You're reading the public-facing archive of the Category Theory Zulip server.
To join the server you need an invite. Anybody can get an invite by contacting Matteo Capucci at name dot surname at gmail dot com.
For all things related to this archive refer to the same person.
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
JS PL (he/him) (Jan 19 2025 at 21:43):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.
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
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, to be published in Electronic Proceedings in Theoretical Computer Science (EPTCS). Authors are required to use EPTCS style for their submissions; files are available at 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 11:59pm AoE (Anywhere on Earth). 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).
Amar Hadzihasanovic (PC Chair), Tallinn University of Technology
JS Lemay (PC Chair), Macquarie University
Benedikt Ahrens, Delft University of Technology
Robert Booth, University of Edinburgh
Cameron Calk, LIS
Cole Comfort, Université de Lorraine
Valeria de Paiva, Topos Institute
Elena Di Lavore, University of Pisa
Martin Frankland, University of Regina
Jonas Frey, LIPN
Tobias Fritz, University of Innsbruck
Zeinab Galal, University of Bologna
Léonard Guetta, Utrecht University
Robin Kaarsgaard, University of Southern Denmark
Martti Karvonen, UCL
Shin-Ya Katsumata, Kyoto Sangyo University
Alex Kavvos, University of Bristol
Kohei Kishida, University of Illinois Urbana-Champagne
Gabriele Lobbia, Università di Bologna
Fosco Loregian, Tallinn University of Technology
Giulio Manzonetto, IRIF
Dan Marsden, University of Nottingham
Adrian Miranda, University of Manchester
Koko Muroya, NII
Nina Otter, Université Paris-Saclay
Hugo Paquet, INRIA Paris
John Power, Macquarie University
Dorette Pronk, Dalhousie University
Callum Reader, University of Sheffield
Martina Rovelli, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Mehrnoosh Sadrzadeh, UCL
Peter Selinger, Dalhousie University
David Sprunger, University of Indiana
Alexis Toumi, PlantingSpace
Todd Trimble, Western Connecticut State University
Sean Tull, Quantinuum
Paul Wilson, Hellas.AI
Dusko Pavlovic, University of Hawaii
Ruben Van Belle, University of Oxford
Priyaa Varshinee Srinivasan, Tallinn University of Technology
Andrea S (Feb 07 2025 at 19:01):Hi all, I wanted to draw people's attention to and make a few requests on a matter with regards to the location of ACT 2025.
The University of Florida is a dangerous location to hold a research week / conference for LGBTQ+ members of the applied category theory community, particularly the trans members, including (but importantly not limited to) me. Specifically, under Florida law, I cannot use a restroom at the University of Florida that matches my gender presentation because of the anti-trans restroom bill that went into effect in July 2023. Even entering the state risks arrest because of Florida's ID laws around gender implemented not long after. With much of the US federal government sharing a similar agenda and with Florida's legislative session ending in early May, this situation may get even worse by the time of the conference.
Please note that I am not taking a political stance here—this is not a matter of political parties, this is a matter of personal safety and dignity on a highly politicized issue. Also note that this is not a criticism of James' generous work to host ACT 2025 or of the other organizers' work to plan the conference—I recognize the institutional challenges in finding a suitable location to host the conference. Lastly, I know it would've been better to have mentioned this issue much earlier during the planning stages; it is unfortunate that this doesn't seem to have been a topic considered at the time, and for myself I wasn't sufficiently involved in the ACT community to have the topic on my radar prior to joining the Adjoint School for 2025.
I am not alone in my assessment in the danger traveling to Florida presents. After the election, the journalist Erin Reed published this map: https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/post-election-2024-anti-trans-risk with "Do not travel" warnings for Florida and Texas. Already in 2023, the Human Rights Campaign declared a national state of emergency in response to Florida's hateful legislature (https://www.hrc.org/campaigns/national-state-of-emergency-for-lgbtq-americans). The situation has worsened since then. I recognize that there is no public record of arrests taking place, but many anecdotes have come forward about vigilantes watching public restrooms and blocking, harassing, and assaulting trans people attempting to enter since the laws have passed (https://www.thedailybeast.com/floridas-anti-trans-bathroom-law-spurs-harrowing-vigilante-attacks/). I also recognize that in response to the law, the University of Florida and broader Florida community have advocated for more gender neutral restrooms (https://sg.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/SSB-2024-1132-Resolution-Calling-on-the-University-of-Florida-Administration-to-Provide-Enhanced-Gender-Neutral-Bathroom-Access-on-Campus-Grounds-for-Transgender-and-Gen.pdf) and provided legal support to fight these restroom bills (https://www.southernlegal.org/news/trans-and-non-binary-activists-challenge-florida-bathroom-ban-as-unconstitutional-prior-to-national-marchnbsp). This work highlights the reality of a dangerous environment for trans individuals navigating gendered restrooms in Florida.
I'm not calling for the research week or conference to be relocated or else boycotted (because I don't expect this request could be answered, not because it wouldn't be beneficial). Rather, I and others request:
a) An official statement from the organizers recognizing that holding the conference/research week at UF is unfortunate and a threat to valued members of the applied category theory community because of Florida's repressive anti-trans laws (Edit: It was just brought to my attention that a statement on the website already exists—I suppose this request may be more relevant for the Adjoint School specifically, with whom I also shared this message separately),
b) As many talks, resources, etc. as possible be made available online so that the conference/research week may be appreciated virtually (my impression is that this is likely already the case),
c) Clear instructions, shared on the event webpage prior to the research week, on where gender-neutral restrooms may be found for in-person attendees.
To emphasize: These requests are the bare minimum, especially when compared, for instance, to the successful efforts to relocate JMM 1995 to protect members of the LGBTQ+ community (https://www.ams.org/journals/notices/201906/rnoti-p875.pdf). I trust that your commitment to the safety of our research community will help you see the necessity of the few basic requests I am making.
Thank you for reading and considering my requests,
Andrea Abeje-Stine
5th year Math PhD Candidate - UC Riverside
Student of the Adjoint School 2025
James Fairbanks (Feb 07 2025 at 19:20):I have found an official page from the library that describes inclusive spaces in general. I will add a link to the website
https://uflib.ufl.edu/using-the-libraries/inclusive-spaces/
James Fairbanks (Feb 07 2025 at 19:23):I committed it directly to the main branch. Should be live in <10min.
Andrea S (Feb 07 2025 at 19:24):I really appreciate the quick action and for y'all doing what you can to make the environment as welcoming as possible!
James Fairbanks (Feb 07 2025 at 19:25):You're welcome (in both senses of the words)
Kierstin Riels (Feb 10 2025 at 19:46):We're working on making these resources more visible on the website going forward. In the mean time, the campus map also has filters for many landmarks including ADA routes, bus stops, and single-occupant restrooms here: https://campusmap.ufl.edu/#/
You just have to select your desired locations using the filter in the top left corner.
JR Learnstomath (Feb 12 2025 at 14:29):Hi everyone! Regarding the call for papers, is it a requirement that one has a degree in math (undergrad? master's? PhD??) to submit something?
Morgan Rogers (he/him) (Feb 12 2025 at 14:59):Whatever answer the organisers give, it would be a good idea to get someone with more experience to read what you've written before you submit it somewhere. Reviewers for conferences don't have a lot of time, so you're more likely to get useful feedback rather than disappointing/painful criticism if you work that way.
James Fairbanks (Feb 12 2025 at 15:10):There is no degree requirement. But Morgan is correct that feedback by someone who has presented at similar academic conferences in the past will be very helpful in preparing the paper
JR Learnstomath (Feb 13 2025 at 08:34):Thanks, this is sensible and helpful!
JS PL (he/him) (Feb 13 2025 at 20:24):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.
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
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, to be published in Electronic Proceedings in Theoretical Computer Science (EPTCS). Authors are required to use EPTCS style for their submissions; files are available at 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 11:59pm AoE (Anywhere on Earth). 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).
Due to technological constraints, only the keynote addresses, and the community meeting will be accessible via Zoom. Recordings of presentations will be made available after the conference on a best-effort basis. For exceptional circumstances in which a presenter cannot attend in person, submissions may be published in conference proceedings alone, and/or a recorded presentation may be made available after the conference. If circumstances outside your control prohibit you from presenting your work in person, please contact conference organizers.
Please contact the Programme Committee Chairs for more information: Amar Hadzihasanovic (amar.hadzihasanovic@taltech.ee) and JS Lemay (js.lemay@mq.edu.au).
Nelson Niu (Feb 20 2025 at 01:57):I’m concerned about the decision not to prioritize ensuring all the ACT 2025 talks are live-streamed and recorded. It’s certainly been a point of pride for me how incredibly accessible the ACT conference has been historically—I believe ever since 2020 every ACT talk has been live-streamed to make remote participation fully possible.
So it’s rather disheartening to see that this will not be the case this year—particularly in light of the very urgent concerns about travel to Florida for LGBTQ+ folks pointed out so eloquently by @Andrea S above, as well as the difficulties and dangers faced by BIPOC and non-Americans traveling to the US in general and Florida in particular given the current climate. It seems to me that this will reduce possible participation in the conference dramatically for a wide section of our community.
I suppose I have little to offer in terms of solutions for this year beyond this hand-wringing, aside from the perhaps naive suggestion that registration fees might be put toward increasing remote accessibility rather than toward lunch. I entirely appreciate the difficulties and often thankless labor in coordinating something like this, but I would appreciate some explanation for how this lack of streaming capability came about and suggestions for what could be done to address this in the future. And there’s certainly still time before this conference to perhaps explore some creative options for remote participation. Thank you!
Joe Moeller (Feb 20 2025 at 02:17):It’s pretty easy to set up zoom streaming and give a link to all registrants. We managed this in 2023 utilizing cameras built in to the room. Some people know how to combine this with YouTube live streaming, which has also been done before. I’m not sure what prevents organizers from allowing speakers to present virtually. I’ve organized a small number of events and never heard of a strict reason to do so.
James Fairbanks (Feb 20 2025 at 02:53):Unfortunately, due to the timing of the conference and a registrar policy about when they will release classrooms to uses other than classes, we could not receive a classroom assignment until the start of the summer semester. Waiting for classrooms would lead to a substantial risk that we would have no venue meeting our needs available. This outcome would lead to a cancellation of the conference after travel was booked. I determined that this risk was unacceptable and pursued a resolution.
I attempted to resolve the registrar issue through the office of the Dean of Engineering, and we found a nonclassroom venue. However, this means that our venue cannot fully support hybrid instruction, which would be sufficient to enable synchronous remote participation.
I would urge that the conference be planned 2 years in advance by an overlapping committee serving staggered 2 year terms for improved continuity of institutional knowledge.
John Baez (Feb 20 2025 at 02:58):We are now attempting to do the last.
Andrea S (Feb 20 2025 at 03:23):Apologies to belabor the issue, but is the nonclassroom venue one where it would be impossible to set up cameras for livestreaming? Barring equipment or budgeting constraints around that, I imagine many speakers will want to present their work via a slide deck on, for example, a laptop; are there projectors that allow for that? In which case, even the partial experience of being able to listen to the speaker and see the slides in a Zoom room (which the speaker could host) is significantly better than being entirely unable to see the talk. I understand that the venue may be unable to fully support hybrid instruction, but would the nonclassroom venue make even partial hybrid viewing impossible?
John Baez (Feb 20 2025 at 18:26):@James Fairbanks - Everyone on the ACT steering board who has expressed an opinion agrees that streaming the ACT talks is important, and one has said that "given the current political situation, we need more streaming, not less". There are a lot of people who want to view those talks, yet are unable or unwilling to travel to the US.
So is the problem that the room has no video camera built in? Can we get someone with a video camera to stream the proceedings?
Nelson Niu (Feb 20 2025 at 20:32):Thank you John and the rest of the steering board for the prompt response!
Jules Hedges (Feb 21 2025 at 10:40):Yeah, high quality streaming takes a tonne of resources and a tonne of work (I know this very well from experience), but shitty better-than-nothing streaming takes a $20 webcam (and also a tonne of work)
Joe Moeller (Feb 21 2025 at 18:02):I think the work is mainly just assigning one grad student (per room) to be responsible for nothing but turning it on and off, at least if you’re only going through Zoom.
John Baez (Feb 21 2025 at 20:55):So, is what @Joe Moeller is talking about the same as what @Jules Hedges calls "shitty better-than-nothing streaming"?
One thing about the shitty better-than-nothing approach is that it is, still, better than nothing.
Joe Moeller (Feb 21 2025 at 20:55):I'm advocating for shitty better-than-nothing streaming, absolutely.
Joe Moeller (Feb 21 2025 at 20:58):If the slides are being share-screened, it basically doesn't matter how good the cameras are. If we were a more chalk-talk community, it would matter more, but we mostly only do slide talks.
Joe Moeller (Feb 21 2025 at 20:59):Mics are another relevant issue.
John Baez (Feb 21 2025 at 21:10):Yes, getting voice and a video of the slides is pretty good.
Dan Marsden (Feb 23 2025 at 20:43):Joe Moeller said:
I think the work is mainly just assigning one grad student (per room) to be responsible for nothing but turning it on and off, at least if you’re only going through Zoom.
It's also useful to have somebody (else) devoted to monitoring any online chat and the Zoom call or however it is done. This doesn't need to be much, but it can help pick up questions from remote participants, connection issues or silly problems like muted microphones much earlier.
Kevin Carlson (Feb 25 2025 at 08:23):@JS PL (he/him) (I'm guessing you're JS Lemay?) and @Amar Hadzihasanovic, there's the preliminary deadline for title+abstract due tomorrow, but EasyChair's only submission link asks for the paper in the submission page as well, with a required PDF submission. Am I missing a different submission venue for title+abstract? If not, shall I just attach a blank PDF for the first stage?
Amar Hadzihasanovic (Feb 25 2025 at 08:27):The fact that the PDF attachment was made mandatory was accidental, sorry; it should be non-mandatory now (let me know if not)
Kevin Carlson (Feb 25 2025 at 08:28):Perfect, thanks! Glad to know I’m the first to look at the submission page :smiling_face: