Infrastructure issues related to theory of computing research
Faith Ellen Fich · ACM SIGACT News · 1997
This paper discusses a number of issues related to the support of research in Theory of Computing, including funding, evaluation of research, communication, interaction with other research areas, education, and employment. It is directed primarily to researchers in Theory of Computing and is meant to complement the Infrastructure Section of the committee report "Strategic Directions for Research in Theory of Computing".Theory of Computing is a field of Computer Science that uses mathematical techniques to understand the nature of computation and to design and analyze algorithms for important and fundamental problems. It provides important new ways of thinking about computation and lasting insights that are applicable to a wide variety of systems.There are a range of different research activities that occur within this field, including developing models (and ways to quantify the efficiency of algorithms in those models), determining the relationships among different models, designing new (provably correct) algorithms, analyzing the efficiency of various algorithms, proving lower bounds and impossibility, and explaining experimental results. Some researchers are better at posing interesting questions or opening up new directions for research; others are better at answering questions and developing new techniques to do so.In this paper, I wish to discuss a number of issues related to the support of research in Theory of Computing, including funding, evaluation of research, communication, interaction with other research areas, education, and employment. It is directed primarily to researchers in Theory of Computing and is meant to complement the Infrastructure Section of the committee report "Strategic Directions for Research in Theory of Computing", which is directed primarily to people outside our community. I will examine some things our community has done well, some recent innovations, and some suggestions to enhance our research environment. Finally, I will address the relationship of Theory of Computing with experimental computing and algorithmic engineering.