
Research Programs
Research Programs
The Institute typically hosts two concurrent programs per semester. Programs are selected with a view toward maximizing impact and engagement across the theoretical computer science community, as well as impact on neighboring scientific fields. A typical one-semester program is led by a small group of organizers who are recognized experts in their fields, and involves about 60–70 long-term participants (a mix of senior and junior researchers) who spend a month or longer at the Institute. A program usually includes three week-long topical workshops, each of which attracts an additional group of invited speakers and focuses on a different aspect of the program's scientific scope, as well as an initial boot camp designed to put long-term participants on the same page.
Current Program
This program will bring together researchers in computational complexity, proof complexity, cryptography, and learning theory to make progress on fundamental problems in those areas using the framework of "meta-complexity" — i.e., complexity of...



The Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing offers numerous ways for scientists to participate in the life of the Institute.
- Applications for the Simons Quantum Postdoctoral Fellowships.
- Applications for Science Communicators in Residence for Summer 2022, Fall 2022, and Spring 2023.
Fall 2019
This short-format program will focus on the design of markets for online platforms, exploiting advances in theoretical computer science, economics and operations research.
Summer 2019
This program will bring together researchers from academia and industry to develop empirically-relevant theoretical foundations of deep learning, with the aim of guiding the real-world use of deep learning.
Spring 2019
This program will focus on emerging connections between the analytic theory of multivariate polynomials (sometimes called "the geometry of polynomials") and theoretical computer science as well as related fields such as combinatorics, probability, statistical physics, optimization and real algebraic geometry.
This program aims to promote research on the theoretical foundations of data privacy, as well as on applications in technical, legal, social and ethical spheres.
Fall 2018
This program will bring together leading researchers in computational complexity theory to tackle fundamental questions on the capabilities and limitations of various models of computation.
Taking inspiration from the areas of algorithms, statistics, and applied mathematics, this program aims to identify a set of core techniques and principles for modern Data Science.
Summer 2018
Spring 2018
This program aims to rekindle the historical affinity between the fields of Neuroscience and Theoretical Computer Science, in order to attack some of the most important current problems in understanding the structure and function of the brain.
The program will bring together experts in physical science, engineering and societal systems with mathematical and computational scientists to work on a wide range of problems involving real-time discovery and inference.
Fall 2017
The last decade has seen an emerging confluence of ideas from discrete and continuous optimization, leading to several significant breakthroughs. This program will bring together researchers from both the discrete and continuous optimization communities in order to stimulate further interaction at this interface.
Spring 2017
This program aims to extend the reach and impact of CS theory within machine learning, by formalizing basic questions in developing areas of practice, advancing the algorithmic frontier of machine learning, and putting widely-used heuristics on a firm theoretical foundation.
This program will gather researchers in theoretical computer science, combinatorics and number theory to develop a unified approach to notions of pseudorandomness and their applications.
Fall 2016
Classical approaches to algorithm design are both over-pessimistic (in making worst-case assumptions about the input) and over-optimistic (in assuming that the input is completely specified). This program explores alternatives to worst-case analysis of algorithms, as well as new methods for addressing uncertainty in instance specifications, with reference to a broad range of applications in learning, optimization and control.
Logic in computer science has long been associated with two main themes: the interaction of logic with algorithms and complexity theory, and the semantics of programs and processes. This program will bring together researchers from both ends of this spectrum, with the aim of bridging this decades-old divide.
Spring 2016
Research on computational aspects of counting problems and partition functions has recently seen significant advances. This program aims to better understand the computational complexity of both exact and approximate counting problems, and their relationship to phase transitions in combinatorics and statistical physics.
This program aims to unify data-driven and theoretical developments in bioinformatics by bringing together leaders and young scientists with strong interests in the algorithmic, methodological and theoretical aspects of computational biology.
Fall 2015
Economics and computer science have developed a remarkable number of points of contact over the past two decades. This program aims to build on these existing interactions in order to identify and make progress on a new generation of research problems at the intersection of the two fields.