CAREER: Generating Provably Correct Query Optimizers

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Database query optimizers are large, complex, and error-prone software systems. The goal of this project is to assist researchers and developers in building optimizers that are "provably correct". Specifically, this research group is building a framework which accepts specifications of optimizer components and their interactions, and generates optimizers that can be shown to satisfy the property that the plans they construct always return the data specified in a user queries. The group's approach separates the components of the optimizer into those that require correctness proofs (the safety critical components) from those that do not. Languages are under design for formally specifying those components, and tools are under construction that both generate these components according to the specifications, and generate proof obligations enabling their verification with an automated theorem prover. The experimental research is linked to the educational goal of training students in the application of formal methods in building large software systems. The results of this project will provide a sandbox for database researchers in both academia and industry, to introduce new optimizer techniques and products while providing tangible guarantees that they are free of errors. {http://www.cs.brandeis.edu/~mfc/cokokola.html}