Talks (2008)

I discuss technical writing for an audience of fourth year undergraduates, on Wednesday 22 October at 13:15.
Oh, what are the laws of writing a good dissertation? Read the slides and find out, with examples!

A talk given at King's College as part of their Advanced Programming Techniques seminar series, on Monday 29 September at 12:00. I show how from a belief in the empty set and in ordinals we can construct a mathematical universe large enough that mathematical objects (in particular, numbers, rationals, and reals) can be interpreted in it. In response to questions from the audience I discuss the difference between structure (which exists in the model) and meaning (which exists in our own minds). It was a pretty good audience!

A talk given at the Cambridge University computer lab as part of their Logic and Semantics seminar series, on Friday 26 September at 2pm. Joint work with Dominic Mulligan.

Given on Friday 4 July in the WFLP 2008 in Italy at 10:00. I describe two-and-a-half order lambda-calculus, a two-level lambda-calculus. Normally, the lambda-calculus has a capture-avoiding substitution. The two-level lambda-calculus is actually two lambda calculi, with distinct namespaces for variable symbols of `strong' and `weak' variables, but sharing a common application operator. Substitution for a strong variable does not avoid capture by lambda-abstraction for a weak variable. This leads to interesting and unusual phenomena.

Given on Monday 30 June in the Pisa University Department of Informatics Seminar series in Italy at 17:30. I describe nominal algebra, a nominal algebraic reasoning language.

Given on Friday 4 April in the AISB conference in Aberdeen at 17:30. I describe a substitution action defined for the atoms on Fraenkel-Mostowski sets (the general set theory version of nominal sets). In the original Gabbay-Pitts ‘nominal’ approach to modelling syntax, the atoms in Fraenkel-Mostowski set theory were used to model variable symbols. Since they have a substitution action, it may be that they can be used to model variables, as well. Joint work with Michael Gabbay.
The associated paper is here.

A talk given at the École Polytechnique on Tuesday 4 March at 11am. Joint work with Dominic Mulligan.

A talk given in the DSG (Dependable Systems Group) meeting. Joint work with Dominic Mulligan.

In the Paris Arché workshop on abstract objects in semantics and the philosophy of mathematics on Thursday February 28. This talk was delivered by my co-author Michael Gabbay; a photo of Michael delivering the talk is online here. We connect relatively recent developments in Fraenkel-Mostowski sets and nominal style semantics, with existing philosophical thinking on arbitrary-ness and unknown entities in language, mathematics, and semantics. Joint work with Michael Gabbay.
The associated paper is here.

A talk given as part of the Flexible Learning Talks series in Heriot-Watt University on Friday 11 January. Thanks to Nicole Cargill-Kipar.

A King's College London departmental colloquium given on January 14 at noon. Thanks to Iman Poernomo. I gave this talk the old-fashioned way on the blackboard; hence, no pdf slides online. It was good fun.