March 2020 - 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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Teaching PhD Position in Quantitative Systems and Reasoning Methods
by Henning Basold 31 Mar '20

31 Mar '20

CAUTION: The Sender of this email is not from within Dalhousie. I have a fully funded PhD position at the Leiden University available with a rather free choice of approaching reasoning methods for quantitative systems. The approach can be purely in terms of category theory, type theory, formal logic, or a combination of those. Please note that the application deadline is 26 April 2020, but applications are accepted until the position is filled. More information about the research project and the details of the position can be found here: https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/vacancies/2020/q1/20-150-teaching-phd-… For further questions, please contact Henning Basold <h.basold(a)liacs.leidenuniv.nl>. Please forward this announcement to whomever you see fit. Thank you! Kind regards, Henning [For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]

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Announcing the Online Worldwide Seminar on Logic and Semantics (OWLS)
by Jamie Vicary 28 Mar '20

28 Mar '20

CAUTION: The Sender of this email is not from within Dalhousie. ** ONLINE WORLDWIDE SEMINAR ON LOGIC AND SEMANTICS (OWLS) ** ** https://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~vicaryjo/owls/ ** The Online Worldwide Seminar on Logic and Semantics is a new online-only series of fortnightly research talks, highlighting the most exciting recent work in the international computer science logic community. In this time of restricted international travel, a key aim of this series is to provide a forum for informal discussion and social interaction that is so important for the progress of science. To facilitate this, the seminar incorporates in virtual form a number of features more normally associated with physical meetings, including virtual "coffee breaks" before and after the seminar, allowing participants to chat in small groups. (Don't forget to bring your own coffee.) We are delighted to announce our initial programme of talks, all of which take place on Wednesdays at 14:00 UTC+1. All members of the computer science logic community are welcome, from students to professors. - April 1. Kevin Buzzard, Imperial College London. "Is HoTT the way to do mathematics?" - April 15. Joost-Pieter Katoen, Aachen University. "Termination of probabilistic programs" - April 29. Daniela Petrisan, University of Paris. "Combining probabilistic and non-deterministic choice via weak distributive laws" - May 13. Bartek Klin, Warsaw University: "Monadic monadic second order logic" - May 27. Dexter Kozen, Cornell University: "Brzozowski derivatives as distributive laws" Talks are fully interactive, with audience members able to see the speaker's face at the same time as the slides, and able to ask questions with full audio and video, just as they would in a physical seminar, allowing the nuanced communication that is so critical for modern science. The seminar series is based on the Zoom technology platform, which is capable of handing large meetings with ease. Visit the OWLS webpage given at the top of this email for more information about the seminar, and to sign up for our reminder email list. Best wishes, the organizers: - Alexandra Silva, University College London - Pawel Sobocinski, Tallinn University of Technology - Jamie Vicary, University of Birmingham [For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]

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PhD in formal methods and security, cotutelle France-Scotland
by Barbara Fila (Kordy) 25 Mar '20

25 Mar '20

CAUTION: The Sender of this email is not from within Dalhousie. We have a fully-funded three-year PhD position in formal methods for information security. This is a joint doctorate (cotutelle) between IRISA (Rennes, France) and Heriot-Watt University (Edinburgh, Scotland). The student will obtain a PhD degree from both universities. For more details, see http://people.irisa.fr/Barbara.Kordy/vacancies.php The deadline for applications is Friday, May 15, 2020, but applications will be considered until the position is filled. For all inquiries please contact Barbara Fila (barbara.fila(a)irisa.fr) and Sa??a Radomirovi?? (sasa.radomirovic(a)hw.ac.uk) With kind regards, Barbara ---------------------- http://people.irisa.fr/Barbara.Kordy/ [For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]

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"Enriched Categories and Topology"
by Walter Tholen 25 Mar '20

25 Mar '20

CAUTION: The Sender of this email is not from within Dalhousie. Dear Categorists, In response to the current pandemic, the organizers of the 35th Summer Conference on Topology and Its Applications https://ysu.edu/sumtopo informed the session organizers today of the cancellation of the event. As a corollary, the planned special session on Enriched Categories and Topology at the conference (as announced earlier this year on this list) can unfortunately not take place. There are currently no plans to hold the session at some other time or venue. Thanks to everybody who indicated interest in the session. Walter [For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]

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Category Theory Community Server
by Christian Williams 25 Mar '20

25 Mar '20

CAUTION: The Sender of this email is not from within Dalhousie. Hello all, We've started a community server for category theory, computer science, logic, as well as general science and industry. In just a few days, it has grown into a large and lively place, with people of many backgrounds and interests. Please feel free to join! categorytheory.zulipchat.com <https://categorytheory.zulipchat.com/join/52grbi4jw3b989fywh56pull/> Sincerely, John Baez Christian Williams [For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]

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Multiple Research Positions (3 Doctoral, 5 Post-doctoral) on AI Verification
by Robert Atkey 24 Mar '20

24 Mar '20

CAUTION: The Sender of this email is not from within Dalhousie. AI Secure and Explainable by Construction: Multiple Research Positions (3 Doctoral, 5 Post-doctoral) available at Heriot-Watt, Edinburgh and Strathclyde Universities, Scotland, UK. Start date: 1 September 2020; End date: 30 August 2023 Postdoctoral Salary Scale: ??31,866 to ??40,322 per annum PhD funding: covering PhD fees and stipend for 3.5 years Closing date for Postdoctoral applications: 1 June 2020 We encourage interested applicants to contact us informally ASAP. The project has sufficient flexibility to mitigate the effect of COVID-19, i.e. by accommodating later start date and remote working. The project spans several subjects: type theory, automated and interactive theorem proving, security, AI and machine learning, autonomous systems, natural language processing and generation, legal aspects of AI. It will cover two main application areas: autonomous cars and chatbots, drawing from expertise and infrastructure provided by industrial partners working in these two areas. The project has a significant international span, with 12 partners from Academia and Industry in Europe (France, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands, Norway) and the US. Researchers joining this project will have excellent opportunities to travel to international conferences, organise scientific events, spend time with industrial partners, collaborate with academic leaders in the field, develop their own research profiles as well as gain experience in other AI and CS disciplines. For further information, and instructions how to apply, please visit: http://laiv.uk/index.php/vacancies/ Ekaterina Komendantskaya: http://www.macs.hw.ac.uk/~ek19/ Robert Atkey: https://bentnib.org/ David Aspinall: https://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/da/ Burkard Schafer: https://www.law.ed.ac.uk/people/professor-burkhard-schafer Verena Rieser: https://sites.google.com/site/verenateresarieser/ [For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]

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ACT@UCR seminar
by John Baez 24 Mar '20

24 Mar '20

CAUTION: The Sender of this email is not from within Dalhousie. Dear Category Theorists - Coronavirus is forcing massive changes on the academic ecosystem, and here’s another: We’re having a seminar on applied category theory at U. C. Riverside, organized by Joe Moeller and Christian Williams. It will take place on Wednesdays at 5 pm UTC, which is 10 am in California, or 1 pm on the east coast of the United States, or 6 pm in England. It will be held online via Zoom, here: https://ucr.zoom.us/j/607160601 We will have discussions online here: https://categorytheory.zulipchat.com/ The first two talks will be: Wednesday April 1st, John Baez: Structured cospans and double categories. Wednesday April 8th, Prakash Panangaden: to be determined. Future sessions will be announced here: https://sites.google.com/ucr.edu/actucr/ [For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]

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ACT2020 will take place online
by Paolo Perrone 24 Mar '20

24 Mar '20

CAUTION: The Sender of this email is not from within Dalhousie. Dear members of the Category Theory community, Due to the coronavirus outbreak, many universities are moving activities online. This is a great opportunity to open up ACT2020 to a broader audience, with speakers from around the world. The conference will take place July 6-10 online, coordinated by organizers in Boston USA. Each day there will be around six hours of live talks, which will be a bit more spaced out than usual to accommodate the different time zones of our speakers. All the talks will be both live streamed and recorded on YouTube. We will also have chat rooms and video chats in which participants can discuss various themes in applied category theory. We will give more details as they become available and post updates on our official webpage, act2020.mit.edu. Since there is no need to book travel, we were able to postpone the acceptance notification, and hence the submission deadline. If you would like to speak, please prepare an abstract or a conference paper according to the instructions here: act2020.mit.edu/#papers. ** IMPORTANT DATES (all in 2020) ** * Submission of contributed papers: May 16 * Acceptance/Rejection notification: June 07 * Tutorial day: July 5 * Main conference: July 6-10 Registration will now be free; please register for the conference ahead of time here: http://act2020.mit.edu/#registration. We will send registering participants links to the live stream, the recordings, and the chat rooms, and we'll use the list to inform participants of any changes. All the best, The ACT committee [For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]

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Final call for (Self-)Nominations for the VCLA International Student Awards for Outstanding Master and Bachelor Theses in Logic and Computer Science - Deadline: 9.4.2020 AoE
by Rozman, Mihaela 23 Mar '20

23 Mar '20

CAUTION: The Sender of this email is not from within Dalhousie. The Vienna Center for Logic and Algorithms of TU Wien (Vienna University of Technology), calls for the nomination of authors of outstanding theses and scientific works in the field of Logic and Computer Science, in the following two categories: -Outstanding Master Thesis Award* -Outstanding Undergraduate Thesis Award (Bachelor thesis or equivalent, 1st cycle of the Bologna process)* *The degree must have been awarded between November 15th, 2018 and December 31st, 2019 (inclusive). ---------------------------------- The main areas of interest are: ---------------------------------- -Computational Logic, covering theoretical and mathematical foundations such as proof theory, model theory, computability theory, Boolean satisfiability (SAT), QBF, constraint satisfaction, satisfiability modulo theories, automated deduction (resolution, refutation, theorem proving), non-classical logics (substructural logics, multi-valued logics, deontic logics, modal and temporal logics). -Algorithms and Computational Complexity, including design and analysis of discrete algorithms, complexity analysis, algorithmic lower bounds, parameterized and exact algorithms, decomposition methods, approximation algorithms, randomized algorithms, algorithm engineering, as well as algorithmic game theory, computational social choice, parallel algorithms, graph drawing algorithms, and distributed algorithms. -Databases and Artificial Intelligence, concerned with logical methods for modeling, storing, and drawing inferences from data and knowledge. This includes subjects like query languages based on logical concepts (Datalog, variants of SQL, XML, and SPARQL), novel database-theoretical methods (schema mappings, information extraction and integration), logic programming, knowledge representation and reasoning (ontologies, answer-set programming, belief change, inconsistency handling, argumentation, planning). -Verification, concerned with logical methods and automated tools for reasoning about the behavior and correctness of complex state-based systems such as software and hardware designs as well as hybrid systems. This ranges from model checking, program analysis and abstraction to new interdisciplinary areas such as fault localization, program repair, program synthesis, and the analysis of biological systems. -Formal Methods for Security and Privacy, covering design and analysis techniques for security and privacy critical systems, such as cryptographic protocols, software, hardware and so on. The category of formal methods is to be meant in a broad sense, including related questions in logic, model checking, static analysis, dynamic monitoring, theorem proving, and artificial intelligence. ---------------------------------- Awards ---------------------------------- -The Outstanding Master Thesis Award: 1200 EUR -The Outstanding Undergraduate Thesis Award: 800 EUR -The winners will be invited to present their work at an award ceremony in Vienna. ---------------------------------- Eligibility ---------------------------------- -The degree must have been awarded between November 15th, 2018 and December 31st, 2019 (inclusive). -Students who obtained their degree at TU Wien are not eligible. ---------------------------------- Nomination Requirements ---------------------------------- Nominations must include: -A cover page that contains the name and contact details of the nominated person, the title of the work for which the person is being nominated, award category, the date on which the degree was awarded, and the name of the university -An English summary of the thesis of maximum 3 pages, excluding references (A4 or letter page size, 11pt font min). The summary must clearly state the main contribution of the work, its novelty, and its relevance to some of the aforementioned areas of interest -The CV of the nominated person, including publication list (if applicable -An endorsement letter from a supervisor or another proposing person. The letter must clearly state the independent and novel contribution of the student, and why the proposer believes the student deserves the award. The endorsement letter may be provided after the submission deadline, and emailed directly to award (AT) logic-cs.at. -The full thesis All documents should be in English, with the exception of the thesis. In case the thesis is in a different language, it must be accompanied by a research report in English of at least 10 pages that should be sufficient for the committee to evaluate the merit and quality of the submitted work. ---------------------------------- Instructions for submitting nominations ---------------------------------- -Nominations should be submitted electronically using the following link to EasyChair here -Submissions consist of two pdf files. The first is a single pdf file containing all documents for the nomination except the full thesis; the documents should appear in the order they are listed above. The second pdf file is the full thesis -The endorsement letter may optionally be sent by email by the endorser and omitted from the Easychair submission. In this case, please email the letter as a pdf file, including the name of the nominated person in the subject, to award (AT) logic-cs DOT at -The submission must be accompanied by a plain text electronic abstract of the thesis of at most 400 words, and three keywords. -The nominated student must be listed as the first and corresponding author in the submission form. ---------------------------------- Important dates ---------------------------------- -Submission deadline (extended): April 9, 2020 (anywhere on Earth) -Notification of decision: end of June 2020 -Award ceremony: TBA ---------------------------------- Contact ---------------------------------- Please send all inquiries to award(a)logic-cs.at ---------------------------------- Website with the information on the award committee, and the previous awardees ---------------------------------- https://logic-cs.at/vcla-awards-2020 _______________________________________________ [For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]

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