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Dylan Braithwaite (Nov 23 2023 at 12:57):I heard recently that it was going to be held in Oxford. Was this just bad intel?
John Baez (Nov 23 2023 at 13:29):I made a stupid mistake, now fixed. I meant ACT2025!
John Baez (Nov 23 2023 at 13:31):ACT2024 will indeed be held in Oxford - the local organizer is Sam Staton.
John Baez (Jun 01 2024 at 19:36):The plan seems to have solidified: James Fairbanks will hold ACT2025 and the adjoint school at the University of Florida May 19 - May 30, 2025, with the adjoint school being the first week and the conference the second week.
Matteo Capucci (he/him) (Jun 03 2024 at 06:55):Great news! Also, that's... even earlier than this year! Are we going to anticipate ACT one month each year? :sweat_smile:
Amar Hadzihasanovic (Jun 03 2024 at 08:28):It follows the lunar calendar
John Baez (Jun 03 2024 at 08:29):The reason may be that Florida becomes too hot by June.
Matteo Capucci (he/him) (Jun 03 2024 at 15:57):Fair enough! I hope it's not going to be a problem with teaching, that's finals week in Strathclyde
John Baez (Jun 03 2024 at 16:19):If it's a problem for a large number of people, the time to say it is right now - or ideally one week ago.
Matteo Capucci (he/him) (Jun 04 2024 at 15:35):We/you might want to ask for feedback on the dates at the community session at the conference then
Kevin Carlson (Jun 04 2024 at 21:01):It does seem kind of bad to keep shifting the time of year without any real chance for community input, though it may well be the case that the algorithm was "pick the one option that somebody is willing to host."
John Baez (Jun 05 2024 at 08:33):I told the rest of the steering board about these date issues, and that got people to discuss some other problems with the chosen dates.
To get ACT to take place at the same time each year, we may need enough people have senior positions doing ACT that more than one person volunteers each year to host the conference. We aren't there yet! But I encourage you all to consider hosting the conference in 2026.
Jacob Zelko (Sep 10 2024 at 15:16):With ACT 2025, when do calls for proposals usually open up out of curiosity?
John Baez (Sep 10 2024 at 15:26):Proposals for what, exactly?
Jacob Zelko (Sep 10 2024 at 16:41):Oh I misspoke, call for papers (like from 2024)
Amar Hadzihasanovic (Sep 10 2024 at 17:00):We're thinking a first CfP could come early in December.
Mike Stay (Sep 10 2024 at 18:39):What's the order of magnitude of ACT attendance? 10s? 100s?
Bryce Clarke (Sep 10 2024 at 18:45):Usually between 100-200 people.
Jacob Zelko (Sep 10 2024 at 19:30):Ah! Thank you so much @Amar Hadzihasanovic !
Bryce Clarke (Sep 25 2024 at 08:04):@James Fairbanks Could someone please confirm the dates for the conference? I remember hearing at the ACT conference this year that they had changed.
John Baez (Sep 25 2024 at 18:21):Is this earlier report still true?
John Baez said:
The plan seems to have solidified: James Fairbanks will hold ACT2025 and the adjoint school at the University of Florida May 19 - May 30, 2025, with the adjoint school being the first week and the conference the second week.
James Fairbanks (Sep 25 2024 at 18:26):We shifted a week to accommodate the big lens meeting in Japan.
Adjoint School May 26-30
ACT conference June 2 - 6
John Baez (Sep 25 2024 at 19:07):Great! Someone should put up a rudimentary webpage announcing this now. I'll announce it all over the place.
John Baez (Nov 08 2024 at 19:27):Hey folks, the ACT2025 conference organizers are making a choice between a $100 registration fee that includes lunch, and a $50 fee where you have to go get your own lunch. Thoughts?
Kevin Carlson (Nov 08 2024 at 19:54):So that's five lunches for fifty bucks and no need to think about where to go and everybody's having lunch more or less together? That seems probably worth it to me, as long as the lunch menus aren't too grim.
James Fairbanks (Nov 08 2024 at 21:05):BTW, those numbers aren't final do not budget based on them.
John Baez (Nov 09 2024 at 01:33):Okay. They're tentative numbers.
John Baez (Nov 09 2024 at 01:34):I agree with Kevin that it may be a good deal even, or especially, for the poorest of grad students. "There is no such thing as a free lunch".
Kevin Carlson (Nov 09 2024 at 01:39):Right, it's not like anybody who's actually coming out is likely to carry a ramen back to their hotel room for lunch.
John Baez (Nov 09 2024 at 01:47):I don't really know that for sure - that's why I was asking. I've had students who were too poor to afford to go to conferences because the reimbursement came after the conference, which is not good enough if you don't have enough savings. So I can easily imagine students who'd rather save $50 and eat ramen. But I don't know.
Kevin Carlson (Nov 09 2024 at 22:03):I guess I think that if you can swing the travel (waiting for reimbursement is definitely a problem for a lot of students) $50 isn't likely to be determinative on the margin, and for students at least that should be getting reimbursed as well.
Kevin Carlson (Nov 09 2024 at 22:03):But, yeah, the maximally inclusive thing would be to figure out how to poll all the young people who might come if finances work out and figure out what might flip their decision. Seems like a hard dataset to gather though.
John Baez (Nov 09 2024 at 23:55):I guess I think that if you can swing the travel (waiting for reimbursement is definitely a problem for a lot of students) $50 isn't likely to be determinative on the margin, and for students at least that should be getting reimbursed as well.
Sounds reasonable.
There's not time to poll people. I was hoping some more people here would speak up by Sunday, when we have to make the decision. If not, we'll just decide based on what we know now. And that's okay.
Federica Pasqualone (Nov 10 2024 at 01:52):I think it is a great idea to have lunch included for the days of the conference. Not only for the reimbursement issue, but because it helps building a sense of community. I was at a conference where this was implemented and I had the best lunch time chats ever! :upside_down:
Sam Staton (Nov 10 2024 at 15:06):Hi if you can do it for $10 that seems very good value. Some reasons we didn't do it in Oxford:
Sam Staton (Nov 10 2024 at 15:08):About reimbursement. Certainly some people had no way of getting reimbursed at all (including students, faculty, unemployed, employed in industry but attending for fun...). Several people complained that there was a registration fee at all, and/or asked for it to be waived for them. Some people didn't want to pay the full fee since they didn't want to stay the full time. Some people came without registering at all. Maybe this is less of an issue in Florida since they already have to find more money for transport. I think means-tested funding is too complicated, but I think it's worth having a plan ready to deal with these issues.
John Baez (Nov 10 2024 at 16:38):Thanks for this wisdom. I think we need a better mechanism to get lessons learned by the conference organizers (like you) to the steering board (like me) and then to the next year's conference organizers.
By the way, the extra price required for the registration to cover lunches is estimated at $50, not $10.
Jacob Zelko (Nov 10 2024 at 17:03):I agree with @Federica Pasqualone ! I think the more time we spend together at conferences like these, the better. For me, spending as much time with as many people as possible is a big draw to conferences just in general. :grinning:
P.S. I also just don't know nor have much time to find places to eat in Gainesville too :see_no_evil:
Federica Pasqualone (Nov 10 2024 at 17:19):A log file for ACT ... :light_bulb:
John Baez (Nov 10 2024 at 17:20):P.S. I also just don't know nor have much time to find places to eat in Gainesville too.
The University of Florida has 60,000 students so if it's like a typical large US university there will be lots of places on campus for students (and applied category theorists) to buy lunch.
John Baez (Nov 10 2024 at 17:23):However, I'm not hearing anyone say they'd rather get their own lunch and save $50, so I'll recommend the higher registration fee that includes lunch. There are certainly lots of benefits to be able to keep talking to people at a conference and have lunch simply appear, rather than having to go get it.
Mike Shulman (Nov 10 2024 at 17:32):I'm not going to be at this conference, but one thing to be aware of that I don't think I saw mentioned is folks with dietary restrictions.
James Fairbanks (Nov 10 2024 at 17:34):We will keep going down the logistics to make that happen. Numbers aren’t final but I’ll compare to a typical lunch at the on campus dining and make sure we can be comparable. There are other factors in registration costs like coffee breaks, EasyChair fees, and copy supplies so the final numbers will also depend on the number of expected attendees and those costs.
The biggest unknown factor at this point is the space to eat which has to be chosen in coordination with the available lecture spaces.
Thanks for pointing that out Mike. We will be sure to have an accommodation plan. There is a fairly vibrant vegetarian and vegan community here so most places have good options for restrictions.
Matteo Capucci (he/him) (Nov 11 2024 at 13:37):We can even make a poll...
Matteo Capucci (he/him) (Nov 11 2024 at 13:37):/poll Would you rather
pay 100$ with lunch included
pay 50$, no lunch
John Baez (Nov 11 2024 at 17:05):I'm glad so far everyone is voting for what I already recommended to the rest of the steering committee. :wink: I'd been told to give input by today.
Cole Comfort (Nov 11 2024 at 18:28):I think this completely depends on the venue. Some places (like Oxford) have lots of affordable lunch options. Other universities are placed in the middle of nowhere with subsidized canteens for registered students with the only other options being expensive restaurants.
John Baez (Nov 11 2024 at 20:16):Right now I'm talking about the University of Florida in Gainesville. This has lots of places where non-students can eat or buy food on campus. It's a holiday today, so 32 of these places are closed, but about 11 are still open, not counting several Starbucks.
Kevin Carlson (Nov 11 2024 at 20:17):Cole Comfort said:
I think this completely depends on the venue. Some places (like Oxford) have lots of affordable lunch options. Other universities are placed in the middle of nowhere with subsidized canteens for registered students with the only other options being expensive restaurants.
I think subsidized canteens, whether for registered students or not, mostly don't occur in the US anyway. Whether nearby restaurants are "expensive" depends on what you mean by "expensive", to be sure.
Cole Comfort (Nov 11 2024 at 20:22):@Kevin Carlson I was thinking of some universities in France built in the suburbs where the canteen is like 3 euros and then every other restaurant is 15 euros. I guess "expensive" in this case is relative to what price the organizers could get. But depending on the venue, the options vary widely. For example, QPL this year at UBA in Argentina was between an airport and a massive motorway, so it made complete sense for the organizers to hire caterers, because it was so far away from everything.
Kevin Carlson (Nov 11 2024 at 20:23):Yes, I've seen those canteens in France and Germany, they're great if you can get access.
James Fairbanks (Nov 12 2024 at 14:20):The organizers have received the committee's preference that we include food in the registration via David Spivak. I want to reiterate that these numbers are not final and that we will target comparable prices to eating at the on-campus food service. We will also have a method for supporting attendees with dietary restrictions as best we can with the resources we have.
JS PL (he/him) (Dec 01 2024 at 20:31):The Eighth International Conference on Applied Category Theory (https://easychair.org/cfp/ACT2025) will take place at the University of Florida on June 2-6, 2025. The conference will be preceded by the Adjoint School on May 26-30, 2025. This conference follows previous events at Oxford (2024, 2019), University of Maryland (2023), Strathclyde (2022), Cambridge (2021), MIT (2020), and Leiden (2019).
Applied category theory is important to a growing community of researchers who study computer science, logic, engineering, physics, biology, chemistry, social science, systems, linguistics and other subjects using category-theoretic tools. The background and experience of our members is as varied as the systems being studied. The goal of the Applied Category Theory conference series is to bring researchers together, strengthen the applied category theory community, disseminate the latest results, and facilitate further development of the field.
SUBMISSION
Important dates
All deadlines are AoE (Anywhere on Earth).
February 26: title and brief abstract submission
March 3: paper submission
April 7: notification of authors
May 19: Pre-proceedings ready versions
June 2-6: conference
Submissions
The submission URL is: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=act2025
We accept submissions in English of original research papers, talks about work accepted/submitted/published elsewhere, and demonstrations of relevant software. Accepted original research papers will be published in a proceedings volume. The conference will include an industry showcase event and community meeting. We particularly encourage people from underrepresented groups to submit their work and the organizers are committed to non-discrimination, equity, and inclusion.
Conference Papers should present original, high-quality work in the style of a computer science conference paper (up to 12 pages, not counting the bibliography; more detailed parts of proofs may be included in an appendix for the convenience of the reviewers). Such submissions should not be an abridged version of an existing journal article although pre-submission arXiv preprints are permitted. These submissions will be adjudicated for both a talk and publication in the conference proceedings.
Talk proposals not to be published in the proceedings, e.g. about work accepted/submitted/published elsewhere, should be submitted as abstracts, one or two pages long. Authors are encouraged to include links to any full versions of their papers, preprints or manuscripts. The purpose of the abstract is to provide a basis for determining the topics and quality of the anticipated presentation.
Software demonstration proposals should also be submitted as abstracts, one or two pages. The purpose of the abstract is to provide the program committee with enough information to assess the content of the demonstration.
The selected conference papers will be published in a volume of Proceedings. Authors are advised to use EPTCS style; files are available at https://style.eptcs.org/ style.eptcs.org.
Reviewing will be single-blind, and we are not making public the reviews, reviewer names, the discussions nor the list of under-review submissions. This is the same as previous instances of ACT.
In order to give our reviewers enough time to bid on submissions, we ask for a title and brief abstract of your submission by February 26. The full two-page pdf extended abstract submissions and up to 12 page proceedings submissions are both due by the submissions deadline of March 3 11:59pm AoE (Anywhere on Earth).
Please contact the Programme Committee Chairs for more information: Amar Hadzihasanovic (amar.hadzihasanovic@taltech.ee) and JS Lemay (js.lemay@mq.edu.au).
Programme Committee
See conference website for full list: https://gataslab.org/act2025/act2025cfp