From September 14 to 18, 2026, the 11th edition of the student STIGMA conference took place. The conference was organized by the Department of Theoretical Computer Science at the Faculty of Information Technology of Czech Technical University in Prague (FIT CTU).
The lecture program offered a diverse range of topics, from algorithms and parameterized complexity to graph theory and combinatorics, as well as game theory, distributed algorithms, and quantum computing. Over the course of five days, participants presented both student projects and results of ongoing research.
Monday's program opened with Petr Laštovička's presentation of the paper "Simple Sublinear Algorithms for (∆ + 1) Vertex Coloring via Asymmetric Palette Sparsification" and Patrik Drbal's presentation of "On the Complexity of Distance-d Independent Set Reconfiguration". The evening session concluded with Daniela Černá's presentation of her research, "Small q-kernels in digraphs with minimum in-degree δ".
On Tuesday morning, Richard Hartmann presented his master's thesis, "Efficient Schemes for Multi-Level Hamming Sketches". The afternoon program continued with Ioannis Kakatelis's presentation, "Strong blocking sets and minimal codes from expander graphs: A study of a new graph parameter". The evening session featured two shorter presentations. Tyler Tuttle presented his research in "On Disks Containing Many Points", followed by Jan Volec's talk, "Ramsey Number of Powers of Directed Paths".
Wednesday's program began with Suzan Catay's presentation of the paper "Stability based on single-agent deviations in additively separable hedonic games". The morning session continued with Albert Havliček's presentation, "Bounds on broadcast time in well-connected graphs". The evening session offered two perspectives on further problems in theoretical computer science. Michal Opler presented "The Complexity Landscape of Multi-Agent Path Finding", followed by Dušan Knop's talk, "Set Basis meets Blood Testing".
Thursday's program covered, among other topics, graph theory, combinatorial games, and parameterized complexity. Lukáš Vesecký presented the paper "On graphs with maximum difference between game chromatic number and chromatic number", while Matěj Ptáček presented "Solving Maker-Breaker Games on 5-Uniform Hypergraphs is PSPACE-Complete". In the afternoon, Michal Dvořák presented his paper "Core stability recognition for minimum-cost spanning tree games: Parameterized perspective". The evening session concluded with Jan Pokorný's presentation of his research, "Parameterized Complexity of Edge-Constrained Graph Partitioning".
The final day of the conference focused on problems related to moving tokens on graphs. Jarmila Fialová presented the paper "Parallel token swapping for qubit routing", followed by Šimon Rataj's presentation of "Sequentially swapping tokens: Further on graph classes". His presentation also brought this year's academic program at STIGMA to a close.
However, the conference was about more than academic presentations. An important part of STIGMA is the opportunity to discuss the topics presented in an informal setting, share experiences, and meet other students and researchers with an interest in theoretical computer science.
"What I particularly like about STIGMA is that, within just a few days, you get the opportunity to explore many different areas of theoretical computer science while also meeting people working on interesting problems across the field. The presentations often continue in informal discussions outside the official program, and I think that is one of the most valuable aspects of the conference. This year, the setting in Polevsko also provided a great opportunity to step away from the university environment for a while and spend time together in ways other than standing at a board or giving a presentation," says Lukáš Vesecký, a student at FIT CTU, who attended STIGMA for the first time this year.
This year's conference was held at Penzion na Křižovatce in Polevsko, which provided participants with space not only for the academic program, but also for shared activities and informal gatherings.
