Latin American Theoretical Informatics Symposium

Latin American Theoretical Informatics Symposium
Name	Latin American Theoretical Informatics Symposium
Abbreviation	LATINCS (informal)
Discipline	Computer science Theoretical computer science
Type	Annual conference
Established	1989
Frequency	Annual

Contents

History

The symposium originated from collaborations among research groups at Universidad de Buenos Aires, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto Nacional de Matemática Pura e Aplicada, Centro de Investigación en Matemáticas, Instituto de Matemáticas UNAM and Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile during the late 1980s, influenced by global events such as the expansion of the Association for Computing Machinery chapters in Latin America and the growth of SIAM activity in Brazil. Early editions were supported by grants from national agencies like Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, CNPq, CONACYT and foundations including the Ford Foundation and the Simons Foundation. Organizers referenced methodologies from conferences such as STOC, FOCS, ICALP, ESA and SODA to shape formats and peer review practices.

The symposium covers research areas spanning computational complexity theory, algorithms, randomized algorithms, approximation algorithms, parameterized complexity, distributed computing, cryptography, quantum computing, formal languages and automata theory. It routinely features work connected to classic results by researchers associated with École normale supérieure, Princeton University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of California, Berkeley, Stanford University and University of Cambridge, and interfaces with applied research from Google Research, Microsoft Research, IBM Research and Bell Labs. Special sessions have explored intersections with mathematics topics developed at Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques, Clay Mathematics Institute, Fields Institute, Perimeter Institute and the Abel Prize laureates' work.

Governance typically involves a program committee drawn from faculty at institutions including Universidad de la República (Uruguay), Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Universidad de Antioquia, Universidad de Guadalajara, Facultad de Ciencias UNAM, Universidad Federal do Rio de Janeiro and international members from École Polytechnique, ETH Zurich, University of Oxford, University of Toronto, Cornell University, New York University and Carnegie Mellon University. Administrative support has been provided by organizations such as Red de Computación Avanzada, Latin American Academy of Sciences, National Science Foundation, European Research Council and national ministries of science. The steering committee follows practices inspired by bodies like the International Committee on Computational Complexity and the Council of Scientific Society Presidents.

Proceedings are published in collaboration with publishers and series including Springer-Verlag, ACM Press, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, IEEE Computer Society Press and occasionally in special issues of journals like Journal of the ACM, SIAM Journal on Computing, Theoretical Computer Science, Annals of Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence and Discrete Mathematics. Past host cities have included Buenos Aires, São Paulo, Santiago, Mexico City, Lima, Bogotá, Montevideo and Quito, with satellite workshops co-located with events such as Symposium on Discrete Algorithms, International Colloquium on Automata, Languages and Programming and regional meetings like Congreso Latinoamericano de Informática. Keynote speakers have been drawn from institutions like University of California, Santa Cruz, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Imperial College London, Tokyo Institute of Technology and Australian National University.

The symposium awards best paper prizes, student presentation awards and recognitions for lifetime contributions; these awards have been supported by sponsors including Google, Facebook, Intel, Banco de la República (Colombia), Fundación Carolina and national academies such as the Academia Brasileira de Ciências and the Mexican Academy of Sciences. Notable named prizes parallel honors like the Turing Award, Gödel Prize, Nevalinna Prize and regional recognitions akin to the L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science fellowships for early‑career researchers.

Prominent participants have included scholars affiliated with Princeton University, Harvard University, Yale University, University of Chicago, University of Pennsylvania, Duke University, Columbia University, Brown University, California Institute of Technology, Rutgers University as well as leading Latin American researchers from Universidad de Chile, Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, Universidad de los Andes (Colombia), Universidad Nacional de La Plata and Universidad de Costa Rica. Contributions have advanced themes from landmark results by figures associated with Alan Turing-inspired theory collections, through developments in P versus NP problem-related techniques and progress in quantum complexity and property testing. Workshops have fostered collaborations that led to publications in venues such as Communications of the ACM, Nature Communications, Science Advances and collaborations with industrial laboratories including Bell Labs Research and Xerox PARC.