CALL FOR PAPERS

Milestones in Computer Algebra

MICA 2008:

A Conference in Honour of Keith Geddes' 60th Birthday

Stonehaven Bay, Trinidad and Tobago, 1-3 May 2008

http://www.orcca.on.ca/conferences/mica2008

In cooperation with ACM SIGSAM

Conference

Keith Geddes received his PhD in 1973 from the University of Toronto under the supervision of John C. Mason. Since that time, as a professor at the University of Waterloo, his research has spanned the areas of numerical approximation, algebraic algorithms for symbolic computation, hybrid symbolic-numeric computation and the design and implementation of computer algebra systems. He is perhaps best known as co-founder of the Maple computer algebra system. Through his teaching, research and software, the work of Keith Geddes has touched millions of individuals.

In honour of Keith Geddes' 60th birthday, the 40th year of his scientific career and the 20th anniversary of the founding of Maplesoft, a conference will be held 1-3 May 2008 near Scarborough, Tobago.

The conference will feature invited talks by well known figures in the computer algebra world as well as contributed talks selected by the program committee.

Invited Speakers

• Jim Cooper (Maplesoft, Canada)
       20 Years and 6 Definitions of Zero Later...
• Gaston Gonnet (ETH Zurich, Switzerland)
       Maple as a Prototyping Language: A Concrete and Successful Experience
• Michael Monagan (Simon Fraser U., Canada)
       How Fast Can We Multiply and Divide Sparse Polynomials?
• Joel Moses (MIT, USA)
       Macsyma: A Personal History
• Peter Paule (RISC Linz, Austria)
       Integrals, Sums and Computer Algebra
• B. David Saunders (U. Delaware, USA)
       Linear Algebra
• David Stoutemyer (U. Hawaii, USA)
       Ten Commandments for Good Default Expression Simplification
• Jan Verschelde (U. Illinois at Chicago, USA)
       Tropical Algebraic Geometry in Maple

Schedule of Talks

A preliminary schedule of talks can be found here.

Accepted Contributions

The following extended abstracts have been accepted for presentation at MICA 2008.

• Patrick Davies, Howard Cheng and George Labahn. Computing Popov Form of General Ore Polynomial Matrices.
• Robert Ravenscroft and Ed Lamagna. Summation of Linear Recurrence Sequences.
• Petr Lisonek. Computer algebra and experimental mathematics.
• Eng-Wee Chionh. The Maximality of Dixon Matrices on Corner-Cut Monomial Supports by Almost-Diagonality.
• Tateaki Sasaki. Recent Advancement in Multivariate Hensel Construction.
• Xin Li, Marc Moreno Maza, Raqeeb Rasheed and Eric Schost. The Modpn ibrary: Bringing Fast Polynomial Arithmetic into Maple.
• Gilles Villard. Differentiation of Kaltofen's Division-Free Algorithm.
• Georg Regensburger. Max-Plus Linear Algebra in Maple and Generalized Solutions for First-Order Ordinary BVPs via Max-Plus Interpolation.
• Jean-Guillaume Dumas, Laurent Fousse and Bruno Salvy. Compressed Modular Matrix Multiplication.
• Wayne Eberly. Black Box Matrix Contributions: Two Improvements.
• Anthony Kennedy and Thomas Reiter. Systematic Tensor Simplification:a Diagrammatic Approach.
• Laureano Gonzalez-Vega and Esmeralda Mainar. Solving the separation problem for two ellipsoids involving only the evaluation of six polynomials.
• Laureano Gonzalez-Vega, R Corless, John C. Butcher, Dhavide A. Aruliah and Azar Shakoori. Barycentric Birkhoff Interpolation.
• David Richardson and Werner Krandick. Automatic Regression Test Generation for the SACLIB Computer Algebra Library.
• Changbo Chen, Liyun Li, Marc Moreno Maza, Wei Pan and Yuzhen Xie. On the Representation of Constructible Sets.
• Daniel Roche. Adaptive Polynomial Multiplication.
• Stephen Watt. Symbolic Polynomials with Sparse Exponents.
• Fred Chapman, Bruce Char and Jeremy Johnson. Teaching first-year engineering students with "modern day" Maple.
• Elin Smith and Chris Peterson. Geometric properties of locally minimal energy configurations of points on spheres and special orthogonal groups.
• Ales Nemecek and Mirko Navara. Numerical Analysis with Maple.

Call for Posters

Contributions of ongoing research in areas related to Keith Geddes' career or of related historical interest (or both) are invited for presentation as posters. 

Abstracts of 2 pages should be submitted by April 4, 2008 to http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=mica2008. Acceptance of abstracts submitted later is possible, subject to limitations of the conference organization.

Special Journal Issue

A special issue of the Journal of Symbolic Computation is planned to follow the conference. We invite full versions of conference papers or new papers in the spirit of the conference to be submitted to JSC for refereeing by 1 September 2008. Papers should be submitted by E-mail to either Mark Giesbrecht or Stephen Watt.

Topics include, but are not limited to:

• algebraic algorithms for symbolic computation
• hybrid symbolic-numeric computation
• numerical approximation
• symbolic summation and integration
• the design of symbolic computation libraries and systems

Important Dates:

• Extended abstracts due: February 29, 2008 (closed)
• Notification: March 21, 2008 (completed)
• Early registration ends/Late registration begins: March 31, 2008
• Poster Abstracts Due: April 4, 2008.
• Conference: May 1–3, 2008
• Journal paper submission: September 1, 2008

Program Committee

• Jacques Carette (McMaster U., Canada)
• Robert Corless (U. Western Ontario, Canada)
• James Davenport (U. Bath, UK)
• Jürgen Gerhard (Maplesoft, Canada)
• Mark Giesbrecht, Chair (U. Waterloo, Canada)
• Laureano Gonzalez Vega (U. Cantabria, Spain)
• Hoon Hong (North Carolina State U., USA)
• Erich Kaltofen (North Carolina State U., USA)
• George Labahn (U. Waterloo, Canada)
• Ziming Li (AMSS Academia Sinica, China)

Registration

There is a registration fee for participation in the conference. Early registration is USD 200 for students and USD 300 for others. Late registration costs 50% more.

Participants may securely register via the conference registration page https://www.cs.uwaterloo.ca/scg/mica2008/MICARegForm.shtml.  Your credit card will show a charge from "U OF W CASHIERS OFFICE WATERLOO".

Venue

The conference will be held at the Grafton Beach Resort, located about eight kilometers from Scarborough, the capital of Tobago, and about eight kilometers from the Crown Point international airport.

The conference venue and nearby hotels are pinpointed on the following map: http://www.beachdestinations.com/Maps/Tobago_Map.aspx.

Accommodation

Accommodation is available at the Grafton Beach Resort or the neighbouring Le Grand Courlan Spa Resort (minimum age 16), as well as other Tobago hotels.

The room rate at the Grafton Beach Resort for MICA participants is USD 168 per adult per night. This rate is "all-inclusive", including accommodation, meals, refreshments (excluding premium wine and champagne), entertainment, taxes and gratuities. Accompanying children 4 years old or under are free, from 5 years to 12 years are 50% of the adult rate, and 13 or over are charged as adults. Participants can make reservations directly with the hotel. To receive the USD 168 rate, you must ask for the MICA 2008 conference rate. In particular, we have negotiated that there will not be a single occupancy surcharge for MICA 2008 participants.

• Telephone: +1-868-639-0191
• Fax: +1-868-639-0030

Travel

There are international airports at Port-of-Spain on the island of Trinidad and Crown Point on the island of Tobago. There are frequent low-cost flights between these two airports (for example on Caribbean Airlines about every 45 minutes).

Sample round trip airfares (as of 1 January and subject to change) are shown below.

Origin	Destination		Airline	Fare
Toronto	Port-of-Spain		Air Canada	CAD 680
London	Port-of-Spain		British Airways	GBP 680
Atlanta	Port-of-Spain		American Airlines	USD 363
New York JFK	Port-of-Spain		Caribbean Airlines	USD 411
Port-of-Spain	Tobago		Caribbean Airlines	USD   48

It is advisable to book travel and hotel early as the Plymouth Jazz Festival attracts many people to the island.

Links

Conference Links:

• Conference web site: www.orcca.on.ca/conferences/mica2008
• Abstract submission site: www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=mica2008
• Registration page: https://www.cs.uwaterloo.ca/scg/mica2008/MICARegForm.shtml

Neighbouring Events:

• Symbolic Computation and Cryptography (28-30 April, Beijing): www.cc4cm.org/scc2008
• Waterloo Workshop on Computer Algebra (5-7 May, Waterloo): www.cargo.wlu.ca/wwca2008
• East Coast Computer Algebra Day (10 May, Shepherdstown WV): www.shepherd.edu/eccad2008/
• Plymouth Jazz Festival (25-27 April, Tobago): www.tobagojazzfest.com

Organizing Committee

• General Chair: Stephen Watt <Stephen.Watt@uwo.ca> (U. Western Ontario, Canada)
• Program Committee Chair: Mark Giesbrecht <mwg@cs.uwaterloo.ca> (U. Waterloo, Canada)
• Sponsorship Chair: George Labahn <glabahn@cs.uwaterloo.ca> (U. Waterloo, Canada)
• Publicity Chair: Ilias Kotsireas <ikotsire@wlu.ca> (Wilfrid Laurier U., Canada)
• Treasurer: Jim Cooper (Maplesoft, Canada)
• Local Arrangements:
  Bal Swaroop Bhatt <Bal.Bhatt@sta.uwi.edu> (U. West Indies, Trinidad and Tobago)
  David Jeffrey <djeffrey@uwo.ca> (U. Western Ontario, Canada)
• Electronic Proceedings:
  Marc Moreno Maza <moreno@orcca.on.ca> (U. Western Ontario, Canada)
  Stephen Watt <Stephen.Watt@uwo.ca> (U. Western Ontario, Canada)

Support

The conference is sponsored by the University of Waterloo and is in cooperation with ACM SIGSAM.

Major support is gratefully acknowledged from Maplesoft.

The conference thanks the following for additional support:

• Ontario Research Centre for Computer Algebra
• University of Waterloo
• University of Western Ontario
• University of the West Indies