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Field-altering, AI-assisted mathematical results are coming out every day. The pace is blistering. How are the maths and theoretical computer science community handling this rapid change? For some, they're choosing collaboration.
We spoke with Dr Robert Robere, one of the participants in the current Logical Foundations of Complexity programme, to learn more about how their community is changing the way it collaborates to make progress, together.
Having recently been granted tenure, Dr Robere is at an inflection point in his career. He is no longer in the start-up phase, but nor is he yet considered senior. He is visiting the INI during his first sabbatical, and AI is radically shifting the mathematical landscape. This is mirroring his experience when he started his first faculty position during COVID, which radically shifted the way people work.
Dr Robert Robere is an associate professor in the School of Computer Science at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. He completed his undergraduate in Newfoundland before moving to Toronto for graduate studies under the supervision of Turing Award winner Stephen Cook and Toniann Pitassi.
He now runs his own group focused on using mathematical tools to understand the nature of computation. We caught up with him while he was in Cambridge for two months on an INI programme.
The episode was recorded on September 29, 2026.
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This episode was supported by the quantitative research firm G-Research, which has launched a new series of mathematical puzzles called G-Riddles. It's free to try and could win you a cash prize: https://www.gresearch.com/griddles/
Living Proof is the podcast of the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences at the University of Cambridge.
The Isaac Newton Institute is a national and international visitor research institute. It runs research programmes on selected themes in mathematics and the mathematical sciences with applications over a wide range of science and technology. It attracts leading mathematical scientists from the UK and overseas to interact in research over an extended period.
Produced by Jon Farrow.
Edited by Keerthi Raj.
Music: 'Origami' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au
