Gopalan Nadathur (original) (raw)

Contents

Research Interests

I am interested in the design, use and implementation of programming languages. I am also interested in logic, especially as it underlies our understanding of programming formalisms and as it informs our construction of general reasoning systems.

I have developed a higher-order logic programming language called λPrologin collaboration with Dale Miller. This language pioneered systematic support for_higher-order abstract syntax_, a new way of viewing the syntactic structure of objects such as programs, formulas, proofs and types that occur in many symbol processing tasks. I have subsequently led a research project that has developed the Teyjus system that is an efficient implementation of λProlog. Version 2 of this system was released in April 2008 and runs on varied architectures and under all the major operating systems.

The λProlog language provides as a mechanism for specifying systems that can be conveniently conceptualized via a collection of inference rules operating on the syntax of objects. I am interested also in reasoning about the properties of such systems through their specifications. The SLIMMER project initiated the work of my group in this direction and resulted in theBedwyrtheorem-prover. We have subsequently started working on developing more powerful reasoning capabilities. The Abella system embodies some of the foundational work we have done on designing logics to support such reasoning.

My research also spans theoretical developments that are useful relative to programming languages and logical frameworks. In the past, such work has spanned proof theory and logic, lambda calculus notations and their properties and unification procedures.

Research Opportunities for Students

If you are a student at the University of Minnesota, you enjoy introspecting on programs and programming, you like the challenge of thinking of theoretical issues and you are thrilled by the idea of testing out your thinking by building systems, do get in touch with me because we will sure have some common interests. This is not a message only to graduate students: I especially like working with motivated and interested undergraduates so you are welcome as well. To participate effectively in the research of my group, you will, of course, need to have an adequate background to complement your inclination. I can help you figure out how to go about doing this; typically you should think of doing the _Programming Languages_and the Compilers courses that we offer in the department and you should also have done or should plan on doing a logic course or a course on computability theory.

A note for prospective graduate students: I will be happy to exchange mail about research interests and possibilities. However, I typically do not respond to requests for funding that come without any prior context. More importantly, you would be wasting your time and mine if you try to indulge in such a discussion. Our department has an admissions committee that must make the first decisions and research funding is relevant only after a clear connection in interests has been established.

Programming Languages Seminar

A group of interested students and faculty members meet for about an hour and a half each week to discuss a research paper or two that we have collectively decided to read a couple of weeks before. We typically decide on whether or not we are going to do this and also the time for the meeting at the beginning of the semester so you should get in touch with one of the Programming Languages and Software Engineering faculty early enough if you are interested. The cost of participation is small: you mainly have to agree to lead the discussion of a paper every now and then. The benefits of participation are substantial: you learn about some of the research trends in the programming languages area, you get to hone your skills for reading such papers in a friendly and encouraging setting, you get to interact with a group of nice people and you partake of the goodies someone brings each week to the meeting.

Conference Program Committees

Teaching

Current and Recent Courses

Some Older Courses

Last updated on May 19, 2009 by gopalan atsign cs.umn.edu