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

Workshop dinner registration

We are grateful to our sponsor Basis for hosting a workshop dinner. Please register here: https://lu.ma/vjtutz5l .

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 submitted talks (of roughly 15min each) and invited 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 https://www.basis.ai/

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Plenary

This program is tentative and subject to change.

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Sun 19 Jan

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09:00 - 10:30
First sessionLAFI at Peek-A-Boo
Chair(s): Matthijs Vákár Utrecht University
09:00
5m
Day opening
Welcome
LAFI
Matthijs Vákár Utrecht University, Atılım Güneş Baydin University of Oxford
09:06
20m
Industry talk
Industry Talk: Basis - Programming Languages as Core Technology for AI
LAFI
09:27
15m
Talk
Towards Symbolic Execution for Probability and Non-determinism
LAFI
Jack Czenszak Northeastern University, John Li Northeastern University, Steven Holtzen Northeastern University
File Attached
09:43
15m
Talk
Lazy Knowledge Compilation for Discrete PPLs
LAFI
Maddy Bowers Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Alexander K. Lew Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Joshua B. Tenenbaum Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Vikash K. Mansinghka Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Armando Solar-Lezama Massachusetts Institute of Technology
09:59
15m
Talk
Reasoning About Sampling Without Sampling: Atomic Machines for Contextual Equivalence in Probabilistic Programs
LAFI
Anthony D'Arienzo University of Illinois and Sandia National Laboratories, Jon Aytac Sandia National Laboratories
10:15
15m
Talk
Exact Inference for Nested Discrete Probabilistic Programs (Remote)
LAFI
File Attached
11:00 - 12:30
Second sessionLAFI at Peek-A-Boo
Chair(s): Atılım Güneş Baydin University of Oxford
11:00
40m
Talk
Invited talk: TORAX - A Fast and Differentiable Tokamak Transport Simulator in JAX (Remote)
LAFI
Jonathan Citrin Google Deepmind
11:41
15m
Talk
Data-Parallel Differentiation by Optic Composition
LAFI
Paul Wilson University of Southampton, Fabio Zanasi University College London
11:57
15m
Talk
Data-oriented Design for Differentiable, Probabilistic Programming (Remote)
LAFI
Owen Lynch University of Oxford, Maria-Nicoleta Craciun University of Oxford, Younesse Kaddar University of Oxford, Sam Staton University of Oxford
12:13
15m
Talk
A Domain-Specific PPL for Reasoning about Reasoning (or: a memo on memo)
LAFI
Kartik Chandra MIT, Tony Chen MIT, Joshua B. Tenenbaum Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Jonathan Ragan-Kelley Massachusetts Institute of Technology
12:30 - 14:00
12:30
90m
Lunch
Lunch
Catering

14:00 - 15:30
Third sessionLAFI at Peek-A-Boo
Chair(s): Matthijs Vákár Utrecht University
14:00
40m
Talk
Invited talk: Modern Bayesian Experimental Design
LAFI
Desi R. Ivavona University of Oxford
14:41
15m
Talk
Semantics of the memo Probabilistic Programming Language
LAFI
Kartik Chandra MIT, Nada Amin Harvard University, Yizhou Zhang University of Waterloo
14:57
15m
Talk
NP-NUTS: A Nonparametric No-U-Turn Sampler
LAFI
Maria-Nicoleta Craciun University of Oxford, C.-H. Luke Ong NTU, Sam Staton University of Oxford, Matthijs Vákár Utrecht University
15:13
15m
Talk
Sandwood: Runtime Adaptable Probabilistic Programming for Java (Remote)
LAFI
Daniel Goodman Oracle Labs, Adam Pocock Oracle Labs, Natalia Kosilova Oracle Labs
File Attached
15:30 - 16:00
15:30
30m
Coffee break
Break
Catering

16:00 - 17:30
Fourth sessionLAFI at Peek-A-Boo
Chair(s): Atılım Güneş Baydin University of Oxford
16:00
15m
Talk
Partially Evaluating Higher-Order Probabilistic Programs without Stochastic Recursion to Graphical Models (Remote)
LAFI
Christian Weilbach University of British Columbia, Frank Wood University of Oxford
16:16
15m
Talk
State Space Model Programming in Turing.jl
LAFI
Tim Hargreaves Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, Qing Li Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, Charles Knipp Federal Reserve Board of Governors, USA, Frederic Wantiez , Simon J. Godsill Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, Hong Ge University of Cambridge
File Attached
16:32
55m
Other
Poster session
LAFI

17:28
2m
Day closing
Closing remarks
LAFI
Atılım Güneş Baydin University of Oxford
Hide past events

Accepted Papers

Title
A Domain-Specific PPL for Reasoning about Reasoning (or: a memo on memo)
LAFI
Closing remarks
LAFI
Data-oriented Design for Differentiable, Probabilistic Programming (Remote)
LAFI
Data-Parallel Differentiation by Optic Composition
LAFI
Exact Inference for Nested Discrete Probabilistic Programs (Remote)
LAFI
File Attached
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 (Remote)
LAFI
Reasoning About Sampling Without Sampling: Atomic Machines for Contextual Equivalence in Probabilistic Programs
LAFI
Sandwood: Runtime Adaptable Probabilistic Programming for Java (Remote)
LAFI
File Attached
Semantics of the memo Probabilistic Programming Language
LAFI
State Space Model Programming in Turing.jl
LAFI
File Attached
Towards Symbolic Execution for Probability and Non-determinism
LAFI
File Attached

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.