About
I am a researcher working in Formal Methods and Programming Languages. My broader background includes areas such as AI and Machine Learning, Computer Vision, Gesture Recognition, and Computer Security. I also bring over twenty years of industry experience across technical and business domains.
Research
I work in formal methods (using rigorous mathematical techniques to prove the correctness of computer programs) as a postdoctoral scholar at Tufts University. I hold a Ph.D. (Carnegie Mellon University), an M.S. in Computer Science, and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering. Full CV
Publications
- A CHERI C Memory Model for Verified Temporal Safety. CPP 2025.
- Formal Mechanised Semantics of CHERI C: Capabilities, Provenance, and Undefined Behaviour. ASPLOS 2024.
- HELIX: Verified Compilation of Cyber-Physical Control Systems to LLVM IR”. Submitted to JFP, 2025.
- CHERI C semantics as an extension of the ISO C17 standard. Tech report, 2023.
- Modular, Compositional, and Executable Formal Semantics for LLVM IR. ICFP 2021.
- Verified Translation Between Purely Functional and Imperative Domain Specific Languages in HELIX. VSTTE 2020.
- Research Report: Formally-Verified ASN.1 Protocol C-language Stack. LangSec 2020.
- Where's the Rock: Using Convolutional Neural Networks to Improve Land Cover Classification. Remote Sensing 2019.
- Reification of shallow-embedded DSLs in Coq with automated verification. CoqPL 2019.
- HELIX: A Case Study of a Formal Verification of High Performance Program Generation. FHPC 2018.
- Formal Verification of HCOL Rewriting. FMCAD 2015.
- Passive User Identification Using Sequential Analysis of Proximity Information in Touchscreen Usage Patterns. ICMU 2015.
- Barometric and GPS Altitude Sensor Fusion. ICASSP 2014.
- Home Temperature Sensor Network (2013 project report).
- RSS XML Schema Grammar Induction (2014 project report).
- Constructing an orthonormal set of eigenvectors for DFT matrix using Gramians and determinants (2012).
- 3D Finger Posture Detection and Gesture Recognition on Touch Surfaces. ICARCV 2012.
- HAMAKE: A Dataflow Approach to Data Processing in Hadoop. CLOSER 2012.
- Developement of simple motion detection algorithm using Mathematica. FPROG.RU, 2011 (Russian).
- Applying static code analysis to firewall policies for the purpose of anomaly detection (2009).
- Firewall Policy Modeling, Analysis and Simulation: a Survey. 2008.
- Platform-Independent Firewall Policy Representation. 2007.
- Using UsernameToken Authentication with Blogger and MetaWebLog APIs. 2007.
- Enhanced "enclosures" support in RSS and ATOM Syndication. 2004.
- "AccelKey" input method whitepaper. 2006.
- Distributed builds with Rendezvous and DistCC. Dr. Dobb's Journal, 2004.
- Managing XML Documents Versions and Upgrades with XSLT. 2001.
See my publications on DBLP and Google Scholar. For patents, see my patent list.
Business
I founded Codeminders in 2004 and have been running it since, a consulting business helping startups build software products, now with a team of around 100 engineers. In 2016, we launched Digamma.ai, its AI and machine learning branch, focused on areas such as machine learning, natural language processing, and computer vision.
Personal
I was born in Ukraine and moved to the US in 1995. I have lived and worked in Silicon Valley since. Outside work, I enjoy literature, travelling, photography, and motorcycling.
Contact
I keep my business contacts organized via LinkedIn. I use Mastodon and my blog to write about technical matters.
- Email lord@crocodile.org
- Signal periplum.42
- LinkedIn vzaliva
- Mastodon @vzaliva@mastodon.acm.org
- GitHub @vzaliva
- Technical blog lambda-files.crocodile.org