EDBT 2026 Demo / reviewers in the wild / expert
Paige Randall North
dblp:223/9888
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11ranked-venue papers
2as first author
9since 2021 · last 2026
0000-0001-7876-0956ORCID · verified
Domains — the database's venue-derived domains; a paper can count in several
Theory of computation · 9 · 2 first-author · 7 since 2021Software engineering, systems software and programming languages · 3 · 3 since 2021
| Year | Publication | Venue | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | From Semantics to Syntax: A Type Theory for Comprehension CategoriesabstractRecent models of intensional type theory have been constructed in algebraic weak factorization systems (AWFSs). AWFSs give rise to comprehension categories that feature non-trivial morphisms between types; these morphisms are not used in the standard interpretation of Martin-Löf type theory in comprehension categories. We develop a type theory that internalizes morphisms between types, reflecting this semantic feature back into syntax. Our type theory comes with Π-, Σ-, and identity types. We discuss how it can be viewed as an extension of Martin-Löf type theory with coercive subtyping, as sketched by Coraglia and Emmenegger. We furthermore define semantic structure that interprets our type theory and prove a soundness result. Finally, we exhibit many examples of the semantic structure, yielding a plethora of interpretations. Niyousha Najmaei, Niels van der Weide, Benedikt Ahrens, Paige Randall North |
Proc. ACM Program. Lang. | 4 |
| 2025 | Insights from Univalent Foundations: A Case Study Using Double CategoriesabstractCategory theory unifies mathematical concepts, aiding comparisons across structures by incorporating not just objects, but also morphisms capturing interactions between objects. Of particular importance in some applications are double categories, which are categories with two classes of morphisms, axiomatizing two different kinds of interactions between objects. These have found applications in many areas of mathematics and theoretical computer science, for instance, the study of lenses, open systems, and rewriting. However, double categories come with a wide variety of equivalences, which makes it challenging to transport structure along equivalences. To deal with this challenge, we propose the univalence maxim: each notion of equivalence of categorical structures has a corresponding notion of univalent categorical structure which induces that notion of equivalence. We also prove corresponding univalence principles, which allow us to transport structure and properties along equivalences. In this way, the usually informal practice of reasoning modulo equivalence becomes grounded in an entirely formal logical principle. We apply this perspective to various double categorical structures, such as (pseudo) double categories and double bicategories. Concretely, we characterize and formalize their definitions in Coq UniMath up to chosen equivalences, which we achieve by establishing their univalence principles. Nima Rasekh, Niels van der Weide, Benedikt Ahrens, Paige Randall North |
CSL | 4 |
| 2025 | Algebraic Presentations of Type DependencyabstractC-systems were defined by Cartmell as the algebraic structures that correspond exactly to generalised algebraic theories. B-systems were defined by Voevodsky in his quest to formulate and prove an initiality conjecture for type theories. They play a crucial role in Voevodsky's construction of a syntactic C-system from a term monad. In this work, we construct an equivalence between the category of C-systems and the category of B-systems, thus proving a conjecture by Voevodsky. We construct this equivalence as the restriction of an equivalence between more general structures, called CE-systems and E-systems, respectively. To this end, we identify C-systems and B-systems as "stratified" CE-systems and E-systems, respectively; that is, systems whose contexts are built iteratively via context extension, starting from the empty context. Benedikt Ahrens, Jacopo Emmenegger, Paige Randall North, Egbert Rijke |
Log. Methods Comput. Sci. | 3 |
| 2024 | Comparing Semantic Frameworks for Dependently-Sorted Algebraic Theories
Benedikt Ahrens, Peter LeFanu Lumsdaine, Paige Randall North |
APLAS | 3 |
| 2024 | Univalent Double CategoriesabstractCategory theory is a branch of mathematics that provides a formal framework for understanding the relationship between mathematical structures. To this end, a category not only incorporates the data of the desired objects, but also "morphisms", which capture how different objects interact with each other. Category theory has found many applications in mathematics and in computer science, for example in functional programming. Niels van der Weide, Nima Rasekh, Benedikt Ahrens, Paige Randall North |
CPP | 4 |
| 2024 | Formalizing the Algebraic Small Object Argument in UniMathabstractQuillen model category theory forms the cornerstone of modern homotopy theory, and thus the semantics of (and justification for the name of) homotopy type theory / univalent foundations (HoTT/UF). One of the main tools of Quillen model category theory is the small object argument. Indeed, the particular model categories that can interpret HoTT/UF are usually constructed using the small object argument. In this article, we formalize the algebraic small object argument, a modern categorical version of the small object argument originally due to Garner, in the Coq UniMath library. This constitutes a first step in building up the tools required to formalize - in a system based on HoTT/UF - the semantics of HoTT/UF in particular model categories: for instance, Voevodsky’s original interpretation into simplicial sets. More specifically, in this work, we rephrase and formalize Garner’s original formulation of the algebraic small object argument. We fill in details of Garner’s construction and redefine parts of the construction to be more direct and fit for formalization. We rephrase the theory in more modern language, using constructions like displayed categories and a modern, less strict notion of monoidal categories. We point out the interaction between the theory and the foundations, and motivate the use of the algebraic small object argument in lieu of Quillen’s original small object argument from a constructivist standpoint. Dennis Hilhorst, Paige Randall North |
ITP | 2 |
| 2023 | Coinductive Control of Inductive Data TypesabstractWe combine the theory of inductive data types with the theory of universal measurings. By doing so, we find that many categories of algebras of endofunctors are actually enriched in the corresponding category of coalgebras of the same endofunctor. The enrichment captures all possible partial algebra homomorphisms, defined by measuring coalgebras. Thus this enriched category carries more information than the usual category of algebras which captures only total algebra homomorphisms. We specify new algebras besides the initial one using a generalization of the notion of initial algebra. Paige Randall North, Maximilien Péroux |
CALCO | 1 |
| 2023 | Bicategorical type theory: semantics and syntaxabstractAbstract We develop semantics and syntax for bicategorical type theory. Bicategorical type theory features contexts, types, terms, and directed reductions between terms. This type theory is naturally interpreted in a class of structured bicategories. We start by developing the semantics, in the form of comprehension bicategories. Examples of comprehension bicategories are plentiful; we study both specific examples as well as classes of examples constructed from other data. From the notion of comprehension bicategory, we extract the syntax of bicategorical type theory, that is, judgment forms and structural inference rules. We prove soundness of the rules by giving an interpretation in any comprehension bicategory. The semantic aspects of our work are fully checked in the Coq proof assistant, based on the UniMath library. Benedikt Ahrens, Paige Randall North, Niels van der Weide |
Math. Struct. Comput. Sci. | 2 |
| 2022 | Semantics for two-dimensional type theoryabstractWe propose a general notion of model for two-dimensional type theory, in the form of comprehension bicategories. Examples of comprehension bicategories are plentiful; they include interpretations of directed type theory previously studied in the literature. Benedikt Ahrens, Paige Randall North, Niels van der Weide |
LICS | 2 |
| 2020 | A Higher Structure Identity PrincipleabstractThe ordinary Structure Identity Principle states that any property of set-level structures (e.g., posets, groups, rings, fields) definable in Univalent Foundations is invariant under isomorphism: more specifically, identifications of structures coincide with isomorphisms. We prove a version of this principle for a wide range of higher-categorical structures, adapting FOLDS-signatures to specify a general class of structures, and using two-level type theory to treat all categorical dimensions uniformly. As in the previously known case of 1-categories (which is an instance of our theory), the structures themselves must satisfy a local univalence principle, stating that identifications coincide with "isomorphisms" between elements of the structure. Our main technical achievement is a definition of such isomorphisms, which we call "indiscernibilities," using only the dependency structure rather than any notion of composition. Benedikt Ahrens, Paige Randall North, Michael Shulman, Dimitris Tsementzis |
LICS | 2 |
| 2019 | Identity types and weak factorization systems in Cauchy complete categoriesabstractAbstract It has been known that categorical interpretations of dependent type theory with Σ- and Id-types induce weak factorization systems. When one has a weak factorization system $({\cal L},{\cal R})$ on a category $\mathbb{C}$ in hand, it is then natural to ask whether or not $({\cal L},{\cal R})$ harbors an interpretation of dependent type theory with Σ- and Id- (and possibly Π-) types. Using the framework of display map categories to phrase this question more precisely, one would ask whether or not there exists a class ${\cal D}$ of morphisms of $\mathbb{C}$ such that the retract closure of ${\cal D}$ is the class ${\cal R}$ and the pair $(\mathbb{C},{\cal D})$ forms a display map category modeling Σ- and Id- (and possibly Π-) types. In this paper, we show, with the hypothesis that $\cal{C}$ is Cauchy complete, that there exists such a class $\cal{D}$ if and only if $(\mathbb{C},\cal{R})$ itself forms a display map category modeling Σ- and Id- (and possibly Π-) types. Thus, we reduce the search space of our original question from a potentially proper class to a singleton. Paige Randall North |
Math. Struct. Comput. Sci. | 1 |