Newsletter 112 December 1, 2007 ******************************************************************* * Past issues of the newsletter are available at http://www.informatik.hu-berlin.de/lics/newsletters/ * Instructions for submitting an announcement to the newsletter can be found at http://www.informatik.hu-berlin.de/lics/newsletters/inst.html * To unsubscribe, send an email with "unsubscribe" in the subject line to lics@informatik.hu-berlin.de ******************************************************************* TABLE OF CONTENTS * ANNOUNCEMENTS Bulletin of the EATCS now Open Access * AWARDS CAV Award - Call for Nominations Ackermann Award 2007 Ackermann Award 2008 - Call for Nominations * BOOK ANNOUNCEMENTS The Calculus of Computation - Aaron R. Bradley and Zohar Manna * JOURNALS AND SPECIAL ISSUES JEAN-YVES GIRARD'S FESTSCHRIFT - TCS HYBRID LOGIC - Journal of Logic, Language and Information VISUAL LANGUAGES AND LOGIC - Journal of Logic, Language and Information * CONFERENCES AND WORKSHOPS AUTOMATA AND LOGIC - Call for Participation TIME 2008 - Call for Papers EWSCS 2008 - Call for Participation CiE 2008 - Call for Papers ROGICS 2008 - Call for Papers ICALP 2008 - Call for Papers DEON 2008 - Call for Papers ESSLLI 2008 - Call for Papers TCS 2008 - Call for Papers SEC 2008 - Call for Papers ABZ 2008 - Call for Papers * POSITIONS Fully funded PhD Studentships - Oxford Postdoctoral Research Fellow (3 posts) - Warwick Research positions at CNRS, France BULLETIN OF THE EATCS * Since 2003 all issues of the Bulletin of the EATCS, the European Association for Theoretical Computer Science, have been produced entirely electronically and made available on the web for members only. * The EATCS is now piloting the idea of Open Access for the Bulletin, in the spirit of best serving its research community. So, until further notice the volumes from no 79 onwards of the Bulletin of the EATCS will be available from http://www.eatcs.org/publications/bulletin.html CAV 2008 -- CAV Award http://www.princeton.edu/cav2008 * An annual award, called the CAV Award, has been established "For a specific fundamental contribution or a series of outstanding contributions to the field of Computer-Aided Verification." * The cited contribution(s) must have been made not more recently than five years ago and not over twenty years ago. In addition, the contribution(s) should not yet have received recognition via a major award, such as the ACM Turing or Kanellakis Awards. * The award of $10,000 will be granted to an individual or a group of individuals chosen by the Award Committee from a list of nominations. * The Award Committee may choose to make no award in a given year. * The CAV Award will be presented in an award ceremony at the Computer-Aided Verification Conference and a citation will be published in a journal of record (currently, Formal Methods in System Design). * Anyone, with the exception of members of the Award Committee, is eligible to receive the Award. * Call for Nominations for the CAV Award Anyone can submit a nomination except a member of the Steering Committee of the Computer-Aided Verification Conference, or someone whose term of service on the Award Committee ended within the last two years. The Award Committee can originate a nomination. * A nomination must state clearly the contribution(s), explain why the contribution is fundamental or the series of contributions is outstanding, and be accompanied by supporting letters and other evidence of worthiness. Nominations should include a proposed citation (up to 25 words), a succinct (100-250 words) description of the contribution(s), and a detailed statement to justify the nomination. * For the CAV Award in 2008, please send nominations to one of the following two Steering Committee members of the Computer-Aided Verification Conference, who will forward the nominations to the Chair of the Award Committee: - Edmund M. Clarke, CMU, emc (at) cs.cmu.edu - Robert P. Kurshan, Cadence, rkurshan (at) cadence.com * Nominations must be received by January 28, 2008. 2007 ACKERMANN AWARD OF THE EACSL * The Jury of the Ackermann Award has decided to give the 2007 Ackermann Awards to - Dietmar Berwanger RWTH Aachen (Advisor: Erich Graedel) http://mtc.epfl.ch/~dwb/ Thesis: Games and Logical Expressiveness - Stephane Lengrand Universite de Paris VII and University of St. Andrews (Advisors: Delia Kesner and Roy Dyckhoff) http://www.pps.jussieu.fr/~lengrand/ Thesis: Normalization and Equivalence in Proof Theory and Type Theory - Ting Zhang Stanford University (Advisor: Zohar Manna) http://theory.stanford.edu/~tingz/ Thesis: Arithmetic Integration of Decision Procedures * I would like to congratulate the recipients and their supervisors for their excellent theses. * The Jury consisted of S. Abramsky, J. van Benthem, B. Courcelle, M. Grohe, M. Hyland, J. Makowsky, D. Niwinski, A. Razborov. * The Award Ceremony took place during the CSL'07 Conference. http://www.inf.u-szeged.hu/~csl06/ * A detailed report is published in the CSL'07 Proceedings. I would like to thank all the Jury members for their work. ACKERMANN AWARD 2008 - THE EACSL OUTSTANDING DISSERTATION AWARD FOR LOGIC IN COMPUTER SCIENCE Call for Nominations * Eligible for the 2008 Ackermann Award are PhD dissertations in topics specified by the EACSL and LICS conferences, which were formally accepted as PhD theses at a university or equivalent institution between 1.1.2006 and 31.12. 2007. * The deadline for submission is 15.3.2008. * Submission details are available at www.dimi.uniud.it/~eacsl/award.html www.cs.technion.ac.il/eacsl * The award consists of - a diploma, - an invitation to present the thesis at the CSL conference, - the publication of the abstract of the thesis and the laudation in the CSL proceedings, - travel support to attend the conference. * The 2008 Ackermann Award will be presented to the recipients at the annual conference of the EACSL (CSL'08). * The jury consists of seven members: - The president of EACSL, J. Makowsky (Haifa); - The vice-president of EACSL, D. Niwinski (Warsaw); - One member of the LICS organizing committee, G. Plotkin (Edinburgh); - J. van Benthem (Amsterdam) - B. Courcelle (Bordeaux); - M. Grohe (Berlin); - M. Hyland (Cambridge); - A. Razborov (Moscow and Princeton). - possibly one more member to be appointed by the EACSL Board * The jury is entitled to give more than one award per year. * The previous Ackermann Award recipients were: 2005: Mikolaj Bojanczyk, Konstantin Korovin, Nathan Segerlind; 2006: Stefan Milius and Balder ten Cate; 2007: Dietmar Berwanger, Stephane Lengrand and Ting Zhang. * For the three years 2007-2009, the Award is sponsored by Logitech, S.A., Romanel, Switzerland, the worlds leading provider of personal peripherals. BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT: The Calculus of Computation: Decision Procedures with Applications to Verification by Aaron R. Bradley and Zohar Manna Springer 2007, 366 Pages ISBN: 978-3-540-74112-1 * Written for graduate and advanced undergraduate students, this textbook introduces computational logic from the foundations of first-order logic to state-of-the-art decision procedures for arithmetic, data structures, and combination theories. It also presents a logical approach to engineering correct software. Verification exercises, supported by free software, develop the reader's facility in specifying and verifying software using logic. The treatment of verification concludes with an introduction to the static analysis of software. * Part I: Foundations 1. Propositional Logic 2. First-Order Logic 3. First-Order Theories 4. Induction 5. Program Correctness: Mechanics 6. Program Correctness: Strategies Part II: Algorithmic Reasoning 7. Quantified Linear Arithmetic 8. Quantifier-Free Linear Arithmetic 9. Quantifier-Free Equality and Data Structures 10. Combining Decision Procedures 11. Arrays 12. Invariant Generation 13. Further Reading * Further information can be found at http://www.springer.com/978-3-540-74112-1 http://theory.stanford.edu/~arbrad/pivc JEAN-YVES GIRARD'S FESTSCHRIFT Theoretical Computer Science Call for papers http://www.pps.jussieu.fr/~laurent/girard60/ * In honour of Jean-Yves Girard on the occasion of his 60th birthday year, a Festschrift will be published as a special issue of Theoretical Computer Science, where the "Linear Logic" paper was published twenty years ago. * The Festschrift follows the two events organized in Siena (http://www.unisi.it/eventi/LOGIC/) and in Paris (http://www-lipn.univ-paris13.fr/jyg60/) this year. * Submissions for this special issue are welcome from all the participants to the workshops as well as from other contributors. * Title and short abstract submission: 20 October 2007 Deadline for submissions: 31 December 2007 * Guest editors: Thomas Ehrhard (thomas.ehrhard@pps.jussieu.fr) Claudia Faggian (claudia.faggian@pps.jussieu.fr) Olivier Laurent (olivier.laurent@pps.jussieu.fr) * More details at: http://www.pps.jussieu.fr/~laurent/girard60/ SPECIAL ISSUE ON HYBRID LOGIC Journal of Logic, Language and Information Call for papers http://akira.ruc.dk/~torben/HyLo1.TXT * Scope. Hybrid logic is a branch of modal logic allowing direct reference to worlds/times/states. It is easy to justify interest in hybrid logic on applied grounds, because of the usefulness of the additional expressive power. In addition, hybrid-logical machinery improves the behaviour of the underlying modal formalism. For example, it becomes far simpler to formulate modal tableau, resolution, and natural deduction in hybrid logic, and completeness and interpolation results can be proved of a generality that is not available in orthodox modal logic. Topics of interest include not only standard hybrid-logical machinery like nominals, satisfaction operators, and the downarrow binder, but generally extensions of modal logic that increase its expressive power. * Submission deadlines: March 1, 2008. * Guest editors: Torben Bra=C3=BCner and Thomas Bolander * For further information see the URL above. JOURNAL OF LOGIC, LANGUAGE AND INFORMATION (JOLLI) SPECIAL ISSUE ON VISUAL LANGUAGES AND LOGIC Guest Editors: Philip Cox, Dalhousie University; Andrew Fish and John Howse, University of Brighton. CALL FOR PAPERS * Diagrams of one sort or another have always been used as aids to abstract reasoning. Although many are informal mnemonics, reminding their authors about structures and relationships they have observed or deduced, considerable research effort has been expended on formalising graphical notations so that they may play a more central role in the application of logic to problems. While early work concentrated on diagrammatic representations of logic as a more intuitive or revealing paper-based replacement for textually represented logic, research in this area now mostly involves notations specifically designed for computer implementation either as computational models or interface languages. Examples include relational and existential graphs (C.S. Peirce), conceptual graphs (J.F. Sowa), various flavours of semantic networks such as conceptual dependency graphs (R. Schank), graphical deduction systems such as clause interconnectivity graphs (S. Sickel), Venn diagrams, Euler diagrams, constraint diagrams, and visual logic programming languages. * Following the success of the 2007 Workshop on Visual Languages and Logic (VLL 2007) (http://vivid.cs.dal.ca/VLL), we are soliciting, for a Special Issue of JOLLI, papers in which the primary focus is research at the intersection of logic and visual languages. In particular, we invite VLL 2007 authors to submit updated and expanded versions of their papers. * Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: Graphical notations for logics (either classical or non-classical, such as first or higher order logic, temporal logic, description logic, independence friendly logic, spatial logic); Diagrammatic reasoning; Theorem proving; Formalisation (syntax, semantics, reasoning rules); Expressiveness of visual logics; Visual logic programming languages; Visual specification languages; Applications; Tool support for visual logics. * If you intend to submit a paper, please email a title, abstract and keywords to VLL@cs.dal.ca by November 30, 2007. This information will be used to assign referees in advance of the paper deadline. Your paper may be up to 30 pages, must conform to the JOLLI style (see following URL), and be emailed as a PDF to VLL@cs.dal.ca by January 31, 2008. Note that although PDF is not the required format for the final copies of accepted papers, it is the most convenient for reviewing. * Important dates: - title, abstract and keywords by November 3 - paper submission by January 31, 2008. * If you have any questions about this Special Issue, please email VLL@cs.dal.ca. WORKSHOP ON AUTOMATA AND LOGIC - HISTORY AND PERSPECTIVES ON THE OCCASION OF THE 60TH BIRTHDAY OF WOLFGANG THOMAS Final Call for Participation December 14 - 15, 2007, Aachen, Germany http://www-i2.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/Events/WAL07/ * The workshop, which is held on the occasion of Wolfgang Thomas's 60th birthday, is devoted to the theory of automata and its connection to mathematical logic, verification, and games. The list of speakers is: - Bruno Courcelle (Bordeaux, France) - Erich Gr=C3=A4del (Aachen, Germany) - Martin Grohe (Berlin, Germany) - Joost-Pieter Katoen (Aachen, Germany) - Jean-Eric Pin (Paris, France) - Denis Th=C3=A9rien (Montreal, Canada) - Moshe Vardi (Houston, USA) - Igor Walukiewicz (Bordeaux, France) - Thomas Wilke (Kiel, Germany) * The workshop will take place in Aachen, December 14 - 15, 2007, at the premises of the Computer Science Department of RWTH Aachen. It will start on Friday, December 14, in the early afternoon, and will finish on Saturday, December 15, around noon. There is no registration fee, but registration is mandatory via the workshop homepage. * The workshop is sponsored by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Gesellschaft f=C3=BCr Informatik (Fachgruppen Automaten und formale Sprachen sowie Logik in der Informatik), IPA (Instituut voor Programmatuurkunde en Algoritmiek), and RWTH Aachen. * Local organizers: Joost-Pieter Katoen, Thomas Noll (Aachen). TIME 2008 - 15TH INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON TEMPORAL REPRESENTATION AND REASONING Call for papers Montreal, Canada, June 16-18, 2008 http://www.time2008.org * TIME 2008 aims to bring together researchers from distinct research areas involving the management of temporal data as well as the reasoning about temporal aspects of information. This unique and well-established event further has as its objectives to bridge theoretical and applied research, as well as to serve as an interdisciplinary forum for exchange among researchers from the areas of artificial intelligence, database management, logic and verification, and beyond. TIME 2008 encompasses three tracks, but has a single program committee. The conference will span three days, and will be organized as a combination of technical paper presentations, poster sessions, and keynote talks. * Topics that fit the interests of the symposium include those of the following tracks (see details in http://www.time2008.org) Track 1: Temporal Representation and Reasoning in AI Track 2: Temporal Database Management Track 3: Temporal Logic and Verification in Computer Science * Submitted papers will be refereed by at least three reviewers for quality, correctness, originality, and relevance. Accepted papers will be presented at the symposium and included in the proceedings, which will be published by the IEEE Computer Society Press. * Important dates: paper submission: January 11 2008; Notification: February 26 2008. 13th ESTONIAN WINTER SCHOOL IN COMPUTER SCIENCE (EWSCS '08) Call for Participation Palmse, Estonia, 2-7 March 2008 http://cs.ioc.ee/ewscs/2008/ * EWSCS is a series of regional-scope international winter schools held annually in Estonia. The main objective of EWSCS is to expose Estonian, Baltic, and Nordic graduate students in computer science (but also interested students from elsewhere) to frontline research topics usually not covered within the regular curricula. The subject of the schools is general computer science, with a bias towards theory, this comprising both algorithms, complexity and models of computation, and semantics, logic and programming theory. The working language of the schools is English. * The schools' scientific programme consists of short courses by renowned specialists and a student session. The course list for EWSCS'08 is the following: - Nick Benton (Microsoft Research, Cambridge, UK): Modelling and Reasoning about State - David Harel (Weizmann Institute, Rehovot, Israel): Biological Systems as Reactive Systems - Eyal Kushilevitz (Technion, Haifa, Israel): Randomization Techniques for Secure Computation and Parallel Cryptography - Jos=C3=A9 Meseguer (Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA): Specification, Verification and Programming in Rewriting Logic - Giuseppe Persiano (Universit=C3=A0 di Salerno, Italy): Zero Knowledge and the Construction of Secure Encryption Schemes The purpose of the student session is to give students an opportunity to present their own ongoing work (typically, thesis work) and get feedback. Registrants to EWSCS '08 are invited to propose short talks (20 min) or posters. The selection will be based on abstracts of 150-400 words. * Deadline for applications and submission of abstracts of student talks/posters: 18 Jan 2008. Notification of acceptance: 1 Feb 2008 CIE 2008 - COMPUTABILITY IN EUROPE 2008: LOGIC AND THEORY OF ALGORITHMS Call for Papers June 15-20, 2008, Athens, Greece http://www.cs.swan.ac.uk/cie08/ * The CiE Conference series is a network of mathematicians, logicians, computer scientists, philosophers, physicists and others interested in new developments in computability in a broad sense. The 4th edition of CiE, CiE 2008, will bridge the gap from the logical methods of mathematical and meta-mathematical flavour to the applied and industrial questions that are involved in devising and choosing the right algorithms and analysing their effectiveness and efficiency. This will cover all areas of mathematical computability theory and theoretical computer science, but in particular decidability and complexity, the theory of programming languages, the notion of recursion as one of the central notions of computability theory, interaction and concurrency, and applications of logic to computer science. * Important dates: - Submission of papers: January 4, 2008 * Invited TUTORIAL speakers: John V Tucker (Swansea), Moshe Y Vardi (Houston, TX) * Invited PLENARY speakers: Keith Devlin (Stanford, CA), Rosalie Iemhoff (Utrecht), Antonina Kolokolova (Vancouver, BC), Janos Makowsky (Haifa), Dag Normann (Oslo), Prakash Panangaden (Montreal, QC), Christos Papadimitriou (Berkeley, CA), Jan van Leeuwen (Utrecht) & Jiri Wiedermann (Prague) * SPECIAL SESSIONS: - Algorithms in the history of mathematics (organised by Jens H=C3=B8yrup, Roskilde, and Karine Chemla, Paris) - Formalising mathematics and extracting algorithms from proofs (organised by Henk Barendregt, Nijmegen, and Monika Seisenberger, Swansea) - Higher-type recursion and applications (organised by Ulrich Berger, Swansea, and Dag Normann, Oslo) - Algorithmic game theory (organised by Elias Koutsoupias, Athens, and Bernhard von Stengel, London) - Quantum Algorithms and Complexity (organised by Viv Kendon, Leeds) - Biology and Computation (organised by Natasha Jonoska, Tampa FL, and Giancarlo Mauri, Milano) ROGICS 2008: INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON RELATIONS, ORDERS AND GRAPHS=C2= =A0: INTERACTION WITH COMPUTER SCIENCE Call for Papers May 12-15, 2008 Mahdia, Tunisia http://www.rogics.com * Objectives Relational structures and particularly Ordered sets and Graphs are at the root of several branches in Mathematics and offer a wide range of challenging research problems. There are also the fundamental models in several applied sciences such as Computer science, Operation Research and Social Sciences. This creates a strong and dynamic interaction between theory and application.=C2=A0 The purpose of this conference is to highlight some of the major theoretical advances in the fields of Relations theory, Ordered sets and Graphs and to stress their role in Computer Science. ROGICS=E2=80=9908 also seeks to bring together researchers and scientists covering topics from both the Mathematics and Computer Sciences area. The wide scope of the conference should provide an excellent opportunity for sharing ideas and problems amongst specialists. * ROGICS=E2=80=9908 will also be the opportunity to honor Gerard Lopez and Maurice Pouzet: two mathematicians, with great scientific achievements and who dedicated part of their professional life to numerous students and had an influence on several mathematicians and research groups across North Africa. It is an opportunity to thank both of them. * Topics to be covered include, but are not limited to: Relation Theory Graph Theory Graph Algorithms Graph Drawing Ordered Sets Reconstruction and Morphology of Relations Decomposability Formal Concept Analysis Complexity Theory Computational Geometry Combinatorial algorithms Theoretical Computer Science Algorithms and Data Structures Distributed systems Real-time systems Communication protocols Software verification, validation and testing Coding Theory and Cryptography: Geometry and Arithmetic over Finite Fields * Call for Papers Authors are invited to submit original contributions by=C2=A0January 15th= , 2008. A volume and a CD made of the accepted papers will be distributed at the beginning of the conference. We are planning to publish the proceeding of the conference in a regular journal. A special issue of =E2=80=9CEuropean Journal of Combinatorics=E2=80=9D wi= ll be devoted to the theme of the conference. * Important Dates Submission January 15, 2008 Notification March 1, 2008 Final version April 1, 2008 Conference May 12-15, 2008 * Conference Chairmen Youssef Boudabbous (Sfax, Tunisia) and Nejib Zaguia (Ottawa, Canada) * Program Committee: R. Fraisse (Honorary chair), M. Aider (Algeria), A. Achour (Tunisia), H. Amara (Tunisia), S. Ben Yahia (Tunisia), G. Bochmann (Canada), A. Bondy (France), Y. Boudabbous (Tunisia), H. Chebli (Tunisia), B. Courcelle (France), F. De Montgolfier (France), C. Delhomm=C3=A9 (France), J. Diatta (France), R. Diestel (Germany), D. Duffus (USA), P. Flocchini (Canada), M. Habib (France), G. Hahn (Canada), P.=C2=A0Ille (France), A. Jaoua (Tunisia), C. Jard (France), G-V Jourdan (Canada), W. Kocay (Canada), C. Laflamme (Canada), D. Misane (Morocco), J-X. Rampon (France), I. Rosenberg (Canada), E. Salhi (Tunisia), E. San Juan (France), H. Si Kaddour (France), N. Santoro (Canada), N. Sauer (Canada), A. Smail (Algeria), P. Sol=C3=A9 (France), I. Stojmenovic (Canada), S. Thomasse (France), K. Trim=C3=A8che (Tunisia)= , N. Zaguia (Canada) * Confirmed Speakers=C2=A0: M. Aider (Algeria), S. Ben Yahia (Tunisia), A. Boussairi (Maroc), A. Bondy (France), B. Courcelle (France), F. De Montgolfier (France), C. Delhomm=C3=A9 (France), J. Diatta (France), R. Diestel (Germany), P. Flocchini (Canada), M. Habib (France), G. Hahn (Canada), P.=C2=A0Ille (France), A. Jaoua (Tunisia), C. Jard (France), G-V Jourdan (Canada), W. Kocay (Canada), C. Laflamme (Canada), D. Misane (Morocco), J-X. Rampon (France), I. Rosenberg (Canada), E. San Juan (France), N. Santoro (Canada), N. Sauer (Canada), A. Smail (Algeria), P. Sol=C3=A9 (France), I. Stojmenovic (Canada), S. Thomasse (France), R. Woodrow (Canada) * For more info: www.rogics.com=09Email: info@rogics.com ICALP 2008 - 35th INTERNATIONAL COLLOQUIUM ON AUTOMATA, LANGUAGES AND PROGRAMMING Call for Papers July 6-13, 2008, Reykjavik, Iceland http://www.ru.is/icalp08 * Following the successful experience of the last three editions, ICALP 2008 will complement the established structure of the scientific program based on Track A on Algorithms, Automata, Complexity and Games, and Track B on Logic, Semantics, and Theory of Programming, corresponding to the two main streams of the journal Theoretical Computer Science, with a special Track C on Security and Cryptography Foundations. Papers presenting original research on all aspects of theoretical computer science are sought. * Typical but not exclusive topics of interest are: Track A - Algorithms, Automata, Complexity and Games: - Algorithmic Aspects of Networks - Algorithmic Game Theory - Approximation Algorithms - Automata Theory - Combinatorics in Computer Science - Computational Biology - Computational Complexity - Computational Geometry - Data Structures - Design and Analysis of Algorithms - Internet Algorithmics - Machine Learning - Parallel, Distributed and External Memory Computing - Randomness in Computation - Quantum Computing Track B - Logic, Semantics, and Theory of Programming: - Algebraic and Categorical Models - Automata and Formal Languages - Emerging and Non-standard Models of Computation - Databases, Semi-Structured Data and Finite Model Theory - Principles of Programming Languages - Logics, Formal Methods and Model Checking - Models of Concurrent, Distributed, and Mobile Systems - Models of Reactive, Hybrid and Stochastic Systems - Program Analysis and Transformation - Specification, Refinement and Verification - Type Systems and Theory, Typed Calculi Track C - Security and Cryptography Foundations: - Cryptographic Notions, Mechanisms, Systems and Protocols - Cryptographic Proof Techniques, Lower bounds, Impossibilities - Foundations of Secure Systems and Architectures - Logic and Semantics of Security Protocols - Number Theory and Algebraic Algorithms (Primarily in - Cryptography) - Pseudorandomness, Randomness, and Complexity Issues - Secure Data Structures, Storage, Databases and Content - Security Modeling: Combinatorics, Graphs, Games, Economics - Specifications, Verifications and Secure Programming - Theory of Privacy and Anonymity - Theory of Security in Networks and Distributed Computing * Important dates (provisional): Paper submission: 10 February 2008; Notification: 9 April 2008 9th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON DEONTIC LOGIC IN COMPUTER SCIENCE (DEON'08) Call for Papers Luxembourg, 15-18 July, 2008 http://deon2008.uni.lu * The biennial DEON conferences are designed to promote interdisciplinary cooperation amongst scholars interested in linking the formal-logical study of normative concepts and normative systems with computer science, artificial intelligence, philosophy, organisation theory and law. In addition to these general themes, DEON2008 will encourage a special focus on the topic *Security and Trust*, encompassing applications in e-commerce as well as traditional areas of computer security. * General themes - the logical study of normative reasoning, including formal systems of deontic logic, defeasible normative reasoning, the logic of action, and other related areas of logic - the formal analysis of normative concepts and normative systems - the formal representation of legal knowledge - the formal specification of aspects of norm-governed multi-agent systems and autonomous agents, including (but not limited to) the representation of rights, authorisation, delegation, power, responsibility and liability - the formal specification of normative systems for the management of bureaucratic processes in public or private administration - applications of normative logic to the specification of database integrity constraints - normative aspects of protocols for communication, negotiation and multi-agent decision making * Specific Security and Trust themes: digital rights management, electronic contracts, including service level agreements and digital media licenses, authorization, access control, security policies, privacy policies, business processes, regulatory compliance * Important Dates - 11 January 2008: submission deadline - 22 February 2008: notification of acceptance 20TH EUROPEAN SUMMER SCHOOL IN LOGIC, LANGUAGE AND INFORMATION ESSLLI 2008 Monday August 4 - Friday August 15, 2008 Hamburg, Germany http://www.illc.uva.nl/ESSLLI2008/ Call for Papers * We are pleased to announce the Student Session of the 20th European Summer School in Logic, Language and Information to be held in Hamburg, Germany on August 4-15, 2008. * The aim of the Student Session is to give an opportunity to students at all levels (Bachelor-, Master- and PhD-students) to present and discuss their work in progress with a possibility to get feedback from senior researchers. Each year, 18 papers are selected for oral presentation and a number of others for poster presentation. * The programme committee invites submissions of papers for oral and poster presentation and for appearance in the proceedings. We welcome submissions with topics within the areas of Logic, Language and Computation. *** Submission deadline: 15 February 2008 *** * The ESSLLI Student Session encourages submissions from students at any level, undergraduates as well as postgraduates. Papers co-authored by non-students will not be accepted. The Student Session papers should describe original, unpublished work, completed or in progress, that demonstrates insight, creativity, and promise. No previously published papers should be submitted. * SUBMISSION Student authors are invited to submit a full paper up to 7 pages inclusive of references. Note that the length of the final version of the accepted papers will not be allowed to exceed 10 pages. The preferred formats of submissions are PostScript or PDF, although other formats will also be accepted. More submission details and all relevant information at: http://staff.science.uva.nl/~kbalogh/StuS13 * CONTACT Kata Balogh ESSLLI 2008 Student Session chair 5TH IFIP INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THEORETICAL COMPUTER SCIENCE (TCS-2008= ) First Announcement and Call for Papers http://www.aicanet.it/wcc2008/TCS2008cfp1.pdf * Held in conjunction with the 20th IFIP World Computer Congress September 7-10, 2008, Milano, Italy Conference Co-Chairs: Giorgio Ausiello, IT Giancarlo Mauri, IT Programme Co-Chairs: Track A: Juhani Karhum=C3=A4ki, FI Track B: Luke Ong, GB * Programme Committee: Track A: Algorithms, Complexity & Models of Computation Ricardo Baeza-Yates (Santiago), Marie-Pierre Beal (Paris),Harry Buhrman (Amsterdam), Xiaotie Deng (Hong Kong), Josep Diaz (Barcelona), Volker Diekert (Stuttgard), Manfred Droste (Leipzig), Ding-zhu Du (Dallas), Juraj Hromkovic (Zurich), Oscar Ibarra (Santa Barbara), Pino Italiano (Rome), Kazuo Iwama (Kyoto), Juhani Karhum=C3=A4ki (Turku, chair), Pekka Orponen (Helsinki), George Paun (Bucharest), Jiri Sgall (Prague), Alexander Shen (Moscow), Vijai Vazirani (Atlanta), Mikhail Volkov (Ekaterinburg) Track B: Logic, Semantics, Specification and Verification Rajeev Alur (Pennsylvania), Ulrich Berger (Swansea), Andreas Blass (Ann Arbor), Anuj Dawar (Cambridge), Mariangiola Dezani-Ciancaglini (Turin), Gilles Dowek (Paris), Peter Dybjer (Stockholm), Masami Hagiya (Tokyo), Martin Hofmann (Munich), Leonid Libkin (Edinburgh), Huimin Lin (Beijing), Stephan Merz (Nancy), Dale Miller (Paris), Eugenio Moggi (Genova), Anca Muscholl (Bordeaux), Luke Ong (Oxford, chair), Davide Sangiorgi (Bologna), Thomas Schwentick (Dortmund), Thomas Streicher (Darmstadt), P. S. Thiagarajan (Singapore), Wolfgang Thomas (Aachen) * Submission will be in two stages: a short abstract due on 8 February and the 12-page paper due on 15 February 2008. The results of the paper must be unpublished and not submitted for publication elsewhere, including journals and the proceedings of other symposia or workshops. Authors will be notified of acceptance or rejection via e-mail by 31 March. Full versions of accepted papers (camera-ready) must be written in English, and will be due by 22 April 2008. One author of each accepted paper should present it at the conference. * Scope and Topics TCS2008 will be composed of two distinct, but interrelated tracks: Track A on Algorithms, Complexity and Models of Computation, and Track B on Logic, Semantics, Specification and Verification. * Paper submission Papers presenting original research in conference topics are being sought. The proceedings will be published by SSBM (Springer Science and Business Media). Submissions, as well as final versions, are limited to 12 pages, in the final SSBM format. The instructions for preparing the papers can be downloaded from http://www.springeronline.com/sgw/cda/frontpage/0,11855,4-40492-0-0- or ftp://ftp.springer.de/pub/tex/latex/ifip/ . * Only electronic submissions will be accepted, via Track A: http://www.easychair.org/TCS2008-TrackA Track B: http://www.easychair.org/TCS2008-TrackB * The submission deadline, length limitations and formatting instructions are firm: any submissions that deviate from these may be rejected without further considerations. * IMPORTANT DATES: 8 February 2008: Abstract submission deadline 15 February 2008: 12-page paper submission deadline 31 March 2008: Notification of acceptance 7 April 2008: Copyright release submission deadline 22 April 2008: Camera-ready copy submission deadline * Organized by IFIP Technical Committee 1 (Foundations of Computer Science) and IFIP WG 2.2 (Formal Descriptions of Programming Concepts) in association with SIGACT and EATCS 23rd INTERNATIONAL INFORMATION SECURITY CONFERENCE (SEC 2008) Call for Papers http://sec2008.dti.unimi.it * The Twenty-third Conference on International Information Security Conference (SEC 2008) will take place on Milano Convention Centre, Milano, Italy from Monday, September 8 through Wednesday, September 10, 2008. * The conference seeks submissions from academia and industry presenting novel research on all theoretical and practical aspects of computer security, as well as case studies and implementation experiences. Papers should have practical relevance to the construction, evaluation, application, or operation of secure systems. Theoretical papers must make convincing argument for the practical significance of the results. * TOPICS of interest include, but are not limited to: - access control - accounting and audit - anonymity - applied cryptography - authentication - computer forensics - cryptographic protocols - database security - data protection - data/system integrity - digital rights management - electronic frauds - identity management - information warfare - intrusion detection - key management - law and ethics - peer-to-peer security - privacy-enhancing technology - secure location services - secure networking - security education - security management - smartcards - commercial and industry security - data and application security - inference/controlled disclosure - risk analysis and risk management - intellectual property protection - security in IT outsourcing - security for mobile code - trust management - trust models * PAPER SUBMISSIONS Submitted papers must not substantially overlap papers that have been published or that are simultaneously submitted to a journal or a conference with proceedings. Papers should be at most 15 pages including the bibliography and well-marked appendices (using 11-point font and reasonable margins on letter-size paper), and should be in single-column format. Committee members are not required to read the appendices, and so the paper should be intelligible without them. Submissions are to be made to the submission web site at http://sec2008.dti.unimi.it. Only pdf or postscript files will be accepted. Submissions not meeting these guidelines risk rejection without consideration of their merits. Papers must be received by the deadline of January 10, 2008. Authors of accepted papers must guarantee that their papers will be presented at the conference. * GENERAL CHAIRS Sabrina De Capitani di Vimercati, Universita' degli Studi di Milano, Italy Giulio Occhini, AICA, Italy * PROGRAM CHAIRS Sushil Jajodia, George Mason University, USA Pierangela Samarati, Universita' degli Studi di Milano, Italy * IMPORTANT DATES Paper Submission due: January 10, 2008 Acceptance notification: March 23, 2008 Final papers due: April 18, 2008 ABZ 2008 CONFERENCE September 16-18, 2008 BCS London Offices, Covent Garden, London, UK Call for Papers * Abstract State Machines (ASM), B and Z stand for three rigorous methods that share a common conceptual foundation and are widely used in both academia and industry for the design and analysis of hardware and software systems. This conference is dedicated to the cross-fertilization of these three related state-based and machine-based formal methods. The program spans from theoretical and methodological foundations to practical applications, emphasizing system engineering methods and tools that are distinguished by mathematical rigor and have proved to be industrially viable. A main goal of the conference is to contribute to the integration of accurate state- and machine-based system development methods, clarifying their commonalities and differences to better understand how to combine related approaches for accomplishing the various tasks in modelling, experimental validation, and mathematical verification of reliable high-quality hardware/software systems. * The conference will be articulated into a one-day common program of invited lectures and two days of contributed papers. * Although organized logistically as an integral event, editorial control of the joint conference remains vested in three separate programme committees, which will respectively determine its ASM, B and Z content, to be presented in parallel conference tracks with a schedule to allow the participants to switch between the sessions. The conference simultaneously incorporates the 15th International ASM Workshop, the 17th International Conference of Z Users and the 8th International Conference on the B Method. It will be preceded by a tutorial day and Verified Software Repository Network (VSR-net) workshop on Monday, September 15. * A case study for design and verification of a flash-based file system is suggested to the participants. Leo Freitas and Jim Woodcock will organize a series of intermediate workshops where those who decide to work on the problem can meet to enhance the collaborative aspect of the work. For details see: http://www.abz2008.org/ * The papers are planned to be published in a volume of Springer's LNCS series. Contributions are solicited on all aspects of the theory and applications of ASMs, B, Z and related approaches in software/hardware engineering, including the development of tools and industrial applications. * Two kinds of contributions are invited: 1. Research papers: full papers (not extended abstracts) of not more than 12 pages (in LNCS format), which have to be original, unpublished and not submitted elsewhere. Papers dealing with the case study are particularly welcome. 2. Short presentations of work in progress, industrial experience reports and tool demonstrations. An extended abstract of not more than 3 pages is expected and will be reviewed. The volume of accepted extended abstracts will be made available at the time of the conference on the website of the conference, a 1-page abstract of each presentation will be published in the Proceedings. * Conference Chair: Egon Boerger, University of Pisa, Italy * Program Chairs: Egon Boerger, University of Pisa, Italy (ASM) Michael Butler, University of Southampton, UK (B) Jonathan Bowen, London South Bank University, UK (Z) * Local Chair and Financial Chair: Paul Boca, London South Bank University, UK * Chair of the VSR day: Jim Woodcock, The University of York, UK * Venue: The conference will take place at the BCS London Offices, Davidson Building, 5 Southampton Street, Covent Garden, London, UK. The support of the British Computer Society, through the BCS Formal Aspects of Computing Science Specialist Group, in providing the venue and refreshments, is gratefully acknowledged. * Important dates: March 3, 2008: Submission of full papers. March 31,2008: Submission of extended abstracts for short presentations. April 14,2008: Communication about acceptance/rejection of submitted papers and extended abstracts. May 5, 2008: Camera-ready version of the accepted full papers and 1-page abstract for the short presentations. September 15, 2008: Tutorials and VSR-net workshop. September 16-18, 2008: Main ABZ 2008 conference. * Information on the procedure how to submit papers, to register, to reach London, weather conditions, etc., will be available in due time at the conference website under http://www.abz2008.org/ FULLY FUNDED PhD STUDENTSHIPS IN LOGICAL METHODS IN COMPUTER SCIENCE AT OXFORD * The Information Systems Research Group is offering fully-funded PhD positions in Oxford University's Computing Laboratory in Logical Methods in Computer Science. The students will work in finite model theory and connections to automata and databases. Further details of the Information Systems Research Group's work can be found at: http://db.zivny.cz/members.html <http://web.comlab.ox.ac.uk/oucl/people/aa.html> * The studentships are fully funded *at EU fee levels* for three years from October 2008. Each includes a stipend of =C2=A312,600 per year as well as provision for travel to conferences. Students who are *not* from EU countries will need supplementary funding. Candidates must satisfy the usual requirements <http://web.comlab.ox.ac.uk/oucl/prospective/dphil/dphil-criteria.pdf> f= or doing a doctorate at Oxford. The positions require a student skilled in theoretical computer science. * For further information, contact Michael Benedikt http://web.comlab.ox.ac.uk/oucl/people/Michael.Benedikt.html * The deadline for applications is December 31, 2007. Interviews for qualified candidates will take place in January 2008. To apply you need to download the University's application form from http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/postgraduate/apply/forms/. You will need to submit references, transcript, and a statement of research interests (in the slot marked ``research proposal') with your application. Submit the form to: Mrs Julie Sheppard Secretary for Graduate Studies, Oxford University Computing Laboratory Wolfson Building, Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3QD, UK for e-mail queries:Julie.Sheppard@comlab.ox.ac.uk POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCH FELLOW (3 POSTS) Computer Science/Mathematics/Warwick Business School (Centre for Discrete Mathematics and its Applications) =C2=A325,134 - =C2=A332,796 pa Fixed-term contract for up to 2 years * The Centre for Discrete Mathematics and its Applications (DIMAP), partly funded in the first five years by a major EPSRC initiative to strengthen discrete mathematics in the UK, has currently three postdoctoral research fellowships and a number of PhD studentships. * We seek applications from individuals who wish to develop their research interests within the multidisciplinary environment of the Centre in the general areas of Discrete Mathematics, Theoretical Computer Science, and Mathematics of Operational Research. A separate postdoctoral research fellowship is available within ORMS of Warwick Business School, which has a more application orientation (reference number 59625 - 117 - see separate advertisement). * Candidates who wish to discuss aspects of these posts should contact one of the following people: - Prof Mike Paterson FRS (Computer Science, Director of the Centre): M.S.Paterson@warwick.ac.uk - Prof Artur Czumaj (Computer Science): A.Czumaj@warwick.ac.uk - Prof Colin Sparrow (Mathematics): G.C.Copeland@warwick.ac.uk - Prof Bo Chen (Warwick Business School): B.Chen@warwick.ac.uk * Applications should include a CV and a summary of research plans (2 pp max). * Click here for an application form. https://secure.admin.warwick.ac.uk/webjobs/jobs/research/job15644.html To receive a hard copy application pack, please contact Personnel Services, on +44(0)24 7652 3685 (24 hour answerphone), or by e-mail to Recruit@warwick.ac.uk. * An application form must be completed if you wish to be considered for this post. Please note that the hard copy application pack and the on-line application pack are the same. * Please quote job vacancy reference number 59407-117. * The closing date/time for applications is 17:30 (British time) on Friday 11 January 2008. * For further details on how to apply for a post at Warwick, the employee benefits that we offer, information on Warwick people, what it is like working at Warwick, and more, please see our jobs introduction page. * The university values diversity. RESEARCH POSITIONS AT CNRS CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE, FRANCE National Scientific Research Center * Positions are not reserved to French citizens. (And they will not concern only Logic in Computer Science) * Since they are research positions without teaching duties, speaking French is not required, but it is assumed that researchers hired will learn French. * See the CNRS relevant web page in English. http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/352.htm * Those people interested should contact the French Laboratory (CNRS is NOT a Laboratory) to which they intend to apply and NOT the author of this note (B. Courcelle, Bordeaux, courcell@labri.fr) unless they plan to apply for a position at LaBRI.