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Regular version of the site

Faculty of Computer Science to Launch New Theoretical Computer Science Lab

This year, the HSE Faculty of Computer Science is opening an international theoretical computer science laboratory, which will be the new research division of the Big Data and Information Retrieval School. One of the lab’s main objectives is to help bring the Russian school of theoretical computer science to the world stage.

The mathematics division, which is currently called the Theoretical Computer Science department, has both a foundational and an applied meaning. The infamous P versus NP problem, for example, has an important practical application, as a positive conclusion would destroy the modern practice of information security.

The new laboratory will feature fields such as computational complexity, information theory, algorithmic statistics, algorithm design and analysis, combinatorial optimization, algorithmic game theory, and more.

‘Theoretical computer science is one of the key fields being developed within the Faculty of Computer Science,’ notes the faculty’s dean, Ivan Arzhantsev. ‘We have a research seminar on the topic, and next year, the Applied Mathematics and Information Science programme will debut a major under the same name. Lastly, the Faculty held the Problems in Theoretical Compute Science conference in December. So in other words, opening up the new international laboratory is a logical next step for us in this field,’ he concludes.

The head of the laboratory will be HSE Professor Nikolay Vereshchagin, who is a world-renowned expert on theoretical computer science and an Academia Europea member. Vladimir Gurvich of Rutgers University has been invited to serve as the lab’s chief international researcher. Gurvich is a top specialist in the field of algorithmic game theory.

In order for laboratory staff, as well as HSE undergrad and graduate students, to carry out joint research with other organizations, famous theoretical computer science experts will be invited to the lab from leading research centers and universities. Such individuals include Sergei Yekhanin and Konstantin Makarychev of Microsoft Research, as well as Yury Makarychev of the Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago.