Type of Talk:  UTCS Colloquium

 Speaker/Af

filiation:  Doug Smith/Kestrel Institute

Date/Time:  Mond

ay, March 23, 2009   2:00 p.m.

Location: ACES 2.302

Host:  William Cook

Talk Title:  "Calculating R

efinements in Algorithm and System Design"

Talk Abstract:

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p>Software synthesis is about automating the development of correct and eff

icient code from formal specifications. Given a formal specification that c

aptures the requirements of various stakeholders, the challenge is to mech

anize the generation of refinement steps that incrementally transform the s

pecification into code while preserving key properties. I''ll survey elemen

ts of a unified framework for calculating refinements using taxonomies of d

esign theories and constructive inference.

Speaker Bio:

D

r. Douglas R. Smith is Principal Scientist at Kestrel Institute (Palo Alto

, CA) and President of Kestrel Technology LLC (Los Altos, CA).  He i

s a Fellow of the American Association of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) an

d an ASE Fellow (Automated Software Engineering).  During 1986-2000,
he periodically taught an advanced graduate course on knowledge-based soft

ware development at Stanford University. Dr. Smith served as Chairman of IF

IP Working Group 2.1 on Algorithmic Languages and Calculi during 1994-2000.

Dr. Smith''s research interests have centered around the automa

ted design of high-performance algorithms and systems.  He has led th

e development of a series of state-of-the-art software synthesis systems,

including KIDS (Kestrel Interactive Development System), Specware, Design

ware, Epoxi, Planware, and Accord.  Applications have included a v

ariety of complex high-performance schedulers for the US Air Force.
Dr. Smith has over 30 years experience in the field of automated progra

er Science from Duke University in 1979.