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 Convention (meeting), event for researchers (not necessarily academics) to present and discuss their scholarly work. Together with academic jou ...
in the field of
theoretical computer science
Theoretical computer science is a subfield of computer science and mathematics that focuses on the Abstraction, abstract and mathematical foundations of computation.
It is difficult to circumscribe the theoretical areas precisely. The Associati ...
. FOCS is sponsored by the
IEEE Computer Society
IEEE Computer Society (commonly known as the Computer Society or CS) is a technical society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) dedicated to computing, namely the major areas of hardware, software, standards and people ...
.
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 membe ...
counterpart STOC (the
Symposium on Theory of Computing
The Annual ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing (STOC) 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 ...
) 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.
He is one of the 50 F ...
, 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, often lasting a few days, which is organized on a particular subject, or to bring together people who have a common interest. Conferences can be used as a form of group decision-making, although discussion, not always d ...
in theoretical computer science.
* The list of computer science conferences
This is a list of academic conferences in computer science. Only conferences with separate articles are included; within each field, the conferences are listed alphabetically by their short names.
General
* FCRC – Federated Computing Resear ...
contains other academic conferences in computer science.
References
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Notes
External links
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FOCS 2024 web site
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FOCS 2023 web site
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FOCS 2022 web site
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FOCS 2021 web site
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FOCS 2020 web site
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FOCS 2019 web site
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FOCS 2018 web site
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FOCS 2017 web site
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FOCS 2016 web site
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FOCS 2015 web site
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FOCS 2014 web site
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FOCS 2013 web site
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FOCS 2012 web site
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FOCS 2011 web site
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FOCS 2010 web site
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FOCS 2009 web site
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FOCS 2007 web site
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FOCS 2006 web site
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FOCS 2005 web site
FOCS proceedings information
in DBLP
DBLP is a computer science bibliography website. Starting in 1993 at Universität Trier in Germany, it grew from a small collection of HTML files and became an organization hosting a database and logic programming bibliography site. Since Novem ...
.
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 (M ...
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