Last comment on #FOCS2024. I hung out with a bunch of people who like Nash Equilibria and other fixed-point properties. I probably shouldn't have been surprised that Atropos came up since it's based on Sperner's Lemma. I showed off my implementation and heard some disappointment that you don't actually create the three-colored triangle in the end.

I implemented it that way because all my #CombinatorialGames use Normal Play rules. However, I have students doing a Scoring Play project this semester, so I added a referee object and other infrastructure for that.

I responded to the comments at FOCS by adding a Misère version of Atropos where you lose by creating the triangle.

* Misère Play version: https://kyleburke.info/DB/combGames/atropos.html

* Normal Play version: https://kyleburke.info/DB/combGames/atroposNormal.html

There is one big downside of the Misère version: you can accidentally create the 3-colored triangle early on and accidentally lose without being forced.

I also had to update the (bad) bounded-depth "AI" players I have. They had their own built-in Normal Play rule, so before I fixed it they were creating 3-colored triangles ASAP in the misère version. Not very fun to play against. I fixed that by adding code so they use the referee to check who the winner would be at the end of games. (I think it's a little faster too.)

I don't think are any other games I've got so far that should get a misère treatment like this. (Here's the whole list: https://kyleburke.info/DB/combGames/index.html)

For day 3 of #FOCS2024, I first went to session 4A. I enjoyed the third plenary as well. I'd seen Papadimitriou talk before, over 15 years ago, and this talk was also excellent. I missed the first best-student talk, but got to the second one and the Knuth prize talk. I returned to A for session 6, which was probably the "cryptography session".

It's been a long time since I did anything with many CS-theory skills (e.g. using Chernoff bounds). For me there were three types of talks:
* A: Understood most of it.
* B: Didn't follow the details, but understood the main takeaways.
* C: I really don't know that stuff.

Most were in the B group. The sessions that had the most in A were that last crypto one (6A) and what is probably the data structures one (3B, though I didn't stay in that for the whole session).

I didn't get to stay for day 4. I don't know if or when I'll ever make it back to FOCS, but it was a wonderful trip. I met great people and even learned things I will use in class. Thanks to everyone who organized, spoke, ran sessions, and put things together!

🏆 New papers of Irif members have been accepted to conferences: three at #SODA2025 and one at #FOCS2024.

Congratulations to Michel Habib, David Saulpic and Laurent Viennot.👏

🌍 Soda 2025: https://siam.org/conferences-events/siam-conferences/soda25/program/accepted-papers/

🦊 FOCS 2024: https://focs.computer.org/2024/accepted-papers-for-focs-2024/

I was very busy yesterday at #FOCS2024. Here is the schedule: https://focs.computer.org/2024/program/schedule/ I went to sessions 1C and 2B. In the third block of sessions, I saw the first three talks in 3B, then went to 3A for one talk, then to 3C for the last talk there.

In the morning and during breaks, I managed to update my online version of Atropos (https://kyleburke.info/DB/combGames/atropos.html) so that it is now a Misere game. That's neat because it means the game actually ends on the creation of the three-colored triangle. To do that, I had to add a Misere-based referee class to the code, as well as fix my (admittedly bad) AI players so that they use the referee to decide what to do.

I have been in my #CombinatorialGames niche long enough that I have a hard time following the details of many of the talks. They're really well done, though, so I was still usually able to get the gist.

Going back for Day 3 today!

First day of #FOCS2024 completed! I spent the whole day at the Shang-Hua fest workshop.

I definitely did a better job of talking about Shang-Hua than I did explaining #CombinatorialGames.

Want to attend #FOCS2024 in Chicago this year? Travel grants are available for US-based students and postdocs! Apply by ⏰ Sep 13: https://focs.computer.org/2024/travel-support/

Members of underrepresented groups encouraged to apply. Don't self-censor: also, you don't need a paper to be eligible!