Distributed programming is notoriously difficult. Not only are distributed systems concurrent, they pose additional challenges including data consistency, fault tolerance, and scalability. At the same time, the share of software systems that are necessarily distributed systems is growing rapidly. As a result, too many software developers are asked to become distributed systems experts. Thus, tools and techniques for ensuring the correctness of distributed systems are urgently needed in order to leave this unsustainable trajectory.

This talk attempts to make the case that advances in programming language theory, and applied type theory specifically, are essential for realizing the promise of safe distributed programming for all. In support of this thesis, we present results of our research program on type systems for safe distributed programming. Finally, we outline potential ways to enable the adoption of these and related techniques in industry.

Philipp Haller is an Associate Professor in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. His main research interests are in the design and implementation of programming languages, type systems, concurrency, and distributed programming. He was part of the team that received the 2019 ACM SIGPLAN Programming Languages Software Award for the development of the Scala language. He is also one of the founders of the Software Development Academy at KTH, a 3-month accelerated training program in software development, which was selected finalist for the 2022 IDG Tech Awards Sweden. Philipp received his Dipl.-Inform. degree in computer science from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany, in 2006, and his PhD in computer science from EPFL in 2010.