Symposium on Theory of Computing

STOC, the Annual ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing is an academic conference in the field of theoretical computer science. STOC has been organized annually since 1969, typically in May or June; the conference is sponsored by the Association for Computer Machinery special interest group SIGACT.

As Fich (1996) writes, STOC and its annual IEEE counterpart FOCS (the Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science) are considered the two top conferences in theoretical computer science, considered broadly: they “are forums for some of the best work throughout theory of computing that promote breadth among theory of computing researchers and help to keep the community together.” Johnson (1984) includes regular attendance at STOC and FOCS as one of several defining characteristics of theoretical computer scientists.

Awards

The Gödel Prize for outstanding papers in theoretical computer science is presented alternately at STOC and at the International Colloquium on Automata, Languages and Programming (ICALP); the Knuth Prize for outstanding contributions to theoretical computer science is presented alternately at STOC and at FOCS.

Since 2003, STOC has presented one or more Best Paper Awards to recognize the highest quality papers at the conference. Additionally, the Danny Lewin Best Student Paper Award is awarded to the authors of the best student-authored paper in STOC; the award is named in honor of Daniel M. Lewin. The FOCS counterpart of the best student paper award is the Machtey Award.

History

STOC was first organised on 5–7 May 1969, in Marina del Rey, California, United States. The conference chairman was Patrick C. Fischer, and the program committee consisted of Michael A. Harrison, Robert W. Floyd, Juris Hartmanis, Richard M. Karp, Albert R. Meyer, and Jeffrey D. Ullman.

Early seminal papers in STOC include Cook (1971), which introduced the concept of NP-completeness (see also Cook–Levin theorem).

STOC was organised in Canada in 1992, 1994, 2002, and 2008, and in Greece in 2001; all other meetings in 1969–2009 have been held in the United States. STOC was part of the Federated Computing Research Conference (FCRC) in 1993, 1996, 1999, 2003, and 2007.

Invited speakers

2004

Eva Tardos (2004), "Network games", Network games, p. 341, doi:10.1145/1007352.1007356

Avi Wigderson (2004), "Depth through breadth, or why should we attend talks in other areas?", Depth through breadth, or why should we attend talks in other areas?, p. 579, doi:10.1145/1007352.1007359

2005

Lance Fortnow (2005), "Beyond NP: the work and legacy of Larry Stockmeyer", Beyond NP, p. 120, doi:10.1145/1060590.1060609

2006

Prabhakar Raghavan (2006), "The changing face of web search: algorithms, auctions and advertising", The changing face of web search, p. 129, doi:10.1145/1132516.1132535

Russell Impagliazzo (2006), "Can every randomized algorithm be derandomized?", Can every randomized algorithm be derandomized?, p. 373, doi:10.1145/1132516.1132571

2007

Nancy Lynch (2007), "Distributed computing theory: algorithms, impossibility results, models, and proofs", Distributed computing theory, p. 247, doi:10.1145/1250790.1250826

2008

Jennifer Rexford (2008), "Rethinking internet routing", Rethinking internet routing, p. 55, doi:10.1145/1374376.1374386

David Haussler (2008), "Computing how we became human", Computing how we became human, p. 639, doi:10.1145/1374376.1374468

Ryan O'Donnell (2008), "Some topics in analysis of boolean functions", Some topics in analysis of boolean functions, p. 569, doi:10.1145/1374376.1374458

2009

Shafi Goldwasser (2009), "Athena lecture: Controlling Access to Programs?", Athena lecture, p. 167, doi:10.1145/1536414.1536416

See also

• Conferences in theoretical computer science.
• The list of computer science conferences contains other academic conferences in computer science.

References

• Cook, Stephen (1971), "The complexity of theorem proving procedures", Proc. STOC 1971, pp. 151–158, doi:10.1145/800157.805047.
• Fich, Faith (1996), "Infrastructure issues related to theory of computing research", ACM Computing Surveys, 28 (4es): 217, doi:10.1145/242224.242502.
• Johnson, D. S. (1984), "The genealogy of theoretical computer science: a preliminary report", ACM SIGACT News, 16 (2): 36–49, doi:10.1145/1008959.1008960.

External links

• STOC web page.
• STOC 2009 web page.
• STOC proceedings information in DBLP.
• STOC proceedings in the ACM digital library.
• Citation Statistics for FOCS/STOC/SODA, Piotr Indyk and Suresh Venkatasubramanian, July 2007.