Center for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science

Center for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science
Name	Center for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science
Established	1989
Type	Research center

Center for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science is an interdisciplinary research center that fosters research and education in discrete mathematics and theoretical computer science. The center connects researchers across University of Pennsylvania, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Princeton University, Stanford University, Harvard University and other institutions to advance study in combinatorics, algorithms, graph theory, and complexity theory. It engages with funding agencies such as the National Science Foundation, the Simons Foundation, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, and partners including the Institute for Advanced Study, Microsoft Research, and IBM Research.

History

The center was founded amid collaborations that linked scholars from Cornell University, Rutgers University, University of California, Berkeley, Columbia University, Yale University and University of Chicago to respond to growing interest in discrete methods during the late 20th century. Early activities included workshops attended by researchers from Bell Labs, AT&T Laboratories, Bell Labs Research, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and the National Institutes of Health seeking cross-disciplinary connections. Influential conferences featured participants affiliated with Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and visiting fellows from École Normale Supérieure and University of Cambridge. Over time the center established formal ties with professional societies such as the Association for Computing Machinery, the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, the American Mathematical Society, and the IEEE.

Mission and Research Focus

The center's mission emphasizes fundamental research bridging work by faculty at Carnegie Mellon University, Duke University, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, University of Washington, and California Institute of Technology. Research themes include structural combinatorics studied in seminars referencing results by scholars from Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques, extremal graph theory linked to research groups at Imperial College London, algorithmic game theory with collaborations tied to New York University, and complexity theory developed alongside programs at University of Toronto and McGill University. The center supports projects on approximation algorithms inspired by work from ETH Zurich, parameterized complexity associated with Max-Planck-Institut für Informatik, probabilistic methods drawing on studies at University of Oxford, and cryptographic foundations with counterparts at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and Tel Aviv University.

Academic Programs and Education

Educational offerings include graduate seminars coordinated with departments at Princeton University, joint PhD supervision shared with University of California, San Diego, postdoctoral fellowships funded through grants from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Simons Foundation, and summer schools modeled after programs at Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, Fields Institute, and Centre de Recerca Matemàtica. The center organizes lecture series featuring invited speakers from Google Research, Apple Inc., Amazon Research, Facebook AI Research, and visiting professors from Brown University, Indiana University Bloomington, University of Maryland, College Park, and University of British Columbia. It administers workshops that mirror curricula used by Northeastern University, Leiden University, University of Helsinki, and University of Melbourne to train students for careers at institutions such as Cornell University and Georgetown University.

Collaborations and Partnerships

Strategic partnerships link the center with industrial labs including Intel Corporation, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, and Uber Technologies for applied research, while academic partnerships extend to University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, Seoul National University, National University of Singapore, Tsinghua University, and Peking University. International collaborations have produced joint programs with European Research Council projects and bilateral exchanges supported by agencies like the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. The center participates in consortia with the National Security Agency, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and interdisciplinary initiatives with Broad Institute and Sloan Kettering Institute.

Notable Faculty and Alumni

Faculty affiliates have included scholars who previously held positions at Stanford University, Harvard University, MIT, Princeton University, University of California, Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon University, Columbia University, Yale University, University of Chicago, University of Michigan, Rice University, Brown University, Cornell University, University of Texas at Austin, Northwestern University, Duke University, University of Pennsylvania, Rutgers University, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, University of Washington, California Institute of Technology, ETH Zurich, University of Toronto, McGill University, Imperial College London, École Normale Supérieure, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, Tel Aviv University, Weizmann Institute of Science, Seoul National University, Tsinghua University, and Peking University. Alumni have taken positions at Google, Microsoft Research, Amazon, Facebook, IBM, Intel, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, Stripe, Palantir Technologies, Two Sigma, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Bloomberg L.P., and academic posts at University of California, Los Angeles, University of British Columbia, Monash University, University of Copenhagen, University of Amsterdam, Trinity College Dublin, University of Zurich, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, KU Leuven, Technical University of Munich, Seoul National University, National University of Singapore, and Peking University.

Facilities and Resources

The center maintains dedicated office and meeting space proximate to departmental facilities at partner campuses such as Princeton University, MIT, Stanford University, and University of California, Berkeley, and provides computational resources through clusters analogous to those at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Its library holdings coordinate with collections at Bodleian Library, Library of Congress, Harvard Library, Widener Library, Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, and digital subscriptions used by JSTOR and arXiv. The center hosts conferences in venues like Royal Society, Palace of Westminster, Smithsonian Institution, New York Public Library, and collaborates with publishers such as Springer Science+Business Media, Elsevier, Oxford University Press, and Cambridge University Press.

Category:Research institutes