Charla: Semantics, Parallelism, & Research

Charlista: Robby Findler (Northwestern University, Chicago)

Abstract: Researchers study the semantics of programming languages, a relatively esoteric and mathematical activity. In this talk, I'll try to explain why it is useful, using a programming language with parallelism as a case study. Along the way, we may learn something interesting (and challenging!) about our modern computing infrastructure.

Short bio: Robby Findler believes that programming is one of humanity’s greatest achievements and he enjoys participating in it and thinking about how to improve it. He is a Professor of Computer Science at Northwestern University and a core developer of the Racket programming language. In the latter role, he is the primary developer of DrRacket (the Racket developer environment), Racket’s contract system, and the Redex language (for operational semantics). He is a co-author of the textbooks How to Design Programs and Semantics Engineering with PLT Redex.