RADICAL 2010
International Workshop on
Relations and Data Integrity Constraints and Languages
May 10-11, 2010, Microsoft Research, Roger Needham Building, Cambridge, United Kingdom
Latest News
- Here is the final schedule as a web page and as a PDF.
- Here is an online map showing the Arundel House, the Eagle, the Roger Needham Building, and Downing College.
- RADICAL 2010 was a lot of fun, and we hope to do a similar workshop next year!
- In the mean time, we are collecting PDFs of talks; so if you have not already done so,
please email Andy with your talk. Thanks!
Motivation
RADICAL is a workshop on databases and programming languages, with an emphasis on
connections between databases and recent advances in type systems and logics, especially
dependent type systems incorporating data constraints.
We aim to cover significant recent developments in directions including (but not
limited to) the following:
- Language-integrated query mechanisms transform code in typed programming languages
into forms suitable for efficient execution by relational database back-ends. Examples
include the use of monads, pioneered in Haskell, in systems such as Microsoft LINQ,
Links, and Ferry. Another example is SGL, a declarative language for massive multi-player
games, which compiles to efficient relational queries.
- Grammars, context free or regular, can be seen as types, and hence allow textual
data to be imported into typed data models (as in PADS, various XML systems, and
Microsoft's M Grammar).
- Information flow type systems, developed in the area of language-based security,
are starting to be applied to database systems, for example, to help track data
provenance, confidentiality, and integrity.
- Systems of dependent types including data constraints (as in eg Z, VDM, etc) have
long been able to express database integrity constraints, but with recent advances
in automation (eg SMT solvers) typecheckers can now verify statically that queries
and updates respect these constraints.
- The dream of verified software stacks is starting to come true, thanks in no small
part to advanced type systems found in interactive proof assistants. Recent work
on verified implementations of database systems starts to address the correctness
question for database implementations.
- Workflow and database systems are essential components of many enterprises, but
often have difficulties interoperating. Ideas such as temporal logic from the verification
community are being imported into databases to help monitor and verify the interactions
between workflows and databases.
- Finally, according to many metrics SQL is not just the most successful declarative
language of the 1970s but of all time. But SQL is indeed a creation of the 1970s
and since then research on declarative languages and type systems in particular
has made much progress. Many researchers share the dream of eventually replacing
SQL with a higher-level, safer, easier-to-use database programming language. We
see the research directions covered by RADICAL 2010 as steps toward this dream.
Organising Committee
Call for Speakers
We are thrilled to announce that the following leading researchers have agreed to
speak at RADICAL 2010:
We seek presentations of the best work-in-progress from members of our community.
To this end, contributions will not be refereed or published, so that authors are
free to publish completed papers at refereed venues. We will collect presentation
materials, such as PDFs of slides, and also links to draft papers.
Important Dates
- May 9: Drinks on Sunday evening in the Eagle Pub, Bene't Street, from 21:30
- May 10: Day 1, RADICAL 2010, MSR Cambridge (full day, with dinner at
Downing College)
- May 11: Day 2, RADICAL 2010, MSR Cambridge (full day)
Registration
To register, please email msrcevnt at microsoft.com with the following information:
- Full Name
- Company or university
- Country of residence
- Email address
- Attendance to Monday evening dinner (yes/no)
- Dietary requirements
- IT requirements (for speaker only)
Thanks to generous sponsorship from Microsoft Research, there is no registration
fee, and we have some funds available to subsidise participants, particularly students;
just contact us to apply for this support.
Local Arrangements
Accommodation
We have a block of rooms reserved at the
Arundel House, a traditional English hotel on the banks of the River Cam.
We have a full two day programme, so we recommend staying for three nights. To book
your accommodation please call the Arundel House on +44 1223 367701 and quote reference:
MS Radical Workshop. Double Rooms, sole occupancy with continental breakfast are
£95 per night.
Apart from the Arundel, please see
here and here for recommended
hotels, maps, and travel information.
Bike Hire
An easy and pleasurable way to get around Cambridge is by bicycle, Cambridge is
well accustomed to cyclists, with several bike hire shops, the closest shop to the
Arundel House is Bike Hire Online which
is situated by Jesus Green lock on Chesterton Road. Please go to
Think! Road Safety for further advice and tips on road safety. To get to
Microsoft Research via bike, the quietest and most scenic route is via the Coton
foot path, which begins at Adams Road (before Robinsons College), alternatively
you can access the site via the A1303. (Cambridge
cycle route map).
Cambridge is a beautiful
medieval
university town, a short train ride north of London. RADICAL takes
place in the
Roger Needham Building, named after a
pioneer of logics for security, and home to Microsoft's
European research laboratory.
We are working to gather a diverse and stimulating group of researchers to make
being in Cambridge this May for RADICAL a lot of fun!
Sponsor
RADICAL 2010 is sponsored by Microsoft Research.