We are a research group in the Software Department of the Institute of Cybernetics (IoC), the leading computer science research institution of Estonia. We pursue "Theory B": logic, semantics and theory of programming.
The current members of the logic and semantics group are:
We collaborate with Peeter Laud of Cybernetica and the University of Tartu.
Our further colleagues are Jaan Penjam, Hellis Tamm and Enn Tõugu with their students.
Former members of the group include Mohamed El-Zawawy (back in Cairo), Adam Eppendahl (now in Malaysia), Ando Saabas (lost to Skype) and Olha Shkaravska (moved on to Nijmegen).
We have been and are pursuing research in a number of directions. Here are some:
We run a regular research seminar, the Theory Seminar (TSEM).
Our collaboration partners include Nottingham, Minho, Nijmegen, Udine, LMU Munich, INRIA Sophia Antipolis.
We participate in the European FP6 IST project MOBIUS, the major proof-carrying code project of the Old World. We contributed to Types, the network of Europe's type theorists, and APPSEM II, an applied semantics network. We are part of a COST action on verification of object-oriented software.
For several years, a very effective umbrella for our domestic collaborative actions was the Center for Dependable Computing (CDC), one of the ten research excellence centers of HTM across all disciplines 2002-2007. From 2008, we are part of the Center of Excellence in Computer Science (EXCS), one of the seven new Estonian CoEs until 2015.
We were the organizing team behind these international events: APPSEM 2004, AFP 2004, TFP/ICFP/GPCE 2005, IFIP WG 2.8 Meeting #22, MPC/AMAST 2006, EffTT 2007, NWPT 2008, COST IC0701 2009 Winter School.
We are active supporters of EWSCS, an international winter school series in TCS, and the biannual Estonian Theory Days. The latest editions were EWSCS 2008 (2-7 March 2008), featuring courses by Nick Benton, David Harel, Eyal Kushilevitz, José Meseguer, Giuseppe Persiano), the Theory Days at Jõulumäe (3-5 October 2008, with 5 guests from Latvia and one from Australia/Latvia), the Theory Days at Kääriku (30 Jan.-1 Feb. 2009), EWSCS 2009 (1-6 March 2009, with Nicolas T. Courtois, Peter Dybjer, Rosario Gennaro, Paul W. Goldberg, Markus Müller-Olm) and the Theory Days at Mäetaguse (2-4 October 2009).
Coming up right now are the Theory (Semantics) Days at Andu (5-7 February 2010) and EWSCS 2010 (28 Feb.-5 March 2010, Robin Cockett, Jens Groth, Aggelos Kiayias, Carroll Morgan, Alan Mycroft).
Peter Thiemann (Univ. Freiburg) taught a cool course here at IoC on types and analyses for scripting languages (25-27 February 2008).
We like to receive guests. In 2008, Venanzio Capretta (Radboud U. Nijmegen), Ralph Matthes (Univ. Toulouse), Olha Shkaravska (Radboud U. Nijmegen), Linda Postniece (ANU, Canberra), Bernd Fischer (U. of Southampton) paid us visits. This year 2009, we have hosted Makoto Hamana (Gunma U.), Alberto Pardo (U. de la República, Montevideo), Andreas Abel (LMU München), Thorsten Altenkirch (U. of Nottingham), Olha Shkaravska (Radboud U. Nijmegen), Eric Badouel (INRIA Rennes - Bretagne Atlantique), Peter Morris (U. of Nottingham).
We are always interested in good students of all levels. If you are from Tallinn or Tartu and would like write a term paper or a MSc or PhD thesis with us, just get in touch. The cool computer science happens here.
We are also interested in PhD students and postdocs from abroad. If this sounds exciting, please enquire. Sometime positions can be set up at a very short notice.
If you'd like to visit and give a seminar talk, email us.