My primary research area is static analysis of higher-order programs.

My broader interests include language design, compiler implementation, security, program optimization, parallelism and program verification.

I run the U Combinator software systems research group.

Publications

• CiteULike: [my pubs] [my library]

Proceedings papers

1. (New) Steven Lyde, Matthew Might. "Extracting Hybrid Automata from Control Code." To appear in Proceedings of the 5th Annual NASA Formal Methods Symposium (NFM 2013). Short paper category. Moffet Field, CA. May, 2013.
   Paper: [pdf]
2. (New) Ilya Sergey, Dominique Devriese, Matthew Might, Jan Midtgaard, David Darais, Dave Clark, Frank Piessens. "Monadic Abstract Interpreters." To appear in Proceedings of the 34th Annual Conference of Programming Language Design and Implementation (PLDI 2013). Seattle, Washington. June, 2013.
   Paper: [pdf]
3. (New) Christopher Earl, Ilya Sergey, Matthew Might, David Van Horn. "Introspective Pushdown Analysis of Higher-Order Programs." International Conference on Functional Programming 2012 (ICFP 2012). Copenhagen, Denmark. September, 2012. pages 177--188.
   Paper: [pdf]
   Slides: [pdf]
   Video: [youtube]
4. (New) Jan Midtgaard, Michael D. Adams, Matthew Might. "A Structural Soundness Proof for Shivers's Escape Technique: A Case for Galois Connections." Static Analysis Symposium 2012 (SAS 2012). Deauville, France. September, 2012. pages 352--369.
   Paper: [pdf]
5. (New) Shuying Liang, Matthew Might. "Hash-Flow Taint Analysis of Higher-Order Programs." Programming Languages and Security 2012 (PLAS 2012). Beijing, China. June, 2012. pages 8:1--8:12.
   Paper: [pdf]
6. Michael D. Adams, Andrew W. Keep, Jan Midtgaard, Matthew Might, Arun Chauhan and R. Kent Dybvig. "Flow-Sensitive Type Recovery in Linear-Log Time." Conference on Object-Oriented Programming, Systems, Languages and Applications (OOPSLA 2011). Portland, Oregon. October, 2011. pages 483--498.
   Paper: [pdf]
7. Matthew Might, David Darais and Daniel Spiewak. "Functional Pearl: Parsing with Derivatives." International Conference on Functional Programming 2011 (ICFP 2011). Tokyo, Japan. September, 2011. pages 189--195.
   Paper: [pdf]
   Slides: [pdf]
8. Matthew Might and David Van Horn. "A family of abstract interpretations for static analysis of concurrent higher-order programs." Static Analysis Symposium 2011 (SAS 2011). Venice, Italy. September, 2011.
   Paper: [pdf] [arXiv]
   Slides: [pdf]
9. Tarun Prabhu, Shreyas Ramalingam, Matthew Might and Mary Hall. "EigenCFA: Accelerating flow analysis with GPUs." 38th Annual ACM Symposium on the Principles of Programming Languages. (POPL 2011). Austin, Texas, USA. January, 2011. pages 511--522.
   Paper: [pdf]
   
10. Christopher Earl, Matthew Might and David Van Horn. "Pushdown control-flow analysis of higher-order programs: Precise, polyvariant and polynomial-time." 2010 Workshop on Scheme and Functional Programming. (Scheme 2010). Montreal, Quebec, Canada. August, 2010.
    Paper: [pdf] [bib]
    

    @InProceedings{earl2010pdcfa,
      author =       {Christopher Earl and Matthew Might and David Van Horn},
      title =        {Pushdown Control-Flow Analysis of Higher-Order Programs},
      booktitle =    {Proceedings of the 2010 {W}orkshop on {S}cheme and {F}unctional {P}rogramming (Scheme 2010)},
      year =         {2010},
      address =      {Montreal, Quebec, Canada},
      month =        {August}
    }
    

11. David Van Horn and Matthew Might. "Abstracting Abstract Machines." International Conference on Functional Programming 2010 (ICFP 2010). Baltimore, Maryland. September, 2010. pages 51--62.
    Paper: [pdf]
12. Matthew Might. "Abstract interpreters for free." Static Analysis Symposium 2010 (SAS 2010). Perpignan, France. September, 2010. pages 407--421.
    Paper: [pdf]
    Slides: [pdf]
    
13. Matthew Might, Yannis Smaragdakis and David Van Horn. "Resolving and exploiting the k-CFA paradox: Illuminating functional vs. object-oriented program analysis." Programming Language Design and Implementation 2010 (PLDI 2010). Toronto, Canada. June, 2010. pages 305--315.
    Paper: [pdf] [bib]
    Slides: [pdf]
    

    @InProceedings{might2010mcfa,
      author =       {Matthew Might and Yannis Smaragdakis and David Van Horn},
      title =        {Resolving and exploiting the k-CFA paradox: Illuminating functional vs. object-oriented program analysis.},
      booktitle =    {Proceedings of the 31st {C}onference on {P}rogramming {L}anguage {D}esign and {I}mplementation  ({PLDI} 2006)},
      year =         {2010},
      pages =        {305--315},
      address =      {Toronto, Canada},
      month =        {June}
    }
    

14. Matthew Might. "Shape analysis in the absence of pointers and structure." 11th International Conference on Verification, Model Checking and Abstract Interpretation (VMCAI 2010). Madrid, Spain. January, 2010. pages 263--278.
    Paper: [pdf] [bib]
    Slides: [pdf] [www/html] [www/flash] [keynote]
    

    @InProceedings{might2010shape,
      author =       {Matthew Might},
      title =        {Shape analyis in the absence of pointers and structure},
      booktitle =    {Proceedings of the 11th {I}nternational {C}onference on {V}erification, {M}odel {C}hecking and {A}bstract {I}nterpretation  ({VMCAI} 2010)},
      year =         {2010},
      pages =        {263--278},
      address =      {Madrid, Spain},
      month =        {January}
    }
    

15. Matthew Might and Tarun Prabhu. "Interprocedural dependence analysis of higher-order programs via stack reachability." 2009 Workshop on Scheme and Functional Programming. (Scheme 2009). Boston, Massachussetts, MA. August, 2009.
    Paper: [pdf] [bib]
    Slides: [pdf] [www/html] [keynote]
    

    @InProceedings{might2009dependence,
      author =       {Matthew Might and Tarun Prabhu},
      title =        {Interprocedural dependence analysis of higher-order programs via stack reachability},
      booktitle =    {Proceedings of the 2009 {W}orkshop on {S}cheme and {F}unctional {P}rogramming (Scheme 2009)},
      year =         {2009},
      address =      {Boston, Massachussetts, USA},
      month =        {August}
    }
    

16. Matthew Might and Panagiotis Manolios. "A posteriori soundness for non-deterministic abstract interpretations." 10th International Conference on Verification, Model Checking and Abstract Interpretation (VMCAI 2009). Savannah, Georgia, USA. January, 2009. pages 260--274.
    Paper: [pdf] [bib]
    Slides: [pdf] [www/html] [keynote]
    

    @InProceedings{might2009aposteriori,
      author =       {Matthew Might and Panagiotis Manolios},
      title =        {\emph{A posteriori} soundness for non-deterministic abstract interpretations},
      booktitle =    {Proceedings of the 10th {I}nternational {C}onference on {V}erification, {M}odel {C}hecking and {A}bstract {I}nterpretation  ({VMCAI} 2009)},
      year =         {2009},
      address =      {Savannah, Georgia, USA},
      month =        {January}
    }
    

17. Matthew Might. "Logic-flow analysis of higher-order programs." 34th Annual ACM Symposium on the Principles of Programming Languages (POPL 2007). Long paper category. Nice, France. January, 2007. pages 185--198.
    Paper: [pdf] [bib]
    Slides: [pdf]
    

    @InProceedings{might2007lfa,
      author =    {Matthew Might},
      title =     {Logic-Flow Analysis of Higher-Order Programs},
      booktitle = {Proceedings of the 34th {A}nnual {ACM} {S}ymposium on the {P}rinciples of {P}rogramming {L}anguages  ({POPL} 2007)},
      pages =     {185--198},
      year =      {2007},
      address =   {Nice, France},
      month =     {January}
    }
      

18. Matthew Might, Benjamin Chambers and Olin Shivers. "Model Checking via ΓCFA." 8th International Conference on Verification, Model Checking and Abstract Interpretation (VMCAI 2007). Nice, France. January, 2007. pages 59--73.
    Paper: [pdf] [bib]
    

    @InProceedings{might2007gcfamc,
      author =       {Matthew Might and Benjamin Chambers and Olin Shivers},
      title =        {Model Checking via {$\Gamma$CFA}},
      booktitle =    {Proceedings of the 8th {I}nternational {C}onference on {V}erification, {M}odel {C}hecking and {A}bstract {I}nterpretation  ({VMCAI} 2007)},
      pages =        {59--73},
      year =         {2007},
      address =      {Nice, France},
      month =        {January}
    }
    

19. Matthew Might and Olin Shivers. "Improving flow analyses via ΓCFA: Abstract garbage collection and counting." 11th ACM International Conference on Functional Programming (ICFP 2006). Portland, Oregon. September, 2006. pages 13--25.
    Paper: [pdf] [bib]
    Slides: [pdf]
    

    @InProceedings{might2006gcfa,
      author =       {Matthew Might and Olin Shivers},
      title =        {Improving Flow Analyses via {$\Gamma$CFA}: Abstract Garbage Collection and Counting},
      booktitle =    {Proceedings of the 11th {ACM} {I}nternational {C}onference on {F}unctional {P}rogramming  ({ICFP} 2006)},
      pages =        {13--25},
      year =         {2006},
      address =      {Portland, Oregon},
      month =        {September}
    }
    

20. Olin Shivers and Matthew Might. "Continuations and transducer composition." 27th Conference on Programming Language Design and Implementation (PLDI 2006). Ottawa, Canada. pages 295--307. June, 2006.
    Paper: [pdf] [bib]
    Slides: [pdf]
    

    @InProceedings{might2006transducer,
      author =       {Olin Shivers and Matthew Might},
      title =        {Continuations and Transducer Composition},
      booktitle =    {Proceedings of the 27th {C}onference on {P}rogramming {L}anguage {D}esign and {I}mplementation  ({PLDI} 2006)},
      pages =        {295--307},
      year =         {2006},
      address =      {Ottawa, Canada},
      month =        {June}
    }
    

21. Matthew Might and Olin Shivers. "Environment analysis via ΔCFA." 33rd Annual ACM Symposium on the Principles of Programming Languages (POPL 2006). Charleston, South Carolina. January, 2006. pages 127--140.
    Paper: [pdf] [bib]
    Slides: [pdf]
    

    @InProceedings{might2006dcfa,
      author =       {Matthew Might and Olin Shivers},
      title =        {Environment Analysis via {$\Delta$CFA}},
      booktitle =    {Proceedings of the 33rd {A}nnual {ACM} {S}ymposium on the {P}rinciples of {P}rogramming {L}anguages  ({POPL} 2006)},
      pages =        {127--140},
      year =         {2006},
      address =      {Charleston, South Carolina},
      month =        {January}
    }
    

Journal papers

1. (New) David Van Horn and Matthew Might. "Systematic abstraction of abstract machines." Journal of Functional Programming. 2012.
   Paper: [pdf] [arXiv]
   
2. David Van Horn and Matthew Might. "Abstracting Abstract Machines: A Systematic Approach to Higher-Order Program Analysis." Communications of the ACM. (Research Highlights) September, 2011.
   Paper: [pdf] [arXiv]
   Technical perspective: [pdf]
3. Matthew Might and Olin Shivers. "Exploiting reachability and cardinality in higher-order flow analysis." Journal of Functional Programming. Volume 18, Issues 5-6. 2008. pages 821-864.
   Paper: [pdf] [bib]
   

   @Article{might2008exploiting,
     author  = {Matthew Might and Olin Shivers},
     title   = {Exploiting reachability and cardinality in higher-order flow analysis},
     journal = {Journal of Functional Programming},
     year    = {2008},
     volume  = {18},
     number  = {5--6},
     pages   = {821--864}
   }
     

4. Matthew Might and Olin Shivers. "Analyzing environment structure of higher-order languages using frame strings." Journal of Theoretical Computer Science. Volume 375, Issues 1-3. Festschrift for John C. Reynolds's 70th birthday. 2007. pages 137--168.
   Paper: [pdf] [bib]
   

   @Article{might2007dcfa,
     author  = {Matthew Might and Olin Shivers},
     title   = {Analyzing the environment structure of higher-order languages using frame strings},
     journal = {Theoretical {C}omputer {S}cience},
     year    = {2007},
     volume  = {375},
     number  = {1--3},
     pages   = {137--168},
     month   = {May}
   }
     

Dissertation

1. Matthew Might. "Environment Analysis of Higher-Order Languages." Ph.D. Dissertation. Georgia Institute of Technology. 2007.
   Paper: [pdf] [bib]
   Slides: [pdf]
   

   @PhdThesis{might2007diss,
     author =       {Matthew Might},
     title =        {Environment Analysis of Higher-Order Languages},
     school =       {Georgia Institute of Technology},
     year =         {2007},
     month =        {June}
   }
   

   
   

Talks and lectures

These are invited talks, lectures or panel discussions; paper-based conference talks are in the papers section.

• "Control-flow Analysis for Scheme" Dagstuhl Seminar on Pointer Analysis. 13162. Salt Lake City, Utah. April 17, 2013.
  Slides: [pdf]
• "Why there's no such thing as cybersecurity." Utah Governor's Economic Summit. Salt Lake City, Utah. April 11, 2013.
  Slides: [pdf]
• "Reasoning About Software." UC Riverside Colloquium Series. Riverside, California. Feb 8, 2013.
  Slides: [pdf]
• "What is a Ph.D.? What is research? And, tips for success." Programming Languages Mentoring Workshop 2013 (co-located with POPL 2013). Rome, Italy. Jan 22, 2013.
  Slides: [pdf]
• "Software Analysis for Security." DHS Infosec Technology Transition Council Meeting. SRI International. Menlo Park, California. June 7, 2012.
  Slides: [pdf]
• "Cybersecurity: What business needs to know." Utah Cybersecurity Summit. Salt Lake City, Utah. June 1, 2012.
• "Failing Upward: How to Succeed in Modern Science." Engineering Research Symposium. Pennsylvania State University. April 5, 2012.
  Slides: [pdf]
• "Deriving Abstract Interpreters." University of Aarhus. Aarhus, Denmark. December 5, 2011.
  Slides: [pdf]
• "Parsing with Derivatives." BRICS Graduate School. Aarhus, Denmark. December 5, 2011.
  Slides: [pdf]
• "Parsing with Derivatives." University of Maryland. College Park, Maryland. October 2, 2011.
  Slides: [pdf]
• "Abstract interpretation of concurrent, higher-order programs." NII Shonan Meeting on Higher-Order Program Analysis. Shonan Village, Japan. September 26, 2011.
  Slides: [pdf]
• "Tutorial: Small-step CFA." NII Shonan Meeting on Higher-Order Program Analysis. Shonan Village, Japan. September 23, 2011.
  Slides: [pdf]
• "Developing reasonable programs." University of Iowa. February 18, 2011.
  Slides: [pdf]
• "Parsing with Derivatives (Yacc is Dead)." Stanford University. Stanford, California. February 9, 2011.
  Video: [asx] [youtube]
  Slides: [pdf]
• "An Illustrated Guide to Hacking." The Leonardo. Salt Lake City, Utah. December 7, 2010.
  Slides: [pdf]
• "Static analysis in small steps." Purdue University. Lafayette, Indiana. October 5, 2010.
• "Static analysis of modern software systems: Taming control-flow." Brigham Young University. Provo, Utah. September 10 2009.
  Slides: [pdf] [www/html]
• "Control-flow analysis of higher-order programs." NSF/ACM-sponsored Ph.D. Summer School on Theory and Practice of Language Implementation. Eugene, Oregon. July 23 2009.
  Slides: [pdf] [www/html] [flash]
• "Control-flow analysis of order k (k-CFA)." NSF/ACM-sponsored Ph.D. Summer School on Theory and Practice of Language Implementation. Eugene, Oregon. July 24 2009.
  Slides: [pdf] [www/html] [flash]
• "Efficient control-flow analysis and beyond." NSF/ACM-sponsored Ph.D. Summer School on Theory and Practice of Language Implementation. Eugene, Oregon. July 27 2009.
  Slides: [pdf] [www/html] [flash]
• "Push-down control-flow analysis of higher-order programs." International Conference on Functional Programming Program Committee Workshop. Portland, Oregon. 30 April 2009.
• "The Many-core Fad." Position statement. Cross-cutting systems panel. University of Utah. 30 April 2009.
  Slides: [pdf] [www/html] [www/flash] [keynote]
• "A Brief History of the Freedom of Expressions." Explorations in Computer Science. University of Utah. Fall 2008.
  Slides: [pdf] [www/html] [keynote]

• "Static Analysis of Higher-Order Programs." Given at Max-Planck Institute, Northwestern University, Brandeis University, University of Utah. Spring 2008.
  Slides: [pdf] [www/html] [keynote]

Activities

1. Scala 2013. PC Member.
2. HOPA 2013. PC Member.
3. HOPE 2013. PC Member.
4. ICNC-CPS 2013. PC Member.
5. CC 2013. PC Member.
6. SAS 2012. PC Member.
7. PPDP 2012. PC Member.
8. ICFP 2012. Industrial Relations Member. Copenhagen, Denmark.
9. OOPSLA 2012. PC Member. Tucson, Arizona.
10. PLDI 2012. ERC Member. Beijing, China.
11. PLDI 2012. Publicity Chair. Beijing, China.
12. POPL 2012. PC Member. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
13. ESOP 2012. PC Member. Tallin, Estonia.
14. POPL 2012. Workshop Chair. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
15. Scheme workshop 2011. Chair. Portland, Oregon.
16. NSAD 2011. Steering Committee Member.

[show past activities]

Teaching

• Spring 2013: Compilers.
• Spring 2012: Scripting Languages.
• Spring 2011: Compilers.
• Fall 2009: Advanced topics in compilation.
• Spring 2009: Programming language analysis.
• Spring 2009: Static analysis seminar.

Blog

blog.might.net is really just a collection of short articles.

Here are the 7 most recent:

Press

Television

1. (New) Christmas hope for 5-year-old with rare mutation. 24 December 2012. Reported by Ed Yeates. KSL. Salt Lake City, Utah. 10:00 PM.
2. (New) 'Revolution:' What would it take to bring down Utah's lights? 26 November 2012. Reported by Andrew Wittenberg. KSL. Salt Lake City, Utah. 10:00 PM.
3. (New) Herbert calls for audit following data breach that could cost millions. 11 April 2012. Reported by John Daley. KSL. Salt Lake City, Utah. 5:00 PM, 6:30 PM.
4. (New) Anonymous attacks Salt Lake City Police Department. 2 Feb 2012. Reported by Chris Jones. KUTV. Salt Lake City, Utah. 10:00 PM.
5. Couple accuses rental company of spying via webcam. 5 May 2011. Reported by John Daley. KSL. Salt Lake City, Utah. 6:30 PM.
6. Couple Sues Rental Company Over Alleged Spying 4 May 2011. Reported by Fields Moseley. KUTV. Salt Lake City, Utah. 10:00 PM.
7. Hackers steal millions of email addresses. 4 April 2011. Reported by John Daley. KSL. Salt Lake City, Utah. 5:00 PM.
8. Twitter plans major move to Salt Lake City. 21 July 2010. Reported by Arrika Von. KSTU. Salt Lake City, Utah. 9:00 PM. [text/video]
9. Is child porn lurking on your computer? 10 November 2009. Reported by Rod Decker. KUTV. Salt Lake City, Utah. 6:00 PM. [text/video]
10. Technology influencing uprising in Iran. 22 June 2009. Reported by John Daley. KSL. Salt Lake City, Utah. 5:00 PM, 6:00 PM. [text/video]

Newspapers

1. (New) Utah couple races to help son with unique genetic disorder. 25 November 2012. By Kirsten Stewart. Salt Lake City, Utah. Full-page cover story for Sunday edition. Two full-page interior spread.
2. Victims of Medicaid breach may have little recourse if personal info is compromised. 14 April 2012. By Wendy Leonard. Deseret News. Salt Lake City, Utah.
3. Matt Might v. Cyber Criminals. 1 Dec 2010. Reported by Rachel Piper. City Weekly. Salt Lake City, Utah.

Radio

1. An interview with Science Questions. 29 April 2011. Produced by Sheri Quinn and Constance Crompton. UPR (NPR). Salt Lake City, Utah. 28 minutes. [mp3]
2. Cybersecurity with Matt Might. 30 April 2011. Produced by Sheri Quinn and Suzi Montgomery. UPR (NPR). Salt Lake City, Utah. 30 minutes. [mp3]
3. Panel to Highlight Cyber Crime Awareness. 2 Dec 2010. Produced by Jennifer Napier-Pearce. KUER (NPR). Salt Lake City, Utah.

Magazines

1. (New) Matthew Might. "Relational shell programming." Hacker Monthly. August 2012.
2. (New) Matthew Might. "SSH: More than secure shell." Hacker Monthly. May 2012.
3. (New) Matthew Might. "Translating mathematics into code." Hacker Monthly. January 2012. (Cover story)
4. Matthew Might. "Advanced Programming Languages." Hacker Monthly. August 2010. [pdf]

Interviews

1. (New) "The Setup." matt.might.usesthis.com. 6 January 2012.

People

Blogs:

• Daniel Lemire's blog.
• John Regehr's blog: Embedded in Academia.
• David Van Horn's research weblog.
• Suresh Venkatasubramanian: geomblog.

Co-authors:

• Benjamin Chambers.
• David Darais.
• Christopher Earl.
• Mary Hall.
• Pete Manolios.
• Tarun Prabhu.
• Shreyas Ramalingam.
• Olin Shivers.
• Daniel Spiewak.
• Yannis Smaragdakis.
• David Van Horn.

Students (who have web pages):

• David Darais. (Now a Ph.D. student at Harvard.)
• Christopher Earl.
• J.T. Olds.
• Tarun Prabhu. (Now a Ph.D. student at UIUC.)
• Dustin Schultz's infosec blog.
• Shreyas Subramanya.

Personal

• Blog: blog.might.net.
• Twitter: @mattmight.
• My son's medical blog.
• Amazon wish list.