My primary research interest is modeling computer systems formally. Engineers and scientists have traditionally concentrated on developing and applying mathematical models to design and analysis of systems. Although traditional mathematical models are incomplete, they are extremely pragmatic in engineering design situations - designers can predict and evaluate a system's behavior prior to construction. Not using such models in a traditional engineering process would be considered irresponsible and dangerous.

Computer-based systems engineering does not currently enjoy pervasive use of mathematical models. Traditional semi-formal techniques do not provide the predictive capability common in mathematical systems. Computer science models such as Turing Machines and Lambda Calculus are predictive, but not pragmatic for making engineering design decisions. Using semi-formal or ad hoc models results in software systems that are initially unreliable and frequently do not meet the needs that motivated them.

The primary research objective of the ITTC Systems Level Design Group is introducing engineering models in the hardware, software, and systems level development process to support: (i) predicting and evaluating behavior and performance prior to implementation; and (ii) automatically synthesizing implementations from those models. Without such models, systems development will continue to be an artistic process rather than an engineering process. Computer-based systems will continue to be expensive and unreliable.

My research requires me to look at a broad spectrum of computer science subjects. In particular I am interested in logic and proof, language semantics, type theory, interpreter and compiler design, and heterogeneous specification. Informally, I am compelled by understanding the structure and semantics of information. In particular, I am drawn by the parallels between mathematical and algorithmic thinking and the structure of music and art. I believe there is poetry in a proof and elegance in an algorithm. It's just a matter of perspective.

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Quotes

"... It is an error to believe that rigor in the proof is the enemy of simplicity. On the contrary, we find it confirmed by numerous examples that the rigorous method is at the same time the simpler and the more easily comprehended. The very effort for rigor forces us to find out simpler methods of proof. It also frequently leads the way to methods which are more capable of development than the old methods of less rigor."

David Hilbert
International Congress of Mathematics
Paris, 1900

"...the credibility is a consequence of the method."

Carl Sagan
The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a candle in the dark

"...shootin fools and starry gazers, wizard hip and button down,
i walk the occam razor way through priests and circus clowns,
am i a missioner of faith or grace or vision or another grinning prisoner of happytown?"

Dave Carter,
Happytown

"This vain presumption of understanding everything can have no other basis than never understanding anything. For anyone who had experienced just once the perfect understanding of one single thing, and had truly tasted how knowledge is accomplished, would recognize that infinity of other truths of which we understand nothing."

Galileo,
The Two Chief World Systems

"It's mathematics, son! You can argue with me, but you can't argue with figures!"

Foghorn Leghorn

"If anybody wants to keep creating, they have to be about change."

Miles Davis

"It is easier to be gigantic than beautiful"

Friedrich Nietzsche

"You got not time for the messenger, you got no regard for the thing that you don't understand, you got no fear of the underdog, that's why you will not survive."

The Dismemberment Plan

"'The best thing for being sad,' replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, 'is to learn something. That is the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world around you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then – to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the thing for you.'"

T.H. White,
The Once and Future King

"The small man
Builds cages for everyone
He
Knows.

While the sage,
Who has to duck his head
When the moon is low,
Keeps dropping keys all night long
For the
Beautiful
Rowdy
Prisoners."

Hafiz

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