Location	CSI 1121, MW 3:30-4:45pm
Instructors	Mike Hicks AVW 4131 Hours: M/W/Th 10-11	Jeff Foster AVW 3423 Hours: M 11-12, Tu 11-11:45
	Matthew Hammer AVW 4161 Hours: M/W 5-6	Stevie Strickland AVW 4161 Hours: Tu/W 2-3
	Additional office hours available by appointment.
TA	Peter Mardziel Location: AVW 1112 (TA Room) Hours: Th 1-2, F 2-3
Textbook	None (but see recommendations)

Description

This core course is about techniques for analyzing and understanding software artifacts. Ultimately, the goal of this area of study is to improve the quality of software. We will cover three related areas of programming languages research:

1. Static analysis, the name for any automatic technique for reasoning about program source code. We will study data flow analysis, symbolic execution, and type systems in depth, with more cursory coverage of other analysis techniques. Related techniques are covered in CMSC 630.
2. Formal systems for describing languages and programs, including lambda calculus and axiomatic, denotational, and operational semantics. We will use the Coq proof assistant to help mechanize our formalizations and check proofs of properties about these systems.
3. Programming language features and how they affect software, including imperative, functional, and object-oriented programming.