Four undergraduate students from Seton Hall University’s Computer Science department recently presented their research at two international conferences. The students—Andrés Maldonato, Brysen Pfingsten, David Anthony Fields, and Sophia Turano—attended events in Singapore and Montevideo, Uruguay. Their work covered topics such as programming languages, visualization tools, and formal verification.
In Singapore, the group participated in the International Conference on Functional Programming (ICFP), taking part in both the Student Research Competition and specialized workshops like SPLASHE-E 2025 and Scheme 2025. Andrés Maldonato delivered a talk at SPLASHE-E, presented a poster at the ACM Student Research Competition at ICFP 2025, and gave a joint talk with David Anthony K. Fields at Scheme 2025. He commented on his experience: “Every conference teaches you something new,” Andrés reflected. “You walk away with fresh ideas and new techniques. There’s a world of information out there you wouldn’t even know otherwise.”
Brysen Pfingsten earned second place in the ACM Student Research Competition for his paper on logic programming. His research formalized language behavior using small-step semantics and contributed to renewed interest in logic programming at the miniKanren Workshop. He said, “It’s surreal to meet people whose names you’ve only seen on papers,” Brysen said. “The workshop was a reminder that even niche areas of computer science are making a comeback.”
David Anthony K. Fields co-presented with Andrés Maldonado at Scheme 2025 and also showcased his own poster titled “Validation and Verification for Finite State Automata” at SPLASH 2025, reaching the finals of the competition. His visualization tool helps students understand all possible computations performed by finite state machines through interactive learning methods. Reflecting on his participation, he shared: “It was an incredible opportunity to meet academics from other areas. I even received an offer to collaborate and receive advice from a professor abroad.”
At the Implementation and Application of Functional Languages (IFL 2025) conference in Montevideo, Uruguay, Maldonado, Fields, and Turano represented Seton Hall University. Sophia Turano presented her first conference paper about invariant testing for finite state machines—a tool aimed at improving student programming assessments’ accuracy and efficiency. She remarked: “I thought it was really nice that people were giving feedback. It was great practice for public speaking, and for building confidence.”
Maldonado presented research focused on implementing domain-specific languages for unit test expression—a step toward better software quality assurance systems.
Fields discussed recipe-based errors that relate program errors to specific design steps not completed successfully—an approach intended to help programmers more efficiently identify software bugs.
Through these experiences across continents, Seton Hall’s Computer Science students gained feedback from peers worldwide while forming new professional connections within their field.
As David summarized: “You come out knowing just a little bit more every time.”
