The 2006 edition of AMAST (Algebraic Methodology and Software Technology) has been scheduled to follow CT'06 so that travelling category theorists with an interest in computer science have time to proceed from Nova Scotia to Estonia. AMAST in the past has had some excelent category theoretic papers, and if you're interested in submitting, the call for papers is below. Best (and festive!) wishes, Mike. -------------------------- CALL FOR PAPERS 11th International Conference on Algebraic Methodology and Software Technology, AMAST '06 colocated with MPC '06 Kuressaare, Estonia, 5-8 July 2006 http://cs.ioc.ee/mpc-amast06/amast/ Background The major goal of the AMAST conferences is to promote research that may lead to the setting of software technology on a firm, mathematical basis. This goal is advanced by a large international cooperation with contributions from both academia and industry. The virtues of a software technology developed on a mathematical basis have been envisioned as being capable of providing software that is (a) correct, and the correctness can be proved mathematically, (b) safe, so that it can be used in the implementation of critical systems, (c) portable, i.e., independent of computing platforms and language generations, and (d) evolutionary, i.e., it is self-adaptable and evolves with the problem domain. The previous conferences were held in Iowa City, Iowa, USA (1989, 1991 and 2000), Twente, The Netherlands (1993), Montreal, Canada (1995), Munich, Germany (1996), Sydney, Australia (1997), Manaus, Amazonia, Brazil (1998), Reunion Island, France (2002) and Stirling, UK (2004, colocated with MPC' 04). The 2006 conference will be held at Kuressaare, Estonia, colocated with MPC '06. The conference series has become widely known for disseminating academic and industrial achievements within the broad AMAST areas of interest. Through these meetings AMAST has attracted an international following among researchers and practitioners interested in software technology, programming methodology and their algebraic and logical foundations. Important dates * Submission of abstracts: 27 January 2006 * Submission of full papers: 3 February 2006 * Notification of authors: 17 March 2006 * Camera-ready version: 14 April 2006 Topics Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following: SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGY: * systems software technology * application software technology * concurrent and reactive systems * formal methods in industrial software development * formal techniques for software requirements, design * evolutionary software/adaptive systems PROGRAMMING METHODOLOGY: * logic programming, functional programming, object paradigms * constraint programming and concurrency * program verification and transformation * programming calculi * specification languages and tools * formal specification and development case studies ALGEBRAIC AND LOGICAL FOUNDATIONS: * logic, category theory, relation algebra, computational algebra * algebraic foundations for languages and systems, coinduction * theorem proving and logical frameworks for reasoning * logics of programs * algebra and coalgebra SYSTEMS AND TOOLS (for system demonstrations or ordinary papers): * software development environments * support for correct software development * system support for reuse * tools for prototyping * component based software development tools * validation and verification * computer algebra systems * theorem proving systems Submission Two kinds of submissions are solicited for this conference: technical papers and system demonstrations. Papers may report academic or industrial progress, and papers which deal with both are especially well-regarded. Submission is in two stages. Abstracts (plain text) must be submitted by 27 January 2006. Full papers (pdf) adhering to the llncs style and not longer than 15 pages (6 pages for system demonstrations) must be submitted by 3 February 2006. The web-based submission system will open in early January 2006. Papers must report previously unpublished work and not be submitted concurrently to another conference with refereed proceedings. Accepted papers must be presented at the conference by one of the authors. All papers will be refereed by the programme committee, and will be judged based on their significance, technical merit, and relevance to the conference. Publication As in the past the proceedings of AMAST '06 will be published in the Lecture Notes in Computer Science series of Springer-Verlag. In the past the best papers from AMAST have been published in a special issue of the journal Theoretical Computer Science and it is expected that this practice will be continued for AMAST '06. Programme Committee Chairs Michael Johnson, Macquarie University (co-chair) Varmo Vene, University of Tartu (co-chair) AMAST steering committee Egidio Astesiano, Universita degli Studi di Genova Robert Berwick, MIT Zohar Manna, Stanford University Michael Mislove, Tulane University Anton Nijholt, University of Twente Maurice Nivat, Universite Paris 7 Charles Rattray, University of Stirling Teodor Rus, University of Iowa Giuseppe Scollo, Universita degli Studi di Verona Michael Sintzoff, Universite Catholique de Louvain Jeannette Wing, Carnegie Mellon University Martin Wirsing, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet Muenchen Michael Johnson, Macquarie University (chair) Venue Kuressaare (pop. 16000) is the main town on Saaremaa, the second-largest island of the Baltic Sea. Kuressaare is a charming seaside resort on the shores of the Gulf of Riga highly popular with Estonians as well as visitors to Estonia. The scientific sessions of MPC/AMAST 2006 will take place at Saaremaa Spa Hotel Meri, one among the several new spa hotels in the town. The social events will involve a number of sites, including the 14th-century episcopal castle. Accommodation will be at Saaremaa Spa Hotels Meri and Ruutli. To get to Kuressaare and away, one must pass through Tallinn (pop. 402000), Estonia's capital city. Tallinn is famous for its picturesque medieval Old Town, inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List. Local organizers MPC/AMAST 2006 is organized by Institute of Cybernetics, a research institute of Tallinn Univ. of Technology. The local organizers are Tarmo Uustalu (chair), Monika Perkmann, Juhan Ernits, Ando Saabas, Olha Shkaravska, Kristi Uustalu. Contact email addresses: mike(at)ics.mq.edu.au, varmo(at)cs.ut.ee.