Henrik Nilsson, Paul Hudak, and John Peterson Yale University
This project integrates functional programming with non-causal hybrid modeling into a powerful, strongly typed, fully declarative modeling and simulation language, combining the strengths of each paradigm. The work on Functional Reactive Programming has demonstrated how causal modeling in a functional setting allows highly dynamic hybrid systems to be described. However, non-causal modeling is instrumental in making large-scale modeling manageable, and the associated symbolic and numerical methods are essential for efficient and numerically sound simulation.
The goal is a language that provides modeling capabilities beyond the current state of the art while allowing efficient simulation, and is semantically rigorous to facilitate modeling, reasoning about models, and catching certain modeling errors. Central research areas include the semantics of integrated functional hybrid modeling; reconciling the implementation techniques of the hybrid simulation world with those of modern declarative languages and dynamic code generation; and a type system tailored to physical modeling incorporating recent ideas from type theory to enhance the safety and robustness of the models.
The project will facilitate designing and understanding complex systems in the real world by providing users with a highly expressive modeling language that is suitable for programming a broad range of modeling and simulation applications.
