Ronald Garcia

Midwest Crossroads AGEP
Indiana University, Bloomington

Indiana University graduate student Ronald Garcia is a seventh-year Ph.D. student in Computer Science. He is interested in the design and implementation of programming languages. Programming languages are the most basic tools that programmers utilize to build software. In particular, he is interested in programming language features that make it easier to build large software applications without resorting to using loopholes.

As programmers sometimes use programming features in ways they were not intended to be used, Ronald seeks to establish alternatives by creating language features that fulfill programming needs so that the use of “tricks” is no longer necessary.

Ronald completed his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts at the University of Notre Dame in electrical engineering. While at Notre Dame, he spent two summers at a startup company writing software to simulate fabricating electronic chips. Those summers served as opportunities for him to experience life surrounded by highly intelligent colleagues in a small corporate setting.

Following the advice of his undergraduate advisor, he decided to pursue further education. He became fascinated with computer science and left the electrical engineering field. He chose Indiana University because of his interest in the work of Professor Andrew Lumsdaine.

Ronald is currently working in Dr. Lumsdaine’s lab on software engineering and high performance computing. The goal of his work is the generation of fast-running programs for such time-consuming computing tasks as protein folding simulation (which can take up to a year to run).

Ronald will be defending his dissertation this summer. He is interested in becoming a professor at a research university where he could continue to research better programming language techniques for industries such as chemistry or business. He would also like to find new ways to improve programming languages software writing purposes.

A favorite quote is “If you don't know what you're doing, then it's not engineering. If you know what you're doing, then it's not research.”

In addition to his research, Ronald enjoys ultimate Frisbee, bass guitar and drums.

To learn more about the work of Ronald and his colleagues, visit Indiana University’s Open Systems Lab website here.

Academic Disciplines:
Computer Sciences