This semester, like many other universities, Harvard switched to a pass/fail grade model. (In typical Harvard style, we give them different names - "Emergency Satisfactory" and "Emergency Unsatisfactory" - but that doesn't matter much). One unexpected but happy consequence of this policy is that even though I already submitted the grades for my crypto course, … Continue reading Liberation from grades

[Hat tip: Aaron Roth] The inaugural conference on the foundations of responsible computing will take place in less than two weeks (June 1-2). Registration is FREE but you need to register by May 28. The program looks fantastic, and includes keynotes by Adrian Weller, Rakesh Vohra, Patricia Williams, and Jon Kleinberg, as well as a … Continue reading Foundations of responsible computing

Aside from its devastating death toll, the COVID-19 pandemic has had severe economic implications. The impact on universities is particularly substantial, including disruptions to our physical campuses and student residences, as well as to the sources of income for private and public universities such as endowments and state budgets. All this means that the academic … Continue reading Resources for the upcoming job market crunch

(I am now on Twitter , so you can follow this blog there too if you prefer it. --Boaz) Between Zoom meetings and deadlines, I thought I'd jot down a few of my impressions so far on what lessons we can draw from this period on how well research and education can work online. I've … Continue reading Lessons from COVID-19: What works online and what doesn’t

(If you're not already following him, I highly recommend reading Luca Trevisan's dispatches from Milan, much more interesting than what I write below.) On the topic of my last post, Ross Douthat writes in the New York Times that "In the fog of coronavirus, there are no experts", even citing Scott Aaronson's post. Both Aaronson … Continue reading Experts shmexperts

Scott Aaronson blogged in defense of "armchair epidemiology". Scott makes several points I agree with, but he also advocates that rather than discounting ideas from "contrarians" who have no special expertise in the matter, each one of us should evaluate the input of such people on its merits. I disagree. I can judge on their … Continue reading In defense of expertise

The new coronavirus upended much of society, including our little corner of it. I believe at this point almost all theorists are teaching and doing research at home, and I thought it would be good to share some of the tools we use for doing so. Below I will describe my setup, but I hope … Continue reading Technology for theory: COVID-19 edition

Shcachar Lovett has put together a new website aggregating information about virtual talks in CS theory: https://cstheorytalks.wordpress.com/  It has a Google calendar that people can add to their own, and a form to submit a new talk that automatically gets added to the Google calendar.  This can be a fantastic resource these days that almost … Continue reading New CS theory talk aggragator

From Sandy Irani, FOCS 2020 PC chair: In light of the very unusual developments in the world due to the spread of Covid-19 and the disruption it is causing to many people in our field, especially those with young children at home, the FOCS PC has decided to push back the final deadline for papers … Continue reading FOCS deadline pushed back 6 days

Harvard University, as well most other places that I know of will be moving to remote lectures. I just gave the last in-person lecture in my cryptography course. I would appreciate technical suggestions on the best format for teaching remotely. At the moment I plan to use Zoom and log-in from both my laptop (for … Continue reading Life and CS theory in the age of Coronavirus