Tuesday, March 22, 2011

How I'm Spending my Spring Break

This week I returned to Dagstuhl for the workshop on Computational Complexity of Discrete Problems. I come here so often that when I tweeted that I was om way Dagstuhl tweeted back that they want another typecast. But no Bill here so no typecast.

This has been a theory-friendly month for Dagstuhl. Last week the Geometers and two weeks before that Algorithms. One of the algorithms attendees thought he saw me at the Frankfurt airport on his way home but didn't think I would have any reason to be in Germany. But it was me returning from Porto.

Dagstuhl really gives me a chance to find out the latest and greatest of what's going on in complexity. No major breakthroughs but lots going on down in the low complexity range (low-depth circuits). Keep watching my Twitter for Dagstuhl updates.

There's a conflicting complexity seminar in Paris that's splitting our crowd. If you happen to be in Paris tomorrow, Avi Wigderson is giving a popular talk on P v NP.

Dagstuhl is expanding to have either larger or more seminars. There is also a new Dagstuhl-like seminar in Japan and the Banff center has new housing. Seems to be the model we are in: Big conferences to publish your papers, small workshops to mingle and collaborate. I love these small workshops but I do worry they silo us theorists even more.

3 comments:

  1. Job market rumors? Interview season is starting to come to an end and people must be receiving offers. Any rumors about who might be going where?

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  2. I love these small workshops but I do worry they silo us theorists even more.

    Most Dagstuhl workshops have interdisciplinary participation. I've heard about workshops with people from far reaching fieldseven beyond CS with one that had a biologist and another a bunch of cartographers.

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  3. fieldseven beyond CS

    I spent at least fifteen seconds puzzling over what "field seven" was before I got it. :-) I like the idea that any old workshop could invite people from fields one or two, but it's remarkable to get all the way to field seven.

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