U-M hosts 2023 Midwest Programming Languages Summit

Students and faculty from across the Midwest came together at the University of Michigan on October 6, 2023, for the Midwest Programming Languages Summit to share their research and discuss the latest developments in the field. The annual summit is hosted by a different institution each year and invites researchers interested in programming languages and compilers to attend, present their research, and foster connections with scholars at other institutions.

The U-M organizers of the 2023 summit, all affiliated with CSE, were Profs. Jean-Baptiste Jeannin, Max New, Cyrus Omar, and Xinyu Wang.

“The goal of the PL Summit,” said New, “is to provide a space for established experts and early-career researchers alike to join together and share exciting findings related to programming languages and compilers.”

This year’s event was the summit’s first iteration since 2019 and attracted around 120 attendees. The event drew researchers from institutions across the Midwest, including University of Chicago, Purdue University, Cornell University, University of Colorado Boulder, and Carnegie Mellon University, to name a few.

“Our hope is that the summit will help spark new conversations and connections across universities,” said New. “It is a great opportunity to learn from others in the field and identify opportunities for collaboration.”

The summit was divided into four sessions, where researchers gave talks on their respective projects. These talks were followed by a poster session, where attendees had the opportunity to introduce and discuss their research. The research presented in these sessions covered a range of topics related to programming languages, including large language model-assisted programming, compiler optimization, privacy-preserving protocols, trustworthy deep learning, and more.

In all, the Midwest PL Summit provided participants with a unique opportunity to network with their peers from other institutions in the region and discuss exciting developments in programming languages and beyond.

“We were honored to host this year’s summit and are thrilled with the level of participation we had from students and faculty across the Midwest,” said New. “We hope that this event will give rise to new collaborations and innovations in the field.”