My submission “Formal Proofs of Bit Hacks in Machine Code” was accepted to compete in the undergrad division of the Student Research Competition at PLDI 2026! That means I’ll be heading to Boulder, Colorado this summer to participate in my first ever conference and present my research in person.

This is the first paper I have ever written, and it is the culmination of my year long work with the Software Languages Squared Lab at the University of Texas at Dallas. I’m thankful to my lab mates in the Software Languages Squares Lab (especially Ilan) for guiding me through my research and giving me essential feedback.

If you are also an undergrad that is interested in research, here are 2 important pieces of unsolicited advice:

* Join a lab

It is essentially impossible to produce acceptable research without joining a lab. If you join a good lab, your lab mates will provide crucial guidance that you can’t get anywhere else.

However, I do understand that it is often difficult to get your foot in the door. I was lucky to meet a PhD student in the special interest forum (Zulip for the Rocq Theorem Prover), so I don’t have any advice for joining a lab other than developing niche interests (Interactive Theorem Proving, Computer Vision, Reverse Engineering).

* Target a Student Research Competition

ACM’s Student Research Competitions (SRC) are a great way for students (undergrad or grad) to get experience, as they allow you to get feedback on your incomplete and mildly significant work from experts. The reviews my paper received were generous and constructive, and my paper was still accepted even though 2/4 of the reviewers were unsure whether it was good enough for the SRC.

To be honest, I was expecting to get rejected because my original paper was not well written. It had significant mistakes, introduced unrelated topics, and did not present my research as well motivated.

The reviewers saw past my poor prose and provided recommendations that helped me strengthen my paper to a camera ready version that I am proud of.

If you have any questions concerning my experience, please don’t hesitate to email me!

If you are a university student who’s interested in working with us, please email me only if you have programmed in a functional programming language or used functional programming concepts like currying.