Research
At Harvard SEAS, Nada Amin and her team explore new ways of programming that are easier, faster, safer.
For safer, we look at systems and formalisms based on types and verification.
For faster, we look at meta-programming techniques including generative programming and reflection to collapse levels of interpretations as well as move between different views of the same program in a way that helps optimizations, understanding and modifications.
For easier, our goal is to enable a greater number of people to manipulate computer programs (static) and processes (dynamic) in a robust way. To this end, we look at combining Machine Learning and Programming Languages to enable the creation of neuro-symbolic systems that can move back and forth between learnable (neural) and interpretable (symbolic) representations of a system.
We are always looking for new application domains in which to evaluate programming techniques, particularly around medicine or creativity.
Teaching
- Spring 2024: CS 152 Programming Languages
- Fall 2023: CS 252R Program Synthesis
- Fall 2022: CS 252R Advanced Semantics of PL
- Spring 2022: CS 152 Programming Languages
- Fall 2021: CS 252R PL Design Graduate Seminar (PL Studio)
- Spring 2021: CS 152 Programming Languages
- Fall 2020: CS 252R PL/AI Graduate Seminar
- Spring 2020: CS 152 Programming Languages
- Fall 2019: CS 252R PL/HCI Graduate Seminar
Team
We are part of Harvard PL and lead the metareflection lab.
- Matthew Retchin (SEAS fellow then PhD student since Spring 2024)
- Raffi Sanna (PhD Student since Summer 2023)
- Cameron Wong (PhD Student since Fall 2022)
- Anastasiya Kravchuk-Kirilyuk (PhD Student since Fall 2020)
- Tyler Holloway (PhD Student co-advised since Spring 2023)
- Joey Velez-Ginorio (Visiting PhD Student since Fall 2019)
- Iñaki Arango (Undergraduate Researcher since Spring 2024)
- Ayush Noori (Undergraduate Researcher since Spring 2024)
- Sabrina Hu (Undergraduate Researcher since Spring 2024)
- Teodor Malchev (Undergraduate Researcher since Spring 2024)
- Leonard Tang (Undergraduate Researcher since Fall 2023)
- Rakesh Nori (Undergraduate Researcher in 2023)
- Gerson Personnat (Undergraduate Researcher for Fall 2023)
- Tarun Prasad (Undergraduate Researcher in Fall 2023 and Spring 2024)
- Sibi Raja (Undergraduate Researcher since Fall 2023)
- Hanna Wosenu (Undergraduate researcher since Fall 2023)
- Navya Ramakrishnan (Undergraduate Researcher since Summer 2023)
- Pranav Ramesh (Undergraduate Researcher for Summer 2023)
- Linden Schrage (Undergraduate Researcher for Summer 2023)
- Julie Steele (Undergraduate Researcher for Summer 2023)
- Daniel Sun-Friedman (Undergraduate Researcher for Summer 2023)
- Peter Chon (Undergraduate Researcher since Spring 2023)
- Jonas Iskander (Undergraduate Researcher for Spring 2023)
- Chloe Loughridge (Undergraduate Researcher since Spring 2023, Fall 2023 and Spring 2024)
- Will Dey (Undergraduate Researcher for 2022 – 2023)
- Ye Joo Han (Undergraduate Researcher for 2022 – 2023)
- Nibrass Fathi (Undergraduate Researcher for Summer 2022)
- Nicholas DeSanctis (Undergraduate Researcher for Summer 2022)
- Simon Henniger (Undergraduate Researcher for Summer 2022, and Spring & Summer 2024)
- Rachna Gupta (Undergraduate Researcher for Spring 2022)
- Lavanya Singh (Undergraduate Researcher for 2021 – 2022)
- Michael Kielstra (Undergraduate Researcher for 2021 – 2022)
- Matthew Shabet (Undergraduate Researcher for Fall 2021 and Spring 2022)
- Helena Abney-McPeek (Undergraduate Researcher for Summer 2021 and Spring 2022)
- Leo Fried (Undergraduate Researcher for Summer 2021)
- Laura Zharmukhametova (Undergraduate Researcher for Fall 2020 and Spring 2021)
- Marissa Zheng (Undergraduate Researcher for Summer 2020, Fall 2020 and Spring 2021)
- Yizhou Zhang (Postdoc for 2019 – 2020)
- Michael Buch (PhD Student for 2019 – 2020)
- Apoorv Jain (Visiting Undergraduate Researcher for Summer 2020)
- Kat Zhang (Undergraduate Researcher for Summer 2020)
- Teddy Liu (Undergraduate Researcher for 2019 – 2020)
- Pratap Singh (Undergraduate Researcher for 2019 – 2020)
- Garrett Tanzer (Undergraduate Researcher for Spring 2020)
- Alex Wendland (Undergraduate Researcher for Spring 2020)
Joining
If you're an undergraduate at Harvard, I am happy to brainstorm and supervise a research project (CS91r or HCRP) or thesis around common interests. This could range from theory (a type system for 'X') to implementation (a domain-specific language for 'X'). I value previous experience in software engineering, machine learning, functional programming, logic programming, proof assistants, and your chosen domains of application. I offer projects to both students that have taken my classes and students that have not, though they may be different in nature.
If you're a prospective PhD student, please apply to SEAS and mention me in your application.
If you're a current researcher (PhD student, postdoc, faculty, ...), I am open to collaboration and co-supervision opportunities.
If you're a member at large, I am happy to engage as well time allowing.