ALMA is a graduate program leading to a Master’s degree in the areas of Algorithms, Logic, and Discrete Mathematics. The program is co-organized by the department of Informatics and Telecommunications and the department of Mathematics, of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, together with the school of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and the school of Applied Mathematical and Physical Sciences, of the National Technical University of Athens.
The purpose of ALMA is to equip its students with a broad and deep background in diverse topics of Theoretical Computer Science, with special emphasis on the following three research areas:
-
Algorithms and Computational Complexity. This area, which is widely regarded as the cornerstone of Theoretical Computer Science, comprises diverse and fascinating topics such as approximation algorithms, combinatorial optimization, algorithmic graph theory, computational geometry, algorithmic game theory, and so on. The applications of algorithms in everyday life are countless, as are the interesting open problems of the area.
-
Mathematical and Computational Logic. Logic in the 20th century developed at first as a vivid and exciting area of mathematics. Nowadays, apart from its independent development as a deep branch of Mathematics, it is also flourishing as the “Calculus of Computer Science”. In particular, logic is widely used in Databases, Artificial Intelligence, and it has offered the foundations for the development of the theory of modern Programming Languages. Higher-order, modal, and temporal logics are widely used in applications, and subdisciplines of logic such as proof theory, model theory, the lambda calculus, type theory, and so on, have been adopted and further developed in Theoretical Computer Science.
- Discrete Mathematics. The phenomenal integration of digital technologies into everyday life was made possible because of, and also offered strong positive feedback to, remarkable advances in Discrete Mathematics, the math of structures that – unlike the set of all points on a line – are “digital”, much like the integers. Of course, it is not only the integers, but also abstract algebraic, geometric, topologic and probabilistic structures that lie in the focus of Discrete Mathematics, in strong interaction with Algorithms and Mathematical Logic.
In a sense, the forward leap of contemporary technology was achieved through the use of the strongly woven braid of Algorithms, Logic and Discrete MAthematics, the three scientific areas into which A.L.MA. is engaged to initiate its students.