Barna Saha

But if a SODA rejection is the worst thing happening in your life right now, perhaps your life is actually going quite well.

Join us in Vancouver this January and be part of the SODA party! We’re excited to bring you an amazing program.

Cheers!

In the picture (taken at 6:30 AM my time, and Friday afternoon for Kasper), we’re just happy to have completed this process. We understand that today may not be a happy day for everyone. Rejections never feel good.

The process was extremely competitive. Even some papers with 2x Accept and 1x Weak Accept reviews were rejected after discussion. Over 60% of papers with 1x Accept and 2x Weak Accepts were rejected. Under different circumstances, many 3x Week Accept papers could have made it into the program.

Kasper and I had countless Zoom meetings, endless WhatsApp chats, and phone calls (making us both a bit more addicted to our phones), from early mornings to late nights—navigating the 9-hour time difference between us. None of the decisions were taken lightly.

This was a huge undertaking, and we cannot thank the Program Committee members enough for their incredible work in reviewing and discussing papers over the past three months. Of course, the reviewing process relied heavily on many subreviewers, and we are grateful for their contributions.

This year, we received 809 submissions—an increase of over 25% from last year. We accepted 244 papers, up from 192 last year. We're glad we were able to convince the steering committee to maintain approximately the same acceptance rate despite the increase in submissions.

The journey began when Kasper visited UCSD in April 2025. We spent the better part of that time understanding the features of the HotCRP server (and even managed to co-author a paper). The process continued over the following five months.

The paper decisions for the ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms (SODA26). SODA is undoubtedly the largest and among the most prestigious conferences in theoretical computer science. As co-chairs, Kasper and I feel both happy and relieved.

It was a pleasure to have Sofya Raskhodnikova as the TCS 4 All Inspiration Speaker at STOC 2025. It brought back many memories of those early days of TCS 4 All when Sofya, Virginia, and I spent long hours discussing how to better support students from underrepresented backgrounds in TCS.

The SODA 2026 deadline is in less than a month now. Hope you have the last theorem sorted out and the paper writing is going well. Kasper @kasperglarsen.bsky.social and I cannot wait to see all your awesome submissions.

A huge thanks to TCS For All, and the tireless work they do for Theoretical #ComputerScience – making sure all students get to attend and feel welcome at TCS conferences.

(Travel support for #FOCS2025 will be advertised soon, prior to paper notifications and the opening of the registration system.)

TCS for All Theoretical Computer Science without Barriers

This year TCS for All Inspiration talk will be given by Sofya Raskhodnikova, Boston University on June 27th at our STOC 2025 TCS for All Meeting. Join us. We are relocating the TCS for All Rising Star Workshop to FOCS 2025 this year. Stay tuned. SIGACT.org/tcsforall/
#stoc2025 @ccanonne.github.io

ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms (SODA26) | SIAM

The SODA'26 Call for Papers and submission server is now online! Deadline July 14 AOE. Please share and submit your awesome work!
Look very much forward to co-chairing the program committee with Barna Saha @barnacs.bsky.social and the 82 other amazing PC members.
www.siam.org/conferences-...

Picture of attendees at workshop at encore institute

Thank you to EnCOREInstitute for having us and to all our amazing attendees!! It was such a great workshop thanks to the enthusiasm and engagement of everyone who attended encoredp.github.io

It was great to organise this with @ccanonne.bsky.social @amartyasanyal.bsky.social and Rachel Cummings

Sunny day at UCSD there is a house on one of the tall buildings.

Day 1 of our workshop on Private Data Science is underway in sunny San Diego thanks to the encore institute.

Co-organized with Rachel Cummings, Amartya Sanyal @amartyasanyal.bsky.social, Clément Canonne @ccanonne.bsky.social and myself, itll be a great three days on privacy!

encoredp.github.io