This grant provides funds for travel and subsistence for a Summer School on Logic, Languages, Compilation, and Verification. The program can be found at www.cs.uoregon.edu/Activities/summerschool/summer10/. The instructors are an all-star cast of energetic researchers/educators who are experts in the covered areas. The workshop has important broader impacts in training the next generation of researchers and educators (for both the instructors and students) by building a sense of community and connecting their research pursuits. Participation is highly international, which helps build US participation in the global research community.
Everyday life and critical aspects of our economy, defense, and government depend on software, and software, in turn, depends on high-level programming languages and their efficient implementations. Ever since Fortran and its automatic compiler in the late 1950s, language implementation techniques have been central to computer science, and have relied on well-defined theoretical contributions and central principles. The focus of this summer school is the mix or interplay of theory and practice in language implementation mechanisms. The main aim of this summer school is to enable participants to conduct research in the area, thereby contributing to improved software. By presenting a range of material, from foundational work on language implementation theory, to advanced techniques based on cutting-edge research, to experience with applying the theory, OPLSS provides a unique opportunity for participants to understand the current research landscape. Lectures span the range from fundamental mathematical theories to their application in building practical software systems. At all times, material will be presented at a tutorial level that will help graduate students and researchers from academia or industry understand the critical issues and open problems confronting the field. We hope that students will be able to apply what they learn at the school in their own research. We believe that by doing so the school will have a broad impact on the next generation of programming language, compiler and software engineering researchers in industry and academia. The course is open to anyone interested. Prerequisites are knowledge of programming language principles at the level provided by an undergraduate survey course. Our primary target group is first- or second-year graduate students. We also expect attendance by faculty members who would like to conduct research on this topic or introduce new courses at their universities. The broader impact of the summer school is to contribute to the national economy and to workforce training by providing an opportunity for students and faculty to learn the latest research results and techniques in this important area of Computer Science.
