Guannan Wei
• Email:
guannan.wei@inria.fr
guannan.wei@tufts.edu
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• Curriculum Vitae
• Research Statement
• Teaching Statement
• Diversity Statement
I am a postdoctoral researcher in the ANTIQUE team at INRIA and École Normale Supérieure (Paris), working with Caterina Urban. I am also a visiting assistant professor at Tufts University.
Previously, I was a postdoctoral researcher at Purdue University, and I obtained my Ph.D. in Computer Science from Purdue University, advised by Tiark Rompf. I received M.S. degree in Computer Science from the University of Utah, advised by Matt Might. I was an intern at SambaNova Systems, Galois, and Baidu. I occasionally take notes of what I read, collect elegant programs, or post random thoughts in my Blog.
I will join CS@Tufts as an Assistant Professor in Fall 2025. If you are interested in working with me in programming languages, formal methods, or software engineering, feel free to reach out!
Research
I study the scientific and engineering aspects of programming, driven by a fascination with how it allows people creating abstractions and communicating ideas. My research aims to develop novel notions and tools that empower people to build correct, safe, and efficient software.
More specifically, I am interested in type systems, program analysis/verification/testing, compilers/interpreters, metaprogramming, as well as their applications.
High-performance program analyzers via compilation/metaprogramming.
We have developed compilation [ICSE ’23, PEPM ’22, FSE ’21, OOPSLA ’20, OOPSLA ’19], derivation [ICFP ’18], and transformation techniques [OOPSLA ’19] to build correct-by-construction, performant, and flexible program analyzers, enabling to use higher-level abstractions yet without compromising performance or correctness.
Our parallel symbolic-execution compiler GenSym [ICSE ’23] demonstrates efficient (4x vs KLEE, single-thread) execution by compiling to continuation-passing style via the 1st Futamura projection.
Type systems tracking aliases, separation, and effects for imperative higher-order languages.
We have designed reachability types with a flow-sensitive effect system [OOPSLA ’21], offering programmers Rust-style reasoning principles in more expressive and flexible higher-order languages. Reachability types have been used to guide optimizatoins in graph-based compiler IRs [OOPSLA ’23] and extended with \texttt{F}_{<:}-style type-and-reachability polymorphism [POPL ’24]. We have also designed a type system to track storage modes, enabling flexible and efficient memory allocation on the stack [ECOOP ’22].
We are implementing a prototype programming language Diamond with \texttt{F}_{<:}-style precise and polymorphic reachability types.
Publications
Escape with Your Self: Expressive Reachability Types with Sound and Decidable Bidirectional Type Checking
Songlin Jia, Guannan Wei, Siyuan He, Yueyang Tang, Yuyan Bao, Tiark Rompf
Under submission
[arxiv]Modeling Reachability Types with Logical Relations
Yuyan Bao, Guannan Wei, Oliver Bračevac, Tiark Rompf
Under submission
[arxiv]Snek: Overloading Python Semantics via Virtualization
James M. Decker, Dan Moldovan, Andrew A. Johnson, Guannan Wei, Fei Wang, Grégory Essertel, Alexander B. Wiltschko, Tiark Rompf
[pdf]
Conference/Workshop Papers
Consolidating Smart Contracts with Behavioral Contracts
Guannan Wei, Danning Xie, Wuqi Zhang, Yongwei Yuan, Zhuo Zhang* (* corresponding author)
Proceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages, Volume 8 (PLDI 2024). Copenhagen, Denmark
[pdf] [acm dl] [artifact]ParDiff: Practical Static Differential Analysis of Network Protocol Parsers
Mingwei Zheng, Qingkai Shi, Xuwei Liu, Xiangzhe Xu, Le Yu, Congyu Liu, Guannan Wei, Xiangyu Zhang
Proceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages, Volume 8 (OOPSLA 2024). Pasadena, CA, USA
[pdf] [acm dl] [artifact]Polymorphic Reachability Types: Tracking Freshness, Aliasing, and Separation in Higher-Order Generic Programs
Guannan Wei, Oliver Bračevac, Songlin Jia, Yuyan Bao, Tiark Rompf
Proceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages, Volume 8 (POPL 2024). London, United Kingdom
[pdf] [acm dl] [arxiv] [artifact]Graph IRs for Impure Higher-Order Languages – Making Aggressive Optimizations Affordable with Precise Effect Dependencies
Oliver Bračevac, Guannan Wei, Songlin Jia, Supun Abeysinghe, Yuxuan Jiang, Yuyan Bao, Tiark Rompf
Proceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages, Volume 7 (OOPSLA 2023). Cascais, Portugal
[pdf] [acm dl]Compiling Parallel Symbolic Execution with Continuations
Guannan Wei, Songlin Jia, Ruiqi Gao, Haotian Deng, Shangyin Tan, Oliver Bračevac, Tiark Rompf
The 45th International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2023)
[pdf] [ieee] [artifact]What If We Don’t Pop the Stack? The Return of Second-Class Values
Anxhelo Xhebraj, Oliver Bračevac, Guannan Wei, Tiark Rompf
Proceedings of the 36th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2022). Berlin, Germany
[pdf] [dagstuhl] [artifact]Towards Partially Evaluating Symbolic Interpreters for All
Shangyin Tan, Guannan Wei, Tiark Rompf
ACM SIGPLAN Workshop on Partial Evaluation and Program Manipulation (PEPM), co-located with POPL 2022. Philadelphia, PA, USA
[pdf] [bib]Reachability Types: Tracking Aliasing and Separation in Higher-Order Functional Programs
Yuyan Bao, Guannan Wei, Oliver Bračevac, Yuxuan Jiang, Qiyang He, Tiark Rompf
Proceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages, Volume 5 (OOPSLA 2021). Online/Chicago, IL, USA
[pdf] [acm dl] [artifact]LLSC: A Parallel Symbolic Execution Compiler for LLVM IR (Tool Demonstration)
Guannan Wei, Shangyin Tan, Oliver Bračevac, Tiark Rompf
Proceedings of the 29th ACM Joint European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering (ESEC/FSE 2021)
[pdf] [acm dl] [demo]Compiling Symbolic Execution with Staging and Algebraic Effects
Guannan Wei, Oliver Bračevac, Shangyin Tan, Tiark Rompf
Proceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages, Volume 4 (OOPSLA 2020). Online
[pdf] [acm dl] [artifact]Staged Abstract Interpreters: Fast and Modular Whole-Program Analysis via Meta-Programming
Guannan Wei, Yuxuan Chen, Tiark Rompf
Proceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages, Volume 3 (OOPSLA 2019). Athens, Greece
[pdf] [acm dl] [artifact]Precise Reasoning with Structured Time, Structured Heaps, and Collective Operations
Grégory Essertel, Guannan Wei, Tiark Rompf
Proceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages, Volume 3 (OOPSLA 2019). Athens, Greece
[pdf] [acm dl] [artifact]BDA: Practical Dependence Analysis for Binary Executables by Unbiased Whole-program Path Sampling and Per-path Abstract Interpretation
Zhuo Zhang, Wei You, Guanhong Tao, Guannan Wei, Yonghwi Kwon, Xiangyu Zhang
Proceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages, Volume 3 (OOPSLA 2019). Athens, Greece
[pdf] [acm dl] [artifact]Towards Verified Binary Raising
Joe Hendrix, Guannan Wei, Simon Winwood
Workshop on Instruction Set Architecture Specification, co-located with ITP 2019. Portland, OR, USA
[pdf] [bib]Graph Neural Reasoning for 2-Quantified Boolean Formula Solvers
Zhanfu Yang, Fei Wang, Ziliang Chen, Guannan Wei, Tiark Rompf
Workshop on Learning and Reasoning with Graph-Structured Representations, co-located with ICML 2019. Long Beach, CA, USA
[pdf] [bib]Refunctionalization of Abstract Abstract Machines (Functional Pearl)
Guannan Wei, James M. Decker, Tiark Rompf
Proceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages, Volume 2 (ICFP 2018). St. Louis, MO, USA
[pdf] [acm dl] [artifact]
Dissertation
Metaprogramming Program Analyzers
Guannan Wei
PhD Dissertation. Purdue University. 2023
[pdf]
Talks/Posters
Consolidating Smart Contracts with Behavioral Contracts
PLDI 2024. Copenhagen, Denmark. June, 2024 [slides]Polymorphic Reachability Types: Tracking Freshness, Aliasing, and Separation in Higher-Order Generic Programs
POPL 2024. London, UK. January, 2024 [slides]
Midwest PL Summit. Ann Arbor, MI. October, 2023 [poster]Compiling and Controlling Symbolic Execution
Northeastern University Programming Languages Seminar. Boston, MA. Dec 2023 [slides]
Midwest PL Summit. Ann Arbor, MI. Oct 2023 [slides]
Purdue PL Seminar. West Lafayette, IN. December, 2022 [slides]Compiling Parallel Symbolic Execution with Continuations
ICSE 2023. Remote. May, 2023 [slides]Reachability Types: Tracking Aliasing and Separation in Higher-Order Functional Programs
OOPSLA 2021. Chicago, IL. October, 2021 [poster]LLSC: A Parallel Symbolic Execution Compiler for LLVM IR
ESEC/FSE 2021. Online. August, 2021 [slides]Compiling Symbolic Execution with Staging and Algebraic Effects
OOPSLA 2020. Online. November, 2020 [slides]Metaprogramming for Program Analyzers
PurPL Retreat. Online. August, 2020 [slides]Staged Abstract Interpreters
OOPSLA 2019. Athens, Greece. October 23, 2019 [slides]Refunctionalization of Abstract Abstract Machines (Functional Pearl)
ICFP 2018. St. Louis, MO. September 24, 2018 [slides][poster]Precise Reasoning with Structured Heaps and Collective Operations à la Map/Reduce
Purdue PL Seminar. West Lafayette, IN. January 26, 2018 [slides]
Midwest PL Summit (MWPLS 2017). Bloomington, IN. December 1, 2017 [slides]
Huawei Research Summit. Urbana-Champaign, IL. March 8, 2018 [slides]
Mentoring
Undergraduate
Alex Bai, Tufts University, Fall 2024 -
Mikail Khan, Purdue University, Fall 2022 - Spring 2024 (Now PhD student at CMU)
Shangyin Tan, Purdue University, Summer 2020 - Fall 2021 (Now PhD student at UC Berkeley)
Yuxuan Chen, Purdue University, Fall 2018 (Now Software Engineer at Meta)
Teaching
Co-instructor, CS352 Compilers: Principles and Practice (undergraduate), Purdue University, Spring 2024
- Lead Teaching Assistant, CS352 Compilers: Principles and Practice (undergraduate), Purdue University, Spring 2020
[testimonials] Teaching Assistant, CS502 Compilers: Principles and Practice (graduate), Purdue University, Fall 2019
Lab Instructor, CS252 System Programming (undergraduate), Purdue University, Fall 2017, Spring 2018
Services
PC Member: TFPIE 2025, PLDI 2025, OOPSLA 2025, SETTA 2024 (Distinguished Reviewer Award), ICCQ 2024, ICCQ 2023, VMIL 2021, EuroSys Shadow 2021
Reviwer: TOSEM 2024, ICFP 2022, ISSTA 2021, ICLR 2019
Artifact Evaluation Committee Member: ISSTA 2024, OOPSLA 2024, POPL 2024, ICFP 2023, PLDI 2023, POPL 2023, PLDI 2022, PLDI 2021, ICFP 2021, ISSTA 2021, OOPSLA 2020, ICFP 2020, CAV 2020, ICFP 2019
Student Volunteer: POPL 2023, ICFP 2019, MWPLS & PurPL Fest 2019
Code & Open Source Contribution
GenSym: a compiler for parallel symbolic-execution of LLVM IR
Diamond language: a prototype language with the polymorphic reachability type system
lms-clean: the Lightweight Modular Staging framework
Voluntary translator, Software Foundations (Chinese edition)