Dr. Nicola Botta

I apply type theory, generic programming and program verification to climate science. I have active collaborations with M. Crucifix (UCL, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium), P. Jansson, T.-M. Fülöp (Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden) and C. Ionescu (THD, Deggendorf, Germany). I am responsible for Theme 4 (Data and Decisions) and for part of work package 6 of the EU Horizon 2020 TiPES project. I am a developer of IdrisLibs and of the verified framework for sequential decision problems IdrisLibs/SequentialDecisionProblems. I have worked on agent based models of exchange economies with A. Mandel (CES, Paris, France) and on numerical methods for partial differential equations with R. Klein (FU-Berlin, Berlin, Germany). I have obtained a PhD from the Department of Engineering of the ETH Zürich.

In preparation:

• How short-term policies affect humanity’s long-term scope of action. Marina Martínez Montero et al. Nature Climate Change brief communication.
• Types, equations, dimensions and the Pi theorem. Nicola Botta et al. Journal of Functional Programming.

Recent submissions:

• Extensional Equality Preservation in Intensional MLTT. Nuria Brede et al. Accepted contribution to the 29th International Conference on Types for Proofs and Programs, June 2023.
• Perspectives on adaptive dynamical systems. Jakub Sawicki et al. Accepted for publication in Chaos, 2023 download.

Recent publications:

• Responsibility Under Uncertainty: Which Climate Decisions Matter Most? N. Botta, N. Brede, M. Crucifix, C. Ionescu, P. Jansson, Z. Li, M. Martínez-Montero, T. Richter. Environmental Modeling & Assessment, 2023 download.
• ECOD: Unsupervised Outlier Detection Using Empirical Cumulative Distribution Functions. Zheng Li, Yue Zhao, Xiyang Hu, Nicola Botta, Cezar Ionescu, George Chen. IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, 2022, download.
• On the correctness of monadic backward induction. N. Brede, N. Botta. Journal of Functional Programming, Volume 31, 2021, download.
• Extensional equality preservation and verified generic programming. N. Botta, N. Brede, P. Jansson, T. Richter. Journal of Functional Programming, Volume 31, 2021, download

Further publications:

• Google Scholar

• I am a member of the COMET (Computational methods and visualization) unit and a developer of IdrisLibs.
• I am responsible for Theme 4 (Data and Decisions) and for deliverables D6.1 and D6.2 of the EU Horizon 2020 TiPES project.
• I am working with Patrik Jansson, Nick Smallbone (CSE, FP) and with the Plasma theory group at Chalmers University of Technology on the mitigation of runaway currents in tokamak fusion devices.

• 2022: Four guest lectures on climate policy, mathematical specifications, dependent types and verified decision making at THD (Technische Hochschule Deggendorf), THD SS 2022.
• 2022: Two guest lectures at Chalmers University of Technology Domain-Specific Languages of Mathematics.
• Ongoing: Cartesian Seminar, see CS@uni-potsdam and CS@github.
• 2019-2020: Introduction to functional languages and to dependently typed languages; theory of optimal decision making under uncertainty for finite horizon sequential decision problems; policy, policy sequences and value functions; optimality, viability and reachability; uncertainty measures and possible trajectories. Given at UCLouvain in Nov. 2019 (20 hours) and March 2020 (20 hours) as TiPES deliverable D6.1, regular lectures, extra lectures).

... for thought, in no particular order:

•  A very enjoyable paper on The School of Sqiggol and the history of the Bird-Meertens formalism, by J. Gibbons.
• On dynamical and statistical regularities (and potentially misleading analogies), a lecture by Max Planck from 1914, in German.
• Another great lecture by Max Planck, on the unity of the physical conception of the world. From 1908, also in German.
• How to link logic to computation: Philip Wadler's Propositions as Types.
• Let's be critical: A. J. Ayer's Language, Truth and Logic from 1935.
• How can we guarantee that our computations are correct? Testing versus proving in climate impact research, by C. Ionescu and P. Jansson.
• Let's be critical: On the Use and Misuse of models for climate policy, by  Robert Pindyck.
• A very enjoyable paper on modelling Vulnerability, by former PIK member C. Ionescu.
• A great short book: Rudolf Carnap's Introduction to the Philosophy of Science, via Google Books.
• One of the most enjoyable PhD thesis to read: David Aubin's Cultural History of Catastrophes and Chaos and of the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques (IHES) during the first two decades after its foundation.