Cyrus Omar

Cyrus Omar is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of Michigan, affiliated with the Department of Computer Science and Engineering and the College of Engineering. He leads the Future of Programming Lab, which focuses on creating live programming environments and collaborative tools like Hazel and Grove. His research bridges programming languages, human-computer interaction, and education.

Education and Mentorship: Omar redesigned EECS 490 (Programming Languages) and mentors over 150 undergraduates annually, many of whom co-author top-tier conference papers. He emphasizes structured onboarding for students and has trained researchers now in academia and industry.

Research Interests: Develops live programming environments (e.g., Hazel) for working with incomplete code, collaborative editing systems (Grove), and AI-enhanced tools. His work emphasizes usability, creativity, and accessibility in coding. Recent projects include bidirectional typing, typed holes, and integrating large language models into IDEs.

Awards: NSF CAREER Award (2023), 1938E Award (2025), and multiple Distinguished Paper Awards at OOPSLA, POPL, and SPLASH. His grants include NSF funding for live program sketching environments.

Lab & Teams: The Future of Programming Lab explores programming experience design, with projects like Rustviz and structured editing frameworks. Collaborates on tools for test-driven scientific model validation and neural interface design.