TopoDISC 2026

It is more than 30 years ago that the ACM STOC 1993 papers by Borowsky-Gafni, Herlihy-Shavit and Saks-Zaharoglou uncovered the deep connection between topology and distributed computing. The appeal of topological modeling and analysis lies both in its generality, which allows it to be applied to virtually any distributed computing model. Also,  in its roots in algebraic topology,  a deep and well-developed branch of mathematics, which provides powerful analysis tools. This research led to a number of landmark results for various models of computation, like task computability characterizations,  k-set agreement and renaming impossibility results,  and decidability theorems. Further connections began to emerge, to mobile robots , social choice theory, and epistemic logic.

The purpose of TopoDISC is to focus on the aspects of topology most closely related to DISC.  This research area is backed up by a research community not only within PODC/DISC, but in the broader area of Geometric and Topological Methods in Computer Science (GETCO), and more recently in Epistemic Logic and Topological perspectives on Distributed Computing (CELT).

The broader GETCO runs a conference series focused on applications of algebraic topology in computer science with special emphasis on concurrency and distributed computing. The first GETCO conference was held in Aalborg in 1999, fostered by seminal papers such as those by Vaughn Pratt in ACM POPL 1991 and Eric Goubault at CONCUR 1992 and CONCUR 1993, on the formal methods side, and the ACM STOC 1993 papers by Herlihy-Shavit and Saks-Zaharoglou, on the distributed computing side. The following seven GETCO workshops were held as satellites to CONCUR or DISC. The latest edition was the 13th in the series, held as a workshop associated with ICALP and LICS in Tallinn in 2024. Also Combinatorial Topology of Relational Structures CTRS, GEOTOP-A , 2024, Mérida, México. The 14th International Conference on Geometric and Topological Methods in Computer Science (GETCO 2027) will be in the  Stefan Banach International Mathematical Center,  Będlewo, Poland, from June 7 to June 11, 2027.

The goal of the CELT workshops is to bring leaders in distributed computing, topology and epistemic logic together to foster interdisciplinary research. There has been much interest in simplicial complexes for epistemic logic, from the development of more expressive logics capable of capturing fine topological structure, to the leveraging of topological tools to represent concepts such as observations, questions, and dependence relations, and encoding deep connections with distributed computing. The richness of this area has spawned  interdisciplinary research program with applications in learning theory, network epistemology, public and private communication, inquisitive semantics, philosophy of science, artificial intelligence and knowledge representation in distributed computing, among others.