PROBABILITY AND COMBINATORICS: Fourteenth Annual Workshop
A workshop held from March 29 until April 5, 2019 at McGill University's Bellairs Institute in Holetown, Barbados.


Synopsis

A small group of researchers discusses new directions and open problems in the area of probabilistic methods in combinatorics and graph theory. Topics this year include random trees, random networks, random graphs, random walks, probability on trees, and combinatorial and probabilistic geometry.


Program

The program is as follows:

  • Friday: Arrival. Pick up your keys from the office if you arrive before 4pm. After 4pm, there will be participants in the yard or near the kitchen with the room keys.
  • Saturday 9-12am: open problem session. Please bring open problems! 2-6pm: work sessions.
  • Sunday 9-12am: TBA
  • Monday 9-12am: TBA
  • Tuesday 9-12am: TBA
  • Wednesday 9-12am: TBA
  • Thursday 9-12am: TBA
  • Friday: Departure day.

Organizers

The meeting is organized by Louigi Addario-Berry Nicolas Broutin (Sorbonne Université, Paris), Luc Devroye (McGill University, Montreal), Vida Dujmovic (University of Ottawa, Ottawa), and Gabor Lugosi (Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona).

For inquiries, replies and questions regarding the workshop, email Gabor Lugosi who is the program chair for the 2019 meeting.


Confirmed participants

  • Louigi Addario-Berry
  • Marie Albenque
  • Omer Angel
  • Alessandro Arlotto
  • Jordan Barrett
  • Peter Bartlett
  • Anna Ben-Hamou
  • Jit Bose
  • Nicolas Broutin
  • Alessandra Caraceni
  • Luc Devroye
  • Vida Dujmovic
  • Laura Eslava
  • Christina Goldschmidt
  • Varun Jog
  • Igor Kortchemski
  • Po-Ling Loh
  • Gabor Lugosi
  • James Martin
  • Abbas Mehrabian
  • Pat Morin
  • Julia Olkhovskaya
  • Ciara Pike-Burke
  • Pawel Pralat
  • Miki Racz
  • Tommy Reddad
  • Andrzej Rucinski
  • Othmane Safsafi
  • Fiona Skerman
  • Jasmin Straub
  • Remco Van der Hofstad
  • Vasiliki Velona

Food

Dinners are provided, at a reasonable cost (at least compared to the nearby alternatives). Vegetarian and pescetarian options are available---please let us know if you need one. Historically, the vegetarian options at Bellairs are often unspectacular, so those of us going for vegetarian alternatives may decide to supplement our dinners with more interesting fare from the local supermarket. The meat and fish dinners are usually very good.

In past years we have bought lunches from a lunch van that comes around, or from one of a couple of local lunch shacks. There is also a kitchen and a nearby (15 minute walk) supermarket so in principle one can make one's own lunches.

Breakfast will be organized by ourselves---we will share the supermarket bill, and schedule the mules.


Location

The workshop takes place at McGill University's Bellairs Institute in Holetown, Barbados, on the west side of the island. Google Maps.

The Bellairs Institute can be reached from Grantley Adams airport in about 40 minutes by taxi (58 Barbados dollars, or 29 US dollars) and in about 60 to 100 minutes by city bus (2 Barbados dollars). Barbados bus schedules. At the airport, go across the parking lot to the main road, and take a bus traveling to the east (left, with back to airport). Buses marked Speightstown pass by Bellairs. Buses marked Bridgetown are also fine, but then a change of bus is necessary in Bridgetown itself, at the bus terminal.


Barbadopedia

Barbados is safe.

US currency can be used at the rate of two Barbados dollars for one US dollar. There are plenty of ATM machines all over the island (including in the departure area of the airport) that have access to the major banks in North America. All major US and Canadian bank cards work fine.

Bring mosquito repellant. There are (infrequent) outbreaks of dengue fever and zika, so check ahead of time. In the recent past, dengue has not been a problem.

There are computers on campus with access to the internet. Bellairs is fully covered by a wireless network called Bellairs or Bellair's.


Registration fee

Registration, to be paid upon arrival in Bellairs, is 110 US dollars (220 Barbados dollars).


Accommodation

The accommodation is basic but charming. The rates vary per room (basic rooms (36 USD/person), newer apartments (50 USD/person), and rooms in Seabourne House (variable rates)). Rates were increased in the Spring of 2018 over those listed above to reflect a new government tax on rooms, and to include the wifi charge and an inflation adjustment. Our estimate is that we will probably see rates around 45 and 62 USD/person, respectively. People in unshared rooms will pay double rates. The organizers will assign the rooms according to some secret optimization algorithm.

Food is not included in these rates.

Finally, this document (PDF) contains a description of the house rules of the Institute.


Previous workshops

2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018