July 29 – “Do not be afraid that your employees will steal ideas. If your ideas are really good, you’ll have to make sure they come out from the mouth of those who work with you.” The words of the famous aphorism by American mathematician Howard Hathaway Aiken were chosen as welcome message for Roberto Bagnara’s website. Professor of mathematics and computer science at the University of Parma, like Aiken, Bagnara deals with numbers, programs, employees and “good ideas.” Born in Emilia in 1963, Bagnara has dealt with computing since the age of 16, when he built with a pond and welder his first computer. The professor has been active for 15 years in analysis and program verification, abstract interpretation and, more generally, program manipulation techniques based on semantics. He co-authored over 35 publications in international journals and conference proceedings, combining rigorous investigation of theoretical foundations with experimental validation and application in concrete contexts. In these areas of research, he was the main source of inspiration and main architect of various software projects, including the Parma Polyhedra Library (PPL), a library of numerical abstractions especially designed for applications in the field of hardware and software systems analysis and verification. The PPL is used in several projects carried out in the most prestigious research centers, such as the GCC (the most used compilers suite in the world). Today, Bagnara is in Nanjing, China, as Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science Industry Invited Speaker to report on his “Quality Verification Tools for Software Quality” during the “13th International Conference on Quality Software – QSIC 2013.” The “QSIC” lecture series has a long tradition in bringing together researchers and practitioners in presenting and discussing innovative ways to ensure software and systems quality. The invitation demonstrates the level of excellence achieved by Prof. Bagnara, head of the Bugseng SRL spin-off, just two years after its foundation.
