The Eastern Great Lakes (EaGL) Theory of Computation workshop provides an opportunity for interaction among the thriving collection of theory of computation (ToC) researchers living within a few hours driving distance to Buffalo. The community served by the workshop is large and growing: the region's colleges and universities have more than 90 ToC researchers, including at least 14 junior faculty hired since 2004, at institutions ranging from large research universities such as Carnegie Mellon to small colleges such as Oberlin. The presence of such a large concentration of ToC researchers presents a unique opportunity to gather locally and foster new research collaborations.
The main beneficiaries of the workshop are the graduate students in the area who get an opportunity to interact with leaders in ToC in the region (including three Turing award winners and a MacArthur fellow) in a small, relaxed setting. In addition to featuring six invited speaker talks, the workshop includes shorter talks by a few students who are nearing graduation.
The award will fund the workshop for the years of 2009 and 2010. This is expected to help it make the transition to an annual meeting. In 2009, the EaGL Workshop will feature technical talks by the following speakers: Allan Borodin (University of Toronto), Mark Braverman (Microsoft Research), Nick Harvey (University of Waterloo), Dexter Kozen (Cornell University), Katrina Ligett (Cornell University) and Adam Smith (Pennsylvania State University). Slides as well as video recordings from the talks will be provided freely on the workshop webpage.
