August Schwerdfeger

Research & Engineering

My primary research interest is programming languages, specifically the development of exchange formats and interfaces for tool interoperability. My interests outside of work (and sometimes inside) include photography, mentoring young inventors, and diving into local history.

Background

August Schwerdfeger’s area of research includes compilers and programming languages, with a specific focus on parsing, automated language translation, and modular extensibility.

Since joining Adventium (now Galois) in 2010, August’s primary activity has been tool development related to his work with parsing and automated language translation. He has developed a set of XML schemas for the tools of the CAMET® Library to improve interoperability between them, and allow users of the tools to customize their output to suit site-specific requirements.

Using the extensible language tools he co-developed at the University of Minnesota, August enabled the integration of nine different modeling environments into the FUSED framework. He also developed translations among a series of modeling languages for mission-planning applications, and specified a formal type system and type checking apparatus for the NASA-developed Action Notation Modeling Language (ANML).

August was the primary developer of Adventium’s STEAF package providing an interface between geographic information systems and statistical environments. Additionally, he assisted in the creation of the interactive mobile apps developed by Adventium’s subsidiary, Andamio Games. This included writing formal specifications for the simulators used in the apps, as well as a translation that distilled a neuroscientific model of the brain into a form usable by the iNeuron app.

As a member of the MELT research group at the University of Minnesota, August developed an improved scanning algorithm that takes parser context into account and developed an integrated parser and scanner generation tool, Copper, based on these algorithms.

He has a B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Minnesota.