Type Theory Group

Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest

Members   Seminar   Teaching   Theses and publications   HOTT ERC project


We are part of the Department of Programming Languages and Compilers at the Faculty of Informatics. We are developing new programming languages with dependent types and study the metatheory of such languages. For example, we study the different classes of inductive types, high level descriptions of programming languages as initial models of algebraic theories, extensional principles in type theory, homotopy type theory, strictness in type theory, efficient implementations of type checkers.

Members

Current members:
Jean Abou Samra, PhD student
Thorsten Altenkirch, visiting professor
János Gergely Bálint, MSc student
Viktor Bense, PhD student
Viktor Csimma, BSc student
Stefania Damato, postdoc
Péter Diviánszky, industry
Albert Yoo Joohyun, PhD student
Kristof Kanalas, assistant professor
Ambrus Kaposi, associate professor, head of group
Balázs Kőműves, industry
Péter Zsolt Korpa, MSc student
Botond Mészáros, PhD student
Márton Petes, MSc student
Áron Szabó, industry
Bálint Bence Török, BSc student
Szumi Xie, PhD student
Janet Zhenyun Yin, MSc student
Past members:
David G. Berry, postdoc
Rafaël Bocquet, PhD student, now postdoc in Nantes
András Kovács, PhD student and lecturer, now postdoc in Göteborg
István Donkó, PhD student, now in industry
Tamás Végh, PhD student, now in industry
Bálint Kocsis, BSc student, now PhD student in Nijmegen
Márk Széles, BSc student, now PhD student in Nijmegen
Nicolai Kraus, postdoc, now professor in Nottingham
Péter Podlovics, MSc student, now in industry
Ádám Abonyi-Tóth, BSc student, now in industry
Short-term visitors:
Johann Rosain, ENS Lyon, 4 months, 2026
Tadayoshi Kamegai, Oxford, 2 months, 2025
Wassel Bousmaha, ENS Lyon, 3 months, 2025
Simon Corbard, ENS Saclay, 2 months, 2023
Yorgo Chamoun, École Polytechnique, 6 months, 2023
Samy Avrillon, ENS Lyon, 3 months, 2023

Budapest type theory seminar

General information:
Everyone is welcome!
Time: every Wednesday 16:00--18:00 Budapest time, ELTE Lágymányos South building room 2-512.
Sometimes it is a joint (online) meeting with the Nottingham type theory café. E.g. we had joint online meetings between 2021-02-15 and 2021-06-09.
Language: English by default. Hungarian only if every participant speaks Hungarian.
Blackboard photos (links to specific dates below).
Mailing list - here we discuss and announce the topics of the seminars. Write an email to Ambrus if you want to be added.
Definitions of type theory: first order, second-order.
Recommended literature:
Bocquet-Kaposi-Kovács. Introduction to the metatheory of type theory seminar series (videos, notes: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7exe 8 8b 9 10 11 12 13)
Ambrus Kaposi. Second-order generalised algebraic theories, by examples
Thorsten Altenkirch. Naive Type Theory
Homotopy Type Theory book (especially Chapter 1 Type theory)
Egbert Rijke. Introduction to Homotopy Type Theory
Mike Shulman. Homotopy type theory: the logic of space
Martin Hofmann. Syntax and Semantics of Dependent Types
Kaposi Ambrus. Bevezetés a homotópia-típuselméletbe (magyar)
Philip Wadler. Programming Language Foundations in Agda
Benjamin C. Pierce et al. Software Foundations
Adam Chlipala. Certified Programming with Dependent Types
Proof assistants: Agda, Idris, Isabelle/HOL, Lean, Rocq.

Schedule

Teaching

We are responsible for the following courses at the Faculty of Informatics:
Type systems for programming languages (compulsory for MSc students on the Software Technology specialisation)
Type theory (mandatory elective course for BSc and MSc students)
Functional languages (advanced Haskell, mandatory elective course for BSc and MSc students)
Category theory (elective course for BSc and MSc students)

Theses and publications

PhD theses defended in the type theory group at ELTE:
2025. Rafaël Bocquet: Relative induction principles for second-order generalized algebraic theories (supervisor: Ambrus Kaposi)
2022. András Kovács: Type-Theoretic Signatures for Algebraic Theories and Inductive Types (supervisor: Ambrus Kaposi)
Publications supported by the HOTT project:
Altenkirch, Kaposi, Xie. The Groupoid-Syntax of Type Theory Is a Set. CSL 2026. Paper
Kaposi, Pujet. Type theory in type theory using a strictified syntax. ICFP 2025. Paper | Repository
Bense, Xie. The conatural numbers form an exponential commutative semiring. TyDE 2025. Paper | Repository
Kaposi, Xie. Type Theory with Single Substitutions. LFMTP 2025. Paper | Repository
TDK theses defended in the type theory group at ELTE:
2026. Zhenyun Janet Yin: Normalisation by Evaluation for Simply Typed Lambda Calculus with Sum Types (supervisor: Ambrus Kaposi)
2024. Máté Varró: An Examination of Data Structure Interfaces (supervisor: Ambrus Kaposi)
2024. Zhenyun Janet Yin: There is no finite model of the SK combinator calculus (supervisor: Ambrus Kaposi)
2024. Viktor Csimma: The Agda SDK. A toolkit for writing Agda-powered GUI applications (supervisor: Ambrus Kaposi)
2024. Viktor Csimma: Agda for the masses: agda2hs-based libraries in real-world programs (supervisor: Ambrus Kaposi)
2020. Norbert Luksa: Az egyszerű típuselmélet algebrai reprezentációi (supervisor: Ambrus Kaposi)
2020. István Donkó: Formalising the relational model of concurrent programs in a dependently typed environment (supervisors: Ambrus Kaposi, Melinda Tóth)
2017. András Kovács: A Machine-Checked Correctness Proof of Normalization by Evaluation for Simply Typed Lambda Calculus (supervisor: Ambrus Kaposi)
MSc theses defended in the type theory group at ELTE:
2026. Péter Korpa: Intrinsic proof of completeness of Beth models for intuitionistic first-order logic (supervisor: Szumi Xie)
2025. Péter Szilágyi: Elsőrendű logika, mint algebrai elmélet formalizálása Agdában (supervisor: Ambrus Kaposi)
2024. Barnabás Zahorán: Agda formalisation of an elaborator for a language based on simply typed lambda calculus (supervisor: Ambrus Kaposi)
2023. Viktor Bense: Formalisation of algebraic representation of programming languages in type theory (supervisor: Ambrus Kaposi)
2022. Zoltán Beke: Hatóanyagösszetétel meghatározása különböző faktorok alapján és hatóanyag-leadó rendszerek 3D nyomtatása (supervisor: Ambrus Kaposi)
2021. Borisz István Lengyel: Szintaxisfák reprezentációja objektum orientált paradigmában, kombinátorokkal történő programozás (supervisor: Ambrus Kaposi)
2021. Róbert Fenyvesi: Formalization of Mathematical Logic (supervisor: Ambrus Kaposi)
2020. István Szöllősi: Computer-assisted proof of the tree module property (supervisor: Ambrus Kaposi)
BSc theses defended in the type theory group at ELTE:
2025. Máté Varró: CCARP - A Partial C to Rust Transpiler (supervisor: Ambrus Kaposi)
2025. Bence Légrádi: Roboticoffee (supervisor: Ambrus Kaposi)
2025. Nikolasz Illés: M-3 Emulátor (supervisor: Ambrus Kaposi, Kepes Gábor)
2024. Áron Hárnási: Lambda Calculus Implementation (supervisor: András Kovács)
2024. Viktor Csimma: Agda-powered exact real arithmetic in a GUI calculator (supervisor: Ambrus Kaposi)
2023. Richárd Hajnal: Artifact Knight (supervisor: Ambrus Kaposi)
2023. Dávid Imre Hadházi: Haskell-Alpha (supervisor: András Kovács)
2023. Zoltán Béla Kiss: Online csevegő program megvalósítása (supervisor: András Kovács)
2022. Konrád Flórián Garaba: Java Virtual Machine implementáció edukációs célból (supervisor: András Kovács)
2021. Dániel Hermán: Áramlási citometria során használt szoftver továbbfejlesztése (supervisor: Ambrus Kaposi)
2021. Márk Széles: Táblázatkezelő szoftver implementálása Haskell nyelven (supervisor: Ambrus Kaposi)
2021. Márk Szabó: Túraverseny lebonyolításához használt szoftver (supervisor: Ambrus Kaposi)
2021. Balázs János Majoros: Szöveges fájlkezelő (supervisor: András Kovács)
2020. Sára Luca Somlóvári: Parfümböngésző és -értékelő weboldal implementálása ASP.NET Core-ban (supervisor: Ambrus Kaposi)
2018. Miklós Király: Kétdimenziós pályagenerátor környezettfüggő generatív nyelvtanokkal (supervisor: Ambrus Kaposi)
2018. Zsolt Kohári: Egyszerűsített Foglalkoztatottak Nyilvántartási Rendszere (supervisor: Ambrus Kaposi)

HOTT ERC project

Funding Acknowledgement: Our research is generously supported by the HOTT ERC grant 101170308.

The goal of this project is to develop Higher Observational Type Theory (HOTT), a new version of homotopy type theory (HoTT) featuring definitional univalence. The starting point is a theory of internal parametricity (an indexed version) which supports a baby identity type which is reflexive and a congruence, but not symmetric or transitive. The goal is to extend this to a proper identity type supporting transport. See also the series of talks by Michael Shulman (slides 1, 2, 3, videos 1, 2, 3) and his experimental proof assistant Narya.