SIGPLAN Awards 2024

_data/Achievement.yaml

@@ -1,3 +1,54 @@
+2024:
+- Awardee: Keshav Pingali
+  Citation: |
+
+    Before Keshav Pingali, parallelism in regular dense matrix
+    programs was well understood, but little was known about how to
+    exploit parallelism systematically in algorithms that use data
+    structures like trees, sparse matrices, and graphs. Pingali
+    changed all that by showing us how to exploit scalable parallelism
+    in such "irregular" algorithms. The intellectual crown jewel of
+    his research program was the "operator formulation of algorithms"
+    that showed that these algorithms can be specified abstractly
+    using atomic state updates and a schedule for performing the
+    updates, and executed in parallel using a combination of
+    compile-time and runtime techniques. He backed up these abstract
+    ideas with the Galois system, which is the first high-level,
+    general-purpose parallel programming system for irregular
+    algorithms. Pingali used this system to perform the first
+    measurements of the amount of parallelism in irregular
+    algorithms. The Galois system has also been used to deliver orders
+    of magnitude speedups for a range of irregular algorithms
+    including graph analytics and graph pattern-mining algorithms,
+    machine learning algorithms, finite-element mesh generators,
+    algorithms for intrusion detection in computer networks, static
+    analysis algorithms, and placement and routing algorithms used in
+    VLSI design.
+
+    Over his career, Pingali also invented a host of other techniques
+    used widely in programming systems in academia and industry,
+    including "data-centric compilation" and the "owner-computes rule"
+    for generating code for distributed-memory machines, loop
+    transformation techniques for enhancing cache utilization, and the
+    "program structure tree" for representing programs in
+    compilers. His "fractal symbolic analysis" is the only known
+    technique for restructuring linear algebra codes with pivoting. He
+    has also invented optimal algorithms for computing the strong and
+    weak control dependence relations, and for phi-function placement
+    in converting a program to SSA form.
+
+    In addition to mentoring almost 40 PhD students and post-docs,
+    Pingali has spearheaded important initiatives to strengthen the
+    parallelism community worldwide. Two achievements stand out. As
+    PPoPP Steering Committee Chair, he led the SIGPLAN/SIGARCH task
+    group that reorganized and co-located CGO, HPCA, and PPoPP, the
+    three premier conferences in parallelism, which led to a
+    resurgence of interest in all three conferences. He was also
+    instrumental in building up the parallelism community in Portugal,
+    where his efforts helped to create the Azores Atlantic
+    International Research Center which uses high-performance
+    computers to study climate change.
+
 2023:
 - Awardee: Kathryn S. McKinley
   Citation: |
@@ -35,8 +86,6 @@
     In short, Kathryn McKinley is the "whole picture" of what the
     SIGPLAN achievement award seeks to recognize.
 
-    Selection committee: Işil Dillig, Nate Foster, Cormac Flanagan, Jonathan Aldrich, Robby Findler
-
 2022:
 - Awardee: Xavier Leroy
   Citation: |

_data/Dissertation.yaml

@@ -1,3 +1,41 @@
+2024:
+- Awardee: "Benjamin Bichsel, ETH Zürich"
+  Other: _High-Level Quantum Programming_
+  Advisor: "Martin Vechev"
+  Citation: |
+
+    Benjamin Bichsel's dissertation makes significant contributions to
+    the emerging domain of quantum computing, with the goal of making
+    quantum programming easier, provably safer, and more accessible.
+
+    Specifically, the thesis tackles two key challenges in quantum
+    programming. The first challenge is *uncomputation*: in a quantum
+    program, the computation of temporary variables must be explicitly
+    reversed to avoid unwanted side effects, making programs more
+    complex and error-prone. The dissertation explores two approaches
+    to this challenge: (1) a new, high-level quantum programming
+    language called Silq, whose design and type system ensure that
+    every temporary variable can be uncomputed automatically; (2) an
+    algorithm for synthesizing uncomputation in existing, low-level
+    quantum languages. The second key challenge tackled by the thesis
+    is *simulation*: the ability to run quantum programs on classical
+    computers, which is notoriously computationally expensive, yet
+    crucial for debugging purposes. The dissertation introduces a new
+    framework for quantum simulation, which uses abstract
+    interpretation to trade off precision for efficiency.
+
+    Overall, the thesis combines a deep insight into the nature of
+    quantum computing with advanced programming language techniques,
+    such as (linear) type systems and abstract interpretation. The
+    work spans the entire range from theory to systems: each chapter
+    comes with a working system and the corresponding clean
+    mathematical proofs. Finally, the work has already had significant
+    impact: the Silq language is being used in teaching at UCLA and in
+    a textbook on quantum computing.
+
+    * Selection committee: Işil Dillig, Tom Reps, Ron Garcia, Nadia
+      Polikarpova, Stephen Kell
+
 2023:
 - Awardee: "Sam Westrick, Carnegie Mellon University"
   Other: _Efficient and Scalable Parallel Functional Programming through Disentanglement_

_data/Milner.yaml

@@ -1,3 +1,27 @@
+2024:
+- Awardee: Armando Solar-Lezama
+  Citation: |
+    Program synthesis is an old idea that Armando reignited with the
+    Sketch system beginning with his Ph.D. work, setting the template
+    for subsequent program synthesis approaches---using a solver as
+    part of the synthesis pipeline. From helping to start benchmark
+    competitions in program synthesis, identifying new domains
+    (databases, CAD, ML) where program synthesis can be effectively
+    utilized, and developing fundamental ideas and synthesis
+    techniques, Armando has led in setting the agenda in one of the
+    most vibrant and exciting subfields of programming languages over
+    the last decade. Armando’s recent DreamCoder research continues to
+    lead the field, showing how to generalize program synthesis to
+    discover and leverage abstractions, dramatically increasing the
+    scale of computations that synthesis can successfully
+    target. Bridging also into machine learning, Armando has brought
+    program synthesis to enable neuro-symbolic computation with better
+    interpretability, verifiability, generalization, counterfactual
+    reasoning, and structuring computation search spaces for more
+    effective inference.
+
+    * Selection committee: Antony Hosking, Sandrine Blazy, Suresh Jagannathan, Ranjit Jhala, Éric Tanter.
+
 2023:
 - Awardee: Nate Foster
   Citation: |

_data/PLDI.yaml

@@ -1,3 +1,26 @@
+2024:
+- Awardee: |
+    Steven Arzt, Siegfried Rasthofer, Christian Fritz, Eric Bodden,
+    Alexandre Bartel, Jacques Klein, Yves Le Traon, Damien Octeau,
+    Patrick McDaniel
+  Other: |
+    (for 2014) _[FlowDroid: Precise Context, Flow, Field,
+    Object-sensitive and Lifecycle-aware Taint Analysis for Android
+    Apps](https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2594291.2594299)_
+  Citation: |
+    This paper introduced FlowDroid: a context-, flow-, field-,
+    object-sensitive and lifecycle-aware static taint analysis tool
+    for Android applications. Unlike other static-analysis approaches
+    at the time it achieved very high recall and precision. FlowDroid
+    addresses two main challenges: precision requires an analysis that
+    is context-, flow-, field- and object-sensitive; recall demands a
+    complete model of Android’s app lifecycle and execution
+    environment including user interaction. FlowDroid as a tool has
+    since been widely used in studies of privacy and security for
+    Android, and has inspired further innovation in security analysis
+    of Android apps. FlowDroid continues to be maintained, actively
+    used, and frequently cited, demonstrating its ongoing influence.
+
 2023:
 - Awardee: |
     Jonathan Ragan-Kelley (MIT), Connelly Barnes (Adobe), Andrew Adams (Adobe),

_data/Service.yaml

@@ -1,3 +1,31 @@
+2024:
+- Awardee: Emery Berger
+  Citation: |
+
+    Emery Berger has worked tirelessly to improve the PL research
+    community and his contributions have had lasting impact for
+    SIGPLAN and beyond.  Emery has been a driving force advocating for
+    reproducibility and rigorous empirical evaluation in both research
+    and the processes that enable meaningful research. Contributions
+    include leadership in how we chair conferences, open source
+    software used both by researchers and in commercial products,
+    CSrankings.org to provide valuable objective information about
+    computer science research programs, and service: on the SIGPLAN
+    Executive Committee, co-leading establishment of the SIGPLAN PL
+    Software Award, driving PL research into CACM Research Highlights,
+    and as TOPLAS Associate Editor. He even designed the SIGPLAN
+    social media logo. Emery has deep passion for rigorous review
+    processes and brought that to his service as program chair of PLDI
+    and co-chair ASPLOS, where he documented and propagated clear
+    guidelines for PC members and session chairs. Emery has also been
+    a passionate advocate for double-blind reviewing, systematically
+    evaluating its effectiveness and co-authoring a related CACM
+    article, “Effectiveness of Anonymization in Double-Blind Review”,
+    setting the bar for what is now established SIGPLAN practice.
+
+    * Selection committee: Antony Hosking, Kathleen Fisher, Steve
+      Blackburn, Zena Ariola, Heather Miller
+
 2023:
 - Awardee: Talia Ringer
   Citation: |

_data/Software.yaml

@@ -1,3 +1,41 @@
+2024:
+- Awardee: The Rust Programming Language
+  Citation: |
+
+    Rust is the first industrial strength programming language to
+    offer a compelling answer to the challenge of being a safe systems
+    programming language: one with fine-grained control over low-level
+    resources while avoiding the security vulnerabilities of unsafe
+    languages.  It provides: *control* over low-level resources via a
+    C-style programming model, with a minimal runtime and avoiding
+    garbage collection for predictable performance; and *safety* via a
+    type system that systematically eliminates out-of-bounds accesses,
+    use-after-free bugs, and data races. Rust achieves this by
+    embodying innovations from academic PL research—linear/affine
+    types, ownership types, traits—combined with usable standard
+    libraries. Born out of many years of research and experimentation,
+    Rust tackles the real-world challenges and issues needed for
+    practical adoption. Rust has been recognized as one of a handful
+    of Safer Languages by NIST, and is increasingly deployed in
+    industry for its safety benefits by large and small companies
+    alike.
+
+    The nominated contributors are:
+    * Aaron Turon
+    * Alex Crichton
+    * Brian Anderson
+    * Dave Herman
+    * Felix S. Klock II
+    * Graydon Hoare
+    * Marijn Haverbeke
+    * Nicholas D. Matsakis
+    * Patrick Walton
+    * Tim Chevalier
+    * Yehuda Katz
+    * All Rust Contributors Past and Present
+
+    <small>Selection Commitee: Antony Hosking, Dominique Devriese, Manu Sridharan, Andreas Rossberg, David Grove</small>
+
 2023:
 - Awardee: OCaml
   Citation: |
@@ -29,7 +67,7 @@
     * Jérôme Vouillon, CNRS
     * Leo White, Jane Street
 
-    Selection Commitee: Antony Hosking, Dominique Devriese, Manu Sridharan, Andreas Rossberg, David Grove
+    <small>Selection Commitee: Antony Hosking, Dominique Devriese, Manu Sridharan, Andreas Rossberg, David Grove</small>
 
 2022:
 - Awardee: CompCert
@@ -61,7 +99,7 @@
     * Bernhard Schommer
     * Jean-Baptiste Tristan
 
-    Selection Commitee: Antony Hosking, Dominique Devriese, Manu Sridharan, Andreas Rossberg, David Grove
+    <small>Selection Commitee: Antony Hosking, Dominique Devriese, Manu Sridharan, Andreas Rossberg, David Grove</small>
 
 2021:
 - Awardee: "WebAssembly"