Annual Report 2016/2017 Contents 5 About VCLA 6 In Memoriam 7 Organization 8 Activities 8 Conference: ALGO 2017 Congress on Algorithms 11 Summer School: Parameterized Complexity Summer School (PCSS) 12 Workshop: New Trends in Formal Argumentation 13 LogicLounge: Fabiana Zollo 14 Summer School: LAIVe 2017 15 Distinction: Helmut Veith Stipend Award Ceremony 16 Cooperation: Logical Methods in Computer Science 17 Invited Speakers and Visitors 18 Media Coverage 20 VCLA Chairs 2014-2017 21 VCLA Chairs since 2018 23 Organization since 2018 About VCLA The Vienna Center for Logic and The Center aims to promote interna- Algorithms (VCLA) is a globally unique tional scientific collaboration in logic competence center in the field of logic and algorithms and to communicate and algorithm research. It was found- Austria’s excellence in these two areas ed in September 2011 and officially of computer science research, using a opened in January 2012 in the pres- variety of channels. ence of the rector of the Technische Universität Wien (TU Wien) Sabine These objectives are realized through Seidler and Turing Award laureate activities such as: Edmund M. Clarke. • the VCLA International Student Awards for Outstanding Theses The Center was founded by Stefan • the LogicLounge Szeider and Helmut Veith and led by • the VCLA Workshop Series both until Helmut Veith passed away • the VCLA Schools, a series of in March 2016. winter and summer schools In December 2017, Agata Ciabattoni • the VCLA Visitor Program became the new elected co-chair, and • the hosting of talks by renowned the VCLA board structure changed. The international speakers, and changes are presented at the end of • the co-organisation of events this report. The VCLA was funded by TU Wien for its first four-year period and will continue to be funded for another four years in association with the Doctoral College Logical Methods in Computer Science (LogiCS). 5 In Memoriam VCLA co-chair Helmut Veith (1971- 2016) passed away in tragic circum- stances on March 12, 2016. Accompanying the rebirth of the Aus- trian logic scene his marking of the field, space, and time is further on aug- mented by the students who he men- tored, and by his visionary activities of building bridges between the comput- er science expert and the layman. Helmut studied Computational Log- ic at TU Wien, a studium irregulare with a curriculum he designed him- self, together with Richard Zach. After appointments at TU Munich and TU Darmstadt, he returned to TU Wien for Photo (c) Philipp Horak (c) Photo a full professorship in Computer Aided highest academic distinctions in Eu- Verification. rope - for his project HYDRA (Har-ness- Helmut’s passion for logic led him to ing Model Checking for Distribut¬ed establish not only the Vienna Center Algorithms). for Logic and Algorithms with Stefan In honor of Helmut´s advocacy for Szeider, but also to bring the largest women in computer science, the TU logic conference in history to Austria Wien, the Wolfgang Pauli Institute, and - the Vienna Summer of Logic. Helmut Helmut´s friends and colleagues fund served as the speaker of the Doctoral the Helmut Veith Stipend for Female College Logical Methods in Computer Master´s Students. Science and as the deputy coordinator of the National Research Network Rig- Memorial site with his achievements in orous Systems Engineering (RiSE). academia and beyond: Posthumously, Helmut was awarded http://www.vcla.at/2016/03/ the ERC Advanced Grant - one of the helmut-veith-1971-2016 6 Organization The VCLA is managed by a local board in collaboration with an international advisory board. The local board is responsible for day-to-day management and consults with the advisory board about strategic decisions. The following is the organisational structure from the 2016/2017 reporting period. Since January 2018 the VCLA board has a new structure which is presented at the end of this report. Board Advisory Board Thomas Eiter Matthias Baaz (TU Wien) Georg Gottlob Roderick Bloem (TU Graz) Alexander Leitsch Agata Ciabattoni (TU Wien) Reinhard Pichler Nadia Creignou Stefan Szeider (co-chair) (Université d‘Aix-Marseille) Helmut Veith † (co-chair) Anuj Dawar (University of Cambridge) Fedor Fomin (University of Bergen) Laura Kovács (TU Wien) Public Relations and Project Miroslaw Truszczynski Management (University of Kentucky) Mihaela Rozman Moshe Y. Vardi (Rice University) Logic and Algorithms Groups The Center is hosted by five research Collaborations groups at the Faculty of Informatics: The VCLA frequently collaborates with • Algorithms and Complexity Group co-funding institutions: • Database and Artificial Intelligence Group • Kurt Gödel Society (KGS) • Formal Methods in • Austrian Rigorous Systems Systems Engineering Group Engineering (ARiSE) • Knowledge-Based Systems Group • Wolfgang Pauli Institute (WPI) • Theory and Logic Group • Institute of Science and • Security and Privacy Group Technology Austria (IST Austria) 7 Activities Conference: ALGO 2017 Congress on Algorithms The 17th ALGO congress is the premier annual gathering on algorithms in Europe. ALGO 2017 hos- ted by the Algorithms and Complexity Group at TU Wien in September 2017, attracted more than 320 participants. ALGO 2017 combined the following six conferences and workshops: ALGO 2017 volunteers • the European Symposium on Algo- • the Workshop on Algorithmic rithms (ESA) Approaches for Transportation Mo- • the International Symposium on deling Optimization, and Systems Parameterized and Exact Computa- (ATMOS) tion (IPEC) • the International Workshop on • the Workshop on Approximation Algorithmic Aspects of Cloud Compu- and Online Algorithms (WAOA) ting (ALGOCLOUD) • the International Symposium on ALGO 2017 hosted also the Parameteri- Algorithms and Experiments for Wi- zed Complexity Summer School (PCSS), reless Networks (ALGOSENSORS) with a record number of more than 100 participating talents. The congress was opened by the rector of the TU Wien, Sabine Seidler. The scientific program comprised of over 165 paper presentations, tutorials, the ESA test of time award, the PACE competition awards, the Nerode prize award, and several best paper awards. Alongside the scientific part of the Rector of the TU Wien, Sabine Seidler ALGO 2017 program, the social events 8 Activities offered participants a wide range of (NHM). The Heurigen Dinner honoured networking activities to support the the scholarly traditions of gathering in a academic dialogue. These included rustic Viennese tavern. three evening events: the Welcome Reception, the Banquet Dinner, and the ALGO 2017 was organized in coopera- Heurigen Dinner. tion with the European Association for Theoretical Computer Science (EATCS), The Banquet Dinner was set in a the Vienna Center for Logic and Algorith- stimulating environment of one of the ms (VCLA), and the Zentrum für Informa- most important museums in the world tikforschung (ZIF). - the Natural History Museum Vienna The congress was sponsored by Google, the Wolfgang Pauli Institute, and the NETWORKS project, as well as the Austrian Ministry for Transport, Innovati- on and Technology. Chairs • Stefan Szeider (chair) • Robert Ganian (co-chair) • Martin Nöllenburg (co-chair) Michael Fellows and colleagues ALGO 2017 Banquet Dinner at the Natural History Museum Vienna 9 Activities Co-Organizers • Doris Dicklberger • Wolfgang Dvořák • Ronald de Haan • Fabian Klute • Andreas Müller • Nysret Musliu • Sebastian Ordyniak • Karin Prater • Günther Raidl Fabrizio Grandoni, Jie Gao, David Mount, Daniel Delling • Mihaela Rozman • Stefan Woltran Keynote Speakers • Daniel Delling (Apple Inc) • Babak Falsafi(EcoCloud and EPFL) • Jie Gao (Stony Brook U.) • Fabrizio Grandoni (U. of Lugano) • David Mount (U. of Maryland) • Kirk Pruhs (U. of Pittsburgh) • David Woodruff (Carnegie Mellon U.) Daniel Delling, Stefan Szeider, David Woodruff, Christian Sohler, Babak Falsafi, David Mount, Martin Nöllenburg https://algo2017.ac.tuwien.ac.at/ ALGO 2017 organizers 10 Activities Summer School: Parameterized Invited Speakers Complexity Summer School • Dániel Marx (Hungarian Academy of Sciences) (PCSS) 2017 • Daniel Lokshtanov (U. Bergen) Following the success of the 2009 • Fedor Fomin (U. Bergen) AGAPE summer school on Corsica and • Michał Pilipczuk (U. Warsaw) the 2014 summer school in Bedlewo, • Bart Jansen (Eindhoven U. of Technology) the third instalment of the Parameter- • Neeldhara Misra (Indian IT., Gandhinagar) ized Complexity summer school was • Ramanujan M.S. (TU Wien) held at TU Wien, in September 2017 as • Fahad Panolan (U. Bergen) a pre-event of ALGO 2017. • Meirav Zehavi (Simons Institute) • Sebastian Siebertz (U. Warsaw) PCSS 2017 attracted a record number of more than 100 participants. • Robert Ganian (TU Wien) • Sebastian Ordyniak (TU Wien) Apart from providing an introduction to the basics of parameterized com- Organizers plexity the school covered some recent • Robert Ganian advances and applications in Econom- • Sebastian Ordyniak ics, Logic, and Artificial Intelligence. • M. S. Ramanujan https://algo2017.ac.tuwien.ac.at/pcss/ The participants of the PCSS Summer School 2017 in Vienna, at TU Wien 11 Activities Workshop: New Trends in Formal Argumentation The workshop on New Trend in Formal Argumentation took place at TU Wien in August 2017. It was supported by the VCLA. Argumentation is nowadays a central part of modern Artificial Intelligence research, and a main topic at major AI conferences, with application domains Leon v.d. Torre; Sanjay Modgil in legal reasoning, multi-agent sys- Organizers