The Programming Research Group (PRG) was part of the

Oxford University Computing Laboratory The Department of Computer Science is the computer science department of the University of Oxford, England, which is part of the university's Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences Division, University of Oxford, Mathematical, Physical and Life ...

(OUCL) in

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, along with the Numerical Analysis Group, until OUCL became the Department of Computer Science in 2011. The PRG was founded by

Christopher Strachey Christopher S. Strachey (; 16 November 1916 – 18 May 1975) was a British computer scientist. He was one of the founders of denotational semantics, and a pioneer in programming language design and computer time-sharing.F. J. Corbató, et al., ...

(1916–1975) in 1965. It was originally located at 45

Banbury Road Banbury Road is a major arterial road in Oxford, England, running from St Giles' Street, Oxford, St Giles' at the south end, north towards Banbury through the leafy suburb of North Oxford and Summertown, Oxford, Summertown, with its local shoppi ...

After Strachey's untimely death,

C.A.R. Hoare Sir Charles Antony Richard Hoare (Tony Hoare or C. A. R. Hoare) (born 11 January 1934) is a British computer scientist who has made foundational contributions to programming languages, algorithms, operating systems, formal verification, and c ...

, FRS took over the leadership in 1977. The PRG ethos is summed up by the following quotation from Strachey, found and promulgated by Tony Hoare after he arrived at the PRG: The PRG moved to 8–11

Keble Road Keble Road is a short road running east–west in central Oxford, England. To the west is the southern end of the Banbury Road with St Giles' Church opposite. To the east is Parks Road with the University Parks opposite. Blackhall Road leads ...

in 1984. During the later 1980s and early 1990s, some members of the PRG were housed at 2

South Parks Road South Parks Road is a road in Oxford, England. It runs east–west past the main Science Area of the University of Oxford. Many of the university science departments are located nearby or face the road, including parts of the geography, zoo ...

, including

Joseph Goguen __NOTOC__ Joseph Amadee Goguen ( ; June 28, 1941 – July 3, 2006) was an American computer scientist. He was professor of Computer Science at the University of California and University of Oxford, and held research positions at IBM and SRI In ...

(who was at the PRG during 1988–1996). Tony Hoare retired in 1999 and the PRG was led by

Samson Abramsky Samson Abramsky (born 12 March 1953) is Professor of Computer Science at University College London. He was previously the Christopher Strachey Professor of Computing at the University of Oxford, from 2000 to 2021. He has made contributions to t ...

from 2000. The PRG continued until the renaming of the Oxford University Computing Laboratory to the Department of Computer Science on 1 June 2011, under the leadership of

Bill Roscoe Andrew William Roscoe is a Scottish computer scientist. He was Head of the Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford from 2003 to 2014, and is a Professor of Computer Science. He is also a Fellow of University College, Oxford. Educ ...

, a former member of the PRG. The PRG was a centre of excellence in the field of

formal methods In computer science, formal methods are mathematically rigorous techniques for the specification, development, and verification of software and hardware systems. The use of formal methods for software and hardware design is motivated by the expec ...

, playing a leading role in the development of the

Z notation The Z notation is a formal specification language used for describing and modelling computing systems. It is targeted at the clear specification of computer programs and computer-based systems in general. History In 1974, Jean-Raymond Abrial ...

(initiated by a visit of

Jean-Raymond Abrial Jean-Raymond Abrial (born 1938) is a French computer scientist and inventor of the Z and B formal methods. Abrial's 1974 paper ''Data Semantics'' laid the foundation for a formal approach to Data Models; although not adopted directly by practit ...

) and CSP (together with the associated

Occam programming language occam is a programming language which is concurrent and builds on the communicating sequential processes (CSP) process algebra, Inmos document 72 occ 45 03 and shares many of its features. It is named after philosopher William of Ockham after wh ...

). It won Queen's Awards with IBM and Inmos for work in this area.

References

External links

PRG website
(

Archive.org The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

, 2010) Educational institutions established in 1965 1965 establishments in England 2011 disestablishments in England Educational institutions disestablished in 2011 Departments of the University of Oxford Formal methods organizations Computer science institutes in the United Kingdom Oxford University Computing Laboratory {{formalmethods-stub