Computer science (Informatics) has far-reaching effects on all facets of science and society. New developments continue to challenge our understanding of the field. How are its scientific foundations evolving? What can the computational lens tell us about the world? How does it shape our algorithmic society? Our research focuses on (a) the models and theories for understanding and designing complex algorithmic systems, and (b) the philosophy of computing, as part of the philosophy of science.

The Center for Philosophy of Computer Science is led by professor Jan van Leeuwen and is part of the division `Algorithms' of the Department of Information and Computing Sciences of Utrecht University.

Research

• Computation: interactive algorithms, algorithmic mechanisms, intelligent algorithms, non-classical computing.
• Complexity: computational complexity, network analysis, resource-bounded agents, non-uniform complexity.
• Design: algorithmic modeling, algorithmic systems, autonomous robots, intelligent infrastructures.
• Philosophy: foundations of informatics, understanding computation, nature of information, perspectives.

• Weblogs:
  • Freedom-to-tinker (Princeton), Security (Schneier), Shtetl-optimized (Aaronson), Theory of computation (Lipton & Regan).
• Updates:
  • Ubiquity (ACM), Philosophy and computers (APA Newsletter), Quanta magazine (Simons Foundation).

Symposia and Societies

• Symposia general:
  • CiE, ESA, IACAP, TCS-other.
• Societies:
  • ACM, AISB, IACAP.
  • Ethics and Information Technology (INSEIT), History and Philosophy of Computing (HaPoC), Information Studies (IS4IS)
  • Philosophy of Information (SPI), Philosophy and Technology (SPT).
• Interest Groups
  • Algorithms, Computation: DMANET, ESA, IGAFIT, SIGACT.
  • Parameterized Complexity: wiki.

• S.B. Cooper and J. van Leeuwen, Alan Turing: His Work and Impact (Elsevier, see also: RR Hawkins Award 2013).

Publications, technical reports

• Joint papers on computation (Jan van Leeuwen and Jiří Wiedermann).

• Technical reports (2020-        )
• Technical reports (1977-2019)

• Informatics: A fascinating science (van Leeuwen)
• Computer Science in-between a fundamental discipline and the third pillar of science (Petre, 2011).
• Impact analysis
  • Artificial Intelligence Impact Assessment
• Philosophy and theoretical computer science (Aaronson).
• Questioning two myths in computer science education (Rocchi, 2014).
• Student enrollment and image of the Informatics discipline (van Leeuwen & Tanca,2007).
• The algorithm: idiom of modern science (Chazelle).
• The role and relevance of experimentation in Informatics (Schiaffonati et al, 2013).
• Towards a philosophy of the information and computing sciences (van Leeuwen, NIAS Newsletter 42).
• Where to send your paper? (van Leeuwen).
• Why philosophers should care about computational complexity (Aaronson).
• Seminars
  • Algorithms, games and the internet (2011).
  • Algorithmic computational biology (2012).
  • Computational sustainability (2013).

More philosophical pointers and diversions

• Alan Turing (Andrew Hodges)
• Alan Turing: Father of the Modern Computer (Copeland, Proudfoot).
• Mapping great debates (Debate Graph).
• Mediating machines (Shells and Pebbles, 2015).
• Minds and Machines (journal, see also here).
• One hundred year study on AI (AI 100, Stanford).
• Oxford Internet Institute (Oxford).
• Scott Aaronson on Philosophical Progress (MIRI).
• The consequences of Artificial Intelligence on the (digital) single market, production, consumption,
  employment and society (EESC, 2017).

• Encyclopedias: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Stanford), Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (IEP), History of computers (CHM).
• Archives: e-Print archive (ArXiv), computer science (e-prints), bibliographies, CoRR (Computing Research Repository), DBLP (Trier, see also: old format ), ResearchGate, ResearchIndex (CiteSeerx).
• Journals/Proceedings: UU library (Utrecht University), ACM portal (ACM), ACM guide (ACM), ACM digital lib (ACM), Electronic Colloquium on Computational Complexity (ECC), IEEE digital lib (IEEE), Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS, see also here), Electronic Notes in TCS (volumes), Science Direct (Elsevier) Scopus.
• Search engines: Bing, Dogpile, DuckDuckGo, Google, Google scholar, Google books, FreeFullPDF (Sagot), MetaGer, Science.gov, Scopus, Wolfram Alpha, Yahoo, Zoeken (NL).

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