ISTC : International Symposium on Topics in Coding

It was at the beginning of the 90’s that the first work on turbo codes was started at ENST de Bretagne by Claude Berrou. He was soon joined by Alain Glavieux to study this new family of codes. Three years later, at ICC’93, an article entitled “Near Shannon Limit Error-Correcting Coding and Decoding: Turbo Codes” showed that it was possible to approach Shannon’s theoretical limit within 0.7 dB for an error rate of 10-5, thanks to iterative decoding. Thus, a decade after the introduction of coded modulations, turbo codes have marked a new step in digital information coding.

A few years later, in 1997, the first “International Symposium on Turbo Codes & Related Topics” (ISTC) was organized by ENST de Bretagne – which became Telecom Bretagne and now IMT Atlantique – in Brest, France. It attracted world-renowned specialists in the field of coding and gave birth to a series of conferences held every three years and then every two years and targeted at both the scientific and industrial communities. ISTC has moved to Europe, Asia and America and has changed its name twice: in 2021, it became « International Symposium on Topics in Coding » to better reflect the broader scope of the event. As a matter of fact, starting from a conference focused on turbo codes and iterative decoding, the last sessions of ISTC showed an increasing number of contributions that largely exceeded the initial perimeter.

A short story line regarding the invention of turbo codes

2025

13th symposium
UCLA
Los Angeles, California

2023

12th symposium
IMT Atlantique
Brest, France

2021

11th symposium

Monréal, Québec

2018

10th symposium

Hong Kong, China

2016

9th symposium
Telecom Bretagne
Brest, France

2014

8th symposium
Jacobs University
Bremen, Germany

2012

7th symposium

Gothenburg, Sweden

2010

6th symposium
Telecom Bretagne
Brest, France

2008

5th symposium
EFPL
Lausanne, Switzerland

2006

4th symposium
ITG ans TUM/LNT
Munich, Germany

2003

3rd symposium
Telecom Bretagne
Brest, France

2000

2nd symposium
Telecom Bretagne
Brest, France

1997

1st symposium
Telecom Bretagne
Brest, France