The IEEE Annual Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science (FOCS) is an
academic conference
An academic conference or scientific conference (also congress, symposium, workshop, or meeting) is an event for researchers (not necessarily academics) to present and discuss their scholarly work. Together with academic or scientific journals an ...
in the field of
theoretical computer science
Theoretical computer science (TCS) is a subset of general computer science and mathematics that focuses on mathematical aspects of computer science such as the theory of computation, lambda calculus, and type theory.
It is difficult to circumsc ...
. FOCS is sponsored by the
IEEE Computer Society.
As writes, FOCS and its annual
Association for Computing Machinery
The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is a US-based international learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 and is the world's largest scientific and educational computing society. The ACM is a non-profit professional member ...
counterpart STOC (the
Symposium on Theory of Computing) 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.” includes regular attendance at FOCS and STOC as one of several defining characteristics of theoretical computer scientists.
Awards
The
Knuth Prize for outstanding contributions to theoretical computer science is presented alternately at FOCS and
STOC. Works of the highest quality presented at the conference are awarded the Best Paper Award. In addition, the
Machtey Award is presented to the best student-authored paper in FOCS.
History
In 1960–1965, FOCS was known as the Symposium on Switching Circuit Theory and Logical Design, and in 1966–1974 it was known as the Symposium on Switching and Automata Theory. The current name has been used since 1975. Since 1973, the cover page of the conference proceedings has featured an artwork entitled ''synapse'', by
Alvy Ray Smith
Alvy Ray Smith III (born September 8, 1943) is an American computer scientist who co-founded Lucasfilm's Computer Division and Pixar, participating in the 1980s and 1990s expansion of computer animation into feature film.
Education
In 1965, A ...
, who has also been the author of three papers in the conference.
The publisher uses the acronym SFCS on their web sites for the conferences in 1975 to 1987.
Location
FOCS is almost exclusively held in North America, and in particular in the United States, with few exceptions.
IEEE Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science (FOCS)
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See also
* Conferences
A conference is a meeting of two or more experts to discuss and exchange opinions or new information about a particular topic.
Conferences can be used as a form of group decision-making, although discussion, not always decisions, are the main pu ...
in theoretical computer science.
* The list of computer science conferences contains other academic conferences in computer science.
References
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Notes
External links
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FOCS 2009 web site
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FOCS 2007 web site
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FOCS 2006 web site
*
FOCS 2005 web site
FOCS proceedings information
in DBLP.
FOCS Best Student Paper Award (Machtey Award)
Citation Statistics for FOCS/STOC/SODA
Piotr Indyk
Piotr Indyk is Thomas D. and Virginia W. Cabot Professor in the Theory of Computation Group at the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Academic biography
Indyk received the Magister (MA) ...
and Suresh Venkatasubramanian, July 2007.
Nelson H. F. Beebe's FOCS bibliography
23 March 2007.
{{Authority control
Theoretical computer science conferences
Recurring events established in 1960
IEEE conferences