Haobin NiView profile
Research Fellow
Haobin Ni is a Postdoctoral Scholar at the University of Washington in the Programming Language and Software Engineering (PLSE) group, advised by Professor Zachary Tatlock. His research bridges theoretical formal methods with practical systems development in programming languages and security. Education: Ph.D. in Computer Science, Cornell University (2024). Dissertation: "Formal Modeling Languages for High-assurance Domain-specific Systems." Advisors: Greg Morrisett and Robbert van Renesse. Ni's research focuses on language design, program analysis, and compiler optimization with emphasis on formal verification of distributed systems, concurrent programs, and parsers. He pioneers secure smart contract languages using information flow control type systems and develops novel protocols for distributed systems. His work consistently targets high-assurance systems where correctness and security are critical, spanning blockchain, binary parsing, and state machine replication. Analysis of his 11 publications (2019-2024) reveals three dominant research thrusts: compositional security frameworks for smart contracts (especially against reentrancy attacks), provably correct implementations of critical infrastructure like ASN.1 parsers, and modular abstractions for distributed ledger technologies. His methodology combines deep theoretical formalization with practical implementation, resulting in tools and protocols adopted in real-world systems. Scientific awards: Best Paper Award, IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (2021) ICPC World Finals Gold Medal (2016) ICPC World Finals Silver Medal (2014) Ni actively mentors through competitive programming: he coached Cornell's ICPC team (2018-2024), leading them to World Finals qualifications in 2019 and 2023, and volunteered for high school programming contests. Currently, he leads the PLSE Programming Languages Reading Group (PLRG) at the University of Washington, fostering community engagement in PL research. His work shows strong industry collaboration, particularly with Microsoft Research on blockchain and security projects. As a core member of UW's PLSE group, Ni contributes to one of academia's leading programming languages research teams. His current leadership of the PLRG demonstrates active community building, while his technical work on Charlotte and ASN1★ positions him at the forefront of secure distributed systems research.










