On sabbatical, visiting Microsoft Research, India.
Working on a MOOC model for India: check out MEC

Research Interests

Software verification; Security; Logic and automata theory;
Programming Languages/Formal Methods/Software Engineering Group

Research Projects   [Click here for more on current research]

  • Reasoning with heaps/dynamic data structures (Strand and Dryad)
  • Building reliable software: OS, browsers, etc. with proven security properties
  • Security of web browser extensions (VEX)
  • Invariant synthesis
  • Testing concurrent programs (Penelope)
  • Security of access control (VAC)
  • Annotation and proof mechanisms for safe concurrency (Accord)
  • Model-checking abstractions of programs (Getafix)
  • Synthesizing programs
  • Decidable automata models (See page on visibly pushdown automata)

    • Software/tools:

  • Strand - Decidable logics/SMT solver for reasoning with heaps
  • Dryad - Sound but incomplete mechanism for proving heap-based programs correct
  • Getafix - A boolean model-checker for concurrent and recursive programs
  • VEX - Static analysis of web-browser extensions for security vulnerabilities
  • Penelope - A testing tool for concurrent programs
  • VAC - Verifier of Access Control
  • JIST - Java Interface Synthesis Tool

    • Students:

    Currently advising:
  • Francesco Sorrentino (testing concurrent programs)
  • Xiaokang Qiu (decidable logics for program verification)
  • Edgar Pek (static analysis; points-to analysis)
  • Pranav Garg (deductive verification; compositional verification)
  • Shambwaditya Saha (synthesis)
    • Formerly advised:
  • Students:
  • Sruthi Bandhakavi; security of web extensions -- now at Google
    •
  • Postdocs: Gennaro Parlato -- now faculty at University of Southampton

    • Courses:

    Note to graduate students: If you are interested in mainstream software verification, I suggest that you take the course CS477 (Formal Methods in Software Development) followed by my course CS598MP (offered only once in a while) on Software Verification. The CS598MP course is more advanced, and CS477 will be a pre-requisite for it in the future. I also strongly encourage you to take the CS498 course on "Logic in Computer Science" (aka Logical Systems) offered by me or Prof. Viswanathan before you take CS58MP:Software Verification.
  • Fall '11: CS373: Intro to Theory of Computation
  • Spring '11: CS477: Formal Methods in Software Development
  • Earlier courses
    •  Also check out the following:
  • Formal Methods Seminar at Illinois
  • The new Formal Methods Reading List

    • Service

  • PC Chair: CAV 2012, Berkeley, USA.
         24th Int'l Conference on Computer Aided Verification.
  • PC Member: LPAR 2012, Merida, Venezuela.
         18th Int'l Conf on Logic for Programming, Artifical intelligence, and Reasoning
  • PC Member: POPL 2012, Philadelphia, USA.
          ACM SIGACT-SIGPLAN Symp. on Principles of Programming Languages.
    • Earlier
  • 2012: PC Chair: CAV 2012; PC Member: LPAR-18
  • 2011: PC Member: CAV 2011, ATVA 2011, FSTTCS 2011.
  • 2010: PC Member: FSTTCS 2010, ATVA 2010, STACS 2010,
  • 2009: PC member: CAV 2009, LICS 2009, TIME 2009; Ext Rev Committee: PLDI 2009
  • 2008: PC Member: APLAS 2008, CONCUR 2008.
  • 2007 PC Chair: INFINITY 2007 (with CONCUR); PC Member: ICALP 2007
  • 2006 PC member: ACM SAC.
  • 2005 PC member: FSTTCS 2005, CAV 2005. GDV 2005 (with CAV'05).
  • 2004 PC member: FORMATS and FTRTFT, 2004
    • Other Activities: Organized events, invited talks, etc.