Emily Herbert attended Programming Languages Implementation Summer School (PLISS)

Earlier this summer I had the opportunity to attend the Programming Languages Implementation Summer School (PLISS), a week long summer school program for early-career programming languages researchers held in Bertinoro, Italy. The summer school focused on preparing students for PL research by introducing and teaching core PL concepts, discussing possible future research areas, and connecting attendees with both new and experienced colleagues in their field.

Each day consisted of four lectures, with topics ranging from a review of the implications of Spectre to an introduction to first-class continuations and many of the topics being completely new to me. Students were encouraged to actively participate and ask questions, and several of the lectures turned into interactive sessions with the speaker. This was one of the things that I really appreciated about PLISS - the atmosphere felt very welcoming and it was clear that the speakers’ goal was student comprehension. PLISS fostered a great learning environment, and I left with more questions than I arrived with!

In addition to the lectures, another focus of the summer school was connecting the students with others in their field, and PLISS offered us many opportunities to socialize and talk science. It was fun to hear about what projects the other students were working on and I got some good feedback about my own project. Moreover, it was reassuring to meet researchers in the same stage of their careers that I am in.

Much thanks to the CS Women’s group for their support in subsidizing my trip! I highly recommend PLISS, or another summer school in your field, I had an awesome time!

P.S. Thanks to Hanneli Tavante, another attendee for the group photo