We develop new approaches to programming, whether that takes the form of programming languages, tools (like compilers), or methodologies (like ways to collect requirements or formulate designs). Advances in these ingredients can improve many aspects of applications and systems infrastructure.
New programming languages can improve developer productivity and allow new categories of users to tackle complex programming challenges. Improved compilers can boost program performance through automatic program analysis and transformation. Formal methods can build confidence in system correctness through logical arguments about complex code bases (whether through automated reductions to harness SMT solvers or through more manual construction of proofs of deeper properties using computer proof assistants like Coq).
Programming tools are relevant to most parts of computer science, and this area is therefore rich in collaborations with others, including the two-way interplay between machine learning and programming. Another popular thread is applying formal methods to classes of hardware and software systems whose correctness and security matter most: computer processors, operating systems, databases, and cryptographic libraries.
Latest news in programming languages and software engineering
Six distinguished scientists with ties to MIT were recognized “for significant contributions in areas including cybersecurity, human-computer interaction, mobile computing, and recommender systems among many other areas.”
Ending a 44-year drought, the MIT competitive programming team came in on top in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
When you think of computer programmers, you might picture a lone coder, sitting in a cubicle, bathed in flickering light. But you should picture a team: in MIT’s…
The Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) recently announced the following crop of chair appointments, all effective July 1, 2022. Karl Berggren has been named the…
Professor Hal Abelson has dedicated his career to making information technology more accessible to all and empowering people — kids, in particular — through computer science. But his…