

Sumit Gulwani
Partner Research Manager
About
Sumit Gulwani is a computer scientist seeking connections: between ideas, between research & practice, and with people with varied roles. He is the inventor of many intent-understanding, programming-by-example, and programming-by-natural-language technologies including the popular Flash Fill feature in Excel used by hundreds of millions of people. He founded and currently leads the PROSE research and engineering team at Microsoft that develops APIs for program synthesis and incorporates them into various products. He has published 125+ peer-reviewed papers in top-tier conferences and journals across multiple computer science areas, delivered 50+ keynotes and invited talks at various forums, and authored 50+ patent applications (granted and pending). He was awarded the ACM SIGPLAN Robin Milner Young Researcher Award in 2014 for his pioneering contributions to end-user programming and intelligent tutoring systems. He obtained his PhD in Computer Science from UC-Berkeley, and was awarded the ACM SIGPLAN Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award. He obtained his…
Microsoft Research Podcast

Program synthesis and the art of programming by intent with Dr. Sumit Gulwani
Episode 99 | November 20, 2019 - Dr. Sumit Gulwani is a programmer’s programmer. Literally. A Partner Research Manager in the Program Synthesis, or PROSE, group at Microsoft Research, Dr. Gulwani is a leading researcher in program synthesis and the inventor of many intent-understanding, programming-by-example and programming-by-natural language technologies – aka, the automation of “what I meant to do and wanted to do, but my computer wouldn’t let me” tasks. On the podcast, Dr. Gulwani gives us an overview of the exciting “now” and promising future of program synthesis; reveals some fascinating new applications and technical advances; tells us the story behind the creation of Excel’s popular Flash Fill feature (and how a Flash Fill Fail elicited a viral tweet that paved the way for new domain investments); and shares a heartwarming story of how human empathy facilitated an “ah-ha math moment” in the life of a child, and what that might mean to computer scientists, educators, and even tech companies in the future.