- csc-general - CSC Mailman

Approximation Hardness and the Unique Games Conjecture
by Computer Science Club 13 Mar '10

13 Mar '10

Hello, the CSC is hosting a talk entitled "Approximation Hardness and the Unique Games Conjecture" on 2010-03-16 at 4:30 PM in MC5158. It will be presented by Elyot Grant. Talk Abstract: The theory of NP-completeness suggests that some problems in CS are inherently hard—that is, there is likely no possible algorithm that can efficiently solve them. Unfortunately, many of these problems are ones that people in the real world genuinely want to solve! How depressing! What can one do when … [View More]

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A Party of Code
by Computer Science Club 11 Mar '10

11 Mar '10

Hello, the CSC is hosting A Party of Code on 2010-03-12 at 7:00 PM in Comfy Lounge. A fevered night of code, friends, fun, energy drinks, and the CSC. Come join us for a night of coding. Get in touch with more experianced coders, advertize for/bug squash on your favourite open source project, write that personal project you were planning to do for a while but haven't found the time. Don't have any ideas but want to sit and hack? We can find something for you to do. Hope to see you there. If … [View More]

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Registration for the 17th Annual Canadian Undergraduate Mathematics Conference is now open
by Computer Science Club 07 Mar '10

07 Mar '10

A word from the CSC Exec: The CUMC is not just about Pure Mathematics, Computer Science as a mathematical discipline is also welcome and a part of the conference, keep that in mind as you read the following message from the organizers: Registration for the 17th Annual Canadian Undergraduate Mathematics Conference is now open! Don't miss an exciting opportunity this summer! Travel to the University of Waterloo from July 6th to July 10th, and take part in the premier Undergraduate … [View More]

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Software Transactional Memory and Using STM in Haskell
by Computer Science Club 04 Mar '10

04 Mar '10

Hello, the CSC is hosting a talk entitled "Software Transactional Memory and Using STM in Haskell" on 2010-03-09 at 4:30 PM in DC1304. It will be presented by Brennan Taylor. Concurrency is hard. Well maybe not hard, but it sure is annoying to get right. Even the simplest of synchronization tasks are hard to implement correctly when using synchronization primitives such as locks and semaphores. In this talk we explore what Software Transactional Memory (STM) is, what problems STM solves, … [View More]

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Bowling
by Computer Science Club 03 Mar '10

03 Mar '10

Hi everyone, The CSC is going bowling this Saturday (March 6th) at the Waterloo Bowling Lanes. We'll be bowling from 5pm-7pm. The bowling alley is located at 14 Princess Street West, but if you don't feel like navigating we will be meeting at the CSC Office starting at 4pm and going to the bowling alley some time after that. If you go bring $9.75; this covers 2 games and shoe rental, which is what we'll be staying for, though you are welcome to continue bowling after the first two games.… [View More]

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CSC Talk "QIP=PSPACE"
by Computer Science Club 26 Feb '10

26 Feb '10

Hello, the CSC is hosting a talk entitled "QIP=PSPACE" on 2010-03-02 at 4:30 PM in DC1304. It will be presented by Dr. John Watrous. His description follows below: The interactive proof system model of computation is a cornerstone of complexity theory, and its quantum computational variant has been studied in quantum complexity theory for the past decade. In this talk I will discuss an exact characterization of the power of quantum interactive proof systems that I recently proved in … [View More]

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Contest Closing Ice Cream Party
by Computer Science Club 25 Feb '10

25 Feb '10

Hi everyone, As you might recall the Google AI Challenge (that we have organized) started February 1st. Well, it is now almost over, and to help you finalize your submissions we're having an ice cream party starting at 7:00pm on Feb 26 (Tomorrow!), and going until a little after the close of submissions (11:59pm) when we will announce winners and hand out prizes. If you haven't started a submission (or forgot) more information about the contest can be found on the website: contest.csclub.… [View More]

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CSCF Town Hall Discussion
by Computer Science Club 22 Feb '10

22 Feb '10

Hello, the CSC is co-hosting a CSCF Town Hall meeting on 2010-02-25 at 4:30 PM in DC1302. It will be presented by the CSCF Management. Come to a town hall style meeting with the managers of CSCF to discuss how to improve the undergraduate (student.cs) computing environment. Have gripes? Suggestions? Requests? Now is the time to voice them. CSCF management (Bill Ince, Associate Director; Dave Gawley, Infrastructure Support; Dawn Keenan, User Support; Lawrence Folland, Research Support) will … [View More]

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Talk: "The Best Algorithms are Randomized Algorithms"
by Computer Science Club 21 Feb '10

21 Feb '10

Hello, the CSC is hosting a talk entitled "The Best Algorithms are Randomized Algorithms" on 2010-02-23 at 04:30 PM in MC5136B. It will be presented by Dr. Nicholas Harvey. Talk Abstract: For many problems, randomized algorithms are either the fastest algorithm or the simplest algorithm; sometimes they even provide the only known algorithm. Randomized algorithms have become so prevalent that deterministic algorithms could be viewed as a curious special case. In this talk I will describe … [View More]

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Member Talk: An Introduction to Vector Graphics Libraries with Cairo
by Computer Science Club 08 Feb '10

08 Feb '10

Hello, the CSC is hosting a talk entitled "An Introduction to Vector Graphics Libraries with Cairo" on 2010-02-09 at 4:30 PM in DC1304. It will be presented by club member Nathaniel Sherry. Cairo is an open source, cross platform, vector graphics library with the ability to output to many kinds of surfaces, including PDF, SVG and PNG surfaces, as well as X-Window, Win32 and Quartz 2D backends. Unlike the raster graphics used with programmes and libraries such as The Gimp and ImageMagick, … [View More]

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