ICTAC

International Colloquium on Theoretical Aspects of Computing

Aims and Objectives

The International Colloquium on Theoretical Aspects of Computing (ICTAC) was founded in 2004. It takes place every year preferably in a developing country. The aim of the colloquium is to bring together practitioners and researchers from academia, industry and government to present research results, and exchange experience, ideas, and solutions for their problems in theoretical aspects of computing. Beyond these scholarly goals, another main purpose of the conference is to promote cooperation in research and education between participants and their institutions, from developing and industrial countries.

Program

The main conference normally lasts three days, but is typically enriched with a school and, possibly, tutorials. All should be welcome to the school, but it should be targetted specifically at (local) students and early career researchers, with courses presented by invited speakers before the main conference. The tutorials, if any, should be targeted at the conference participants and can be presented either by international or local invited speakers. In total, the technical programme should cover at least five days. The school itself can run for up to one week.

Proceedings

The proceedings of the conference are being published in the Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science series.

Principles and Procedure

When organising an ICTAC edition, the following principles and procedure are followed:

  1. The Steering Committee (SC) is responsible for appointing, for each event:

    a. The General Chair(s), which is(are) responsible for the logistic and financial success of the event. They are also the main point of contact of the SC regarding any of these matters. We note, however that, the term "General Chair" does not have a universally accepted meaning, and the SC is happy for the General Chairs to adopt any title that best reflects their responsibilities, as explained above, in the community where the event takes place. Some examples of alternative terms are "Organisation Chair" or "Conference Chair".

    b. The Programme Chair(s), which is(are) responsible for the success and quality of the event from an academic point of view. This should be done 18 months before the conference.

  2. The conference general chairs appoint the local organization team and provide them with guidance concerning local organization and providing support in mobilizing local resources needed for the organization of the conference. The general chairs are primarily responsible for fund raising needed for the organization. They also play a role in ceremonial activities.

  3. The program chairs are in charge of the academic activities of the conference, including the organization of the Program Committee (PC) and selecting Keynote Speakers, conducting the process of review and selection of papers, publication of the proceedings, and organization and implementation of the conference program (with help from the general chairs and local organization team).

  4. The General and PC chairs, in agreement, decide and invite publicity chairs and workshop chairs if they see necessary. The nomination of a publicity chair is, in particular, strongly recommended.

  5. There should be three or four keynote speakers and it is advisable to have about 35 PC members.

  6. When drawing up lists of candidates for the PC and keynote speakers, the PC chairs should consult the general chairs, and they can also ask the SC to suggest candidates.

  7. The lists of candidates for the PC and keynote speakers are to be communicated to the SC for final comments before invitations are sent. It is advisable to have six to eight candidates for keynote speakers for consideration by the SC.

  8. All the above discussions and consultation should be completed, and the first Call for Papers circulated, within about 6 months.

  9. It is suggested that PC members are encouraged to submit papers, but the PC chairs and conference chairs should not.

  10. When making the conference budget, best efforts should be made to keep the registration fee as low as possible and yet to provide interesting social and cultural activities for the participants to enjoy.

  11. The organisation of a special issue in a reputable journal is strongly encouraged.

Becoming an Organiser of ICTAC

Each conference attracts between 50 and 100 participants from all over the world. Every year, the Steering Committee issues a call for organisation and any group or institution wishing to host this event are invited to send their proposals. The priority is for the event to be located in a developing country. It usually combines a regular three-day scientific conference with related activities such as tutorials over another two-days and a summer school over the previous week. Innovation in the format and content is encouraged.

Proposals will be evaluated by the ICTAC Steering Committee.

Proposal Format and Submission

Proposals should be no more than four pages in length and should contain:

• Brief description of why the event is of interest to the proposer.

• Vision for the event, including its aims, the expected format and scale.

• An estimation of expected attendance, based, for example, on presence of a local community in the area and costs of travel to various parts of the world and local expenses.

• A description of the relevant qualifications and experience of the proposers, especially regarding conference organisation logistics.

• A description of the facilities that will be available for the event and to support the organisers.

• The contact information of the proposed organising committee.

The choice of a PC chair will be subject to later discussion with the Steering Committee and should not be part of the proposal.

The proposal (in PDF format) - and any inquiries from those who are from a developing country and willing to organising an ICTAC event or interested in helping organising such an event in a developing country - should be sent to Martin.Leucker@isp.uni-luebeck.de .