David Garlan

David Garlan is a computer scientist known for foundational work in software architecture, architectural styles, and middleware. He has held academic and research positions associated with Carnegie Mellon University and contributed influential models and tools that connect software design, verification, and runtime systems. His work spans collaborations with researchers in software engineering, formal methods, and systems, shaping curricula and practice in industry and academia.

Early life and education

Born in the United States, he completed undergraduate and graduate studies that led to a Ph.D. in computer science at Carnegie Mellon University. During his doctoral studies he worked with advisors and collaborators linked to institutions such as the Software Engineering Institute, engaging with topics related to software design, programming languages, and formal specification. His education placed him in proximity to research groups associated with MIT, Stanford University, and University of California, Berkeley, fostering early collaborations with faculty and researchers from those institutions.

Academic career

He joined the faculty at Carnegie Mellon University and maintained affiliations with the Software Engineering Institute. Over his career he supervised graduate students who later held positions at universities including Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, University of Washington, and University of California, Berkeley. He participated in program committees and editorial boards for conferences and journals such as the International Conference on Software Engineering, ACM SIGSOFT Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering, ACM SIGPLAN, and IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering. He held visiting appointments and sabbaticals that connected him with research centers including MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Microsoft Research, and Bell Labs.

Research contributions and work

His research advanced the theory and practice of software architecture through proposals of architectural styles, connectors, and analysis techniques. He collaborated on work that integrated formal methods from Petri nets and temporal logic with architectural descriptions akin to initiatives at INRIA and SRI International. His publications influenced middleware research associated with projects at IBM Research, Sun Microsystems, and Oracle Corporation, and informed tools used in industry such as model-driven engineering frameworks propagated by Eclipse Foundation initiatives. He contributed to architectural description languages related to efforts at CMU and engaged with runtime adaptation and self-* systems studied by groups at DARPA and European Research Council projects. His interdisciplinary collaborations connected with researchers at University of Toronto, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Princeton University, Yale University, Columbia University, University of California, San Diego, University of Michigan, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Pennsylvania, University of California, Irvine, Northwestern University, University of Texas at Austin, Cornell University, Purdue University, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Imperial College London, University College London, ETH Zurich, Technical University of Munich, Delft University of Technology, University of Sydney, and Australian National University.

Awards and honors

He received recognition from organizations and conferences in software engineering and computer science, including awards and fellowships linked to ACM, IEEE, and national research agencies. His work was cited in prize committees for venues such as the International Conference on Software Engineering and the ACM/IEEE International Conference on Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems. He was invited to deliver keynote talks at events organized by ACM SIGSOFT, IEEE Computer Society, Frontiers of Software Engineering, and workshops sponsored by NSF and DARPA.

Selected publications

- Garlan, D., Perry, D., Shaw, M., "An Introduction to Software Architecture", proceedings and edited volumes linked to ACM SIGSOFT and IEEE Computer Society. - Garlan, D., et al., "Architectural Styles and the Design of Network-based Software Architectures", influenced subsequent work at IBM Research and Sun Microsystems. - Garlan, D., "Software connectors", chapters and papers cited in textbooks used at Carnegie Mellon University, MIT, and Stanford University. - Garlan, D., Luckham, D., "Specification and Analysis of System Architecture", contributing to conferences including International Conference on Software Engineering and symposia sponsored by ACM. - Garlan, D., et al., "Modeling and Analysis Techniques for Software Architecture", appearing in journals such as IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering and venues organized by ACM SIGARCH.

Category:Computer scientists Category:Carnegie Mellon University faculty Category:Software engineering researchers