field of artificial intelligence.Learn more at http://bit.ly/jaymodi