Conference: Groups and Computation, March 24 - 29, 2003, The Ohio State University

Ohio State University Research Foundation -Do Not Use, Columbus OH

Investigators

Abstract

This award funds a conference in Groups and Computation at the Ohio State University, March 24-28, 2003. The conference focuses on the interplay between theory and practice in computing with groups, algorithms for computation being at the heart of the conference. The primary conference goal is to provide a forum for computational group theorists, both mathematicians and computer scientists, to meet with colleagues in order to learn of recent research developments in this area, to learn of and work on new open problems, to further existing large projects in this area, and to develop software for large computer systems that handle group computations. A second goal is to give graduate students and recent Ph.D's an opportunity to learn of new work and of open problems in the area. Group theory is often described as the algebraic theory of symmetry in the abstract. Group theory arises and is used in a wide variety of other fields, including solid state physics, chemistry (crystallography), coding theory and cryptography. Understanding the structure of groups is the major task of group theory. The subject of the conference is the interaction between this mathematical discipline and algorithmic questions used in extensive computer computations with these fundamental algebraic objects.