Date: 12/February/2010
        Time:  2:30pm
        Room: sala S2
       
        Title: Meld: A Logic Programming Approach to Distributed Systems
       
        Speaker: Michael Ashley-Rollman, Carnegie Mellon University
       
        Abstract:
       
        The challenges inherent in programming distributed systems are becoming
        more and more problematic as these systems grow in popularity.
        Distributed systems must be robust and correct while simultaneously
        scaling well across large numbers of nodes. Implementing one of these
        systems is currently a daunting task, even for the most skilled
        programmers. Better programming models are needed to ease the burden on
        the programmer.
       
        In this talk we present a new model for programming these systems in the
        logic programming style. The model allows a system to be programmed as a
        whole entity rather than programming the individual nodes that make it
        up. This perspective allows the programmer to focus on the logic of the
        system while the implementation details of a distributed system are
        taken care of by the programming model.
       
        We present Meld, the logic programming language which implements this
        model. Meld uses the model to automatically distribute the state and
        computation of a program. Furthermore, programs implemented with Meld
        are inherently tolerant to certain classes of faults and scale as well
        as their hand-distributed brethren.
       
        Short Bio:
       
        Michael Ashley-Rollman is a Ph.D. student in the Computer Science
        Department at Carnegie Mellon University. His research interests are on
        how to program massive distributed systems. As a member of the
        Claytronics project, his current work focuses on programming
        programmable matter. He is the creator of Meld, a logic based
        programming language which allows one to program an entire system as a
        whole entity.  This research lead to an ACM Student Research Competition
        award. In his free time, Michael is an avid bridge player.