Website of the PhD course on Foundations of Probabilistic Programming at IT University of Copenhagen, Spring 2023.
The course is organized as a reading group. Each week we discuss different topics and chapters of the book Foundations of Probabilistic Programming by Gilles Barthe, Joost-Pieter Katoen and Alexandra Silva. See schedule.
Send an email to Mohsen Ghaffari including: your affiliation, PhD supervisor’s name, title of the PhD project, and a 100 word summary of the PhD project. Include your PhD supervisor (CC) in the email.
- Deadline for signing-up: 15 January 2023.
The PhD school at IT University of Copenhagen grants 3 ECTS points for this course. To obtain the credits, students must lead at least one of the sessions in the schedule below.
What does a probabilistic program actually compute? How can one formally reason about such probabilistic programs? This course covers such elementary (i.e. foundational mathematical) questions. We give a state-of-the-art overview of the theoretical underpinnings of modern probabilistic programming and their applications in machine learning, security, and other domains, at a level suitable for graduate students using a recent text book by Barthe, Katoen, and Silva. The book treats the connection between probabilistic programs and mathematical logic, security (what is the probability that software leaks confidential information?), and presents three programming languages for different applications: Excel tables, program testing, and approximate computing.
(Credits: The above description is adapted from the kappa)
Gilles Barthe. Joost-Pieter Katoen. Alexandra Silva. Foundations of Probabilistic Programming. Cambridge University Press, 2020. [Link]
The title is available Open Access from Cambridge University Press.
The table below shows the (tentative) schedule of the course, which is composed by 12 sessions. The table specifies the topic/book chapter from the textbook that we cover in each session. The topics may change based on the discussions and interest of the participants.
- Time: Tuesdays at 13:00 - 14:00.
- Online Room: Zoom (send an email to Mohsen Ghaffari to get the link)
- Room 4F03 at ITU (We meet primarily online, but anyone physically at ITU is welcomed in this room)
| Session Date | Topic | Reading | Session leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 7 | Semantics of Probabilistic Programming: A Gentle Introduction (part 1); Why do random walks get lost in 3D | Chapter 1 | Raúl Pardo |
| Feb 14 | Semantics of Probabilistic Programming: A Gentle Introduction (part 2) | Chapter 1 | Andrzej Wąsowski |
| Feb 21 | Expected Runtime Analysis by Program Verification (part 1) | Chapter 6 | Christoph Matheja (Guest lecture) |
| Feb 28 | Expected Runtime Analysis by Program Verification (part 2) | Chapter 6 | Morten Tychsen Clausen |
| Mar 7 | Probabilistic Programs as Measures (part 1) | Chapter 2 | Alessandro Bruni |
| Mar 14 | Probabilistic Programs as Measures (part 2) | Chapter 2 | Rasmus Ejlers Møgelberg |
| Mar 21 | Probabilistic λ-Calculi | Chapter 4 | Adrian Hoff |
| Mar 28 | Probabilistic Couplings from Program Logics | Chapter 5 | Mohsen Ghaffari |
| Apr 4 | No session | ||
| Apr 11 | Termination Analysis of Probabilistic Programs with Martingales (part 1) | Chapter 7 | Erik Voogd |
| Apr 18 | Cancelled | ||
| Apr 25 | Cancelled | ||
| May 2 | Termination Analysis of Probabilistic Programs with Martingales (part 2) | Chapter 7 | No leader |
| May 9 | Probabilistic Abstract Interpretation: Sound Inference and Application to Privacy (part 1) | Chapter 11 | No leader |
| May 16 | Probabilistic Abstract Interpretation: Sound Inference and Application to Privacy (part 2) | Chapter 11 | No leader |
- Raúl Pardo, IT University of Copenhagen
- Andrzej Wąsowski, IT University of Copenhagen
- Mohsen Ghaffari, IT University of Copenhagen
Feel free to send us any questions regarding the course.
- Raúl Pardo, IT University of Copenhagen
- Andrzej Wąsowski, IT University of Copenhagen