[PL-sem-jr] Talk tomorrow, 10/19

[Aaron Turon]

PL Jr talk:
  Tomorrow, Mon 10/19 11:30-1:30, WVH164

Speaker: Dan

Basic category theory for λ-calculists

Category theory is an area of mathematics that works at very high
levels of abstraction to achieve very general results. In programming
language semantics, we work with myriad models--from simple sets of
program traces to probability distributions over sets of functions--and
the generality of category theory helps us identify common structure
in each. In this talk I will describe a few basic structures in
categories and show how we can use them to find models for simply
typed λ-calculi. Throughout, I will ground the abstract categorical
notions with familiar examples from computing and math, and I will
describe my own working intuitions for each in hopes of dispelling
some of the perceived voodoo of the subject. We will end up with a
class of categories--cartesian closed categories--that circumscribe the
class of denotational models for simply typed λ-calculi.