david minh-duy cao
computer science & ethnic studies
uc san diego
he/him
david@cao.sh

heyo! I'm David, a fourth year undergrad at UC San Diego interested in the intersection of PL, HCI, and social justice.
Research
Principles of Programming Languages (POPL) 2023
babble: Learning Better Abstractions with E-Graphs and Anti-Unification
David Cao*, Rose Kunkel*, Chandrakana Nandi, Max Willsey, Zachary Tatlock, Nadia Polikarpova
Humans are really good at library learning: finding common patterns in code and extracting them into a library of common abstractions. This problem has a bunch of use cases across FPGA design, program synthesis, and modeling human perception. So how can we get a computer to do this?
Building off of prior work in library learning and e-graphs, we contribute new algorithms for proposing candidate abstractions and choosing the best set. We improve on the prior state-of-the-art in compression and speed by several orders of magnitude!
Paper Slides (.key) Code (Github)Programming Language Design and Implementation (PLDI) 2022
Type-Directed Program Synthesis for RESTful APIs
Zheng Guo, David Cao, Davin Tjong, Jean Yang, Cole Schlesinger, Nadia Polikarpova
Interacting with REST APIs can often be extremely unwieldy; APIs can have hundreds of methods, and may or may not be documented. We propose a system that can synthesize programs that call into REST APIs.
PaperPOPL 2021 • Student Research Competition, 2nd Prize
Automated Dependent Resource Analysis
David Cao, advised by Tristan Knoth and Nadia Polikarpova
When programming, it's useful to know the resource use of a program (in undergrad we take whole courses on this!). We contribute a system that can automatically infer resource bounds that can depend on the inputs of a program.
Abstract Virtual poster (video)${time} ${typ}
${item}
Awards
January 2023
Computing Research Association
June 2021
Service
January 2022–Present
Campus Diversity Engagement Coordinator
SPACES at UC San Diego
SPACES is one of the last student-run, student-led college resource centers in the country, aimed at improving marginalized folks in San Diego's access to and retention in higher education. I've helped give Alternative Tours & Panels to hundreds of local high school and college students, which examine the ungarnished history of student activism and organizing here at UCSD.
SPACES WebsitePhotography & Videography










I do photography and videography on the side too! I've been doing macro and portrait photography since high school, and since starting my undergrad I've helped filmed/edit videos for live dance events and dance team concept videos.
see full photography/videography portfolio!→Projects
September 2020
seascape (ucsd cape eval analysis)
June 2020
ucsd wushu website
June 2020