"The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is at all comprehensible." -- Albert Einstein

Curriculum Vitae - Michael James Andrew Smith

Alternative formats: PDF

Contact Information

Tel: +44 790 371 5058
Room 3.50, Informatics Forum
Fax: +44 131 651 1426
10 Crichton Street
Edinburgh, EH8 9AB

Date of Birth

1984

Research Interests

Performance evaluation, software engineering, semantics of programming languages, static analysis, abstract interpretation, distributed systems, network protocols

Education

University of Edinburgh

School of Informatics, 10 Crichton Street, Edinburgh, EH8 9AB
September 2005 - August 2009

Ph.D. Informatics (viva date: May 2010)
Thesis Topic: Stochastic Abstraction of Programs - Towards Performance-Driven Development
Supervisor: Professor Jane E. Hillston


University of Cambridge

Robinson College, Grange Road, Cambridge, CB3 9AN
September 2002 - June 2005

B.A. Computer Science, 1st Class Hons, July 2005
Dissertation: Semantics Directed Compiler Generation
Supervisor: Professor Alan Mycroft


Headlands School, Bridlington

Sewerby Road, Bridlington, YO16 6UR
September 1995 - June 2002

A-Levels, grade A, in Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Biology and General Studies, and AS-Level grade A in Further Maths
A-Level results in the top five in the country for AQA Biology (out of 12948 candidates), Chemistry (out of 10985 candidates) and General Studies (out of 28043 candidates)
AE-Levels (distinction) in Physics and Chemistry
GCSEs, grade A*, in Maths, Double Science, History, French, German, English and English Literature, and grade A in Statistics and Music

Awards

Microsoft Research European Scholarship
September 2006
EPSRC Studentship
September 2005
Microsoft Research Prize for Best Student
June 2005
Data Connection Prize for Outstanding Dissertation
June 2005
Robinson College Scholarship
June 2003-2005
Bridlington Lords Feoffees Prize for Outstanding A-Levels
August 2002
Hull University Young Scientist Award
March 2001

Academic Experience

School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh

Informatics Forum, 10 Crichton Street, Edinburgh, EH8 9AB

Tutor, Demonstrator and Marker
September 2005 to Present
Taught a variety of courses, including functional programming, computation and logic, software engineering, computer architecture, computability and intractability, and software testing.
Reviewer
September 2005 to Present
Reviewed for a number of journals and conferences, including FBTC (From Biology to Concurrency and back), EPEW (European Performance Engineering Workshop), and the European Journal of Operational Research
Local Organisation of QEST 2007
September 2007
Involved with the local organisation of Quantitative Evaluation of Systems (QEST) 2007, including technical setup, delegate reception and conference social events.


Fraser Research

182 Nassau Street, Suite 301, Princeton, NJ 08542, USA

Senior Technical Associate
June 2005 to September 2005
Worked under Dr Alexander Fraser on the problems surrounding reliability in large-scale access networks. I designed and simulated a fault tolerant protocol for fast restoration under failure in an actively switched access network. Access networks are naturally tree-structured, and the use of active, rather than passive, switching allows redundant uplinks to be used. The protocol had two layers, corresponding to a fast autonomous failure recovery in conjunction with a slower, periodic protocol for optimising the structure of the network. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation.


University of Cambridge

Computer Laboratory, 15 JJ Thomson Avenue, Cambridge, CB3 0FD

Research Intern
June 2004 to September 2004
Internship working under Dr Peter Sewell on the Network Semantics project. I worked mainly on the correction/improvement of an LTS-style post-hoc semantics of UDP/TCP (written in HOL), based on output of a test/checking infrastructure, and on investigation of the source code of the operating systems under question. This work was published in the ACM Special Interest Group on Data Communications (SIGCOMM) 2005 and Principles of Programming Languages (POPL) 2006.


Conference Papers: Refereed

Probabilistic Abstract Interpretation of Imperative Programs using Truncated Normal Distributions
M. J. A. Smith. Proceedings of the 6th Workshop on Quantitative Aspects of Programming Languages (QAPL), 2008.

Stochastic Modelling of Communication Protocols from Source Code
M. J. A. Smith. Proceedings of the 5th Workshop on Quantitative Aspects of Programming Languages (QAPL), 2007.

Engineering with Logic: HOL Specification and Symbolic-Evaluation Testing for TCP Implementations
S. Bishop, M. Fairbairn, M. Norrish, P. Sewell, M. Smith and K. Wansbrough. Proceedings of Principles of Programming Languages (POPL) 2006, 2006.

Rigorous Specification and Conformance Testing Techniques for Network Protocols, as Applied to TCP, UDP, and Sockets
S. Bishop, M. Fairbairn, M. Norrish, P. Sewell, M. Smith and K. Wansbrough. Proceedings of ACM Special Interest Group on Data Communications (SIGCOMM) 2005, 2005.

Conference Papers: Not Refereed

Activity Based Abstraction of PEPA Models
M. J. A. Smith. Proceedings of Process Algebra and Stochastically Timed Activities (PASTA) 2008, 2008.

Stochastic Bounding of {PEPA} Models
M. J. A. Smith. Proceedings of Process Algebra and Stochastically Timed Activities (PASTA) 2007, 2007.

Towards Stochastic Model Extraction: Performance Evaluation, Fresh from the Source
M. J. A. Smith Proceedings of Process Algebra and Stochastically Timed Activities (PASTA) 2006, 2006.

Technical Skills

Programming languages and tools

Java, C, C++, OCaml, Haskell, Lex, Yacc, Antlr, ARM, x86, Bash

Web and database technology

HTML, PHP, JavaScript, Apache Tomcat, WAP, SQL

Networking

TCP/IP, DHCP, DNS, RIP, OSPF, BGP, Ethernet, SONET

Typesetting

Latex

Recreational Interests

Japanese language and culture

I have been studying Japanese for nearly three years, and passed the Level 3 of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) in December 2007. I am broadly interested in Japanese language, history, and both modern and traditional culture.

The game of Go

I have been playing Go for two years, and am currently ranked at 3-kyu. I am the president of the Edinburgh University Go Club, and the publicity officer of the Edinburgh Go Club. I am sitting on the Japan-UK 150 sub-committee for Scotland.

Music

I reached grade 5 on the piano when I was 15, and have a long standing interest in composition. More recently, I have started to learn to play the guitar.

Natural sciences

I am interested in most aspects of the natural sciences, but in particular cell biology, ecology, and particle physics.

Reading

I am a keen reader, particularly of popular science, travel, culture, science fiction and fantasy.

Hiking

I enjoy hiking and hill walking, particularly in the Scottish Highlands when I have the chance.

Whisky

My appreciation and knowledge of whisky has been nurtured during my time in Scotland, and I am a proud member of the Scotch Malt Whisky Society.

References

Available on request