Walid Taha
Rice University

Programming Languages and the World

Abstract:
Computers, especially embedded systems, are permeating our world. My research goal is to use programming languages to build better computers.  This talk reviews three efforts in this direction, namely, multi-stage programming (MSP), the Verilog Preprocessor (VPP), and Physically Safe Computing (PSC) project.  We will discuss the vision, challenges, and results of these projects, and what they have taught us about both programming languages and the world.

About the Speaker:
Walid Taha is an assistant professor at Rice University, Houston, TX. His interests span programming languages semantics, type systems, compilers, program generation, real-time systems, and physically safe computing.  He is the principal investigator on a number of NSF, Texas ATP, and SRC research grants and contracts.  He is the principle design of MetaOCaml, Acumen, and the Verilog Preprocessor system.  He founded the ACM Conference on Generative Programming and Component Engineering (GPCE), the IFIP Working Group on Program Generation (WG 2.11), and the Middle Earth Programming Languages Seminar (MEPLS).  He is the program chair for the one-time IFIP Working Conference on Domain-Specific Languages (DSL WC), 2009, Oxford.



Host:  Frank Pfenning
Appointments: Jennifer Landefeld <jennsbl@cs.cmu.edu>



Wednesday, January 28, 2009
3:30 p.m.
Wean Hall 8220

Principles of Programming Seminars