The Second Meeting of the Cofin Project "Formal Languages and Automata: methods, models and applications" will be a joint workshop for illustrating and comparing the results obtained in the different areas of research by all the participants teams.
A presentation of the Project may be found here and informations on the Meeting may be found following the menu on the left margin.
The talks will be presented at Villa Toeplitz, Viale G.B Vico n° 46, localitą S. Ambrogio.
This research project is on the theory of formal languages, automata and grammars.
This scientific area, located at the crossroad between computer science, mathematics and information technology emerged in the decade 1960-1970 when the fundamental concepts and algorithms which allowed the practical development of informatics were invented. We can mention the finite state automata and context-free grammars, the pillars of computer architecture and programming languages and compilers.
Further theoretical studies of formal language in the following years were based on these concepts and moved in new directions inspired by the great wealth of abstract structures (strings, trees, graphs) which could be modeled by these methods. Not all developments were practically relevant, and one can perhaps observe that a divergence between formal studies and applications then started, which in our project we are trying to reduce.
On the other hand new applications requiring deeper formal models arise in the area of concurrent and parallel computation, computational logic, image processing, computational linguistics, coding, biology (in particular genetics) and biological computing. The interest of the Natural Sciences for such formal methods has emerged in recent years. Diversified applications were made possible also thanks to the theoretical advances with respect to the initial models. A very important contribution came from the study of the combinatorial properties of words, variable-length codes, and the introduction of analytical methods in the theory of languages, with particular reference to the so-called Schu"tzenberger method. Another important contribution came from the extension of methods in language theory to more general structures than words, e.g. trees, infinite words, bidimensional words, and traces.
The aim of the project is to further research in the sector of formal languages and automata (both for theoretical models and applications in specific fields) integrating the reach variety of expertise of the units participating in the project. The effort is expected to produce interesting developments along various directions, theoretical or motivated by present or future technological issues.
Still to define: Social Dinner at the restaurant Bologna.
Two railway companies connect Milano to Varese: Ferrovie Nord Milano (FNM) and Ferrovie dello Stato FS. Trains to Varese pass by
The journey from Milano to Varese takes about 50-70 minutes.
When organizing your itinerary, recall these useful interchange stations: Milano, Rho, Gallarate.
From Malpensa one can reach Varese in different ways. We suggest the following ones:
First reach Dateo Station by taxi (about 4 km, 10 euros, 10 minutes) or by bus (lines 73+92, about 30 minutes, ask the driver where to change line), then take one of the trains to Varese (about 60-70 minutes).
Villa Toeplitz is reachable by using local means of transport (AVT). From the FS Station (P.le Trieste) or from FNM Station (P.le Trento) go to the square over FNM Station, take line C (direction Sacro Monte) and arrive in S. Ambrogio. Ask the driver for the stop closest to Villa Toeplitz. The journey takes about 15 minutes and buses pass every 20 minutes. Villa Toeplitz is a few hundred mt far from the bus stop.
A map of the journey form Varese to Villa Toeplitz can be found here.
For any request or information, please contact:
Paolo Massazza
Universitą dell'Insubria - Dipartimento di Informatica e Comunicazione
Via Mazzini, 5 - 21100 Varese
Tel: 0332 21 8932 - Fax: 0332 21 8919