Innovations in Computer Science (ICS)

Innovations in Computer Science (ICS) is a new conference in theoretical computer science (TCS), broadly construed. ICS seeks to promote research that carries a strong conceptual message (e.g., introducing a new concept or model, opening a new line of inquiry within traditional or cross-disciplinary areas, or introducing her aligned with current TCS research directions or deviating from them.
ICS is a public conference designed to run in a workshop-like environment. The event will take place over two-and-a-half days. The total number of papers will be around 30, so as to allow for ample time for open and one-on-one discussions and exchanges of ideas.

Steering Committee

Sanjeev Arora, Manuel Blum, Bernard Chazelle, Oded Goldreich, Shafi Goldwasser, Richard Karp, Ueli Maurer, Silvio Micali, Peter Bro Miltersen, Christos Papadimitriou, Michael Rabin, Madhu Sudan, Leslie Valiant, Umesh Vazirani, Avi Wigderson, Andrew Yao

Conference Format

The conference will run for two-and-a-half days. The total number of papers will be around 30, so as to allow for ample time for open and one-on-one discussions and exchanges of ideas.  The first two meetings of ICS, in January 2010 and 2011, will be held in Beijing, China, under the auspices and financial support of the Institute for Theoretical Computer Science of Tsinghua University. There will be printed proceedings, distributed at the conference, and thereafter available for purchase from Tsinghua University Press.

Program Selection Process

• Novel and promising ideas will be given preference in the selection process. The program committee of ICS will assign significant weight to the conceptual message communicated by the submission.
  
  
• The program committee will prefer papers that open new and fruitful directions of explorations. In other words, ICS will prefer papers that make first steps in new directions and raise new questions, over papers that provide the last word on a well-established direction.
  
  
• At the discretion of the program committee, the evaluation process may be interactive, so as to include questions to the authors and clarifications by them, if necessary.

Initial Logistics

Frequency: ICS will be held once a year, in January. 

Venue: In 2010 and 2011, ICS will be held in Beijing, China, under the auspices and financial support of the Institute for Theoretical Computer Science (ITCS) of Tsinghua University.

Financial Support: ITCS will provide full support for one author of each accepted paper, including air ticket (economy airfare at the minimum of the amount), hotel lodging (up to 4 nights), and registration fee. In addition, ITCS will also award some travel grants for graduate students (the number and amount of stipends will be determined based on availability of funds).

ICS 2011 Program Committee

• Bernard Chazelle (Chair), Princeton University
• Scott Aaronson, MIT
• Benny Applebaum, Weizmann Institute of Science
• Maria Florina Balcan, Georgia Institute of Technology
• Moses Charikar, Princeton University
• Shuchi Chawla, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Ken Clarkson, IBM Almaden Research
• Erik Demaine, MIT
• Russell Impagliazzo, University of California, San Diego, and IAS
• Sanjeev Khanna, University of Pennsylvania
• Nati Linial, Hebrew University
• Moni Naor, Weizmann Institute of Science
• Noam Nisan, Hebrew University
• Rocco Servedio, Columbia University