Bob McGrail, ASC Lab Director

I am the founder of the computer science program at Bard College and the Director of the Laboratory for Algebraic and Symbolic Computation within the Reem Kayden Center for Science and Computation.

I am interested in the role of language in computing from a deductive perspective. My Ph.D. dissertation was in the area of programming language semantics. Since that time I have developed broader interests in the general problem of the expressiveness of languages for computing.

Research Interests

  • Logic in Computer Science
  • The Constraint Satisfaction Problem
  • Computation and Algebra
  • Finite Model Theory
  • Databases
  • Logic Programming
  • The Semantic Web

Education

  • Ph.D. Logic in Computer Science, Wesleyan University, 1999
  • M.A. Mathematics, Boston College, 1992
  • B.A. Mathematics and History, Saint Joseph's College of Maine, 1990
  • Certificate of Proficiency, Computer Technology, Franklin Institute of Boston, 1986
  • Boston College High School, 1984

Refereed Regular Conference papers

  • Robert W. McGrail, Thuy Trang Nguyen, and Mary Granda. Knot Coloring as Verification. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual Symposium of Symbolic and Numeric Algorithms for Scientific Computing (SYNASC). Timisoara, Romania. September 1-4, 2020. IEEE Computer Society.
  • Robert W. McGrail, Thuy Trang Nguyen, Thanh Thuy Trang Tran, and Arti Tripathi. A Terminating and Confluent Term Rewriting System for the Pure Equational Theory of Quandles. Proceedings of the 20th Annual Symposium of Symbolic and Numeric Algorithms for Scientific Computing (SYNASC). Timisoara, Romania. September 20-23, 2018. IEEE Computer Society.
  • James Belk and Robert W. McGrail. The Word Problem for Finitely Presented Quandles is Undecidable. The 22nd Workshop on Logic, Language, Information, and Computation (WoLLIC). July 20-23, 2015. Bloomington, Indiana, USA. In de V. Paiva, R. de Queroz, L.S. Moss, D. Leivant, and A.G. de Oliveira, editors volume 9160 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Springer Verlag.
  • Robert W. McGrail, James Belk, Japheth Wood, Solomon Garber, Benjamin Fish. CSP's and Connectedness: P/NP-Complete Dichotomy for Idempotent, Right Quasigroups. Proceedings of the 16th Annual Symposium on Symbolic and Numeric Algorithms for Scientific Computing (SYNASC). TimiÈ™oara, Romania. September 22-25, 2014. IEEE Computer Society.
  • Nabil Hossain, Robert W. McGrail, Francesco Matucci, James Belk. Deciding Conjugacy in Trompson's Group F in Linear Time. Proceedings of the 15th Annual Symposium on Symbolic and Numeric Algorithms for Scientific Computing (SYNASC). TimiÈ™oara, Romania. September 26-29, 2013. IEEE Computer Society.
  • Peter Golbus, Robert W. McGrail, Tomasz Przytycki, Mary Sharac, Aleksandar Chakarov. Tricolorable Torus Knots are NP-complete. Proceedings of the 47th ACM Southeast Conference. Article number 42. Clemson, South Carolina. April, 2009.
  • Tracey Baldwin McGrail, Robert W. McGrail. Sorting the Sortable from the Unsortable. Proceedings of the International Florida Artificial Intelligence Research Society (FLAIRS) Conference. Melbourne Beach, Florida. May, 2006.
  • Robert W. McGrail and Burton Brody. Deconstructing the "Math-Science Quest for Solutions" Website via Logic Programming. The 20th Annual Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges Eastern Conference (CCSCE). Loyola College, Baltimore, Maryland. The Journal for Computing Science in Colleges. Volume 20, number 3. February, 2005. Winner, Best Paper Award.
  • Robert W. McGrail and K. Peter Krog. Pivot Analysis and Key Diversity in Quicksort. Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Computer Science and its Applications (ICCSA 2004). San Diego, CA. June, 2004.
  • Robert W. McGrail and Tracey Baldwin McGrail. A Grading Dilemma or the Abyss between Sorting and the Knapsack Problem. The 9th Annual CCSCNE Conference. Union College, Schenectady, New York. The Journal for Computing Science in Colleges. Volume 19, number 5. May, 2004.
  • Robert W. McGrail, S. Rebecca Thomas, and Michael Tibbetts. The Genome Generator: Simulating the Development of Junk DNA. The 8th Annual Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges Northeastern Conference (CCSCNE). Rhode Island College, Providence, Rhode Island. The Journal for Computing Science in Colleges. Volume 18, number 5. May, 2003.
  • James Lipton and Robert McGrail. Encapsulating Data in Logic Programming via Categorical Constraints. Algebraic and Logic Programming (ALP). September, 1998. Pisa, Italy. In C. Palamidessi, H. Glaser, and K. Menke, editors, volume 1490 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Springer Verlag.

Journal Publications

  • Gianluca Amato, James Lipton, Robert McGrail. On the Algebraic Structure of Declarative Programming Languages. Theoretical Computer Science 410(46):4626-4671. (2009)
  • Margaret T. Shaw, Felicia Keesing, Robert McGrail, and Richard S. Ostfeld. Factors Influencing the Distribution of Larval Blacklegged Ticks on Rodent Hosts. American Journal of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene 68:447-452. (2003)

Refereed Short Papers

  • Nabil Hossain, Robert W. McGrail, Francesco Matucci, James Belk. Implementation of a Solution to the Conjugacy Problem in Trompson's Group F. Proceedings of the International Symposium for Symbolic and Algebraic Computing. Boston, Massachusetts. June, 2013. ACM Communications in Computer Algebra, Volume 47(3): 120-121.
  • Bella Manoim, Robert W. McGrail. Toward an Ontology for Finite Algebras. Proceedings of the Poster and Demonstration Session at the 7th International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC). Karlsruhe, Germany. October, 2008. CEUR Electronic Proceedings, Volume 401. Honorable Mention, Best Poster and Demonstration Contest (One winner and two honorable mentions from 85 entrants).
  • Robert W. McGrail, S. Rebecca Thomas. TICK: A Content Management System Framework for Semantic Web Research and Instruction. Proceedings of the International FLAIRS Conference. Key West, Florida. May, 2007.

Unrefereed Papers

  • Robert W. McGrail and Mary Sharac, Tricoloring as a Corrective Measure. East Coast Computer Algebra Day 2008 (ECCAD 2008), Shepherdstown, West Virginia. May, 2008. Communicated by W. Liao, Q. Wang, Z. Wang. ACM Communications in Computer Algebra, Volume 42(2):83-85.

Projects

Contact

Email: mcgrail@bard.edu
Phone: (845)752-2308