Questions tagged [soft-question]
A soft question is a question (possibly subjective) about the field of theoretical computer science as opposed to being a question in theoretical computer science.
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Any advice for a third-year undergraduate student who wanna embark on tcs research in the future?
I'm about to be a third-year undergraduate student next month. There're not too many opportunities to do theory research(there are some but I think I'm not interested) especially for those without ...
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Transition from Mathematics to TCS [closed]
I am an undergraduate majoring in Mathematics and I am really interested in TCS. Most of the classes I have taken are pure math classes so I was wondering: what are the core TCS courses that I should ...
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algebraic topology in distributed computing
I have just discovered the paper of M. Herlihy and N. Shavit on the use of algebraic topology methods in TCS and distributed computing in particular.
Now I am wondering if there is any further work ...
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How stringent is the peer review process of ECCC exactly?
Apologies for the soft question. ECCC (the Electronic Colloquium on Computational Complexity), on its website (ECCC), says it is a compromise between the negligible peer review of ArXiv and the long ...
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What is the 'P=NP?' building?
I remember that I read somewhere some years ago that they've built a computing building with the 'P=NP?' question built in it from bricks so that they later have the option to rearrange these bricks ...
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Resources on how to write good TCS papers
I am looking for good resources on how to write papers, which could be useful for graduate students in TCS. The internet seems to be full with style books, papers, and online talks on the subject, but ...
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What online talks should everyone watch? [duplicate]
In the past 4-5 years or so, partly owing to COVID, more and more talks have been uploaded to YouTube. In the same spirit as this question by Ryan Williams almost 14 years ago: What papers should ...
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How does one "understand" complexity theory?
There's a famous quote by Bob Thomason about Grothendieck that he tried to understand algebraic geometry whilst everyone else was super-fixated on trying to prove theorems. Complexity theory, as one ...
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What are some "who ordered that?" moments in theoretical computer science?
I was recently listening to Sean Carroll's interview with Scott Aaronson, and the two of them briefly talked about surprises in their respective fields (theoretical and particle physics, and ...
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Why isn't TheoretiCS very popular yet?
(My question is probably badly formulated, sorry for this.)
TheoretiCS is an overlay journal in Theoretical CS (hence charge-free and in full open access), launched two years ago. From my point of ...
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If I want to end math, where should I start?
I'm a PhD in math, but I'm not good. I'm familiar with Riemannian geometry, a little partial differential equations, and a little algebraic topology. And the other undergraduate courses of math (I ...
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Where should I apply for MS in CS if I want to get admitted for Phd in TCS
I'm currently finishing my bachelor's degree of Computer Science and I'm really interested in Computational Complexity Theory and Analysis and design of Algorithms. As far as I know, if I do not have ...
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Recent advances in computer science since 2010?
Since I left school (early 2010s) a couple of recently developed techniques were widely adopted by the industry. For example,
Asymmetric numeral systems for compression (e.g. Ubuntu ships with ...
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Project management
What book or MOOC would you recommend on work organisation / management of academic research projects? (Does not have to be academic project management specifically, but as close as possible)
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NP-complete problems where the inputs are prime numbers
Are there (well?) known NP-complete problems where the input(s) is(are) a(some) prime number(s), with complexity measured relative to the binary length of the input number(s)? I am thinking there are ...
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Problems in NP with non-trivial certificate
For all NP-complete problems I can think about, the problem statement says very clearly how to test a certificate. I'm looking for interesting problems with NP which have non-trivial certificates. I ...
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Solo single author paper vs the comfort of having you advisor on the paper?
My partner is a very bright theoretical CS student. Recently she proved a pretty significant result that she is aiming to submit for SODA. In addition, the paper was done completely without her ...
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What are some practical applications of inductive-inductive types?
By "practical applications" I mean in usual programming/industry. I am particularly interested in cases where the inductive-inductive types cannot be easily replaced by inductive-recursive ...
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Where is the model theory in programming language theory?
I have a background in mathematical logic and am trying to learn some programming language theory. In the syntax of, say, first-order logic, one of the first distinctions you learn about is between ...
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Open Quantum Analogs to Classical Problems
I am looking for interesting examples of complexity-theoretic and cryptographic problems where we have a significant amount of knowledge about the classical version of the problem, but we have no ...
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Resources for hoodie design related to theoretical CS [closed]
I have to design a hoodie for my computer science batch, and I want it to be related to Theoretical computer science. I don't want to slap on some text with HTML-like angle brackets, but actually want ...
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Are there 'poision-pill' research questions in TCS?
I intend to double major in CS/Math and go to grad school for TCS. I have some - unorthodox - research ideas I would like to pursue for grad school. At the very least, they are interdisciplinary (...
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Does double majoring with math in undergrad help one grasp TCS topics more easier?
I'm a CS major. However, a lot of TCS topics seem to be in the realm of pure math. Should I add a math major to complement understanding and for a future career in TCS?
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Why does it matter how difficult a proof is?
I am confused by how the objective worth of CS theory research is assessed.
In the last year, I had been working on formalizing some tasks from a different research field in cs theoretic terms, i.e. ...
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FOCS virtual fee $600
I'm not sure this is on topic here, but probably can be best answered by this community, so I'm posting it as a soft-question.
Due to the pandemic, FOCS 2021 will be a virtual conference. Most ...
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Graph associated to a mathematical statement (for the purpose of zero-knowledge proofs)
I'll preface this question by saying I have very little (zero!) knowledge of theoretical computer science, and this post is a genuine attempt to understand something, even if at an intuitive level, ...
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Which universities in the U.S. are doing research in type theory?
The question is meant to be broad in that recommendations with mentions of the particular areas within type theory research are greatly appreciated. Also, the research need not be conducted in ...
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Decision tree vs. pebble game lower bounds
This question concerns two types of lower bounds. In a pebbling lower bound, we are concerned with the complexity of constructing the output from the input. For example, if the only way we could ...
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Is it right to ask a TCS researcher about the real life application of the problem she/he is working on?
I have attended a decent number of TCS conferences. It is good that researchers solve difficult problems. However, I am often interested in the reason why a problem is interesting in the first place. ...
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I think I may have discovered a new algorithm for a common problem. Now what?
I was trying to solve a common problem the other week and upon checking Stackoverflow there was a solution, but it just seemed like there should be a better way to do it. I thought about it for a ...
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Can theoretical computer science be applied in social sciences?
I'm very new to this field - technically not in it but want to be. I'm very early in my academic career (sophomore at a community college) but decided that I want to add a math major along with my ...
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Reviewing a paper and found a better solution
I was reviewing a paper of a double-blind conference (ML/AI-based conference). The authors improved the approximation bounds for some special instances of a problem.
To understand their proof better, ...
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How to acknowledge answers of TCS in the paper?
I am researcher in a company from last 5 years.
I have received few answers on Theoretical Computer Science stack exchange regarding my current research work. They are not the main part of the paper ...
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Why most of the top TCS conferences are not double-blind?
I have found that the most notable TCS conferences like FOCS, STOC, SODA, and ICALP are single-blind. That is the authors do not know the identity of reviewers; however, the reviewers know the ...
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Simple randomized priority queue matching the Fibonacci heap time bounds?
Since the Fibonacci heap was developed, many other priority queues have been invented with equivalent time bounds and a simpler design (e.g. hollow heaps, quake heaps, etc.).
Many classical worst-case ...
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Algorithms Careers
I’ve been writing software for a living for a number of years now. I have graduate background in mathematics and I am wondering whether knowledge of higher algorithms is utilized anywhere in industry. ...
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Do theoretical computer scientists work more with proving theorems, or work more with data?
As theoretical computer scientists, do you work more with proving theorems, or do you work more with data?
According to How to Criticize Computer Scientists, computer scientists can be divided into ...
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The graph of problem reductions
A classical approach to study the complexity of a problem $P$ is to efficiently reduce a well known problem $P'$ to $P$, thus showing that $P$ is at least as difficult as $P'$. The TCS literature ...
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Looking for some lecture videos on logic, models of computation and computational complexity/tcs fundamentals [closed]
Looking for some lecture videos (introductory level) on logic, models of computation as well as computational complexity/ other theoretical computer science fundamentals
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What math courses should I revisit to prepare for a CS Ph.D. (Reinforcement learning and Game Theory)?
I am planning to join a CS Ph.D. program in 6 months. My topics of research will be in the area of Reinforcement Learning and Game Theory. Even though I have a good grasp of these two topics’ ...
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Advice on undergraduate research
I am a junior in college who is very interested in doing some sort of REU/research internship in theoretical computer science this summer, as I would like to get research experience before potentially ...
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Which are the best universities for a DPhil/PhD in proof theory and automated reasoning?
I'm an undergraduate student studying computer science and I'm interested in doing a PhD after I graduate. I would like to do research in proof theory and automated reasoning, specifically in ...
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Publishing by showing falsity of existing results [closed]
Is it valid to publish a minor result related to computer science complexity theory and classes that disproves and falsifies an existing result?
Would that be a valid and respectable endeavor?
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Publishing short and simple results
I have a manuscript that has been conference-rejected 3 times up to this point.
Just to clear things up, I am by no means a senior researcher but I am not a junior who cannot judge the strength of my ...
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Formal theory about explaining algorithms
There is a lot of algorithms written in formal languages, but I have never seen any formal system which target is to explain or give a rationale behind an algorithm. It seems that when constructing ...
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Should one study undergrad TCS materials before taking grad-level ones? (soft question)
I am a 1st year PhD student. I got a bachelor's degree in CS but I didn't start learning TCS systematically until this year.
This dumb question came to me when I opened an undergrad complexity lecture ...
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Any fundamental papers in TCS which were found to be incorrect/wrong later?
I am asking this question out of curiosity.
I recently encountered this well-known paper on (published in 2009):
the hardness of Euclidean kmeans
The paper showed that the previous NP-hardness result (...
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Why do TCS papers have author names in alphabetical order of their surnames?
I am currently doing a Ph.D. in Theoretical Computer Science, and any research paper I encountered so far has the author's names in alphabetical order of their surnames.
For example consider the most ...
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Online TCS Seminars
I want to have a list of online seminars that holds now.
So far I know only about TCS+(https://www.tcsplus.org/) seminars.
I would like to ask if there are other TCS seminars.
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How to succeed in remote TCS research as undergraduate
I am participating in a remote summer research program in theoretical computer science due to the current pandemic. I recognize that given the current situation, it may be harder to collaborate with ...
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