Programs & Events
Research Programs and Clusters
The Institute typically hosts two concurrent programs per semester. Programs are selected with a view toward maximizing impact and engagement across the theoretical computer science community, as well as impact on neighboring scientific fields. A typical one-semester program is led by a small group of organizers who are recognized experts in their fields, and involves about 40-50 invited long-term participants (a mix of senior and junior researchers) who spend at least one month (usually longer) at the Institute. A program usually includes three week-long workshops, each of which attracts an additional group of invited speakers and focuses on a different aspect of the program's scientific scope, as well as an initial "boot camp" designed to put long-term participants on the same page.
This program will taxonomize and analyze areas of contemporary machine learning where methods generalize well — meaning they perform eerily well on new inputs, rather than merely performing well on old inputs they were trained on — but for no known...
This is the first part in a special, yearlong program on large language models and transformers that spans the 2024–2025 academic year. This program's overarching goal is to try to understand the ongoing revolution in transformers and large language...
Research Pods
Alongside our semester-long research programs, summer clusters, and weeklong workshops, the Simons Institute now hosts sustained research efforts by small groups of collaborators working on a specific topic over several years. Launched in 2020-21, our Research Pods initiative kicked off with two projects — one in machine learning and one in quantum computing. Each pod features a small number of junior and senior researchers to be in residence at the Institute for the duration. Sustained effort will be articulated by intense shorter convenings, including summer clusters and semester-long research programs.
In the wake of the National Quantum Initiative, the Simons Institute’s Research Pod in Quantum Computing brings together researchers from computer...
The Research Pod in Machine Learning brings together researchers from theoretical computer science, mathematics, statistics, electrical engineering,...
The Research Pod on Resilience in Brain, Natural, and Algorithmic Systems explores the topic of resilience through an interdisciplinary lens, over the...
