Peter Achten

Currently I am Universitair Docent (lecturer) at the department of Model Based Software Development, at the Nijmegen Institute for Computing and Information Sciences of the Radboud University Nijmegen.

How to reach me

E-mail
Phone	+31 24 3652483
Fax	+31 24 3652525
Surface mail	Peter Achten Dept. MBSD Institute for Computing and Information Sciences Faculty of Science PO Box 9010 6500 GL Nijmegen The Netherlands
Visiting address	Faculty of Science Huygens Building Heijendaalseweg 135 6525 AJ Nijmegen Office: HG02.616

Teaching Activities

Here is more information about the courses I am involved with this year (2012/2013):

Course:	Institute:	Co-teachers:
IPC014 (Imperatief Programmeren 1) First-year course (3ects)	Informatica / Informatiekunde	Janos Sarbo
IPC015 (Imperatief Programmeren 2) First-year course (3ects)	Informatica / Informatiekunde	Janos Sarbo
IBC015 (Functioneel Programmeren voor KI) Bachelor course (3ects)	Informatica / Kunstmatige Intelligentie	Rinus Plasmeijer
IBC006 (Functioneel Programmeren) Bachelor course (6ects)	Informatica	Rinus Plasmeijer
IBI009 (Bachelor-scriptie) Bachelor course (9ects)	Informatica / Informatiekunde
I00032 (Geavanceerd Programmeren) Master course (6ects)	Informatica	Rinus Plasmeijer
IMC004 (Compiler Construction) Master course (6ects)	Informatica	Rinus Plasmeijer

Some of the courses that I have taught in the past:

Algoritmen en Programma's; Functional Programming; GiP2; Systeem Ontwikkeling 1; Integratie Project; Human Machine Interfaces 2; Software Technology 1; Software Technology 2; Quality of Information Systems; Abstraction and Composition in Programming; Advanced Programming; Ontwikkeling van Grote Software Systemen; Compiler Construction.

Further Activities

Events	More information
Member programme committee IFL'01. Member programme committee IFL'02. Member programme committee IFL'07. Co-organiser of AFP'08 and TFP'08. Co-chair of TFP'08. Member steering committee TFP (may 2008). Member programme committee IFL'09. Member programme committee and symposium co-chair TFP'09. Member programme committee TFP'10. Member programme committee TFP'11. Member programme committee PPDP'11. Member steering committee AFP. Member programme committee TFP'12. Organizer with Marco T. Morazán of TFPIE'12.	TFP is a series of international symposia dedicated to promoting new research directions related to the field of functional programming and to investigate the relationships of functional programming with other branches of computer science. It is designed to be a platform for novel and upcoming research, combined with a post-event refereeing process and a formal publication of selected papers as a book. In particular TFP encourages young researchers to present their work at TFP. In recognition of the extra effort spent in giving polished presentations the programme committee of TFP each year gives out a Best Student Paper award. IFL is a series of international symposia that covers all aspects of the implementation and use of functional programming languages, including but not limited to: compilation and interpretation, abstract machine design, parallel and concurrent implementation, automatic program generation, novel applications, tools and techniques, program analysis, runtime profiling, memory management, type checking, computer architectures, array processing, debugging and tracing, language concepts, verification and formal aspects. AFP is a series of international summer schools which aims to bring computer scientists, in particular young researchers and programmers, up to date with the latest advances in practical functional programming. The main focus of the school is on the interface between results presented at programming conferences and the programming in the real world. TFPIE The goal of the first International Workshop on Trends in Functional Programming in Education is to gather researchers, professors, teachers, and all professionals that use or are interested in the use of functional programming in education. TFPIE aims to be a venue where novel ideas, classroom-tested ideas, and work in progress on the use of functional programming in education are discussed. The one-day workshop will foster a spirit of open discussion by having a review process for publication after the workshop.

Events

More information

Member programme committee IFL'01.
Member programme committee IFL'02.
Member programme committee IFL'07.
Co-organiser of AFP'08 and TFP'08. Co-chair of TFP'08.
Member steering committee TFP (may 2008).
Member programme committee IFL'09.
Member programme committee and symposium co-chair TFP'09.
Member programme committee TFP'10.
Member programme committee TFP'11.
Member programme committee PPDP'11.
Member steering committee AFP.
Member programme committee TFP'12.
Organizer with Marco T. Morazán of TFPIE'12.

TFP is a series of international symposia dedicated to promoting new research directions related to the field of functional programming and to investigate the relationships of functional programming with other branches of computer science. It is designed to be a platform for novel and upcoming research, combined with a post-event refereeing process and a formal publication of selected papers as a book. In particular TFP encourages young researchers to present their work at TFP. In recognition of the extra effort spent in giving polished presentations the programme committee of TFP each year gives out a Best Student Paper award.
IFL is a series of international symposia that covers all aspects of the implementation and use of functional programming languages, including but not limited to: compilation and interpretation, abstract machine design, parallel and concurrent implementation, automatic program generation, novel applications, tools and techniques, program analysis, runtime profiling, memory management, type checking, computer architectures, array processing, debugging and tracing, language concepts, verification and formal aspects.
AFP is a series of international summer schools which aims to bring computer scientists, in particular young researchers and programmers, up to date with the latest advances in practical functional programming. The main focus of the school is on the interface between results presented at programming conferences and the programming in the real world.
TFPIE The goal of the first International Workshop on Trends in Functional Programming in Education is to gather researchers, professors, teachers, and all professionals that use or are interested in the use of functional programming in education. TFPIE aims to be a venue where novel ideas, classroom-tested ideas, and work in progress on the use of functional programming in education are discussed. The one-day workshop will foster a spirit of open discussion by having a review process for publication after the workshop.

History

After my studies in computer science (at the University of Nijmegen) I have been an AiO (PhD student) at the Software Technology department. This resulted in a PhD.Thesis, entitled "Interactive Functional Programs - models, methods, and implementation". After this project I have worked as a Tewerkgesteld Erkend Gewetensbezwaarde (no translation available :-)) and researcher at subsequent projects at the department. I have developed a library for the functional programming language Clean to create pure functional programs that employ graphical user interfaces. This library is the Object I/O library (have a look). Now I am Universitair Docent (lecturer). During 2004-2011 I have been bachelor-studieadviseur Informatica (student advisor for Bachelor study of computer science).

Research

I am interested in the application of functional programming languages on 'real world' problems. These kinds of programs impose typical characteristics on the implementation and design of these languages. My current research interests are:

High-level specifications of interactive applications. These can be GUI applications as well as WWW applications. In the past we have developed several high-level GUI libraries, such as the GEC (Graphical Editor Components) for the desktop, iData (interactive Data) for the web. Currently we are working on the iTask system (interactive tasks for dynamic, functional work flow systems) for the web. It has great potential for developing interactive systems in a concise way without the need to artificially break up the application logic in the way that we know from classic GUI tool kits.
Reasoning about interactive applications. It would be great if the proof assistant Sparkle, developed by Maarten de Mol, could help programmers to create safe interactive applications. I have been working on formalizing the semantics of the above mentioned GEC and iData toolkits, and proving some theorems with the Sparkle tool kit.
I have developed the Soccer-Fun framework. Soccer-Fun is a functional language library developed for teaching functional programming. You can implement the brain of a footballer and create a team of football players and see if your team is the best! Soccer-Fun is open for participation by anybody who likes to contribute.
The combination of generic programming and dynamic typing. Both techniques are available in the Clean system.

Here is a list of my publications.

Bachelor / Master Thesis projects

Here is a list of ideas that I'm interested in. It is by no means exhaustive, so if you have another great idea then we can discuss it.

Task Oriented Programming (TOP) as a paradigm: how does the TOP paradigm of programming compare to other programming paradigms? In what new way(s) can we construct programs?
Task Oriented Programming as a formalism: an operational semantics of iTask is available. How can we use this to reason formally about TOP programs?
Task Oriented Applications: with the iTask system distributed, web-based applications can be developed. What new type of applications can now be created?
Augmented programming: traditionally, we use text-based editors and IDE's that offer tools for aiding us when developing software. In what ways can smart IDE's enhance this process? You can think of visualization techniques, more feedback during editing, immediate simulation, etc.
Programming language concepts in general: programming languages and paradigms keep evolving. What are recent trends and how do they compare with known concepts of programming languages?

Other interests

Roller blade, tennis, billiards, holiday by bicycle/walking, listening to {symphonic, symphonic rock, heavy metal, decent pop} music, reading {science fiction, fantasy, philosophy, comics}, computer games (Skyrim (Oblivion, Morrowind), Dragon Age 1/2, Neverwinter Night, Assassin's Creed 1/2, F.E.A.R., Thief, Exile (Riven)), board games (Settlers of Catan), movies {science fiction, fantasy, animation}.

This page was updated at February 1 2013 by Peter Achten