I will be hiring PhD students in the Fall 2025 hiring cycle! If you are considering a PhD and interested in programming languages, software engineering, or human-computer interaction, please take a look at my recent publications below and consider applying!
I am happy to talk with prospective students via email, but please demonstrate concrete interest in working together; if your message looks AI-generated or like a form email, I may not have the bandwidth to read it.
About Me
I am an incoming Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University at Buffalo, starting in Fall 2025. Currently, I am finishing up a postdoc at the University of Maryland, working with Leo Lampropoulos as a Victor Basili Postdoctoral Fellow. I earned my PhD working with Professor Benjamin C. Pierce at the University of Pennsylvania.
In my research, I make the software development process safer and more effective by building tools for software validation that address the needs of real users. My main area of study is programming languages, but I borrow motivation and techniques from both software engineering and human-computer interaction as well. Currently my projects center around the theoretical, practical, and human aspects of property-based testing and formal methods.
I love to collaborate, so feel free to reach out if you have anything you'd like to discuss.
News
May 7, 2025 Accepted a position as Assistant Professor at the University at Buffalo!
Mar 11, 2025 Received the Morris and Dorothy Rubinoff Award from the University of Pennsylvania Department of Computer and Information Science
Dissertation
- Property-Based Testing for the People
Harrison Goldstein
advised by Benjamin C. Pierce
approved by Stephanie Weirich (committee chair), Andrew Head, Mayur Naik, Hila Peleg
Defended May 24, 2024 PDF Talk
Selected Publications
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QED in Context: An Observation Study of Proof Assistant Users
Jessica Shi, Cassia Torczon, Harrison Goldstein, Benjamin Pierce, Andrew Head
OOPSLA 2025 Preprint -
Designing Proof Deautomation in Rocq
Jessica Shi, Cassia Torczon, Harrison Goldstein, Andrew Head, Benjamin Pierce
PLATEAU 2025 Preprint -
Tyche: Making Sense of Property-Based Testing Effectiveness
Harrison Goldstein, Jeffrey Tao, Zac Hatfield-Dodds, Benjamin C. Pierce, Andrew Head
UIST 2024 PDF -
Mica: Automated Differential Testing for OCaml Modules
Ernest Ng, Harrison Goldstein, Benjamin C. Pierce
OCaml Workshop 2024 PDF -
Demonstrating FEDT: Supporting Characterization Experiments in Fabrication Research
Valkyrie Savage, Nóra Püsök, Harrison Goldstein, Chandrakana Nandi, Jia Yi Ren and Lora Oehlberg
SCF 2024 Demo -
Stream Types
Joseph W Cutler, Christopher Watson, Emeka Nkurumeh, Phillip Hilliard, Harrison Goldstein, Caleb Stanford, Benjamin C. Pierce
PLDI 2024 PDF -
Daedalus: Safer Document Parsing
Iavor Diatchki, Mike Dodds, Harrison Goldstein, Bill Harris, David Holland, Benoit Razet, Cole Schlesinger, Simon Winwood
PLDI 2024 DOI -
Property-Based Testing in Practice (Distinguished Paper)
Harrison Goldstein, Joseph W. Cutler, Daniel Dickstein, Benjamin C. Pierce, Andrew Head
ICSE 2024 PDF -
Reflecting on Random Generation (Distinguished Paper)
Harrison Goldstein, Samantha Frohlich, Meng Wang, Benjamin C. Pierce
ICFP 2023 PDF Talk -
Etna: An Evaluation Platform for Property-Based Testing
Jessica Shi, Alperen Keles, Harrison Goldstein, Benjamin C. Pierce, Leonidas Lampropoulos
ICFP 2023 Experience Report PDF -
Parsing Randomness
Harrison Goldstein, Benjamin C. Pierce
OOPSLA 2022 PDF -
Some Problems with Properties: A Study on Property-Based Testing in Industry
Harrison Goldstein, Joseph W. Cutler, Adam Stein, Andrew Head, Benjamin C. Pierce
HATRA 2022 PDF Slides -
Everybody Clap Your Hands: The Cha-Cha Slide is Turing Complete
Harrison Goldstein
SIGBOVIK 2022 PDF -
Do Judge a Test by its Cover: Combining Combinatorial and Property-Based Testing
Harrison Goldstein, John Hughes, Leonidas Lampropoulos, Benjamin C. Pierce
ESOP 2021 PDF Video
Talks & Speaking
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Haskell Interlude 59
Haskell Interlude Podcast -
My PhD Compass: 6 Ways to Guide a PhD Towards Success
PLMW @ ICFP 2024 VOD -
Property-Based Testing in Practice
Disseminate Podcast Podcast -
Consider Collaboration with Samantha Frohlich
PLMW @ POPL 2024 VOD -
TheForkJoin Episode 2
TheForkJoin Podcast Podcast -
Some Problems with Properties
NJPLS October 2022 Abstract -
Reflecting on Random Generation
NJPLS May 2022 Abstract
Other Content
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Conferences after COVID: An Early-Career Perspective
Joseph W. Cutler, Harry Goldstein, Andrew K. Hirsch, Jaemin Hong, Chandrakana Nandi
SIGPLAN PL Perspectives - March 25, 2021 Post -
Delimited Continuations and Monads
Harrison Goldstein
Unpublished PhD Milestone Draft
Featured Blog Posts
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A Fun Little Mocktail
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Don't Give a No-Op Talk
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The (Regular) Language of Dance
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Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Coordinates
| Website | harrisongoldste.in | You are here! |
| [email protected] | Ideal way to get in touch. | |
| BlueSky | @harrisongoldste.in | I check notifications every couple of weeks. |
| Mastodon | @[email protected] | Similar to BlueSky |
| YouTube | @harrisongoldstein2137 | Talk VODs and occasional shorts. |
| Beli | @hgoldstein95 | Judge my taste in restaurants. |