Justin Slepak

PhD Student

  • MS in Computer Science, Michigan Technological University
  • BS in Computer Science and Mathematics, Michigan Technological University
  • Field of Study: Programming Languages
  • PhD Advisor: Olin Shivers

Justin Slepak is a PhD student in the Programming Languages program at Northeastern University’s Khoury College of Computer Sciences, advised by Professor Olin Shivers. At Northeastern, Justin is in the nuPRL group (Programming Research Laboratory), and is designing Remora, a high-level parallel programming language. He hopes to continue researching programming language design. It was not until the end of his undergraduate studies that Justin found an interest in programming languages and compilers. Justin’s undergraduate and graduate studies were both spent at Michigan Technological University, where he earned his bachelor's degree in computer science and mathematics, and his master's degree in computer science.

I work on designing Remora, a high-level parallel programming language based on APL-like semantics with more conventional functional core.

I only became interested in languages and compilers around the end of my undergraduate education.

Conventional parallel programming systems are designed for experts in parallel programming and code optimization, rather than experts in application domains that would benefit from the use of parallelism. My goal in developing Remora is to reduce the barrier to entry for parallel programming.

A lot of the early work involved cleaning up ideas developed in a small, isolated communities and pulling them back into mainstream PL research.

I want to continue with research focused on programming language design.