2-7 March 2008
Palmse, Estonia
2nd Call for Participation 13th Estonian Winter School in Computer Science, EWSCS '08 Palmse, Estonia, 2-7 March 2008 http://cs.ioc.ee/ewscs/2008/ Background and objectives EWSCS is a series of regional-scope international winter schools held annually in Estonia. EWSCS are organized by Institute of Cybernetics (IoC), a research institute of Tallinn University of Technology. EWSCS '08 is the thirteenth event of the series. The main objective of EWSCS is to expose Estonian, Baltic, and Nordic graduate students in computer science (but also interested students from elsewhere) to frontline research topics usually not covered within the regular curricula. The subject of the schools is general computer science, with a bias towards theory, this comprising both algorithms, complexity and models of computation, and semantics, logic and programming theory. The working language of the schools is English. Programme The schools' scientific programme consists of short courses by renowned specialists and a student session. The course list for EWSCS '08 is the following: * Nick Benton (Microsoft Research, Cambridge, UK): Modelling and Reasoning about State * David Harel (Weizmann Institute, Rehovot, Israel): Biological Systems as Reactive Systems * Eyal Kushilevitz (Technion, Haifa, Israel): Randomization Techniques for Secure Computation and Parallel Cryptography * Jos Meseguer (Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA): Specification, Verification and Programming in Rewriting Logic * Giuseppe Persiano (Universit di Salerno, Italy): Zero Knowledge and the Construction of Secure Encryption Schemes The purpose of the student session is to give students an opportunity to present their work (typically, thesis work) and get feedback. Registrants are invited to propose short talks (20 min) or posters. The selection will be based on abstracts of 150-400 words. The social programme consists of an excursion and a conference dinner. Venue Palmse is a small settlement 80 kms to the east from Tallinn in the county of Lne-Viru. It is renowned for a large manor that used to belong to the von Pahlen family, today hosting the visitors' center of the Lahemaa National Park, a museum, and a hotel. Tallinn, Estonia's capital, is famous for its picturesque medieval Old Town, a UNESCO World Heritage site. There are direct flights to Tallinn from London, Dublin, Milan, Amsterdam, Brussels, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Berlin, Vienna, Prague, Warsaw, Moscow, Kiev, Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm, Gothenburg, Helsinki, Vilnius, Riga, ferries from Stockholm and Helsinki. From Vilnius, Riga, St Petersburg the Eurolines coach services are the practical travel option. Application and cost The deadline for application and submission of abstracts is 18 January 2008. All applicants will be notified of acceptance to school and acceptance of their student talks/posters by 1 February 2008. The participation fee 5000 EEK / 320 EUR includes course materials, full board accommodation at Palmse, transportation from Tallinn to Palmse and back, excursion and conference dinner. Programme committee / organizing committee Tarmo Uustalu (IoC) (chair), Monika Perkmann (IoC) (secretary), Helger Lipmaa (U. College London), Peeter Laud (U. of Tartu), Varmo Vene (U. of Tartu), Sven Laur (Helsinki U. of Techn.), Ando Saabas (IoC) Sponsors Tiger University Plus programme of Estonian Information Technology Foundation, Doctoral School in ICT of Measure 1.1 of the Estonian NDP Further information Details on the submission of abstracts, application procedure and cost are available from the school webpage, http://cs.ioc.ee/ewscs/2008/. Questions should be sent to ewscs08(at)cs.ioc.ee.