Projects per year
Personal profile
Personal Statement
I am a Chancellor’s Fellow and Lecturer in the department of Computer and Information Sciences at the University of Strathclyde. I am a member the department’s Mathematically Structured Programming (MSP) group.
My research is on the design and analysis of programming languages. I use mathematical ideas and structure from logic, category theory, type theory, and denotational semantics to study programming languages and the systems they describe. I was co-chair of the 2016 workshop on Mathematically Structured Functional Programming, and served on the programme committee for POPL 2016. I am on the programme committee for the upcoming ESOP 2017.
I have done and am doing research in the following areas of programming languages:
The Theory of Parametricity is the analysis of programming languages in terms of how they operate under notions of “change”. Classically, this is the study of programs' behaviour under change of data representation. I have extended the original concept to study higher-kinded type systems (as one finds in languages like Scala or Haskell) and dependent type systems. I have also worked on mechanised models of parametricity in the Coq theorem prover.
I have Applied Parametricity to representation of syntax, representations of domain-specfic languages (DSLs), invariance properties in geometry and classical mechanics, and developed its application to dimension-correct scientific programming. I am currently exploring the connections between classical parametricity and systems that study how programs change behaviour under change of input. I am also interested in using parametricity to study the ideal-world/real-world distinction in cryptography. I gave an invited talk at the Off the Beaten Track workshop on how I see this interesting research field developing.
I have built Resource-aware Verifiers and Type Systems. I have worked on program logics and automated verification of resource usage, and on type systems for tracking resource usage in type systems, in terms of resource relationships and communication.
In effects and effect systems, I studied Parameterised monads, which have become a popular way to track the effects in programs, going beyond monads. I developed the theory of parameterised monads to algebraic presentations, with application to effect-driven program optimisations. I have also worked on reasoning about recursive data types in the presence of effects. There is a blog post describing this work, and papers about the fibration-theory foundations, and reasoning techniques for Haskell programming.
From 2013 to 2014 I developed Static Analysis Tools for Java Concurrency at Contemplate. We built ThreadSafe, a tool to discover and analyse concurrency defects in Java programs. I wrote some developer-oriented articles on using ThreadSafe to discover race conditions and deadlocks. With Don Sannella, I wrote an academic paper discussing ThreadSafe's internals and our experiences in applying academic static analysis ideas to industry. My work at Contemplate was informed by my academic research on mechanised models of the JVM, proof-carrying code, and reseource consumption verification.
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Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
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DTP 2224 University of Strathclyde | Roy, Om
Smith, K. (Principal Investigator), Atkey, B. (Co-investigator) & Roy, O. (Research Co-investigator)
EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council)
1/10/24 → 1/04/28
Project: Research Studentship - Internally Allocated
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Quantitative Predicate Logic as a Foundation for Verified ML (ElePQuant)
Atkey, B. (Principal Investigator) & Mardare, R. (Co-investigator)
Advanced Research + Invention Agency ARIA
12/09/24 → 31/08/25
Project: Research
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Polynomial time and dependent types
Atkey, R., 5 Jan 2024, In: Proceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages (PACMPL). 8, POPL, p. 2288–2317 30 p., 76.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile1 Citation (Scopus)43 Downloads (Pure) -
Compiling higher-order specifications to SMT solvers: how to deal with rejection constructively
Daggitt, M. L., Atkey, R., Kokke, W., Komendantskaya, E. & Arnaboldi, L., 11 Jan 2023, CPP 2023 : Proceedings of the 12th ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Certified Programs and Proofs. Krebbers, R., Traytel, D., Pientka, B. & Zdancewic, S. (eds.). New York, NY., p. 102-120 19 p.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution book
Open AccessFile3 Citations (Scopus)45 Downloads (Pure)
Datasets
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Code for: "A type and scope safe universe of syntaxes with binding: their semantics and proofs"
Allais, G. (Creator), Atkey, R. (Creator), Chapman, J. (Creator), McBride, C. (Creator) & McKinna, J. (Creator), Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), 23 Aug 2018
DOI: 10.1145/3235048, https://github.com/gallais/generic-syntax
Dataset
Activities
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Scottish Programming Languages and Verification Summer School 2024
Allais, G. (Organiser), Watters, S. (Organiser), Atkey, B. (Organiser), Nordvall Forsberg, F. (Organiser), Mc Bride, C. (Organiser), de Muijnck-Hughes, J. (Organiser), Lambert, A. (Organiser), Altenmüller, M. (Organiser) & Kupke, C. (Organiser)
29 Jul 2024 → 2 Aug 2024Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Organiser of special symposia
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External examiner for Craig McLaughlin's PhD thesis
Atkey, B. (Examiner)
28 Feb 2020Activity: Examination types › Examination