MFPS 28 Call for Papers
MFPS XXVIII http://www.math.tulane.edu/~mfps/MFPS28 Twenty-eighth Conference on the Mathematical Foundations of Programming Semantics University of Bath United Kingdom 6 - 9 June 2012 The Twenty-eighth Conference on the Mathematical Foundations of Programming Semantics will take place on the campus of the University of Bath, United Kingdom from June 6 through June 9, 2012. MFPS conferences are devoted to those areas of mathematics, logic, and computer science that are related to models of computation, in general, and to the semantics of programming languages, in particular. The series has particularly stressed providing a forum where researchers in mathematics and computer science can meet and exchange ideas about problems of common interest. As the series also strives to maintain breadth in its scope, the conference strongly encourages participation by researchers in neighbouring areas. TOPICS include, but are not limited to, the following: biocomputation; concurrent qualitative and quantitative distributed systems; process calculi; probabilistic systems; constructive mathematics; domain theory and categorical models; formal languages; formal methods; game semantics; lambda calculus; programming-language theory; quantum computation; security; topological models; logic; type systems; type theory. We also welcome contributions that address applications of semantics to novel areas such as complex systems, markets, and networks, for example. INVITED SPEAKERS: Steve Awodey, CMU Michael Clarkson, GWU Patricia Johann, Strathclyde Dexter Kozen, Cornell Drew Moshier, Chapman John Power, Bath SPECIAL SESSIONS: There will be four special sessions at the meeting, each associated with one of the plenary talks: * Logic, computation and algebraic topology, organised by Steve Awodey and Michael Mislove * Security, organised by Michael Clarkson and Catherine Meadows. The papers in this session will be chosen from the papers submitted in response to this Call. * Computational effects, organised by John Power * Computability on Continuous Data, organised by Drew Moshier There also will be a series of four Tutorial Lectures; the topic and speakers will be announced later. PROGRAM COMMITTEE: Thorsten Altenkirch, U Nottingham, UK Steve Awodey, Carnegie Mellon U, USA Andrej Bauer, U Ljubljana, Slovenia Ulrich Berger, Swansea U, UK (Chair) Bob Coecke, U Oxford, UK Stephen Brooks, Carnegie Mellon U, USA Martin Escardo, U Birmingham, UK Marcelo Fiore, U Cambridge, UK Neil Ghani, U Strathclyde, UK Alexey Gotsman, IMDEA, Madrid, Spain Hugo Herbelin, INRIA, Rocquencourt-Paris, France Achim Jung, U Birmingham, UK Daniel Leivant, U Indiana, USA Guy McCusker, U Bath, UK Catherine Meadows, NRL, USA Michael Mislove, Tulane U, USA Peter O'Hearn, Queen Mary U London, UK Luke Ong, U Oxford, UK Prakash Panangaden, McGill U, Canada John Power, U Bath, UK Jan Rutten, Radboud Nijmegen, Netherlands Alex Simpson, U Edinburgh, UK James Worrell, U Oxford, UK IMPORTANT DATES: - 24 February 2012 Title and Short Abstract submission deadline - 2 March 2012 Paper submission deadline - 2 April 2012 Notification to authors - 23 April 2012 Preliminary proceedings version due SUBMISSIONS should be prepared using ENTCS Macros, available from http://www.entcs.org. Submissions should be in the form of a PDF file not exceeding 15 pages in length. Submissions will be open shortly after January 1 on the EasyChair website: http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=mfps2012 PROCEEDINGS: There will be a preliminary proceedings of the conference papers that will be distributed at the meeting, with a final proceedings published in ENTCS after the meeting. The Organisers of the MFPS series are Stephen Brookes (CMU), Achim Jung (Birmingham), Catherine Meadows (NRL), Michael Mislove (Tulane) and Prakash Panangaden (McGill). The local arrangements for MFPS XXVIII are being overseen by Guy McCusker (Bath) and John Power (Bath). =============================================== Professor Michael Mislove Phone: +1 504 862-3441 Department of Mathematics FAX: +1 504 865-5063 Tulane University URL: http://www.math.tulane.edu/~mwm New Orleans, LA 70118 USA =============================================== [For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]
With a new academic year, there will be new people learning category theory. So I'd like to (re)advertise the online category-theory demonstrations I've made available at http://www.j-paine.org/cgi-bin/webcats/webcats.php . The page contains buttons such as "generate and demonstrate an equaliser" and "generate and demonstrate a limit". Clicking on one will generate an example of the construct in the category of finite sets, and display it in a new Web page as a listing of its objects and arrows, and as a diagram. For limits and colimits, the demos generate a small random graph, convert it to a diagram, then compute and display its limit or colimit. For binary coproducts and products, coequalisers and equalisers, and other constructs whose diagrams are always the same shape, you can tell the program which objects (sets) and arrows (functions) to use. Some people have asked me how the program works. It's written in two programming languages: PHP and Prolog. PHP is a "scripting language" used for building interactive Web sites: everything from blogs to online shops. When you press a button and thereby submit the form, your Web browser sends a message to my Web server, telling it which button was pressed, and also encoding the sets and functions to be used, if you typed any. My Web server extracts and decodes this information, and then runs a program in the other language - Prolog - passing it the information. Prolog is a "logic programming language": a Prolog program consists of predicate definitions in a subset of first-order logic, and you run a program by asking it to prove from these whether some proposition is true. For example, I might ask it to prove from the categorical predicates I've written whether the proposition "there exists a binary coproduct of {a,b} and {x,y}" is true. The process of proving this may bind variables in the proposition, and in my case, these will contain graphs representing the diagram of the product. Actually, Prolog isn't only logic. It also contains features for doing non-logical stuff such as input and output. I'd say that writing Prolog feels 3/5 like doing logic, and 2/5 like using a more conventional language such as Java or C. Anyway, my server invokes a Prolog program, telling it which button you pressed and which sets and functions you wanted to use. If you didn't type any, the program calls an example generator, which generates small random sets and functions, chosen so that the construct they're to be used in does in fact exist. The program then computes a data structure representing the appropriate diagram, including new sets and functions to be used as the limit, coproduct, or whatever, and as the arrows connecting it to the original objects. For some of these computations, I used Prolog translations of the algorithms in the book "Computational category theory" by David Rydeheard and Rod Burstall. Having generated the diagram, my Prolog program needs to make a picture of it. It does this by running graph-visualisation program called GraphViz. This is written by AT&T, and available free from http://www.graphviz.org/ . You can see examples of its output in the gallery at http://www.graphviz.org/Gallery.php . So my program converts the diagram to commands in a GraphViz input file, and then runs GraphViz to convert this into a picture of the diagram as a GIF file. It then writes out yet another file containing a Web page that explains the construct. The explanation lists the objects and arrows used, and also points to the GIF file, which therefore appears as an image near the bottom of the page. As an experiment, I also use GraphViz to plot the diagram in VRML, "virtual reality modelling language". If your browser has the right software, you can use your mouse to move the VRML picture around and turn it over. I thought this might make the diagram feel more real. Finally, my Prolog program terminates, and the PHP script that ran it takes over. It sends your browser a copy of the demonstrator's input form, but with a link added to it pointing to the page explaining the construct. And if you click on that, you see your results. Jocelyn Ireson-Paine http://www.j-paine.org Jocelyn's Cartoons http://www.j-paine.org/blog/jocelyns_cartoons/ [For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]
participants (2)
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Jocelyn Ireson-Paine -
Michael Mislove