Stefan Neumann

Talk to someone at a small non-flagship state university, with a 3-3 or 4-4 teaching load, who still - somehow - maintains a research program. They are grossly outpowered by R1 professors with large grants and low teaching load. And yet, they manage.

Short thread asking @nytimes.com and other MSM to stop interviewing the same small handful of people every time something math-related comes up. Mathematicians are dismayed when AI scoops them on the results? How about look for advice from someone familiar with getting scooped and outpowered.

Don't know if it's just me, but I am getting *a lot* more spam in recent weeks.

Virginia Vassilevska Williams reflected on the recent 3SUM and APSP: people.csail.mit.edu/virgi/though...

Quick thought experiment: Imagine when OpenAI dropped their math results, all papers and proofs had all been entirely correct and neatly written up (by the AI). What would we have done then? Bowed?

“On average, each result used three hours of ChatGPT Pro thinking compute with [an unreleased internal OpenAI model].” Mind-blowing, especially when considering that models with these capacities will be publicly available in (at most?) a year or so.

So, the OpenAI results include: - A proof the unique games conjecture - L = RL - Matrix multiplication in n^(9/4) time - Almost-linear-time exact matching - Integer multiplication faster than n log n - Quasipolynomial algorithms for mean-payoff and parity games Overview: github.com/openai/math/...

RL = L. Machines proved it. Now we have to understand how. github.com/openai/math/...

Unbelievable stuff! arxiv.org/abs/2610.067... APSP and 3SUM refuted!! This is big.

USyd 🇦🇺 is hiring in CS! Tenure-track equivalent, junior/mid-career: usyd.wd105.myworkdayjobs.com/en-GB/USYD_E... With a focus on AI, but that includes TCS! Theory that helps building foundations of AI, gaining a deep understanding of it, or using AI in an ambitious way to solve deep problems...

Some teaching applied more stuff adapt by encouraging students to use LLMs and raising expectations from course projects. For mathier classes like undergrad algorithms, I mostly rely more heavily on in-person exams :-/ Alternatives? What should a theory class project with LLM look like?

Looking for takes by TCS (Theoretical Computer Science) senior academics/researchers about AI and their discipline/research values. E.g., essays, detailed blog posts. (Specifically TCS: there is a lot from Maths, but while adjacent there are enough differences in culture it's worth distinguishing)

When you read the replies (also on Twitter), a lot of people want a cap on the number of submissions per author. Is this really such a big problem? From what I have seen for TMLR and ICLR (if I remember correctly), the problem is rather that now there *a lot* of newcomers who submit one slop paper.

I propose that top reviewers who are authors of borderline papers should have an increased chance to get these papers accepted. This is a much bigger incentive than free registrations, because it has a much more direct impact on people’s careers.

I'm deeply concerned by posts from colleagues and friends that go beyond criticism of work toward public shaming of authors. We need to debate today's standards, and criticism is part of research. But we can do that without personal attacks in a forum that invites pile-ons.

So many exciting new algorithms and complexity results in the last couple of days. So many of them AI-assisted. Brave new world.

OK, I am back from holiday. I spent most of my time offline (hiking in Austria is great!) but also did quite a bit of reflection on academia and AI. I will have some things to say. One of my intensions is to be more active on social media and I will also start a blog.

“I got Claude Fable to do this analysis and write this paper. I’m posting it here, but I haven’t checked it yet.” WELL CHECK IT THEN. WHY ARE YOU POSTING THINGS YOU CAN’T BE BOTHERED TO READ.

Herman Chernoff, of Chernoff bound fame, passed away a few days ago at age 103. He was, truly, an outlier, and someone who left a deep mark in the field. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_...

Apply to work with Alexander! Alexander already joined our TU Wien Informatics faculty retreat in February and he is one of my favorite colleagues — and also a great PhD supervisor. TU Wien is ranked 11th in Europe on CSRankings. The combination with CSH is super great for interdisciplinary work.

It's not necessarily the end of mathematics, but it's hard to see how the all the social structures that support the subject will be able to avoid major disruption over the next few years.

Two most deserving winners. Congratulations!

AITHYRA is recruiting an AI/ML STARTING PI Generative Models, Large Language Models, Agentic AI, Active & Reinforcement Learning, AI-driven Scientific Discovery & Lab Automation, ML-driven molecular simulations... Job Ad: aithyra.at/fileadmin/do... Apply by 30.4.2026 #StartingPI #AI/ML #AITHYRA

I got interviewed for my podcast in Bulletin of the EATCS! I am really delighted by this so, sharing it with you. eatcs.org/images/bulle... Thank you @eatcs.bsky.social and @neumannstefan.com. Here is a link to one of the episodes of my podcast. open.spotify.com/episode/3RNO...

Welcome to BlueSky, @eatcs.bsky.social! I suggest everyone to follow the new account to stay up to the date with news from the European Association for Theoretical Computer Science.

It was my pleasure speaking with @nutanlimaye.bsky.social about her podcast "Life of a Researcher". Check out the interview in the post below and listen to her great podcast. podcastaddict.com/podcast/life-of-a-researcher/4111736

The schedule for the upcoming talks (stay tuned for the May speakers!) can be found on our website: exciting times ahead! sites.google.com/view/tcsplus/

Panos Ipeirotis (NYU): "How I started using exit tickets (short feedback surveys after every class) and processing them through NotebookLM to generate follow-up materials before the next session. The feedback loop went from one semester to a few hours." www.behind-the-enemy-lines.com/2026/02/list...

You can now use ipe in the browser! ipe-web.otfried.org/index.html

My awesome BARC colleague @nutanlimaye.bsky.social is starting a major research project in algebraic complexity. Anyone interested in joining as a PhD student should check out the call (deadline March 1). barc.ku.dk/news/profess...

TU Wien is now on the 5th place among all computer science departments at German-speaking universities in the Times Higher Education ranking. Excellent news! @informatics.tuwien.ac.at @tuwien.at

🚀 I’m very excited to share that I’ve joined TU Wien as Assistant Professor, and that I've received a €1.8M Vienna Research Group (WWTF) grant for Multi-Player Artificial Intelligence. I’m hiring interns, PhD students & postdocs in Game Theory × ML. 🔗 Apply: forms.gle/k6xkkF4jse58...

Meinungen und Einstellungen sind selten schwarz-weiß. Ein Forschungsteam der TU Wien zeigt, dass sich Positionen in gesellschaftlichen Debatten oft überschneiden und nicht klaren Lagern zuordnen lassen. Das neue Modell analysiert dafür Interaktionen zwischen Gruppen. 💬📊 #TechnikfürMenschen

Save the date: @katta.bsky.social and me are organizing the Austrian Computer Science Day #ACSD on June 1, 2026 at TU Wien with the motto CS in Modern Society: a Sign of the Times! More info and program coming soon here: informatics.tuwien.ac.at/acsd (CC) @tuwien.at & @informatics.tuwien.ac.at

Consider signing this petition regarding restoring free access to the ACM digital library: www.ipetitions.com/petition/res...

2: Summer employee positions at the Department of Computer Science: www.aalto.fi/en/departmen...

Aalto University is hiring summer interns! 1: Aalto Science Institute International Summer Research Program: www.aalto.fi/en/aalto-sci...

The deadline for BARC's annual call for PhD positions is soon (January 10)!

Reminder: we are hiring an Assistant Professor in computer science! All areas of computer science will be considered. We are in particular interested in candidates whose research is on datacenter-scale computing systems. Deadline: Monday, February 2nd, 2026. www.aalto.fi/en/open-posi...