Alexandra Silva,

University College of London –

Abstract:

NetKAT is a relatively new programming language and logic for
reasoning about packet switching networks that fits well with the
popular software defined networking (SDN) paradigm. NetKAT was
introduced quite recently by Anderson et al. (POPL 2014) and further
developed by Foster et al. (POPL 2015). The system provides
general-purpose programming constructs such as parallel and sequential
composition, conditional tests, and iteration, as well as
special-purpose primitives for querying and modifying packet headers
and encoding network topologies. The language allows the desired
behavior of a network to be specified equationally. It has a formal
categorical semantics and a deductive system that is sound and
complete over that semantics, as well as an efficient decision
procedure for the automatic verification of equationally-defined
properties of networks.

Bio

Alexandra Silva is a theoretical computer scientist whose main research focuses on semantics of programming languages and modular development of algorithms for computational models. A lot of her work uses the unifying perspective offered by coalgebra, a mathematical framework established in the last decades.

Alexandra is currently a senior lecturer at University College London. Previously, she was an assistant professor in Nijmegen and a post-doc at Cornell University, with Prof. Dexter Kozen, and a PhD student at the Dutch national research center for Mathematics and Computer Science (CWI), under the supervision of Prof. Jan Rutten and Dr. Marcello Bonsangue.

 

Date: 2016-Jan-29     Time: 11:00:00     Room: 336

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