POPL 2025
Sun 19 - Sat 25 January 2025 Denver, Colorado, United States

Scope of the workshop

The Languages for Inference (LAFI) workshop aims to bring programming-language and machine-learning researchers together to advance all aspects of languages for inference.

Topics include but are not limited to:

  • Design of programming languages for statistical inference and/or differentiable programming
  • Inference algorithms for probabilistic programming languages, including ones that incorporate automatic differentiation
  • Automatic differentiation algorithms for differentiable programming languages
  • Probabilistic generative modelling and inference
  • Variational and differential modeling and inference
  • Semantics (axiomatic, operational, denotational, games, etc) and types for inference and/or differentiable programming
  • Efficient and correct implementation
  • Applications of inference and/or differentiable programming

Invited speakers

We are pleased to have the following two invited talks this year:

  • Desi R. Ivanova (University of Oxford) – Modern Bayesian experimental design
  • Jonathan Citrin (Google Deepmind) – TORAX: A Fast and Differentiable Tokamak Transport Simulator in JAX

Schedule

The workshop will take place during the full day of Sunday 19 January 2025. It will consist of a series of invited and submitted talks, as well as an interactive poster session. We will conclude the day with a dinner/drinks event. A detailed schedule will appear here shortly.

Sponsorship

LAFI is grateful to be sponsored this year by basis.ai https://www.basis.ai/

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Accepted Papers

Title
A Domain-Specific PPL for Reasoning about Reasoning (or: a memo on memo)
LAFI
Data-oriented Design for Differentiable, Probabilistic Programming
LAFI
Data-Parallel Differentiation by Optic Composition
LAFI
Exact Inference for Nested Discrete Probabilistic Programs
LAFI
Invited talk: A Fast and Differentiable Tokamak Transport Simulator in JAX
LAFI
Lazy Knowledge Compilation for Discrete PPLs
LAFI
NP-NUTS: A Nonparametric No-U-Turn Sampler
LAFI
Partially Evaluating Higher-Order Probabilistic Programs without Stochastic Recursion to Graphical Models
LAFI
Reasoning About Sampling Without Sampling: Atomic Machines for Contextual Equivalence in Probabilistic Programs
LAFI
Sandwood: Runtime Adaptable Probabilistic Programming for Java
LAFI
Semantics of the memo Probabilistic Programming Language
LAFI
State Space Model Programming in Turing.jl
LAFI
Towards Symbolic Execution for Probability and Non-determinism
LAFI

Call for Papers

=====================================================================

             Call for Extended Abstracts

                      LAFI 2025
     Workshop on Languages for Inference at POPL 2025

                    January 19, 2025
      https://popl25.sigplan.org/home/lafi-2025

       Submission Deadline: October 30, 2024 

=====================================================================

Submission Summary

  • Deadline: October 30, 2024 (AoE)
  • Submission page: https://lafi25.hotcrp.com/
  • Format: extended abstract (2 pages + references + optional appendices)
  • Call for Extended Abstracts

Workshop Goals

LAFI aims to bring programming-language and machine-learning researchers together to advance all aspects of languages for inference. Topics include but are not limited to:

  • The design of programming languages for inference and/or differentiable programming;
  • Inference algorithms for probabilistic programming languages, including ones that incorporate automatic differentiation;
  • Automatic differentiation algorithms for differentiable programming languages;
  • Probabilistic generative modeling and inference;
  • Semantics (axiomatic, operational, denotational, games, etc) and types for inference and/or differentiable programming;
  • Formal verification and correctness for differentiable and probabilistic programs;
  • Applications of inference and/or differentiable programming.

The workshop is informal, and our goal is to foster collaboration and establish a shared foundation for research on languages for inference. The proceedings will not be a formal or archival publication, and we expect to spend only a portion of the workshop day on traditional research talks.

Submission guidelines

  • Submission deadline on October 30, 2024 (AoE)
  • Submission link: https://lafi25.hotcrp.com/
  • Any format is permitted, uploads must be in PDF.
  • Page limit: 2 pages of main content, unlimited number of references and appendices. Reviewers are not required or expected to read appendices.
  • Anonymity: submissions should be anonymized for peer review.
  • In line with the SIGPLAN Republication Policy, inclusion of extended abstracts in the program should not preclude later formal publication.

Remote participation policy

Coordination with the POPL conference is underway to enable remote participation. We strive to create an inclusive environment that does not demand traveling for presenters or participants.