The FOCS 2013 PC is currently working on the call for papers (cfp). Our basis is the FOCS 2012 cfp. The main change we are contemplating is getting rid of the page limit for submissions. In fact, FOCS 2012 and previous conferences already took a step in this direction. For example FOCS 2012 cfp says: “There … Continue reading Away with Page Limits on Submissions
Call for Research-Life Stories
A research career is different from most other jobs in its characteristic and challenges: Long period of education and training which is packed with uncertainty (Am I good enough? Will all this effort be rewarded by a suitable position in a suitable location to live in?), the tension between collaboration and competition, preserving creativity and … Continue reading Call for Research-Life Stories
FOCS 2013 – The Beginning
I was honored and, at the same time, penalized to be invited to serve as the program chair of FOCS 2013 (to be held in Berkeley, October 27-29, 2013). Reading blog discussions in the past about FOCS/STOC (and conferences in general), I realize that there is a lot of misunderstanding and mystification regarding the program committee (PC) … Continue reading FOCS 2013 – The Beginning
Privacy Loss as a Random Variable
This post will be about differential privacy (DP), with a focus on what is often referred to in the differential privacy literature (often colloquially) as "privacy loss". A brief recap of the setting: a trusted data curator has a database of sensitive information about individuals. The curator wants to release aggregate statistical information about the … Continue reading Privacy Loss as a Random Variable
Occupy ACM: We are the 99%
A typical computer science paper might represent the work of 2-4 authors over a year. Even though these authors don't spend 100% of that year working on the paper, just counting their salaries, benefits, etc.. we see that the total cost to produce a paper can still easily amount to several tens of thousands of … Continue reading Occupy ACM: We are the 99%
Learning Juntas
Computational learning is full of problems that are deceptively simple to state but fiendishly hard to solve. Perhaps none more so than the problem of learning Juntas, posed by Avrim Blum and Pat Langley. Its the kind of problem which seems well suited for a polymath endeavor, Dick Lipton likes to say that you could … Continue reading Learning Juntas
Tennis for the People II
I continue the discussion from last post. We are trying to add unpredictability to tennis by looking for a monotone, transitive and balanced function $latex f$ such that $latex E_p(f)$ has a wide threshold window, that is, we want the range of $latex p$ where $latex E_p(f)$ is, say, between 0.01 and 0.99, to be as large … Continue reading Tennis for the People II
Tennis for the People
I love sports, at least watching it. I could be tempted to follow any competition in any sport (with the obvious exceptions of baseball, cricket and golf). Now that the London Olympic games are almost forgotten and the world cup a full year and a half away (576 days to be precise) I want to … Continue reading Tennis for the People
STOC deadline extended till Monday 5pm EST
Due to the effects of Hurricane Sandy, the deadline for STOC 2013 has been extended to Monday, November 5, 5pm EST, see http://stoc.cs.yale.edu/stoc2013/
Postdoc positions at MSR
This is the season for academic job searches, and if you are looking for a postdoc in theoretical Computer Science, we hope you consider applying for a position at Microsoft Research. The various MSR labs are looking for postdocs in many scientific fields, including all areas of theoretical Computer Science. You can apply for postdoc … Continue reading Postdoc positions at MSR
Windows On Theory 