Automating End-user Programming and Education using Program Synthesis

Recent research in program synthesis has made it possible to effectively synthesize small programs in a variety of domains. In this talk, I will describe two useful applications of this technology that have the potential to influence daily lives of billions of people. One application involves automating end-user programming using examples or keywords, which can allow non-programmers to effectively use computational devices such as computers, smartphones (and in the future robots) to perform a variety of repetitive tasks. Another application involves building intelligent tutoring systems that can help teachers and students with a variety of educational activities such as synthesizing problems, hints, solutions in various domains including math, science, and programming.

Sumit Gulwani is a senior researcher in the RiSE group at Microsoft Research, Redmond. His primary research interest is in the area of program synthesis with applications to automating end user programming and building intelligent tutoring systems. Sumit obtained his PhD in computer science from UC-Berkeley in 2005, and was awarded the C.V. Ramamoorthy Award and the ACM SIGPLAN Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award. He obtained his BTech in computer science and engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur in 2000 and was awarded the President's Gold Medal.