معرفی
Geoffrey Mainland is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the College of Computing and Informatics, Drexel University. His research bridges programming languages and systems, with a focus on enabling high-level, efficient programming of specialized hardware such as GPUs, FPGAs, and software-defined radios. He has developed domain-specific languages and runtime systems to simplify and optimize non-general-purpose computation.
- PhD in Computer Science, Harvard University, 2011
- AB in Physics, Harvard University, Magna Cum Laude, 2000
His research interests include high-level programming languages, runtime support for specialized devices, functional programming (particularly in Haskell), stream fusion, SIMD vectorization, and domain-specific languages for systems programming. He investigates how to make it easier to exploit the performance of GPUs, sensor networks, and FPGAs without sacrificing abstraction or safety.
The recent publications highlight a consistent theme: enhancing performance in functional languages through language design, compiler optimizations, and runtime systems. Key areas include SIMD support in Haskell, GPU programming via Nikola and MetaHaskell, staged programming for sensor networks (Flask), and domain-specific languages like Ziria for software-defined radio. These works demonstrate a strong focus on bridging the gap between high-level abstractions and low-level efficiency.
Geoffrey Mainland has not been mentioned as receiving any scientific awards in the provided material.
He advises current PhD student Dresden Feitzinger and has previously advised Mahshid Shahmohammadian, now at Intel. His research has been supported through academic and possibly federal funding, though specific grants are not detailed. His work is implemented in open-source projects hosted on GitHub, including contributions to the Haskell vector library and the development of Ziria and DragonRadio.
He leads a research group focused on programming systems, with active projects in software-defined radio (Ziria, DragonRadio), high-performance numerics in Haskell (HSpiral), and language support for heterogeneous computing. His team develops tools that enable researchers and developers to write efficient, correct code for specialized hardware using high-level functional abstractions.
