Midsummer Combinatorial Workshop XXXI

Photos

• Group Photos

Kids of Jarik

Announcement

The workshop continues the tradition of Prague Combinatorial Workshops held since 1993. Focusing on problems of all fields of graph theory, combinatorics and discrete geometry, it will continue in the spirit and informal working atmosphere of the previous meetings.

The workshop takes place at DIMATIA and the Department of Applied Mathematics of Charles University, Malostranské náměstí 25, Prague 1, located in a historic building in the center of Old Prague. The workshop is also supported by the Computer Science Institute of Charles University.

Participation in the workshop is by invitation only. However, if you wish to participate, please email the organizers and we will respond to you shortly. In case you need an invitation letter (e.g., for visa), please let us know and we will be happy to write one for you.

The conference registration fee is EUR 160, which covers daily coffee breaks as well as a special program and dinner on Wednesday.

As is the tradition, the program of the workshop is determined on a day-to-day basis. The afternoons are reserved for discussions and other activities. If you intend to give a talk during the MCW, please let us know a few days in advance.

If you arrive later during the workshop, please register with the secretaries in Room 222 (on the 2nd floor).

On Wednesday afternoon, there will be an awesome social event.

This workshop is part of a project that has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 810115).

Programme (tentative)

Travel info (public transport)

The easiest way to buy tickets (30-min for 39 CZK or 90-min for 50 CZK) is at the orange touchscreen terminals inside trams and buses (not in the subway!). These accept only contactless payments and are valid immediately (no validation needed).

If you buy traditional paper tickets at newsstands or vending machines, you must validate them in the yellow stamping machines. Validate inside buses/trams, or at the station entrance before entering the subway.

For more information, see the official website.

If you need to find a connection, you can use the official website. The department building is located near the tram stop "Malostranske namesti". You can see the historic building directly from the tram stop.

Contact

All e-mail correspondence concerning the workshop (e.g. registration, accommodation) should be directed to mcw@kam.mff.cuni.cz.

organizers: Jaroslav Nešetřil, Jan Hubička, Matěj Konečný, Štěpán Vodseďálek

Abstracts

The Marginal Cost of a Theorem

This talk is about how AI is changing the nature of mathematical research. I will focus on my experience with Bolzano (bolzano.app), a scaffold system we use to investigate research questions arising from recent arXiv papers and conferences at scale. As a case study, I will describe an experiment in which we analyzed this year’s STOC papers and answered four follow-up questions arising from them. I will discuss what such experiments cost—in compute, human supervision, and verification—and what they suggest about the future of research.

Spa Sets in Triangle-free Graphs

A k-sparse graph is a graph with maximum degree at most k. A set of vertices is k-sparse if it induces a k-sparse graph. We discuss the problem of finding k-sparse sets in triangle-free graphs. Furthermore, we consider the extremal problem: for a given k and j, what is the smallest N having the property that all triangle-free N-graphs have a j-set that is k-sparse?

Big Ramsey degrees for infinitely constrained binary free amalgamation classes

We consider free amalgamation classes in a finite binary relational language. Such classes are determined by forbidding a set F of finite irreducible structures, for example, the class of finite triangle-free graphs. When the forbidden set F is finite, works of Dobrinen, Zucker, and Balko-Chodounský-Dobrinen-Hubička-Konečný-Vena-Zucker show that the class has finite big Ramsey degrees and provides an exact characterization of them. For F infinite, it was conjectured by BCDHKVZ that the class would not have finite big Ramsey degrees. In joint work with Joey Lakerdas-Gayle, we disprove this conjecture by giving an abstract necessary and sufficient condition for finite big Ramsey degrees and giving an example of an infinite F satisfying it. Along the way, we manage to pose several new questions.

Previous Workshops

• Midsummer Workshop XXX - July 28 - August 1, 2025
• Midsummer Workshop XXIX - July 28 - August 1, 2024
• Midsummer Workshop XXVIII - July 31 - August 4, 2023
• Midsummer Workshop XXVII - August 1 - 5, 2022
• Midsummer Workshop XXVI - July 26 - July 30, 2021
• Midsummer Workshop XXV - August 3 - August 7, 2020
• Midsummer Workshop XXIV - July 29 - August 2, 2019
• Midsummer Workshop XXIII - July 30 - August 3, 2018, Proceedings
• Midsummer Workshop XXII - July 31 - August 3, 2017
• Midsummer Workshop XXI - July 27 - July 31, 2015
• Midsummer Workshop XX - July 28 - August 1, 2014
• Midsummer Workshop XIX - July 29 - August 2, 2013
• Midsummer Workshop XVIII - July 30 - August 3, 2012
• Midsummer Workshop XVII - July 25 - July 29, 2011
• Midsummer Workshop XVI - July 26 - July 30, 2010
• Midsummer Workshop XV - July 27 - July 31, 2009
• Midsummer Workshop XIV - July 28 - August 1, 2008
• Midsummer Workshop XIII - July 30 - August 3, 2007
• Midsummer Workshop XII - July 25 - 29, 2005
• Midsummer Workshop XI - July 26 - 30, 2004
• Midsummer Workshop X  - July 28 - August 1, 2003
• Midsummer Workshop IX - July 29 - August 2, 2002
• Midsummer Workshop VIII - July 30 - August 3, 2001
• Midsummer Workshop VII - August 7 - 11, 2000
• Midsummer Workshop VI - July 26 - 30, 1999
• Midsummer Workshop V - July 26 - August 2, 1997
• Midsummer Workshop IV - July 28 - August 2, 1996
• Midsummer Workshop III - August 24-20, 1995
• Midsummer Workshop II - July 24-30, 1994
• Midsummer Workshop I - July 25-30, 1993