Monday, January 18, 2010

TCS Excellence in Computer Science Week in Pune

Haven't posted in a while.  Been busy with my course on  Program Dynamics and preparing lectures for two workshops.

Attended the TCS Excellence in Computer Science (TECS) week in Pune during Jan.3 to Jan.8. The theme this year was "Formal Methods in Software Verification, Testing, and Debugging". For details the reader may go to http://121.241.184.234:8000/tecsweek/tecsweek_home.html.

Shankar Natarajan's lectures were especially exciting as also his method of lecturing.  He also drew my attention to the work of Dick Lipton. I am surprised by the following item from the wikipedia article on Richard Lipton:

"De Millo, Lipton and Peris criticized  the idea of formal verification of programs and argued that
  • Formal verifications in computer science will not play the same key role as proofs do in mathematics.
  • Absence of continuity, the inevitability of change, and the complexity of specification of real programs will make formal verification of programs difficult to justify and manage."
 How about that! All power to the mathematical proofs of mapcode! All power to further research to scale it up to industrial strength!


It was a treat to hear Sir Tony Hoare speak about the importance of taking the initiative and going ahead with one's plans even if they appear to be not in step with what others are doing. A boost for Prof. Nori and me. That is exactly what we have been doing over the last few years.

Interactions with Prof. Jayadev Misra and Prof. C.R.Muthukrishnan were illuminating and enlightening.

At the conclusion of the programme I was given an opportunity to present mapcode ideas. The slides of the presentation have been uploaded here. The novelty of the approach received a good response from some of the younger participants especially. Looks like there is a gap in pedagogics that mapcode fills. Definitely encouraging.





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2 comments:

  1. AnonymousJanuary 19, 2010 at 12:44 AM

    dear Sir,

    I'm not surprised at the comments made by De Millo, Lipton and Peris. UML instead, has taken front-seat in industrial uses, ofcourse provability is a big question that looms large in horizon of software engineering as usual!

    I'm also glad to know the community, that to young ones have taken your idea with interest. Silence of Old ones is well understood. As time passes a person gets to an -ism - a binding that makes thoughts blunt!

    best regards
    Hrushikesha

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  2. AnonymousJanuary 20, 2010 at 7:32 PM

    The theme of TECS Week itself is a bit surprising to me with Formal Methods and Testing side-by-side. Is there anything that was discussed in integrating both?

    Dick's comments will hold true unless we can justify the industrial community about the power of mathematics and show that is useful to them. Hoare's comments on continuing the idea might hold good for big people like him, Prof. Nori, you however I believe that "It is about connecting your idea in a language that is interesting to the current generation of researchers"

    Good to know the acceptance of idea of mapcode especially from young ones.

    Once again I repeat...
    "It is about connecting your idea in a language that is interesting to the current generation of researchers" All the best, Your Student

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