TTIC Workshop on Approximation

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Dr. Greg Shakhnarovich hosted a regional computer vision meeting, the 3rd Illinois Vision Workshop, on Tuesday, December 1. About fifty people from the Midwest and farther away participated. Among the institutions and companies represented, in addition to TTIC, were the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, the University of Illinois Chicago, Northwestern, the University of Michigan, University of Missouri, UC Berkeley, Microsoft Research, Carnegie Mellon, Eastman Kodak, and Cornell.

Karen Livescu is the recipient of a grant funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), on which she is the Principal Investigator (PI). The grant is in collaboration with co-PIs Jeff Bilmes (University of Washington) and Eric Fosler-Lussier (Ohio State University). The award covers three years and focuses on statistical models of speech based on articulatory features (such as locations of the tongue, lips, and so on).

TTIC's Julia Chuzhoy is the recipient of the prestigious Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) grant. The grant is awarded by the National Science Foundation to support junior faculty in their research and educational activities. The NSF website states, "The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program is a Foundation-wide activity that offers the National Science Foundation's most prestigious awards in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations".

Julia's project focuses on the development of approximation algorithms and lower bounds for network optimization problems.

Other TTIC News

Workshop on Approximation Algorithms and their Limitations

Chicago, Feb. 8-10, 2009.

The workshop will focus on both the design of approximation algorithms and on hardness of approximation results. The goal of the workshop is to bring together researchers in the fields of approximation algorithms and complexity theory, and to present diverse angles at studying approximability. In addition to being a forum for sharing new results in the area of approximation, the workshop aims at stimulating the exchange of ideas and techniques between the algorithms and the complexity communities, and promoting a greater synergy between these areas.

Workshop Program

Confirmed speakers:

Matthew Andrews, Bell Labs
Nikhil Bansal, IBM
Avrim Blum, CMU
Moses Charikar, Princeton
Chandra Chekuri, UIUC
Joseph Cheriyan, Waterloo
Irit Dinur, Weizmann Institute
Gagaan Goel, Georgia Tech
Anupam Gupta, CMU
Sanjeev Khanna, Penn
Subhash Khot, NYU
Samir Khuller, U. of Maryland
Nitish Korula, UIUC
James Lee, U. Washington
Konstantin Makarychev, IBM
Yury Makarychev, Microsoft
Rajsekar Manokaran, Princeton
Dana Moshkovitz, Princeton
Seffi Naor, Technion
Ryan O'Donnell, CMU
Prasad Raghavendra, U. Washington
David Steurer, Princeton
Vijay Vazirani, Georgia Tech
Nisheeth Vishnoi, CNRS, France

Hotel Information

We have reserved a block of rooms at Hilton Chicago in the downtown area (phone number 877-865-5320). Please call to reserve your room no later than Friday, January 9, 2009 and ask for the group rate for Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago. You will be asked to provide personal credit card information to make the reservation. TTIC will be billed directly for invited speakers.

Local information

TTIC is located on the University of Chicago campus, 6045 S. Kenwood Ave., floors 4 and 5. We will provide a shuttle from the hotel to TTIC in the mornings and back to the hotel in the afternoons (see workshop program for exact hours). Additional ways to reach TTIC from downtown via public transportation:

Metra Rail trains from downtown to U. of Chicago campus. You need 59th St. or 55th-57th St. stations (not all trains stop at 59th St.)
Buses: #2 (60th St.& Dorchester stop), #6 and X28 (60th St. and Stony Island). Maps and schedules can be found here

Parking

There is a parking lot adjacent to the TTI building. Parking is free on weekends. If you need a parking permit for weekdays, please contact Julia MacGlashan at jam@ttic.edu. Street parking is available on 61st and along Dorchester, and a free parking lot is located on 60th&Stony Island, a 5 minutes walk from TTI.

U. of Chicago page with directions to campus

Map of new building location