SODA 2007 PC Report Hal Gabow PC Chair

SODA 2007 PC Report Hal Gabow, PC Chair

PC Members Pankaj Agarwal Dan Bienstock Gerth Brodal Timothy Chan Camil Demetrescu Jeff Erickson Fedor Fomin Sandor Fekete Jason Hartline Ming Kao David Kempe Sanjeev Khanna Samir Khuller Hal Kierstead Ming Li Muthukrishnan Assaf Naor Igor Pak Seth Pettie Yuval Rabani Tim Roughgarden Bob Sedgewick Kunal Talwar Eric Vigoda Xingxing Yu

Other Participants • • Authors: 796 (961) from ≥ 29 countries External Reviewers: 431 (≥ 548) Attendees: 228 preregistered SIAM staff: Kirsten Wilden, Bill Kolata, Sarah Granlund, Joyce Samuels, Linda Thiel Invited Speakers: Philippe Flajolet, Monika Henzinger, Maria Chudnovsky SODA SC: David Johnson, Lenore Cowen Past Chairs: Cliff Stein, Adam Buchsbaum SIGACT Site: Wolf Bein

Other Participants • Student lunches & Best Paper Award: SIGACT Institutional Sponsors • Travel Grants: IBM Research (Nikhil Bansal) • More Conference Sponsors: Microsoft Research, Hewlitt-Packard

Best Student Paper Award Making Deterministic Signatures Quickly by Milan Ruzic Tuesday 9: 50 -10: 15

Basic Statistics • • • Submissions: 382 Accepted: 139 Merged: 4 Withdrawn: 1 Acceptance rate: 36. 4% Last year: 31. 6%, 138/437

SODA Submissions, 1990 - 2007

Submissions by Area 382 total

Acceptance Rates 36. 4% overall

Submissions by Country/Email Affiliation United States 171 Israel 35 Germany 31 Canada 25 gmail. com 18 Japan 15 France 13 Italy, acm. org 9 yahoo. com 7 China, Hong Kong, Netherlands, Switzerland, United Kingdom 4 Denmark, Greece, India 3 Czech Republic, Finland, ieee. org, Poland, Spain 2 Australia, Brazil, Iceland, Iran, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, South Korea, Sweden, Taiwan 1

Affiliation Acceptance Rates Australia, Singapore 100% (1/1) Czech Republic, Poland, Switzerland, United Kingdom 50% Japan 47% gmail. com 44% Canada 42% Israel 40% Germany 39% United States 39% acm. org, Denmark, Greece 33% France 31% China, Hong Kong 25% Italy 22% yahoo. com 14%. . . ieee. org. . . 0%. edu 38%

Should you submit early? first submission: 63 days early first accepted submission: 17 days early last accepted submission: 8 minutes late last submission: 11 minutes late

Should you submit early? Maintain current mode of procrastination. first submission: 63 days early first accepted submission: 17 days early last accepted submission: 8 minutes late last submission: 11 minutes late

# Authors per Paper ave 2. 5

Have things changed since STOC 90 (May 14 -16, 1990)? STOC 90 SODA 07 N. Alon R. Karp D. Kirkpatrick P. Klein T. Leighton Y. Mansour G. Miller J. Naor C. Stein M. Kao

# Authors per Accepted Paper ave 2. 7 2. 2

Should you write more papers? SODA 07 STOC 90 ave # papers per submitting author 1. 2 (max 6) ave # accepted papers per accepted author 1. 1 (max 4) ave # rejected papers per rejected author 1. 1 (max 5) 1. 2 (max 3)

Should you write more papers? Don’t bother. SODA 07 STOC 90 ave # papers per submitting author 1. 2 (max 6) ave # accepted papers per accepted author 1. 1 (max 4) ave # rejected papers per rejected author 1. 1 (max 5) 1. 2 (max 3)

Title & Abstract: Short Zinger or Epic? Title Length STOC 90 SODA 07 submissions: ave 7. 7 words min 2 (accept 2/6) max 19 (accept 0/1) accepts: ave 7. 8 min 2, max 18 Abstract Length submissions: ave 168 words min 11 max 473 accepts: ave 176 min 13, max 466 rejects: ave 164 ave 9. 8 min 4, max 18

Title & Abstract: Short Zinger or Epic? Tell it like it is. Title Length STOC 90 SODA 07 submissions: ave 7. 7 words min 2 (accept 2/6) max 19 (accept 0/1) accepts: ave 7. 8 min 2, max 18 Abstract Length submissions: ave 168 words min 11 max 473 accepts: ave 176 min 13, max 466 rejects: ave 164 ave 9. 8 min 4, max 18

Is a picture worth 1 K words? SODA 07 STOC 90 Figures Total All 230 381 60% All 53 214 25% Accepted 82 139 59% Accepted 12 60 20% 33 -34% hand-drawn!

Is a picture worth 1 K words? Literacy is down – stick with pictures. SODA 07 STOC 90 Figures Total All 230 381 60% All 53 214 25% Accepted 82 139 59% Accepted 12 60 20% 33 -34% hand-drawn!

Popular Title Words All Submissions algorithm, problem, graph, network, approximation, tree, bound, {application, complexity, data, efficient, time}, {optimal, path, random}, {dynamic, game}, {minimum, online, set} Accept algorithm, problem, graph, network, approximation, {tree, bound, efficient}, {random, game} Reject algorithm, problem, graph, network, tree, approximation, {time, complexity}, {application, data, minimum, set}

Popular Abstract Words All Submissions ( ≥ 200 occurrences) algorithm, problem, graph, time, log, result, set, show, approximation, number Accepts algorithm, problem, graph, time, log, result, bound, approximation, show, set, number Rejects problem, algorithm, time, graph, set, number, result, approximation, model, log, bound

A Random Accepted Abstract 200 words randomly generated from accept dictionary (23983 word-occurrences) We present arbitrary coinciding factors that are hierarchical and use predecessors as well as important jobs. We show there exist revenues that are treasure sales and independent for identical parametric desires. … Our operations are competitive, social, constant and decodable. … The problem of multipass logarithmic circuits is proved hereditary and convergent (STOC'02). … We partially minimize the analysis. … Our queries are negligible. … The solution with randomized competitiveness may possibly give a formula and a path that generalizes parallel counting with terminals (Yen). We begin from models, give algorithms spanning a number of competing random approximation files going to infty. Finally we model memory.

3 Questions/Suggestions Is the DM community being appropriately represented at SODA? No, we’d have to become more like other SIAM conferences. No, the DM community doesn’t view SODA as highly as the CS community. “Algorithms” is an incredibly diverse field and devoting SODA to it is fine. Proposal: Broaden the requirement that 1/3 of the PC come from the DM Community, to “ 1/3 of the PC should come from communities such as discrete math, analysis of algorithms, and other diverse communities as chosen by the PC chair and approved by the SODA SC. ”

3 Questions/Suggestions Is there a compromise position on “short” papers – the standard research paper vs. a derivation from “The Book”, a startlingly simple solution to a seemingly difficult problem, etc. Yes, allow nontraditional papers but judge all submissions together. No, there already so many good traditional papers. Short sweet results are already allowed and can be accepted. Proposal: Explicitly encourage such nontraditional papers in the CFP. Please don't exhume this dead horse just to kick the rotting bones around. Again.

3 Questions/Suggestions nontraditional Is there a compromise position on “short” papers – the standard research paper vs. a derivation from “The Book”, a startlingly simple solution to a seemingly difficult problem, etc. Yes, allow nontraditional papers but judge all submissions together. No, there already so many good traditional papers. Short sweet results are already allowed and can be accepted. Proposal: Explicitly encourage such nontraditional papers in the CFP. Please don't exhume this dead horse just to kick the rotting bones around. Again.

3 Questions/Suggestions Could decreasing max abstract length improve the selection process-eg, 5 page overview/roadmap + (appendix = full conference paper) We already have this in “Intro + (rest of paper)”, a format the community is comfortable with. Deemphasizing the technical details makes selection even harder! Require full version of submissions to be on ar. Xiv. Proposal: SODA submissions should be as described above– Intro Overview/roadmap Appendix = full conference paper, not 10 page abstract.

Allow 1 or more Best Paper Awards to attract more topnotch papers. Remove author’s name from submissions. It’s very hard to select the bottom third of papers. Encourage more practical papers. Elect the SODA SC. Eliminate paper proceedings.

Good luck to Shang-Hua Teng and the SODA 08 PC! Thanks for this privelege!