Linda Torczon

Research Scientist, Computer Science Executive Director, Center for High Performance Software (HiPerSoft) Rice University VGrADS Activities: Co-PI, Executive Director linda@rice.edu http://www.cs.rice.edu/~linda/

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Professional Preparation

• Ph.D., Computer Science, Rice University Computer, 1985
• M.S., Computer Science, Rice University, 1984
• B.S., Chemical Engineering, Rice University, 1980

Appointments

• Executive Director Center for High Performance Software Research, Rice 1999 to present
• Research Scientist Department of Computer Science, Rice University 1998 to present
• Research Faculty Fellow Department of Computer Science, Rice University 1992 to 1998
• Executive Director Center for Research on Parallel Computation, Rice 1990 to 2000
• Research Associate Department of Computer Science, Rice University 1985 to 1992

Synergistic Activities

Linda Torczon’s research interests include code generation, interprocedural data-flow analysis and optimization, and programming environments. In the code generation realm, she published a set of improvements to graph coloring register allocation. She is also one of the key implementors of an optimizing compiler for Fortran. In the area of interprocedural analysis and optimization, she developed techniques for interprocedural constant propagation and recompilation analysis. She also completed a study on the effectiveness of several interprocedural constant propagation techniques and collaborated on a study of the effectiveness of inline substitution. In the programming environment arena, she was one of the driving forces behind the ParaScope programming environment project at Rice. She was a principal architect of the framework for whole program analysis in the ParaScope programming environment. Techniques that she developed are widely used in industrial and research compilers.

From 1990 to 2000, Dr. Torczon served as executive director of the Center for Research on Parallel Computation (CRPC), a National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center. In this capacity, she coordinated extensive research efforts, education and outreach programs, and technology transfer activities. She edited the Sourcebook of Parallel Computing, intended as a resource for computer science and application researchers, as well as for computational science and parallel computing education and training.

Dr. Torczon has been involved in efforts to increase the number of women and underrepresented minorities entering mathematics and science related fields, particularly in computational science and engineering. With Ken Kennedy, she initiated several CRPC outreach activities, including the CRPC GirlTECH program and the Girl Games effort. She has made presentations to students participating in Expanding Your Horizons, The Galveston Bay Project, and Girl Games—programs that encourage middle-school girls to pursue technical careers. She has made presentations to K–12 teachers as part of GirlTECH and other Rice University programs aimed at improving mathematical and computational skills among K–12 teachers. She served on the Shared Decision Making Team of The Rice School/La Escuela Rice, a Houston Independent School District K–8 laboratory school. She currently serves on the External Advisory Board for the CS-Camp project, an NSF-funded initiative to encourage high-school girls in technology courses. Finally, as tutorial chair for the ACM SIGPLAN Conference on Programming Language Design and Implementation, she directed an NSF-funded tutorial program to bring faculty members from undergraduate institutions, particularly women’s colleges and institutions with large minority enrollments, to the conference and tutorials.

Dr. Torczon co-authored, with Keith Cooper, Engineering a Compiler, which serves as a textbook for senior-level courses on compiler construction and as a resource for compiler implementors.

Dr. Torczon has served on the Program Committee for ACM SIGPLAN PLDI Conference (1994 & 2000), on the Tutorial Committee of Supercomputing ’97, as Tutorial Chair of the ACM SIGPLAN PLDI Conference (1997), as Treasurer of the ACM SIGPLAN PLDI Conference (1996), on the NSF Postdoctoral Research Associates Program Panel for the ASC Division (January 1995), and on the NSF Postdoctoral Panel for the New Technologies Program of the ASC Division (February 1994).

VGrADS and Other Significant Publications

• K.D. Cooper and L. Torczon, Engineering a Compiler, Morgan-Kaufmann Publishers, 2003. (Textbook for an undergraduate compiler course.)
• J. Dongarra, I. Foster, G. Fox, W. Gropp, K. Kennedy, L. Torczon, and A. White (editors), Sourcebook of Parallel Computing, Morgan-Kaufmann Publishers, November 2002.
• K. Kennedy, B. Broom, K.D. Cooper, J. Dongarra, R. Fowler, D. Gannon, L. Johnsson, J. Mellor- Crummey, and L. Torczon, “Telescoping Languages: A Strategy for Automatic Generation of Scientific Problem-Solving Systems from Annotated Libraries,” Journal of Parallel and Distributed Computing, 61(12), December 2001, pp. 1803–1826.
• F. Berman, A. Chien, K.D. Cooper, J. Dongarra, I. Foster, D. Gannon, L. Johnsson, K. Kennedy, C. Kesselman, J. Mellor-Crummey, D. Reed, L. Torczon, and R. Wolski, “The GrADS Project: Software Support for High-Level Grid Application Development,” International Journal of Supercomputer Applications, 15(4), Winter 2001, pp. 327–344.
• K.D. Cooper, D. Subramanian, and L. Torczon, “Adaptive Optimizing Compilers for the 21st Century,” Proceedings of the 2001 LACSI Symposium, Los Alamos Computer Science Institute, Santa Fe, NM, USA, October 2001. (Also appeared in Journal of Supercomputing, 23(1), August 2002, pp. 7–22.)
• P. Briggs, K.D. Cooper and L. Torczon, “Improvements to Graph Coloring Register Allocation,” ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems (TOPLAS), 16 (1994), pp. 428–455.
• P. Briggs, K.D. Cooper, and L. Torczon, “Rematerialization,” Proceedings of the ACM SIGPLAN 92 Conference on Programming Language Design and Implementation (Pldi), SIGPLAN Notices, 27(7), July 1992, pp. 311–321.
• P. Briggs, K.D. Cooper, and L. Torczon, “Coloring Heuristics for Register Allocation,” Proceedings of the ACM SIGPLAN 89 Conference on Programming Language Design and Implementation, June 1989, pp. 275–284. (Reprinted in the special issue of SIGPLAN Notices, 20 Years of PLDI (1979–1999): A Selection.)
• D. Callahan, K.D. Cooper, K. Kennedy, and L. Torczon, “Interprocedural Constant Propagation,” Proceedings of the ACM SIGPLAN 86 Conference on Compiler Construction, June 1986, pp. 152– 1161. (Reprinted in the special issue of SIGPLAN Notices, 20 Years of PLDI (1979–1999): A Selection.)
• P. Briggs, K.D. Cooper, K. Kennedy, and L. Torczon, “Digital Computer Register Allocation and Code Spilling Using Interference Graph Coloring,” U.S. Patent Number: 5.249.295.