Dear Friends We Have Prepared This Booklet As a Brief Introduction For
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Dear friends We have prepared this booklet as a brief introduction for you – guests and collaborators of ITI, DIMATIA, and KAM as well as the participants of the Doccourse – to the place of your staying. By no means comprehensive, it should, however, answer at least some of the questions that you might have in mind, and assist you in finding your bearings in Prague – both in the geographical and social ways. The topics are many and sundry, spanning from a concise description of the hosting institutions to the most practical issues, such as guest computer accounts. Also included are a small dictionary and a little guide to the Czech pro- nunciation, or a general list of the jazz clubs and muse- ums. We hope that you will find the booklet helpful, and that you will enjoy your stay. If you have any questions or comments, please write to us. Veronika Douchová and Jaroslav Nešetøil [email protected] [email protected] hosting institutions CHARLES UNIVERSITY The oldest university in central Europe, Charles University was founded on April 7th 1348 by Charles IV, then Holy Roman Emperor and King of Bohemia. From its foundation it was devoted to stu- dia generalia and it was endowed by the emperor with all the privileges enjoyed by older European universi- ties. The newly established univer- sity had four faculties – Theology, Law, Medicine and Arts. Soon after its foundation Prague university developed links with the medieval intellectual movements which were calling for reform in church and society. The destiny of Prague university has always been closely connected with the destiny of the Czech state and people. After the liberation of Czechoslo- vakia in 1945 the university began to develop rapidly in all its aspects. University life was soon to be disrupted and distorted by the effects of the Communist put- sch in February 1948. It meant purges, the end of academic free- doms and harsh repression of all expressions of disagreement with the official ideology. Further more, as a punishment for the role of teachers and students in the Prague Spring of 1968, a new and especially painful wave of purges hit the university and its faculties in the period of so- called normalization at the beginning of the seventies. Only after the velvet revolution, which began on November 17th 1989, was there any real change in a situation which had lasted more than forty years. The appointment of new representatives of a free academic community took place in January 1990. Charles University at present consists of sixteen faculties and educates more than 30,000 students. The faculties are centers not only for teaching, but also for research and scholarship. http://www.cuni.cz 2 hosting institutions FACULTY OF MATHEMATICS AND PHYSICS Mathematics and physics were tradi- tionally taught within the frame of the Philosophical Faculty (Faculty of Arts). In 1920 this faculty separated from the Faculty of Natural Sciences, and the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics (Czech abbreviation MFF UK) has existed independently since 1952. Among the scholars who have worked at and/or co-operated with Charles University and its faculties while staying in Prague are Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler, Bernard Bolzano, Ernst Mach, Albert Einstein, Rudolf Carnap and Jaroslav Heyrovský. The Faculty provides education for more than 2,200 students in fields of computer science (informatics), mathematics, physics, and in the teaching of these disciplines at high school level. http://www.mff.cuni.cz 3 hosting institutions DEPARTMENT OF APPLIED MATHEMATICS The Department of Applied Mathematics (KAM) is responsible for teaching basic and advanced mathematics courses at the School of Computer Science at Charles University in Prague. The main areas of active research performed at the department include algorithmic and structural graph theory and combinato- rics, discrete and computational geometry, complexity theory, category theory, and linear, nonlinear and combinatorial optimi- zation. It has developed into the current form during the late 1980‘s and early 1990‘s under the chairmanship of Jarik Nešetøil. Today the department has 18 full time members and 23 graduate students. http://kam.mff.cuni.cz DIMATIA DIMATIA is the Center for Discrete Mathe- matics, Theoretical Computer Science and Applications. It was founded as part of the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University in Prague, Czech Repub- lic, as a joint project of Charles University, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Repub- lic and Institute of Chemical Technology, Prague. A network of associate members of DIMATIA was soon developed. The center is open and actively seeks partners from all over the world. The purpose of the center is to foster research in all fields of dis- crete mathematics and its modern applications and relationship to computer science, operations research and fields as diverse as biology, chemistry and social sciences. Towards this end the center organizes a continuing program of workshops, confer- ences and research visits both in Prague and at the sites of partic- ipating institutions. DIMATIA is one of the principal founders of COMBSTRU – Research Training Network “Combinatorial Structure of Intracta- ble Problems“. http://dimatia.mff.cuni.cz 4 hosting institutions KAM-DIMATIA Series The KAM Series were founded in 1986. They serve as a prepubli- cation medium for the scientific output of the Department of Applied Mathematics (KAM). Already more than 650 preprints have appeared in the series, and the number of authors exceeded 100 to date. The large number of coauthors docu- ments the active life of KAM – both domestic and international. Since 97-350, the word DIMATIA was appended to the name of the Series to indicate that the newly established Center of Dis- crete Mathematics, Theoretical Computer Science and Applica- tions (DIMATIA) participates in the Series. The most recent information, an updated reference list and some of the last Series in an electronic form are posted at the website. You are welcome to submit your papers by email to [email protected] http://kam.mff.cuni.cz/~kamserie/ COMBSTRU COMBSTRU – Combinatorial Structure of Intractable Problems – is a Research Train- ing Network funded through the European Commission, whose main scientific goal is the analysis of intractable combinatorial problems, focusing on structural proper- ties of the problems and using tools from algebra, logic, probability, geometry, sta- tistical physics, and other fields. Training of Ph.D. students and postdoctoral researchers through appointed positions, workshops and summer schools is a main objective of the network. http://dimatia.mff.cuni.cz/combstru/ 5 hosting institutions ITI Starting from July 1, 2000 the Charles Uni- versity established one of the National Research Centers “Institute for Theoretical Computer Science“ (Czech abbreviation: ITI). This institute should foster research in all fields in the Theory of Computing and involves some of the key figures of Czech mathematics and computer sciences. A large number of younger researchers and students are involved in this project. The international contacts are extensive and are administered by the DIMATIA Center. The main aim of ITI is to promote research in theoretical com- puter science and related fields of mathematics and other areas with emphasis on the work of young researchers. Presently the institute has 12 young researchers that are fully supported from the institute and 11 senior researchers employed in their home institutes and receiving additional support from ITI. ITI plans a wide range of activities, in particular: several regular research seminars, including a graduate student research semi- nar, workshops, a series of colloquium talks, an ITI preprint series, lectures on modern trends in theoretical computer sci- ence. ITI will provide temporary positions for post-docs and dis- tinguished senior researchers. ITI invites all individuals and academic institutes to cooperate on projects in theoretical com- puter science. If you are supported by ITI we appreciate that you acknowledge it (the code is LNA00A56). http://iti.mff.cuni.cz ITI Series The ITI Series were founded in 2000. They serve as a prepublica- tion medium for the scientific output of the Institute for Theoreti- cal Computer Science (shortly ITI). ITI Series are distributed to all CS departments in the Czech Republic and associated depart- ments abroad. They are also available at the ITI website. You are welcome to submit your papers by email to [email protected] 6 your stay at KAM WHO IS WHO AT KAM The whole department has its residence at the Malá Strana build- ing, on the second (rooms #2**) and third floors (rooms #3**). The list of all members is available at the website, as are the phone and room numbers. The contact person for guests is Mrs. Polišenská (room #222). http://kam.mff.cuni.cz COMPUTERS AT KAM At the beginning of your stay you get your personal account and password which you can use on all computers in guest rooms. Our machines run under the Linux operating system with a fairly common setup; if you aren‘t familiar with such an environment or if you have any unusual requirements (Hebrew keyboard and fonts, for example) feel free to contact our system administrators at [email protected] or personally in room #322. http://kam.mff.cuni.cz/net/ WHERE TO EAT Restaurants, Pubs, and Coffee Houses At AMU (Academy of Performing Arts), you will find a canteen that is open to the public at lunchtime. There are 3 main meals available, one of them vegetarian. The price is very low. The other entrance of the same building will take you to a small courtyard with a little – but very nice – café. Since Malá Strana is a tourist area, the restaurants are mainly for tourists; the typical price for a dinner is approximately 20$.