FOCS Conference Student and Postdoc Travel Support

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The IEEE Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science (FOCS) is one of the two premier annual research conferences that covers the breadth of theoretical computer science. It is a conference of very long standing that has continued to played a formative role in the field; it is also at the leading edge of connections made to other fields. This project aims to increase the impact of this conference on students and postdocs, particularly those from under-represented groups, by encouraging and enabling their participation, especially in cases where travel expenses would otherwise preclude their attendance.Concretely, the investigator requests NSF fund to assist students and postdoctoral fellows for attending this year’s Annual FOCS conference, sponsored by the IEEE Computer Society Technical Committee on Mathematical Foundations of Computing (TCMF). The coming FOCS will take place at the Hilton Denver City Center in Denver, Colorado, between February 7-10 2022. As computing becoming ubiquitous, it is crucial to expand the participation of young scholars in cutting-edge research. FOCS has served as one of the most important venues for groundbreaking research in theoretical computer science – and increasingly, as a key ambassador to other areas within and outside computer science. The intellectual merit consists of supporting researchers at early stage of their career to present their work and to enhance their engagements. We anticipate that the resultant discussions will expose the awardees to a broad set of fundamental questions and ideas. We expect the community to benefit in turn, as such junior researchers have contributed substantially to the growth of theoretical computer science over the years. With emphasis on young scholars in need, the broader impact is on supporting under-represented junior researchers in this the stimulating exchanging of ideas, and for the conference attendees to benefit from the attendance of a diverse population. As the tools and techniques from theoretical computer science (such as novel models, algorithms, impossibility results, and unexpected connections in data science and machine learning) are becoming vital to several domains inside and outside computer science, it is anticipated that such broader participation of junior researchers will benefit society at large.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.