Programs and Clusters
Programs and Clusters
The Institute typically hosts two concurrent research programs per semester, and one per summer. 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 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. Summer clusters are somewhat smaller in scale than research programs, and are designed to offer a platform for focused research on fast-moving or emerging topics.
Current Programs
This summer program brings together researchers from various areas of sublinear algorithms to explore new topics, tools, and connections between models, as well as promising future directions for the field.
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.
Spring 2021
Focusing on new developments in logic, automata, probabilistic modeling, games, and cyber-physical systems, this program aims to develop the theoretical foundations of computer systems.
This program aims to foster interaction between theoreticians and practitioners to understand real-world efficient computation with a particular focus on the satisfiability problem for Boolean formulas.
Fall 2020
This program aims to advance our understanding of high-dimensional problems by focusing on the interplay between probability, geometry, and computation.
This program will bring together researchers in computer science, control theory, operations research and statistics to advance the theoretical foundations of reinforcement learning.
Spring 2020
This program will bring together researchers from computer science, physics, chemistry and mathematics to focus on the two grand challenges of quantum computation: developing the most promising algorithmic applications for quantum computers, and developing methods to test quantum devices.
This program will study fundamental questions on integer lattices and their important role in cryptography and quantum computation, bringing together researchers from number theory, algorithms, optimization, cryptography, and coding theory.
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.
This program will bring together researchers from Computer Science and beyond, whose research is contributing to three subthemes: proof systems, decentralized consensus, and applications of these to society, economics, and cryptocurrencies.
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 aims to promote research on the theoretical foundations of data privacy, as well as on applications in technical, legal, social and ethical spheres.
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.
Fall 2018
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.
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.
Summer 2018
Spring 2018
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.
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.