Centre for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science
Archived News
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Award 2020
Andre Nies has received a Humboldt Research Award.
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Award 2020
Ninh Pham has received the Best Data Mining Paper Award, ECML-PKDD 2010.
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Award 2020
Marston Conder has received the Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) award.
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Award 2020
Bakh Khoussainov has received a Humboldt Research Award.
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ACM Turing Centenary Celebration 2020
ACM Video Interview with Turing Laureate Joseph Sifakis by Profesor Cris Calude .
- Gibbons Lectures 2020: AI and Society
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CDMTCS members in two new Springer journals
Springer Nature Journal of Computer Science and the Journal of Membrane Computing.
- Award 2019
Professor Cristian Calude awarded Romanian equivalent of knighthood.
- Award 2019
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Gibbons Lectures 2019: Quantum Computing
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Mathematics Almost
Everywhere. In Memory of Solomon Marcus: the book presentation will take place on 27 August 2018 at the University of Bucharest, Romania.
Speakers: C. Calude, G. Dinca, L. Leustean, G. Paun, D. Stefanescu, T. Zamfirescu. Pictures.
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A talk by Aaron Li at the Data Science Club 2018
On 2 August 2018 Aaron Li, CEO of Qokka.ai., a former student of Prof. C. Calude and Dr. M. Dinneen, gave the talk Machine learning & Blockchain at the Data Science Club.
Aaron got a BSc from Australian National University and an MSc in Languages Technologies (Computer Science) from Carnegie Mellon University. He immigrated to USA and was granted an "Extraordinary Ability Green Card (EB-1A)" (Einstein Green Card). Aaron worked as an engineer in machine learning at Google Research and lead engineer at the startup Scaled Inference" before founding his own company Qokka.ai.
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A talk by Shane Legg at the Data Science Club 2018
On 6 May 2018 DeepMind Co-founder Shane Legg gave the talk Does this road lead to AGI? at the Data Science Club.
To succeed in AI you need to know 1) inear algebra well (e.g. matrix maths), 2) calculus to an OK level (not advanced stuff), 3) probability theory and stats (to a good level), 4) theoretical computer science basics to code well in Python and OK in C++, S. Legg (BBC)
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DeepMind’s AlphaGo and Message from Shane Legg at the Data Science Club 2018
The University of Auckland data science club will be holding a free screening of the 2017 documentary AlphaGo and playing a recorded message from University of Auckland alumnus Shane Legg, who is a cofounder of the artificial intelligence company DeepMind.
DeepMind was acquired by Google in 2014 for US$500 million, and in 2016 developed the program AlphaGo that used a deep neural network and reinforcement learning to beat the world champion of the complex board game Go for the first time. We will be showing the exciting 90 minute documentary, which is rated 8/10 on IMDB, and follows the development of the record-breaking program and its match against then world-champion Lee Sedol in his home country of South Korea.
Shane Legg is one of the three cofounders of DeepMind, and is an alumnus of Auckland university, completing his master's degree in mathematics in 1996, see his CDMTCS Research Report 030, March 1997: Solomonoff Induction, with complexity theorist Professor Cristian Calude. He went on to complete his PhD in Switzerland on super-intelligent machines, be awarded the $10,000 Canadian Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence Prize, and take up post-doctoral research at the Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit in London, before cofounding DeepMind in 2010. He has kindly agreed to record a message especially to accompany our documentary screening.
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Unconventional Computation and Natural Computation 2018
The International Conference on Unconventional Computation and Natural Computation is a meeting where scientists from many different backgrounds are united in their interest in novel forms of computation, human-designed computation inspired by nature, and computational aspects of natural processes. UCNC provides a forum for such scientists to meet and discuss their work.
The 17th UCNC will be hosted by the University of Paris Est Creteil Val de Marne and it will take place at IUT de Fontainebleau, located in the city of Fontainebleau, former residence of French kings situated near Paris. - Theory matters: Google DeepMind's Go-playing Program Doesn’t Need Human Help
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Discrete Mathematics:
Discrete Geometry and Convex Bodies 2017
13th International Conference on Discrete Mathematics: Discrete Geometry and Convex Bodies Bucharest 2017, Bucharest, Romania, September 2017.
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Artificial General Intelligence 2017
Artificial General Intelligence 2017, Melbourne, Australia, August 2017.
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Computing Award 2017
The book C. S. Calude. The Human Face of Computing was included in the 21st Annual Best of Computing. The Notable Books and Articles List for 2016, July 2017.
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STOC2017 Award
The paper Cristian Calude, Sanjay Jain, Bakhadyr Khoussainov, Wei Li, Frank Stephan. Deciding Parity Games in Quasipolynomial Time won a Best Award Paper at STOC2017.
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Theory matters: Google DeepMind and the last Game of Go
After beating Ke Jie, the world’s best Go player, for the third time at the Future of Go Summit in Wuzhen, Google DeepMind announced that AlphaGo will retire: this was the last game it played because the last summit represented "the highest possible pinnacle for AlphaGo as a competitive program".
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Unconventional Computation and Natural Computation 2017
The 16th International Conference on Unconventional Computation and Natural Computation was hosted in Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA, a city nestled in the Ozark Mountains and home to the University of Arkansas.
- Artificial General Intelligence 2017 The original goal of the AI field was the construction of "thinking machines" – that is, computer systems with human-like general intelligence. Due to the difficulty of this task, for the last few decades the majority of AI researchers have focused on what has been called "narrow AI" – the production of AI systems displaying intelligence regarding specific, highly constrained tasks. In recent years, however, more and more researchers have recognized the necessity – and feasibility – of returning to the original goals of the field by treating intelligence as a whole. Increasingly, there is a call for a transition back to confronting the more difficult issues of “human-level intelligence” and more broadly artificial general intelligence. AGI research differs from the ordinary AI research by stressing on the versatility and wholeness of intelligence, and by carrying out the engineering practice according to an outline of a system comparable to the human mind in a certain sense. Continuing the mission of the past AGI conferences, AGI-17 gathers an international group of leading academic and industry researchers involved in scientific and engineering work aimed directly toward the goal of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).
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Theory matters: Google DeepMind and the Game of Go
Shane Legg completed the MSc Thesis "Solomonov Induction and Algorithmic Information Theory" (supervisor: Prof. C. S. Calude) in 1996, see his CDMTCS Research Report 030, March 1997: Solomonoff Induction. In 2004 he then got a Ph.D. in artificial intelligence from IDSIA, Lugano, Switzerland. Shane was active in developing applications of algorithmic information theory to artificial intelligence; a group picture (N. Hay, S. Legg, C. Calude, M. Zimand) from 2006 Dagsthul meeting on Kolmogorov complexity. After a post-doc at University College London, UK, in 2011 he co-founded with Demis Hassabis and Mustafa Suleyman the artificial intelligence company DeepMind, from 2014 Google DeepMind (the biggest Google buy in Europe). A team from Google DeepMind published recently the paper Mastering the game of Go with deep neural networks and tree search in Nature, 28 January 2016; a day before BBC announced that A Google artificial intelligence program [AlphaGo] has beaten the European champion of the board game Go. In March 2016, AlphaGo has won the first three games from a 5-game challenge match in Seoul against the legendary Lee Sedol, the top Go player in the world over the past decade, but lost the fourth. The final game was won again by AlphaGo.
- Computer Algebra in Scientific Computing 2016 The 18th International Workshop on Computer Algebra in Scientific Computing will be held from 19 - 23 September 2016 in Bucharest, Romania. The methods of Scientific Computing play an important role in the natural sciences and engineering. Significance and impact of computer algebra methods and computer algebra systems for scientific computing has increased considerably over the last decade. Nowadays, computer algebra systems such as CoCoA, Macaulay, Magma, Maple, Mathematica, Maxima, Reduce, Sage, Singular and others enable their users to exploit their powerful facilities in symbolic manipulation, numerical computation and visualisation.
- APCWQIS 2015 at University of Auckland Quantum Information Science is now a well-established field of research, with interests spanning many traditional physics disciplines ‒ atomic and optical physics, quantum optics, many-body and low-temperature physics, condensed matter physics and solid state ‒ and with frontiers reaching into computer science and engineering. The Asia-Pacific Conference and Workshop on Quantum Information Science 2015 is organised by the Dodd-Walls Centre for Photonic and Quantum Technologies, and the physics departments of The University of Auckland and the University of Otago.
- Asiacrypt 2015 at University of Auckland Steven Galbraith is organizing the major international cryptography conference "Asiacrypt 2015" , which is one of the three annual flagship conferences of the International Association for Cryptologic Research (IACR).
- The 14th International Conference UCNC15 Unconventional Computing and Natural Computing will return to the University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand (31 Aug - 4 Sep, 2015)
- AISB Symposium 2015 The AISB Symposium on Music, Arts and Unconventional Computing to be held on 20-22 April, 2015 at University of Kent, Canterbury, UK.
- TAMC 2015 The Theory and Applications of Models of Computation to be held on 18-20 May 2015 National University of Singapore.
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J.C. Butcher Award Winner for 2014
Declan Alexander Liddington Thompson is the recipient of the "J.C. Butcher Award in Theoretical Computer Science" for 2014.
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Marston Conder wins 2014 Hector Medal
Distinguished Professor Marston Conder FRSNZ has been awarded the
Hector medal for his outstanding contribution to mathematics.
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ACM South Pacific Regional Finals 2014
The University of Auckland qualified a programming contest team (Alec Henderson, Jinming He, Xuzong Chen) at the first
ACM South Pacific Regional Finals in UNSW, Sydney, Australia (26-28 Sep, 2014).
Coach (and Judge) Michael Dinneen was awarded the Michael Lennon Award for Service.
- Prof Marston Conder has been appointed Distinguished Professor for 2011.
- Prof John Butcher has been elected as a SIAM 2010 Fellow.
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The Nine International Conference
UC'10 was held in Tokyo, Japan, June 21-25, 2010. - Congratulations to UoA's Ronald Chan, winner of the international Dyalog APL contest 2009. For more information - archived announcements.
- The Eight International Conference UC'09 and the Second International Workshop on Physics and Computation 2009 was held Ponta Delgada (Azores), Portugal on 7-11 September 2009.
- The Fourth International Conference on Combinatorial Mathematics and Combinatorial Computing (4ICC) will be held in Auckland, 15-19 December 2008.
- The Workshop "Grand Challenges of Unconventional Computation", part of The 20th Anniversary Conference of Academia Europaea, was be held in Liverpool, UK on 17 September, 2008.
- The Workshop on Physics and Computation 2008, part of UC'08, was held at Vienna University of Technology, Austria on 25-28 August 2008.
- University of Auckland Team--Heather Macbeth, Matthew Steel, Matthew Gatland, Dr. Michael Dinneen (coach)--reclaimed the South-Pacific Champions title at the 32nd ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest World Finals (April 6-9, 2008. Banff, Canada).
- The The Workshop on Computability and Complexity was held at the CDMTCS on 7 December 2007.
- University of Auckland Team (Andrew Olsen, Robert Bowmaker and Stephen Merriman, trained by Dr. Michael Dinneen, pictured here) finished 11th from 88 in the 31st ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest World Finals (March 12-16, 2007 Hilton Tokyo Bay Hotel) and won a Bronze Medal.
- The Sixth International Conference (UC'07) was held at Queen's University (Kingston), Canada, on 13-17 August 2007.
- Special Session: Mathematical Truth and Provability in the 21st Century at the 6-th Congress of Romanian Mathematicians
- A Workshop on Computability, Randomness and Model Theory was held at the University of Auckland on 8-9 November 2006.
- The Fifth International Conference UC06 was held at the University of York, UK, on 4-8 September 2006. Call-for-Papers.
- The Workshop Infinite Aspects of Topological Graph Theory was held at the University of Auckland on 13-17 February 2006. Owen Auger is the recipient of the "J.C. Butcher Award in Theoretical Computer Science" for 2005. The Fourth International Conference "Unconventional Computation" (UC'05) was held at University of Sevilla, Spain from 3-7 October 2005.
- Nicholas Hay is the recipient of the "J.C. Butcher Award in Theoretical Computer Science" for 2004.
- The Eighth International Conference "Developments in Language Theory" (DLT'04) was held at Massey University at Albany, Auckland from 13 to 17 December 2004.
- The CDMTCS is a sponsor of the 2004 NZIMA Conference in Combinatorics and its Applications which was held at Lake Taupo on 13th-18th December, 2004.
- Sebastiaan Terwijn, Technical University of Vienna, taught a short course on "Complexity and Randomness", in the period 11-25 March, each Tuesday and Thursday, 3.00-4.00pm, Math. Seminar Room 222.
- The Fourth International Conference on Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science, DMTCS'03 -- jointly organized by CDMTCS and Université de Bourgogne -- will be held in Dijon, France on July 7-12, 2003.
- The Third International Conference on Unconventional Models of Computation (UMC'02) took place at Kobe, Japan from October 15 to October 19, 2002. It was organized jointly by the CDMTCS and the Kansai Advanced Research Center of the Communications Research Laboratory.
- The CDMTCS is co-organizing the session on "Applications to Computer Science" of the 17th Summer Conference on Topology (in Auckland 1-4 July 2002, in winter!).
- The Workshop Truths and Proofs, organized by the CDMTCS in conjunction with the Annual Conference of the Australasian Association of Philosophy (New Zealand Division) will be held at the University of Auckland on 7-8 December 2001. Click here for the programme and abstracts.
- The Third International Conference on Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science, DMTCS'01 was held in Constanta, Romania on July 2-6, 2001 (organized by CDMTCS and Ovidius University).
- The Second International Conference on UNCONVENTIONAL MODELS OF COMPUTATION , organized by the CDMTCS and the Solvay Institutes was held in Brussels, Belgium, on December 13-16, 2000.
- Algebraic and Topological Methods in Graph Theory ATMGT2000 was held in Auckland on December 11-15, 2000.
- The Workshop on Multiset Processing (Mathematical, Computer Science, Molecular Computing approaches) WMP2000 organized by the Romanian Academy, the Politechnical University of Madrid and CDMTCS, was held in Curtea de Arges, Romania, on 21-25 August, 2000.
- A workshop recognizing the 5th Anniversary of the CDMTCS was held on 26 May 2000 (click here for more information).
