Together, Dr. Shao and the Symbiont engineering team are applying cutting-edge techniques in programming language design and formal methods to the task of writing and publishing smart contracts in a decentralized network. Professor Shao is working closely with Symbiont to ensure that its smart contract language supports the highest levels of security and integrity in enterprise software.

“Professor Shao’s incredible depth of experience in designing and developing secure computing systems will be invaluable to Symbiont in our endeavor to radically improve the state of financial back-office infrastructure using smart contracts and distributed ledger technology.” said Adam Krellenstein, Symbiont’s Chief Technology Officer. “Symbiont’s smart contract language is already the most advanced in the industry, and the work we are doing with Dr. Shao will widen the gap between our technology and that of our closest competitors.”

In his three-decade career in computer science, Dr. Shao has had many notable accomplishments, including the spearheading of the development of CertiKOS, which is the first-ever hacker-resistant operating system supporting concurrent computing. Dr. Shao currently leads the FLINT research group at Yale, where he is a key figure in the development of many proof-carrying code and certified software technologies.

“Shao’s research enables programmers to write software that can be proven to match a formal functional specification. Symbiont’s customers will have unprecedented confidence that their business logic has been implemented correctly in our system,” said Dr. Pinku Surana, Principal Architect at Symbiont. “His knowledge and expertise will help Symbiont build on our demonstrated success in developing safe and powerful financial applications with smart contracts.”