This preliminary web page will be
updated in early 2021.
Overview
The Midlands Graduate School in the Foundations of Computing
Science (MGS) has been established in 1999 as a collaboration
between researchers at the Universities of Birmingham, Leicester,
Nottingham, and later Sheffield. Its main goals are to equip PhD
students and other young researchers with a sound basis for their work
by deepening their knowledge on the mathematical and conceptual
foundations of computing; and to provide a platform for meeting
established researchers in their fields and their peers who are
at similar stages in their research careers.
Over the years, the MGS has become one of the most established
schools for young researchers in theoretical computer science in
Europe and beyond. It now attracts participants from around the world,
and from academia as well as the industry.
MGS 2021 will have to be virtual. It will be organised by the Department of Computer
Science at the University
of Sheffield and hosted via Zoom by the School
of Computer Science at the University of
Birmingham. It will start on April 12 in the morning and finish
on April 16 in the afternoon.
Information about previous events can be found at the MGS web site.
Programme
MGS 2021 consists of eight courses, each with four or five hours of
lectures and a similar number of exercise sessions. Three of the
courses are introductory or core; they should be taken by all
participants. The other ones are more advanced or specialised;
participants may select them depending on their interests. At
MGS 2021, we are aiming at a mix of livestreamed and prerecorded
lectures and livestreamed exercise sessions.
Abstracts of courses and lecture materials will be made available
closer to the event.
Invited Lectures
The invited speaker is Prof Tarmo Uustalu,
Reykjavik. The topic of his lectures will be Monads and
Interaction (MAI).
Introductory Courses
In addition we are planning sessions in which participants
can briefly present and discuss their own research.
Course Schedule
MGS 2021 will start at 9:00 (BST) on Monday 12.04. and end on
Friday 16.04 in the afternoon. On every day except Friday, lectures
will start at 9:00 finish around 18:00. Although the event will be
virtual, lecturers and participants will thus come together for a week
of intense learning and teaching with close personal interactions. The
concrete time table will be announced in early 2021, it will be
similar to previous
events.
Most lectures and all exercise sessions are planned to be
livestreamed via Zoom, but there might also be prerecorded
lectures. In addition, recordings of all lectures will be made
available.
To recreate the spirit of previous events without face-to-face
interactions as much as possible, we are planning many online
activities and virtual social events to bring lecturers and
participants together. Details will be announced closer to the
event.
Registration
Participation at MGS 2021 will be free of charge. Registration will be
online and start in early 2021.
As usual, we encourage in particular PhD students, postdoctoral
researchers and industrial participants with strong interests in
theoretical computer science to apply. Participants will be selected
based on their personal statements and reference letters. Numbers will
be limited to enable a high-quality education. Details will be
announced in early 2021.