Guest post by Craig Gentry The 2014 International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM 2014) is coming up in a few days, and (like Boaz said) we have a great collection of speakers in the "Mathematical Aspects of Computer Science" section. As it is the weekend, and I am sure that you are looking for excuses to … Continue reading ICM survey: Computing on the edge of chaos
FOCS 2014: Call for Workshops and Tutorials
As Boaz discussed, there is an excellent collection of papers to be presented at the upcoming FOCS in Philadelphia. These would be spread over three of the days of the conference. Before this though, there will be an exciting day of workshops and tutorials. It is your chance to reach hundreds of people from across … Continue reading FOCS 2014: Call for Workshops and Tutorials
Emanuele Viola presents: “behind the paper”
Emanuele Viola started a new series of posts which is related to the research life-stories project. In his words: "the series “behind the paper” collects snapshots of the generation of papers. For example, did you spend months proving an exciting bound, only to discover it was already known? Or what was the key insight which made … Continue reading Emanuele Viola presents: “behind the paper”
Goin’ up, down, all around, it’s like a see saw*
This is my last research life-story (at least for now), possibly concluding this project (though you are all very welcomed to share more as long as this blog lives). My main hope was to give legitimacy to all of us to acknowledge and discuss our uncomfortable feelings and the “non-scientific” challenges of our careers. My … Continue reading Goin’ up, down, all around, it’s like a see saw*
FOCS 2014 Accepted papers list is online
The accepted papers list for FOCS 2014 is now posted online. I am always amazed by the depth and breadth of works in the TCS community, and this FOCS is no exception. Whether you are a physicist interested in the possibility of general "area law" governing entanglement between different parts of systems, a geometer interested in Gromov's topological notion of … Continue reading FOCS 2014 Accepted papers list is online
Collaboration, competition, and competition within collaboration
Another instalment on my research-life stories. --------------- The Talmud says: “competition/envy among scholars increases wisdom” (kinat sofrim tarbe chochma). Good or bad, competition is here to stay. Nevertheless, one of the strengths of our community is in its collaborative nature. This is good for science, but in my eyes also makes our life so much … Continue reading Collaboration, competition, and competition within collaboration
Woos and boos: my research talks
Coming back to the research-life stories project I intend to write a few (three that currently come to mind) more stories of my own, hoping that they will inspire more stories by others. --------------- My first research project progressed very quickly. A few months after I started working with Moni, I found myself writing my … Continue reading Woos and boos: my research talks
Independent conferences: the second-worst solution
The steering committee of the Conference on Computational Complexity has decided to become independent of IEEE. The Symposium of Computational Geometry is considering leaving ACM for similar reasons. I completely understand the reasons, and applaud the steering committees in both cases for having a thoughtful, deliberate, and transparent process. Indeed, I have signed the letter of support for CCC. … Continue reading Independent conferences: the second-worst solution
ICM Survey: Codes with local decoding procedures
I have recently completed a survey “Codes with local decoding procedures” and will be giving a talk on this matter in August at the ICM. The survey covers two related families of codes with locality, namely, locally decodable codes that are broadly useful in theoretical computer science and local reconstruction codes that have recently been … Continue reading ICM Survey: Codes with local decoding procedures
ICM Survey: Sum-of-squares proofs and the quest toward optimal algorithms
I have just posted online a new survey "Sum-of-Squares proofs and the quest toward optimal algorithms" co-authored with David Steurer . The survey discusses two topics I have blogged about before - Khot's Unique Games Conjecture (UGC) and the Sum-of-Squares (SOS) method - and the connections between them. Both are related to the notion of meta algorithms. … Continue reading ICM Survey: Sum-of-squares proofs and the quest toward optimal algorithms
Windows On Theory 