The annual SOFSEM conferences are devoted to the latest results and developments of fundamental research in computer science (informatics), inspired by the algorithmic challenges of our time. SOFSEM has a long tradition as a high-quality research conference, facilitating the scientific interchange among all researchers from academia and industry working on the foundations of computing. SOFSEM is usually held in January or early February. The series of SOFSEM conferences began in 1974.
SOFSEM covers all research in the foundations of computer science and artificial intelligence, including e.g. algorithms (approximation, combinatorial, exact, online, parameterized, randomized, streaming, etc), computational complexity, computational geometry, efficient data structures, discrete optimization, graph structure and algorithms, network analysis, parallel and distributed computing, parameterized complexity, quantum computing, structural complexity, theory and models of computation, automata (cellular, finite, networked, etc), AI-based algorithms and techniques, computational learning, data compression algorithms, formal models, graph drawing and network layout, intelligent algorithms, machine learning theory, multi-agent algorithms and algorithmic game theory, nature-inspired computing, neural network theory, pattern searching, and other relevant theory topics in computing and AI.
SOFSEM 2025, the 50th SOFSEM, is organized by the Department of Computer Science (Division of Theoretical Computer Science) of the Comenius University Bratislava and the Slovak Society for Informatics, and will be held January 20 - 23, 2025 in Bratislava, Slovak Republic.
Call for organizers: contribute to the progress of our field by organizing a next SOFSEM with your team. Please contact the Steering Committee for further details.
The proceedings of SOFSEM 2024 (edited by Henning Fernau, Serge Gaspers, and Ralf Klasing) appeared as volume 14519 in the series Lectures Notes in Computer Science
(Springer).
Since 1995, the proceedings of the SOFSEM conferences are published in the series
Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) of Springer. Since 2016, the SOFSEM proceedings are included in the ARCoSS Subline (Advanced Research in Computing and Software Science) of LNCS.
SOFSEM maintains a unique position among the annual conferences and symposia in computing. Through its invited talks and the selected contributed papers on current research, as well as its well-known familiar atmosphere, SOFSEM is an appreciable mix of an international symposium and a winter school. It is a proven format, combining the presentation of original, high-quality research papers with lectures on trending themes in foundations and their, often interdisciplinary, background.
SOFSEM conferences are conducted in person. Traditionally housing all participants at the same venue, the conference provides an optimal set-up for discussions, meetings, research initiatives, new contacts, and social interactions. SOFSEM encourages the co-operation and exchange of ideas among researchers across all domains of fundamental computer science and its bordering fields, in all stages of their career. It makes SOFSEM especially attractive for young computer scientists.
SOFSEM focuses on novel research and current developments in all key areas in fundamental computer science and its interfaces to the foundations of artificial intelligence (algorithms, AI-inspired methods, computational complexity, formal models). SOFSEM's list of topics of interest was renewed in 2022 and evolves with the developments and trends in foundational research in computing with each edition of the conference.
SOFSEM conferences can be organized in any European country. The location of SOFSEM x+2 is normally decided at the business meeting of SOFSEM x+1, in January or February of year x+1. Proposals for organizing SOFSEM x+2 are welcomed any time during year x, well ahead of this business meeting. If you/your team is interested in organizing the next SOFSEM, please get in touch with the Steering Committee.
Guidelines for proposing to organize a SOFSEM conference: pdf.
There are separate guidelines for PC chairs and organizers of a SOFSEM conference (pdf, or contact the steering committee). The organizers of the SOFSEM in a given year decide whether they wish to allow for e.g. exhibitions of literature (books, journals), meetings or presentations of national or international research projects, or other special activities. Interested parties should contact the organizing committee for further details.
The Steering Committee sees to the continuity of SOFSEM and advises present and future PC chairs and organizers. The Steering Committee consists of: the PC chairs of three recent SOFSEMs (after 2022, with three-year terms) and five members-at-large (with three- to five-year terms). The committee can have further, advisory members.
Jan van Leeuwen, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands (T: 2007 - )
Július Štuller, Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic (T: 2003 - 2024; SC chair: 2005 - 2024)
Past advisory board (1993-2004), endowment board (1995-1998) and steering committee members (1998-present) include:
Miroslav Bartošek (CZ),
Mária Bieliková (SK),
Dines Bjørner (DK/Macau),
Manfred Broy (D),
Barbara Catania (IT),
Ivana Černá (CZ),
Bernadette Charron-Bost (FR),
Michal Chytil (CZ),
Peter van Emde Boas (NL),
Viliam Geffert (SK),
Georg Gottlob (AT),
Keith G. Jeffery (UK),
Antonin Kučera (CZ),
Brian Matthews (UK),
Jan Pavelka (CZ),
František Plášil (CZ),
Igor Privara (SK),
Petr Šaloun (CZ),
Jan Staudek (CZ),
Gerard Tel (NL),
Petr Tůma (CZ),
Jiří Wiedermann (CZ),
Maria Zemánková (US).
SOFSEM (orig. SOFtware SEMinar) was founded in 1974 as a winter seminar for computer scientists and software engineers in former Czechoslovakia. SOFSEM soon became the foremost national seminar devoted to theoretical and practical problems of software systems. In fact, in these early days of computer science and technology, SOFSEM supplemented the university education and academic research by facilitating a fast transfer of the latest relevant knowledge in computing to its audience. Later on international experts were invited also, to present series of lectures on recent topics. Each SOFSEM consisted of several series of invited lectures of 3 to 5 hours, complemented by selected contributions of participants. Until 1994, the total duration of every SOFSEM was two weeks.
Gradually, SOFSEM transformed from a mainly national seminar into an international conference. After the split of Czechoslovakia in 1993 SOFSEM continued, but now alternating between the Czech and Slovak Republics. SOFSEM became recognized for its high-level invited talks and well-chosen tracks that followed the trends in the field. From 1995 onward, the SOFSEM proceedings were included in the series Lecture Notes in Computer Science of Springer. The duration of SOFSEM was shortened to eight days, and the track areas became more and more fixed for a longer time. Over the years, as the field expanded and international collaborations flourished, SOFSEM's unique role within the Czech and Slovak computer science communities lessened, yet its significance and position as an international symposium grew.
In 2016 the SOFSEM Steering Committee decided that, from then on, SOFSEM conferences could be organized by colleagues anywhere in Europe, i.e. not limited to the Czech or Slovak Republics anymore. The duration of SOFSEM was limited to a week or four days but its format and focus were still left unchanged, with three separate tracks (foundations, software engineering, and data science and engineering), a special theme track (algorithmic computational biology), and a student research forum. In 2022 SOFSEM did not take place, due to the covid-19 pandemic, but the time was used to prepare SOFSEM for the next major step on its new course, namely focusing the conference fully and undividedly to the foundations of computer science, together with its interfaces to closely related areas, especially the computational principles of artificial intelligence and data science.
In 2024, a reunion was held of participants from the SOFSEMs in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s:
SOFSEM po 30 letech ['SOFSEM after 30 years'], June 22, 2024, Faculty of Information Technology, Brno University of Technology, Czech Republic.
