1. Theoretical Computer Science
at UW Madison

2. What is TCS?
Study of the fundamental capabilities and limitations of computing
Which tasks can be solved? How efficiently?
What is the power of parallelism, randomness, quantum interference, … ?
Emphasis on provable results

3. What is TCS?
Study of the fundamental capabilities and limitations of computing
Which tasks can be solved? How efficiently?
What is the power of parallelism, randomness, quantum interference, … ?
Emphasis on provable results
Applications: economics, machine learning, networking, cryptography, …

4. Why study TCS? Fun, like puzzle solving!
Lays the foundations of computer science
Turing Awards in Theory: Dijkstra, Knuth, Rabin and Scott, Cook, Karp, Hopcroft and Tarjan, Hartmanis and Stearns, Blum, Pnueli, Yao, Rivest and Shamir and Adleman, Valiant, Goldwasser and Micali, Diffie and Hellman.

5. Why study TCS? Fun, like puzzle solving!
Lays the foundations of computer science
Turing Awards in Theory: Dijkstra, Knuth, Rabin and Scott, Cook, Karp, Hopcroft and Tarjan, Hartmanis and Stearns, Blum, Pnueli, Yao, Rivest and Shamir and Adleman, Valiant, Goldwasser and Micali, Diffie and Hellman.
Many exciting recent advances in Technology, Science, Mathematics, …
Benefitting society …
e.g. market efficiency, epidemiology, kidney exchange, fairness & privacy, …

6. Theory faculty Shuchi Jin-Yi Eric Chawla Cai Bach Dieter Christos
van Melkebeek
Christos
Tzamos

7. Theory students
~10 Ph.D. students

8. Theory students Researchers at Google, Microsoft Research, IBM, …
~10 Ph.D. students
Alumni in industry and academia
Researchers at Google, Microsoft Research, IBM, …
Faculty at IISc, Sydney, Edinburgh, Indiana State, …
Postdocs at Simons Institute (Berkeley), Caltech, Maryland, Cambridge …

9. Theory students Researchers at Google, Microsoft Research, IBM, …
~10 Ph.D. students
Alumni in industry and academia
Researchers at Google, Microsoft Research, IBM, …
Faculty at IISc, Sydney, Edinburgh, Indiana State, …
Postdocs at Simons Institute (Berkeley), Caltech, Maryland, Cambridge …
Many awards
Ben Miller
Cisco Fellowship,
Heng Guo, Ph.D. 2015
EATCS Doctoral Dissertation Award, 2016
Simons Fellowship,
CS grad student research award, 2016
Balu Sivan, Ph.D. 2013
SIGecom Doctoral Dissertation Award, 2014
CS grad student research award, 2014

10. Research of Prof. Bach
Algorithms in number theory, algebra, and combinatorics
Math Tools: Analytic Number Theory, Algebraic Geometry, Classical Analysis, . . .
Applications: Public Key Cryptography, Computer Algebra, Pseudo- Random Numbers, Quantum Computation
Greatest hits:
Hedging Fame: Algorithms that work or the ERH is false.
Factored random numbers: You can get flat cryptographic key spaces.
Quantum random walks: In Schrodinger's casino, you can play forever!

11. Research of Prof. Cai Computational Complexity Theory
Complexity dichotomy theorems for counting problems.
Graph Homomorphisms with Complex Values: A Dichotomy Theorem
Complexity of Counting CSP with Complex Weights
Matchgate Theory and Holant problems.

12. Research of Prof. Chawla
Algorithmic game theory and computational economics
Design of auctions, posted pricings, and other economic mechanisms
Quantifying the quality of equilibria in games
Stochastic/online optimization
Decision-making without complete knowledge of the input
Algorithmic fairness
E.g., can we ensure that Google shows the same job ads to men and women?

13. Reseach of Prof. van Melkebeek
Derandomization: connections with circuit lower bounds, polynomial identity testing, isolation.
Lower bounds for NP-hard problems on deterministic, randomized, and quantum machines
Lower bounds for kernelization and compression.

14. Research of Prof. Tzamos
Algorithmic game theory and computational economics
Design of efficient auctions and other economic mechanisms
Mechanism design without money
Learning Theory
Estimation problems in high dimensions
How quickly do classical algorithms like EM converge?
Fine grained complexity
Pinning down the exact complexity of poly-time solvable problems

15. Prof. Ilias Diakonikolas
algorithms, learning, statistics, and applied probability.
tradeoff between statistical efficiency, computational efficiency, and robustness for fundamental problems in machine learning.
Joining Department in Fall 2019

16. More Info Webpage: Drop by to see us this afternoon!
Drop by to see us this afternoon!
Faculty offices on CS 4th floor