August 2019 - Categories - categories.org.au

Re: "First" use of 'Category theory' to describe our field
by David Roberts 24 Feb '24

24 Feb '24

Dear Ross, no, that's pretty good! It's mildly surprising that it took ~20 years for the name to 'stick', but maybe less so given that the field grew slowly to start. Thanks, David David Roberts Webpage: https://ncatlab.org/nlab/show/David+Roberts Blog: https://thehighergeometer.wordpress.com On Thu, 11 Jul 2019 at 08:21, Ross Street <ross.street(a)mq.edu.au> wrote: > > Dear David > > From memory, the Pure Mathematics Honours (USyd) course that Max Kelly taught in 1965 > was called ``Category Theory''. It concentrated on different kinds of morphisms > and factorizations in a category, and finished with adjoint functors. > Also John Gray's (UIllinois) 1968-69 graduate course had that name. > > From Eilenberg I heard that each person using categories should have their own category of expertise. > I told this to John Gray who said that was fine; the time had come for that category to be Cat. > > I would suggest that the first category theorists to think of themselves as such were Eilenberg's students at Columbia. > However, Mac Lane was definitely a category theorist. > > This is probably not the verifiable stuff you were seeking. > > Ross > > > On 10 Jul 2019, at 10:01 PM, David Roberts <droberts.65537(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > Hi all, > > the (idle) question is: when did the phrase 'category theory' catch on > for the field? Clearly it didn't leap from either of the heads of > Eilenberg or Mac Lane full-grown, since they used the phrase 'General > theory of natural equivalences'. There are the old 'Reports of the > Midwest Category Seminar' lecture notes (the first in 1967), which > hints that 'category theory' wasn't quite the name in use. > > Even more interesting: who was the first "category theorist", by that name? > > Answers referring to verifiable sources would be best. > > Thoughts? > > David > > > > David Roberts > Webpage: https://ncatlab.org/nlab/show/David+Roberts > Blog: https://thehighergeometer.wordpress.com > [For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]

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ETAPS 2020 2nd joint call for papers
by Tarmo Uustalu 01 Sep '19

01 Sep '19

****************************************************************** JOINT CALL FOR PAPERS 23rd European Joint Conferences on Theory and Practice of Software ETAPS 2020 Dublin, Ireland, 25-30 April 2020 http://www.etaps.org/2020 ****************************************************************** -- ABOUT ETAPS -- ETAPS is the primary European forum for academic and industrial researchers working on topics relating to software science. ETAPS, established in 1998, is a confederation of four annual conferences, accompanied by satellite workshops. ETAPS 2020 is the twenty-third event in the series. -- MAIN CONFERENCES (27-30 April) -- * ESOP: European Symposium on Programming (PC chair: Peter Müller, ETH Zürich, Switzerland) * FASE: Fundamental Approaches to Software Engineering (PC chairs: Heike Wehrheim, Universität Paderborn, Germany, and Jordi Cabot, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain) * FoSSaCS: Foundations of Software Science and Computation Structures (PC chairs: Barbara König, Univ Duisburg-Essen, Germany, and Jean Goubault-Larrecq, LSV, ENS Paris-Saclay, France) * TACAS: Tools and Algorithms for the Construction and Analysis of Systems (PC chairs: Armin Biere, Johannes-Kepler-Univ Linz, Austria, and David Parker, University of Birmingham, United Kingdom) TACAS '20 will host the 9th Competition on Software Verification (SV-COMP). POST, which was an ETAPS conference 2012-2019, has been discontinued. -- INVITED SPEAKERS -- * Unifying speakers: Lars Birkedal (Aarhus Universitet, Denmark) Jane Hillston (University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom) * ESOP invited speaker: Isil Dillig (University of Texas at Austin, USA) * FASE invited speaker: Willem Visser (Stellenbosch University, South Africa) -- IMPORTANT DATES * Papers due: 24 October 2019 23:59 AoE (=GMT-12) * Rebuttal (ESOP, FoSSaCS and, for selected papers, TACAS): 9 December 00:01 AoE - 10 December 23:59 AoE * Notification: 23 December 2019 * Camera-ready versions due: 22 February 2020 -- SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS -- The four main conferences of ETAPS 2020 solicit contributions of the following types: * ESOP: regular research papers of max 25 pp (excl bibl) * FASE: regular research papers and empirical evaluation papers of max 18 pp (excl bibl), tool demonstration papers of 6+6 pp * FoSSaCS: regular research papers of max 18 pp (excl bibl) * TACAS: regular research papers, case study papers and regular tool papers of max 16 pp (excl bibl), tool demonstration papers of 6 pp For definitions of the different paper types and specific instructions, where they are present, see the webpages of the individual conferences. All accepted papers will appear in the conference proceedings and have presentations during the conference. A condition of submission is that, if the submission is accepted, one of the authors attends the conference to give the presentation. Submitted papers must be in English presenting original research. They must be unpublished and not submitted for publication elsewhere. In particular, simultaneous submission of the same contribution to multiple ETAPS conferences is forbidden. Submissions must follow the formatting guidelines of Springer's LNCS and be submitted electronically in pdf through the Easychair author interface of the respective conference. Submissions not adhering to the specified format and length may be rejected immediately. FASE will use double-blind reviewing. Authors are asked to omit their names and institutions; refer to own prior work in the third person; not to include acknowledgements that might identify them. Regular tool paper and tool demonstration paper submissions to TACAS must be accompanied by an artifact. The artifact will be evaluated and the outcome will be taken into account in the acceptance decision of the paper. ESOP and FoSSaCS will use an author rebuttal phase. TACAS will have rebuttal for selected papers. -- PUBLICATION The proceedings will be published in the Advanced Research in Computing and Software Science (ARCoSS) subline of Springer's LNCS series. The proceedings volumes will appear in gold open access, so the published versions of all papers will be available for everyone to download from the publisher's website freely, from the date of online publication, perpetually. The copyright of the papers will remain with the authors. -- SATELLITE EVENTS (25-26 April) -- A number of satellite workshops will take place before the main conferences. * 25-26 April (two days): CMCS, GALOP, SynCoP, VerifyThis, VPT, WADT, WRLA * 25 April: CREST, InterAVT, MSFP, TEASE-LP * 26 April: HCVS, MARS, MeTRiD, PLACES, RW -- CITY AND HOST INSTITUTION -- Dublin (Baile Átha Cliath) is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Ireland. It is situated on the East coast of Ireland, at the mouth of the River Liffey, at the centre of the Greater Dublin area with 1.9 million inhabitants. Dublin is a historical and contemporary centre for education, the arts, administration and industry. As of 2018 the city was listed by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC) as a global city, with a ranking of Alpha-, which places it among the top thirty cities in the world. ETAPS 2020 is organised by the University of Limerick in cooperation with Lero, the Irish Software Research Centre spanning 9 universities and ITs in Ireland. -- ORGANIZERS -- General chair: Tiziana Margaria (University of Limerick and Lero, Ireland) Workshop chairs: Falk Howar (Technische Universität Dortmund, Germany) and Peter Höfner (Data61, Australia) Practical organization: Easy Conferences -- FURTHER INFORMATION -- Please do not hesitate to contact the general chair at <tiziana.margaria(a)lero.ie>. [For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]

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Category Theory Octoberfest 2019: Call for submissions
by tslil clingman 25 Aug '19

25 Aug '19

Dear all, CT Octoberfest 2019 will be held at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore on the 26th and 27th of October. The meeting is free and open to all. All details, including instructions on contributing a talk or ``registering'', and accommodation and travel recommendations, are available on the website: https://ct-octoberfest.github.io . In conjunction with Octoberfest we are pleased to announce a plenary talk, joint with the Johns Hopkins Category Theory seminar, on Friday the 26th of October: Mike Shulman will be talking on the theme of internal languages. Those wishing to speak should send an email to ctoctoberfest19(a)math.jhu.edu with the subject ``Submission'' including the submission title and any notes or special requests. The talk submission deadline is the 25th of September, anywhere on earth. For any queries related to the meeting please do not hesitate to contact tslil clingman at tslil(a)jhu.edu or the meeting email address ctoctoberfest19(a)math.jhu.edu. We hope to see you there! [For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]

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only_marketing_?
by Eduardo J. Dubuc 21 Aug '19

21 Aug '19

Hi, I will like to hear opinions of members of this list about the following link: https://www.forbes.com/sites/cognitiveworld/2019/07/29/the-future-will-be-f… Is it pure marketing ? Is it serious ? The points in this post can attire more funds to category theory research in general ? The point in this post will absorb for fake category theory research the existing funds in detriment to serious category theory research ? etc etc eduardo dubuc [For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]

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Re: only_marketing_? Compositionality?
by ronnie.profbrown＠btinternet.com 21 Aug '19

21 Aug '19

Dear Steve and all, I heard Philip Higgins talk to the BMC at Liverpool in 1960 or so. This work was published as Algebras with a scheme of operators}.Math. Nach. {27} (1963) 115--132. and it is about algebras whose operations are partially defined. We discussed something like this, in his home, in 1967, after a seminar I gave on van Kampen's theorem with a set of base points, discussing possible cubically defined compositions, but joint work did not get going till 1974. See my "philosophy" paper "Modelling and computing homotopy types: I" for the 2018 Brouwer honor volume of Indigationes. My interest in this started in 1965 partly on reading a few pages of Ehresmann's "Cat\'egories et Structure" and saw that it seems double groupoids could possibly be " more nonabelian" than groups. What then could be a homotopy double groupoid? Nine years later ...! On submitting a joint paper, I was told that "It had been seen by two international authorities and editors of a journal should not embarrass one another. " I replied "Tell me what is wrong" and after a 3rd referee it finally appeared much cut. This use for local-to-global questions I now give the tag "Algebraic inverses to subdivision" and it is done cubically since I can't do it simplicially (although a polyhedral groupoid version was David Jones 1984 thesis "Poly T-complexes" (available from Rosprawy Math 266). Hope that helps. Ronnie groupoids.org/uk ------ Original Message ------ From: "Steve Vickers" <s.j.vickers(a)cs.bham.ac.uk> To: "John Baez" <baez(a)math.ucr.edu>; "categories" <categories(a)mta.ca> Sent: Tuesday, 20 Aug, 2019 At 09:55 Subject: categories: Re: only_marketing_? Dear John, Those are rather pertinent examples, as the dagger closed and hypergraph categories show up a weakness in my question. I asked about seeking objects, morphisms, identities and associative composition, which seems very natural because it's the basic definition of category. Everything has a domain and a codomain, an input and an output, and composition is malformed unless it's domain with codomain. This leads many of our category theoretic intuitions to be based on thinking of objects and morphisms as being, at some level of abstraction, like sets and functions. Once you have set up the structure of what is input and what is output, it takes some effort to forget it. Dagger closed and the associated string diagrams provide a mechanism for doing that. A good example is Rel. A morphism from X1 x ... x Xm to Y1 x ... x Yn is just a subset of X1 x ... x Xm x Y1 x ... x Yn, in the light of which it is perhaps perverse to impose domain and codomain structure - unless, perhaps you want to carry on to say which relations are functional. As you propose, this certainly looks like a good way to analyse networks, and open systems where there is an interface between internal structure and external behaviour, an interface along which we must compose components. I've heard Jamie Vicary and others use the word "compositionality" as something not quite the same as category theory. Is this what they mean, letting go of the strict domain-codomain discipline? All the best, Steve. [For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]

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CF Participation: JOINT SYCO-STRING WORKSHOP
by Dan Ghica 13 Aug '19

13 Aug '19

CALL FOR PARTICIPATION Third Workshop on String Diagrams in Computation, Logic and Physics (STRINGS 3) and the Fifth Symposium on Compositional Structures (SYCO 5) University of Birmingham, UK 4-6 September 2019 Programme and workshop information: http://events.cs.bham.ac.uk/syco/strings3-syco5/ Free registration form: https://forms.gle/r4DBVyE5QSXckVgE6 Some travel funding is available to cover travel and subsistence costs, with a priority for students and junior researchers. To apply for this funding, please send an email to Dan Ghica at <d.r.ghica(a)cs.bham.ac.uk> by the deadline Wednesday 21 August, with subject line "STRINGS 3/SYCO 5 funding application", giving a brief summary of your current status, travel costs and funding required. [For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]

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2-year postdoc position on type theory in Birmingham (UK)
by Benedikt Ahrens 07 Aug '19

07 Aug '19

Dear all, I would like to invite applications for a 2-year postdoctoral position at the University of Birmingham, School of Computer Science. The postdoctoral researcher will work with Paige Randall North (Ohio State University) and me on a topic in the area of (homotopy) type theory; details can be discussed. The position is funded by the EPSRC grant "A theory of type theories", PI Benedikt Ahrens. The starting date of the position is somewhat flexible; it should be between late 2019 and mid 2020. How to apply ============ There is no official job opening yet. Interested people are encouraged to contact me by email (b.ahrens(a)cs.bham.ac.uk) in the first instance to discuss their research interests and details of the position. About Birmingham ================ The School of Computer Science has a large and thriving Theoretical Computer Science research group, with a particular focus on category theory and its applications to the logical foundations of computer science. Among our research interests are: - category theory and higher category theory; - type theory; - homotopy type theory and univalent foundations; - formal proof; - lambda-calculus and computational effects; - topology and domain theory; - constructive mathematics; - quantum computing; - semantics; - program compilation. Our group currently has 12 permanent staff and more than a dozen PhD students. We have a weekly seminar, as well as more informal meetings and reading groups. Information on all of this can be found on our webpage: http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/groupings/theory/ We are regularly hosting international events in theoretical computer science in general and type theory in particular; recently, this included CSL 2018, 6WFTop, School and Workshop on Univalent Mathematics, and Midlands Graduate School. Please also distribute this advertisement to others who might be interested. Best wishes, Benedikt [For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]

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Closed symmetric monoidal category
by Johannes Huebschmann 06 Aug '19

06 Aug '19

Dear All The category of modules over a differential graded commutative algebra A, with the tensor product over A (suitably interpreted) as operation of composition, the direct sum as operation of biproduct, the algebra A as identity object, and the interchange map (suitably interpreted) as operation of braiding, is a closed symmetric monoidal category (unless I am mistaken). Is there a place in the literature where this category is studied? Best regards Johannes [For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]

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Applied Category Theory Special Session at UCR
by Joseph Moeller 04 Aug '19

04 Aug '19

We are having an Applied Category Theory special session of the AMS Fall Western Sectional Meeting. The meeting will take place at the University of California, Riverside, on the 9th and 10th of November, 2019. The deadline to submit abstracts is the 3rd of September. Abstracts can be submitted through the AMS website. http://www.ams.org/meetings/abstracts/abstracts Abstracts submitted after the deadline will not be considered. Lodging You'll want to make reservations soon. Here are a few places people often stay when visiting UCR. Dynasty Suites the Mission Inn Courtyard by Marriott (on University Ave) the Marriott Riverside at the Convention Center (downtown) Schedule and Location We'll be able to figure out a schedule after we've decided who will be speaking. The special session will be held on the UCR campus, though we don't know the room or even the building yet. You can find more information about the invited speakers in this blog post announcing the session. https://johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/2019/06/16/applied-category-theory-mee… Sadly, we have no funds to help you attend this special session. Organizers John Baez and Joe Moeller [For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]

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