Sumit Gulwani Talk

Title: New directions in Programming by Examples

Abstract: Programming by examples (PBE) involves synthesizing programs in an underlying domain-specific language from input-output examples. Our journey in developing usable PBE systems has motivated two kinds of advances: (a) development of algorithms that can synthesize intended programs in real-time and from very few examples, (b) variants of the classical PBE problem including predictive synthesis and modeless synthesis.

We have leveraged logical reasoning techniques and its integration with machine learning techniques to develop effective PBE solutions for some domains including string/datatype transformations, table extraction from semi-structured documents (e.g., custom text files, webpages, PDF), and repetitive edits in code. These solutions have shipped inside various mass-market products including Excel, PowerBI, Visual Studio, and Sql Server Management Studio. In this talk, I will describe these applications, technical advances, and the form factors inside different products.

Bio: Sumit Gulwani is a computer scientist connecting ideas, research & practice, and (with) people with varied roles. He invented the popular Flash Fill feature in Excel and has shipped program synthesis innovations across multiple Microsoft products (Office, SQL, Visual Studio, Powershell, PowerQuery), having authored 65+ patent applications. He has co-authored 10 award winning papers (including test-of-time awards from ICSE and POPL) amongst 130+ research publications across multiple computer science areas and delivered 50+ keynotes/invited talks. He has received the Robin Milner Young Researcher Award, ACM SIGPLAN Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award (PhD from UC-Berkeley), and President’s Gold Medal from IIT Kanpur.