The Grainger College of Engineering

Talia Ringer

Talia Ringer
Talia Ringer they/them/theirs
  • Assistant Professor
4218 Siebel Center for Comp Sci

For More Information

Education

  • University of Washington, Ph.D. in Computer Science, 2021
  • University of Maryland, College Park, B.S. in Mathematics and Computer Science, 2012

Biography

How can we build a world in which programmers of all skill levels across all domains can prove the absence of costly or dangerous bugs in software systems---that is, formally verify them? I am an Assistant Professor with the PL/FM/SE group at Illinois, and I like to build proof engineering technologies to make that world a reality. In so doing, I love to use the whole toolbox---everything from dependent type theory to program transformations to neural proof synthesis---all in service of real humans.

Prior to Illinois, I earned my PhD in 2021 from the University of Washington, working with the wonderful PLSE group. Prior to graduate school, I earned my BS in Computer Science and Mathematics from the University of Maryland, then worked as a software engineer at Amazon for three years.

I am extremely passionate about building a welcoming environment for students. I am founder and chair of the SIGPLAN long-term mentoring committee (called SIGPLAN-M), an international long-term cross-institutional mentoring program for aspiring and current programming languages researchers spanning dozens of countries and reaching hundreds of mentees around the world. I am also the founder and president of the Computing Connections Fellowship, a fellowship that provides institution-independent transitional funding for computer science Ph.D. students who need help escaping unhealthy environments.

I am openly bisexual and prefer they/them pronouns; I am always happy to talk to LGBTQ students. I am also very open about my experiences with mental illness, and very happy to talk to anyone who needs an ear (though students should keep in mind that I am a mandatory reporter through Title IX).

Academic Positions

  • Assistant Professor, University of Illinois, 2021-Present

Other Professional Employment

  • Visiting Researcher at Google Research (N2Formal), Summer 2022 - Winter 2022
  • Research Scientist Intern at Amazon (Automated Reasoning Group), Summer 2016
  • Software Development Engineer II at Amazon (Amazon Business), 2012 – 2015

Professional Highlights

  • Proof repair, the subject of my PhD thesis, has since been reimplemented by researchers and engineers at Amazon and NASA, and adapted to the languages they use. It is also the subject of a DARPA AI Exploration called PEARLS, a grant for which I am primary PI.

Research Interests

  • Dependent Type Theory
  • Verification
  • Interactive Theorem Proving
  • Proof Automation
  • Proof Engineering

Research Areas

Monographs

Selected Articles in Journals

Articles in Conference Proceedings

Abstracts (in print or accepted)

Pending Articles

Invited Lectures

Other Publications

Conferences Organized or Chaired

  • Beyond Bayes: Paths Towards Universal Reasoning Systems Workshop Co-Chair, ICML 2022
  • Coq Workshop Co-Chair, FLoC 2022
  • SPLASH Hybridization Committee, 2021
  • ICFP Programming Languages Mentoring Workshop (PLMW) Co-Chair, 2020
  • ICFP Mentoring Chair, 2020
  • POPLmark 15 Year Retrospective Panel Lead Organizer, 2020

Other Scholarly Activities

  • Journal of Automated Reasoning Reviewer, 2022
  • Nature Reviewer, 2023
  • POPL Program Committee, 2024
  • ICFP Program Committee, 2023
  • TYPES Program Committee, 2022
  • ITP Program Committee, 2022
  • PLDI Program Committee, 2022
  • CAV Program Committee, 2021
  • AIPLANS Program Committee, 2021
  • HATRA Program Committee, 2020
  • Mathematical Structures in Computer Science Reviewer, 2020
  • CoqPL Program Committee, 2019, 2022
  • CAV Artifact Evaluation Committee, 2019
  • POPL Artifact Evaluation Committee, 2018, 2019

Professional Societies

  • ACM SIGPLAN Long-Term Mentoring Committee (SIGPLAN-M), Founder & Chair (2021 - 2022), Previous Chair (2023 - Present)

Service on Department Committees

  • CS BPC Committee, 2022 - 2023
  • CS CARES Committee, 2021 - Present

Service on College Committees

  • Core Faculty Member, Grainger IDEA Institute, 2022 - Present

Service on Campus Committees

  • Mental Health Ambassador

Service to Federal and State Government

  • NSF Panelist, 2023
  • Computational Cybersecurity in Compromised Environments (C3E) Symposium on Generative AI and Large Language Models Planning Committee, 2023
  • National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine AI to Assist Mathematical Reasoning Workshop Planning Committee, 2023

Other Outside Service

  • Banff International Research Station (BIRS) Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Advisory Committee, 2023-Present
  • Banff International Research Station (BIRS) Scientific Advisory Committee, 2023-Present
  • Computing Connections Fellowship Fund, Founder & President, 2022-Present
  • ACM SIGPLAN Long-Term Mentoring Committee (SIGPLAN-M), Mentor, 2021-Present

Research Honors

  • ESEC/FSE Distinguished Paper Award 2023
  • DARPA Young Faculty Award 2023
  • Amazon Research Awards 2022

Public Service Honors

  • ACM SIGPLAN Distinguished Service Award (June 19th, 2023 )

Improvement Activities

  • Collins Scholar Program, 2022

Recent Courses Taught

  • CS 421 - Progrmg Languages & Compilers
  • CS 576 - Topics in Automated Deduction
  • CS 598 TLR - Proof Automation

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