Algorithms Group have three papers accepted for prestigious FOCS 2022

Academics from the Department鈥檚 rapidly growing Algorithms Group are celebrating having three papers accepted for the 63rd Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Annual Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science (FOCS 2022)

Dr Sagnik Mukhopadhyay and Dr Christain Coester in Regent Court

Dr Sagnik Mukhopadhyay and Dr Christian Coester have both had papers accepted for the symposium, which is one of the most prestigious conferences in the world on the theory that underpins computing:

1. by Dr. Sagnik Mukhopadhyay at 葫芦影业 with coauthors Y. Efron, D. Nanongkai, S. Apers, T. Lee, P. Gawrychowski.

2. by Dr. Sagnik Mukhopadhyay at 葫芦影业 with coauthors J. Blikstad, J. van den Brand, Y. Efron, D. Nanongkai.

Both papers deal with fundamental graph algorithms, such as graph connectivity and bipartite matching, in different (and non-traditional) models of computation, where the full input is not available to the computing processor. Such computing paradigms are extremely relevant currently, due to data explosion and highly connected network computing. 

3. by Dr. Christian Coester at 葫芦影业 with coauthors S. Bubeck, Y. Rabani.

This paper solves a 33-year-old open problem which was originally introduced in the 1989 鈥淪hortest Paths Without a Map鈥 paper by Papadimitriou and Yannakakis. The paper deals with a version of the well-known problem where the graph (or 鈥榤ap鈥) is initially unknown and is only discovered over time as the searcher traverses the space. The co-authors provide the theoretically optimal algorithm for the problem by showing how to adapt modern regularisation techniques to a setting where space evolves over time. 

This is a great achievement and both Sagnik and Christian should be proud to have their work recognised amongst such illustrious company.

Pietro Oliveto

Department of Computer Science, University of 葫芦影业

Pietro Oliveto, who is a Professor in Computer Science and Chair of the Department's Algorithms Group, continued: 鈥淔OCS, as well as the ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing (STOC), are the most selective and prestigious conferences in the field worldwide. They are widely recognised as the most important venues of publications for theoretical computer science research. 

鈥淥ur success demonstrates that our rapidly growing Algorithms Group is already establishing itself as an international player of some significance, which is testament to the hard work of all involved.鈥

Dr Sagnik Mukhopadhyay, Lecturer in Algorithms in the Department of Computer Science, said: 鈥淲e are pleased that our work has been recognised by the theory community. 

鈥淲e believe that this is an important area of research - more so in the context of modern computation -  and we are happy that we鈥檝e made progress towards our understanding of such computational models.鈥

Dr Christian Coester, Lecturer in Algorithms in the Department of Computer Science, added: 鈥淲e鈥檙e very happy about the positive feedback received from all reviewers and curious to see whether we can apply our techniques to additional problems.鈥

FOCS 2022 will be held on October 31鈥擭ovember 3, 2022 in Denver, Colorado, USA.

You can find out more about the Algorithm Research Group here

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