Languages for Distributed Algorithms (LADA)

Philadelphia, USA, 23–24 January 2012 (co-located with POPL)

The focus of the 2012 Languages for Distributed Algorithms workshop is languages and notations for describing distributed algorithms, by which we mean algorithms for problems such as distributed consensus, causal multicast, and atomic commit.  Of particular interest are languages that have a clear semantic foundation, so that they can be used for the unambiguous and concise expression of algorithms, lending themselves to formal proofs and automated analysis, and that are also implementable, so that the algorithms can actually run as specified, as part of real applications.  Also of interest are the design of languages, libraries, and tools that facilitate the construction of distributed systems and applications.   The target audience for these languages are students who wish to study complex distribute algorithms, and practitioners who want to use them.

The goal of the workshop is to bring together the best people from language and distributed computing communities, and examine the best existing languages, methods, and tools.  The workshop will last for one and one-half days; we plan to organize it around a number of "challenge problems", including in particular describing a well-known distributed algorithm clearly and unambiguously using a chosen description language.  There will also be invited talks by the proponents of some well-known description methods.  We will aim to group presentations of description methods by the kind of problems that they address, and to allow ample time to understand the strengths of the various approaches and how they might  be combined.

Potential participants are invited to submit a position paper (one or two pages in PDF format), and also to state whether they wish to present a talk at the workshop, explaining how they would express and reason about these algorithms.  Because we intend to bring together researchers from many parts of  languages and distributed systems communities, it is essential that all talks be accessible to non-specialists.  Instructions for preparing a position paper can be found here; follow this link for electronic submission through EasyChair.

The program committee will invite attendees based on the position paper submissions and will attempt to accommodate presentation requests, but in ways that fit with the broader organizational goals outlined above.

Important Dates:

Position paper due:     October 15, 2011

Attendee invitation:      November 10, 2011

Workshop:                 January 23–24, 2012

PoPL Conference:      January 25–27, 2012

Invited Speakers:

Ken Birman                Cornell University

Leslie Lamport            Microsoft Research

Nancy Lynch              MIT   

Michel Raynal             Institut  Universitaire de France and  IRISA, Université de Rennes 1

Co-Chairs:

Andrew P Black          Portland State University

Annie Liu                   SUNY Stony Brook

Program Committee:

Ken Birman                Cornell University

Andrew P Black          Portland State University

Faith Ellen                  University of Toronto

John Field                  Google

Rachid Guerraoui       EPFL

James Larus              Microsoft Research

Annie Liu                   SUNY Stony Brook