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About

About

I'm a post-doctoral researcher at the SPeCS lab in the Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto. My area of expertise is source-to-source compilers and code generation, and I have done work both in high-level languages, such as MATLAB and C++, and low-level languages, such as assembly and VHDL.

From 2012 to 2015, my main line of research was MATLAB to C compilation, and I was the creator and main developer of the tool MATISSE (specs.fe.up.pt/tools/matisse). Currently I am working on Clava (specs.fe.up.pt/tools/clava), a C++ source-to-source transformation tool based on Clang, as part of the H2020 project ANTAREX (antarex-project.eu) which focus on strategies for autotunning and energy efficiency in HPC.

Previous work includes translation of Perl-Compatible Regular Expressions (PCRE) to HDL, and automatic runtime migration of loops found in MicroBlaze assembly traces to customized hardware (the subject of the PhD thesis).

I've received a Bachelor's degree in Computer Systems and Informatics from the Univ. of Algarve in July 2006, and in July 2012 received the Ph.D. degree from Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), Lisbon, with the thesis “Mapping Runtime-Detected Loops from Microprocessors to Reconfigurable Processing Units”.

Interest
Topics
Details

Details

  • Name

    João Bispo
  • Role

    Area Manager
  • Since

    01st May 2015
002
Publications

2025

Multilanguage Detection of Design Pattern Instances

Authors
Andrade, H; Bispo, J; Correia, FF;

Publication
JOURNAL OF SOFTWARE-EVOLUTION AND PROCESS

Abstract
Code comprehension is often supported by source code analysis tools that provide more abstract views over software systems, such as those detecting design patterns. These tools encompass analysis of source code and ensuing extraction of relevant information. However, the analysis of the source code is often specific to the target programming language. We propose DP-LARA, a multilanguage pattern detection tool that uses the multilanguage capability of the LARA framework to support finding pattern instances in a code base. LARA provides a virtual AST, which is common to multiple OOP programming languages, and DP-LARA then performs code analysis of detecting pattern instances on this abstract representation. We evaluate the detection performance and consistency of DP-LARA with a few software projects. Results show that a multilanguage approach does not compromise detection performance, and DP-LARA is consistent across the languages we tested it for (i.e., Java and C/C++). Moreover, by providing a virtual AST as the abstract representation, we believe to have decreased the effort of extending the tool to new programming languages and maintaining existing ones.

2025

METFORD - Mutation tEsTing Framework fOR anDroid

Authors
Vincenzi, AMR; Kuroishi, PH; Bispo, J; da Veiga, ARC; da Mata, DRC; Azevedo, FB; Paiva, ACR;

Publication
JOURNAL OF SYSTEMS AND SOFTWARE

Abstract
Mutation testing maybe used to guide test case generation and as a technique to assess the quality of test suites. Despite being used frequently, mutation testing is not so commonly applied in the mobile world. One critical challenge in mutation testing is dealing with its computational cost. Generating mutants, running test cases over each mutant, and analyzing the results may require significant time and resources. This research aims to contribute to reducing Android mutation testing costs. It implements mutation testing operators (traditional and Android-specific) according to mutant schemata (implementing multiple mutants into a single code file). It also describes an Android mutation testing framework developed to execute test cases and determine mutation scores. Additional mutation operators can be implemented in JavaScript and easily integrated into the framework. The overall approach is validated through case studies showing that mutant schemata have advantages over the traditional mutation strategy (one file per mutant). The results show mutant schemata overcome traditional mutation in all evaluated aspects with no additional cost: it takes 8.50% less time for mutant generation, requires 99.78% less disk space, and runs, on average, 6.45% faster than traditional mutation. Moreover, considering sustainability metrics, mutant schemata have 8,18% less carbon footprint than traditional strategy.

2024

Enhancing Object Detection in Maritime Environments Using Metadata

Authors
Fernandes, DS; Bispo, J; Bento, LC; Figueiredo, M;

Publication
PROGRESS IN PATTERN RECOGNITION, IMAGE ANALYSIS, COMPUTER VISION, AND APPLICATIONS, CIARP 2023, PT II

Abstract
Over the years, many solutions have been suggested in order to improve object detection in maritime environments. However, none of these approaches uses flight information, such as altitude, camera angle, time of the day, and atmospheric conditions, to improve detection accuracy and network robustness, even though this information is often available and captured by the UAV. This work aims to develop a network unaffected by image-capturing conditions, such as altitude and angle. To achieve this, metadata was integrated into the neural network, and an adversarial learning training approach was employed. This was built on top of the YOLOv7, which is a state-of-the-art realtime object detector. To evaluate the effectiveness of this methodology, comprehensive experiments and analyses were conducted. Findings reveal that the improvements achieved by this approach are minimal when trying to create networks that generalize more across these specific domains. The YOLOv7 mosaic augmentation was identified as one potential responsible for this minimal impact because it also enhances the model's ability to become invariant to these image-capturing conditions. Another potential cause is the fact that the domains considered (altitude and angle) are not orthogonal with respect to their impact on captured images. Further experiments should be conducted using datasets that offer more diverse metadata, such as adverse weather and sea conditions, which may be more representative of real maritime surveillance conditions. The source code of this work is publicly available at https://git hub.com/ipleiria-robotics/maritime-metadata-adaptation.

2024

A DSL and MLIR Dialect for Streaming and Vectorisation

Authors
da Silva, MC; Sousa, L; Paulino, N; Bispo, J;

Publication
APPLIED RECONFIGURABLE COMPUTING. ARCHITECTURES, TOOLS, AND APPLICATIONS, ARC 2024

Abstract
This work addresses the contemporary challenges in computing, caused by the stagnation of Moore's Law and Dennard scaling. The shift towards heterogeneous architectures necessitates innovative compilation strategies, prompting initiatives like the Multi-Level Intermediate Representation (MLIR) project, where progressive code lowering can be achieved through the use of dialects. Our work focuses on developing an MLIR dialect capable of representing streaming data accesses to memory, and Single Instruction Multiple Data (SIMD) vector operations. We also propose our own Structured Representation Language (SRL), a Design Specific Language (DSL) to serve as a precursor into the MLIR layer and subsequent inter-operation between new and existing dialects. The SRL exposes the streaming and vector computational concepts to a higher-level, and serves as intermediate step to supporting code generation containing our proposed dialect from arbitrary input code, which we leave as future work. This paper presents the syntaxes of the SRL DSL and of the dialect, and illustrates how we aim to employ them to target both General-Purpose Processors (GPPs) with SIMD co-processors and custom hardware options such as Field-Programmable Gate Arrayss (FPGAs) and Coarse-Grained Re-configurable Arrays (CGRAs).

2024

Using Source-to-Source to Target RISC-V Custom Extensions: UVE Case-Study

Authors
Henriques, M; Bispo, J; Paulino, N;

Publication
PROCEEDINGS OF THE RAPIDO 2024 WORKSHOP, HIPEAC 2024

Abstract
Hardware specialization is seen as a promising venue for improving computing efficiency, with reconfigurable devices as excellent deployment platforms for application-specific architectures. One approach to hardware specialization is via the popular RISC-V, where Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) extensions for domains such as Edge Artifical Intelligence (AI) are already appearing. However, to use the custom instructions while maintaining a high (e.g., C/C++) abstraction level, the assembler and compiler must be modified. Alternatively, inline assembly can be manually introduced by a software developer with expert knowledge of the hardware modifications in the RISC-V core. In this paper, we consider a RISC-V core with a vectorization and streaming engine to support the Unlimited Vector Extension (UVE), and propose an approach to automatically transform annotated C loops into UVE compatible code, via automatic insertion of inline assembly. We rely on a source-to-source transformation tool, Clava, to perform sophisticated code analysis and transformations via scripts. We use pragmas to identify code sections amenable for vectorization and/or streaming, and use Clava to automatically insert inline UVE instructions, avoiding extensive modifications of existing compiler projects. We produce UVE binaries which are functionally correct, when compared to handwritten versions with inline assembly, and achieve equal and sometimes improved number of executed instructions, for a set of six benchmarks from the Polybench suite. These initial results are evidence towards that this kind of translation is feasible, and we consider that it is possible in future work to target more complex transformations or other ISA extensions, accelerating the adoption of hardware/software co-design flows for generic application cases.

Supervised
thesis

2023

CORAL: a Rust-like Borrow Checker for C

Author
Tiago Duarte da Silva

Institution

2023

Exploring Metadata in Neural Networks for UAV Maritime Surveillance

Author
Diogo Samuel Gonçalves Fernandes

Institution

2023

A Holistic Approach for Partitioning and Optimizing Software Applications on FPGAs

Author
Tiago Lascasas dos Santos

Institution

2023

An MLIR-Compatible DSL and IR for Structural Representation

Author
Manuel de Magalhães Carvalho Cerqueira da Silva

Institution

2023

Mutation Operators for Android Apps

Author
Ana Rita Cheio da Veiga

Institution