Welcome!

This is the website of Pierre Talbot. I'm a research scientist at the University of Luxembourg. I'm working on new theories of constraint reasoning and parallel programming. I'm also the co-director of the Master in High Performance Computing.

News

Abstract Constraint Reasoning

Can abstract interpretation be the backbone theory to unify constraint reasoning approaches?
  • Goal I: Combine constraint solvers (by reduced products) to more efficiently solve combinatorial problems.
  • Goal II: Generalize reasoning procedures (e.g., propagation, multiobjective algorithms, clause learning) to monotone functions working over any abstract domains.
We are working on a new theory of combinatorial optimization called abstract constraint reasoning. It relies on lattice theory and abstract interpretation to unify the subfields of combinatorial optimization.

Highlights:
  • The lattice land project is a collection of C++ libraries implementing abstract domains such as intervals, octagons and new ones such as propagator completion.
  • Our TPLP journal paper (2020) introduces the propagator completion and new a product of abstract domains.

Parallel Lattice Programming

Can lattice theory be the backbone of a safe model of parallel programming?
  • Goal I: Make parallel programs correct-by-construction.
  • Goal II: Take advantage of specialized hardware (e.g., GPUs, FPGAs, quantum architectures)
The foundation of this language is the same than for abstract constraint reasoning: lattice theory. In short: data are lattices, programs are monotone functions and the execution is the computation of a fixpoint. Our primary focus and application is to accelerate the algorithms developed for abstract constraint reasoning on parallel architectures.

Highlights:

Team

I have the pleasure to co-supervise and work with several Ph.D. students and a postdoc.

Pierre Talbot
Thibault Falque
Hedieh Haddad
Manuel Combarro

Yi-Nung Tsao
Tobias Fischerbach

  • Thibault Falque, postdoctoral researcher on the project COMOC, 2024-2025.
  • Hedieh Haddad, Ph.D. candidate, Hyperparameter Optimization of Constraint Solver, 2023-2025.
  • Manuel Combarro, Ph.D. candidate, Multiobjective Constraint Programming, 2023-2025.
  • Yi-Nung Tsao, Ph.D. candidate, Verification of Neural Networks by Abstract Interpretation, 2023-2026.
  • Tobias Fischerbach, Ph.D. candidate, Optimization of Quantum Circuits, 2023-2026.

Previously...

A lattice-based approach for GPU programming (Postdoc 2020-2023)
Abstract domains for constraint programming (Postdoc 2018-2019)
Spacetime Programming: A Synchronous Language for Constraint Search (Ph.D. 2014-2018)
  • bonsai is a language implementing the spacetime paradigm for Java.
  • pcp is a library for constraint solving written in the language Rust.
  • oak is a PEG parser investigating the notion of AST inference.