British Colloquium for Theoretical Computer Science (BCTCS) 2007

The British Colloquium for Theoretical Computer Science (BCTCS) is an organisation whose main function is to stage an annual meeting for the benefit of the UK-based Theoretical Computer Science community, in particular its PhD students. The first BCTCS meeting was held at Leeds University in 1985, and further Colloquia have been organised in each subsequent year at different venues around the country. The 23rd meeting will be held in April 2007 in Oxford.One of the central aims of BCTCS is training of PhD students. It provides an environment for PhD students to gain experience in presenting their work, to broaden their outlook on the subject, and to benefit from contact with established researchers. The meetings of the BCTCS do not follow the standard conference forum in which the topic is restricted to a specialized area and presenters are vetted in a competitive refereeing process. Rather, the BCTCS meeting provides a unique forum for PhD students to present their research work to an interested, supportive and friendly audience. All PhD students are encouraged to use this opportunity to obtain training in formal presentation skills. The abstracts of all presentations are published in the Bulletin of the European Association for Theoretical Computer Science (EATCS).Due to the unique opportunity offered to PhD students, they have traditionally been partially funded by EPSRC to attend these meetings through grants to cover their registration and accommodation expenses. This funding is seen as essential for the success of BCTCS as a training ground for PhD students. An existing 3-year EPSRC grant provides for 24 student places for each of the meetings in 2005 (Nottingham), 2006 (Swansea) and 2007 (Oxford). This application seeks to complement this support for the 2007 meeting in Oxford by providing a further 24 student places, as well as one further international invited speaker. Such complementary funding was provided for the 2006 meeting in Swansea, which proved to be an overwhelming success.