Mixing Consistency in Geodistributed Transactions (Distinguished Lecture)
Andrew Myers,
Cornell University, USA –
Abstract:
Programming concurrent, distributed systems that mutate shared, persistent, geo-replicated state is hard. To enable high availability and scalability, a new class of weakly consistent data stores has become popular. However, some data needs strong consistency. We introduce mixed-consistency transactions, embodied in a new embedded language, MixT. Programmers explicitly associate consistency models with remote storage sites; within each atomic, isolated transaction, data can be accessed with a mixture of different consistency models.
Compile-time information-flow checking, applied to consistency models, ensures that these models are mixed safely and enables the compiler to automatically partition transactions into a single sub-transaction per consistency model. New run-time mechanisms ensure that consistency models can also be mixed safely, even when the data used by a transaction resides on separate, mutually unaware stores. Performance measurements show that despite offering strong guarantees, mixed-consistency transactions can significantly outperform traditional serializable transactions.
Bio
Andrew Myers is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. He received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT in 1999, advised by Barbara Liskov.
His research interests include computer security, programming languages, and distributed and persistent programming systems. His work on computer security has focused on practical, sound, expressive languages and systems for enforcing information security. The Jif programming language makes it possible to write programs which the compiler ensures are secure, and the Fabric system extends this approach to distributed programming. The Polyglot extensible compiler framework has been widely used for programming language research.
Myers is an ACM Fellow. He has received awards for papers appearing in POPL’99, SOSP’01, SOSP’07, CIDR’13, PLDI’13, and PLDI’15.
Myers is the current Editor-in-Chief for ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems (TOPLAS) and past co-EiC for the Journal of Computer Security. He has also served as program chair or co-chair for a few conferences: ACM POPL 2018, ACM CCS 2016, POST 2014, IEEE CSF 2010, and IEEE S&P 2009.
Host
Rodrigo Seromenho Miragaia Rodrigues
Venue:
Anfiteatro VA4 no piso-1 do Edificio de Civil – IST/Alameda
Upcoming Events
INESC-ID ESR Talks – June 2023

If you are a masters/PhD student or a postdoctoral fellow, come and present your work in an informal and friendly environment – and savour some tasty snacks!
Individual talks will be 10-15 minutes plus time for feedback. Enroll on your selected date by emailing pedro.ferreira[at]inesc-id.pt.
Happening on the second Wednesday of every month (4pm-5pm):
- 14 June (Alves Redol, Room 9)
- 12 July (Alves Redol, Room 9)
We hope to see you there!
OLISSIPO Summer School in Lisbon | Computational phylogenetics to analyse the evolution of cells and communities

We are happy to announce the OLISSIPO Summer School on Computational phylogenetics to analyse the evolution of cells and communities, which will be held in Lisbon, Portugal, at INESC-ID, between July 2-7, 2023.
Keynote speakers:
David Posada, University of Vigo (class)
João Alves, University of Vigo (hands-on)
Nadia El-Mabrouk, Université de Montréal (class)
Mattéo Delabre, Université de Montréal (hands-on)
Ran Libeskind-Hadas, Claremont McKenna College (class and hands-on)
Russell Schwartz, Carnegie Mellon University (class and hands-on)
See the preliminary agenda at: https://olissipo.inesc-id.pt/tree-tango-school
Registration is mandatory. You can register at: https://forms.gle/VsASFHW5E7MJvaCc9
The registration fee is 250€ for students and OLISSIPO members and 350€ for postdocs or other researchers (meals indicated at the schedule of the school are included, accommodation and flights are not). All details will be made available upon registration.
We will have slots for flash talks (3-10 min depending on the number of submissions) to present yourself and the work you have been developing in your research.
The 13th Lisbon Machine Learning School | LxMLS 2023

The Lisbon Machine Learning Summer School (LxMLS) takes place yearly at Instituto Superior Técnico (IST). LxMLS 2023 will be a 6-day event (14-20 July, 2023), scheduled to take place as an in-person event.
The school covers a range of machine learning topics, from theory to practice, that are important in solving natural language processing problems arising in different application areas. It is organized jointly by Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), a leading Engineering and Science school in Portugal, the Instituto de Telecomunicações, the Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores, Investigação e Desenvolvimento em Lisboa (INESC-ID), the Lisbon ELLIS Unit for Learning and Intelligent Systems (LUMLIS), Unbabel, Zendesk, and IBM Research.
Check online for information about past editions: LxMLS 2011, LxMLS 2012, LxMLS 2013, LxMLS 2014, LxMLS 2015, LxMLS 2016, LxMLS 2017, LxMLS 2018, LxMLS 2019, LxMLS 2020, LxMLS 2021, LxMLS 2022 (you can also watch the videos of the lectures for 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2020).
31st International Conference on Information Systems Development (ISD 2023)

The 31st International Conference on Information Systems Development (ISD 2023) conference provides a forum for research and developments in the field of information systems. The theme of ISD 2023 is “Information systems development, organizational aspects and societal trends”. New trends in developing information systems emphasize the continuous collaboration between developers and operators in order to optimize the software delivery time. The conference promotes research on methodological and technological issues and how IS developers and operators are transforming organizations and society through information systems.
The ISD 2023 conference held this year also provides an opportunity for researchers and practitioners to promote their research, practical experience, and to discuss issues related to Information Systems through papers, posters, and journal-first paper presentations.
ISD 2023 will be hosted by Instituto Superior Técnico, in Lisbon, Portugal, on August 30–September 1, 2023.