Discrete and Computational Geometry Workshops at MSRI

Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, Berkeley CA

Investigators

Abstract

During the Fall semester of 2003 the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI) in Berkeley, California will sponsor a special program in Discrete and Computational Geometry. The organizers for this semester-long program are Jesus De Loera (University of California at Davis), Herbert Edelsbrunner (Duke University), Jacob E. Goodman (City University of New York), Janos Pach (New York University), Micha Sharir (Tel Aviv University), Emo Welzl (ETH Zuerich), and Guenter Ziegler (Technische Universitaet Berlin). The program will have many activities, including public lectures, research for undergraduates, mini-courses, weekly seminars, and three workshops. This award provides funding to help cover lodging and travel expenses for participants in the workshops. The Introductory Workshop is designed to introduce a broad range of computer scientists, mathematicians, scientists working in related fields, and others interested in the topics of the program to current research in these areas. The second workshop, on Mathematical Foundations of Geometric Algorithms, is intended more as a forum for researchers in computer science and mathematics to discuss their recent work with other active researchers. This workshop will focus on the design and analysis of geometric algorithms, and on the mathematical and algorithmic techniques needed to make these algorithms efficient. The third workshop, on Combinatorial and Discrete Geometry, will study discrete geometric objects (polyhedra, geometric graphs, sphere packings, tilings, lattices, and so forth) and their combinatorial structure, stressing the connections between discrete geometry and algebra, combinatorics, and topology. The Introductory Workshop in particular will extend the impact of the program well beyond the core of recognized researchers in this particular area. MSRI's Human Resources Advisory Committee established the introductory workshops in 1992 as a vehicle for making the material of MSRI's major programs available to a broad scientific audience, particularly women and minorities who are still much too underrepresented in the scientific enterprise. Through outreach activities such as a special weekend on geometry at Howard University in September 2002, MSRI has recruited participants from underrepresented groups to participate in its 2003-04 programs and particularly the introductory workshops, and will work with these participants to help make the material of the workshops useful for their endeavors at their home institutions. The PI and co-PI for this grant have already recruited several participants for these workshops who are from historically Black colleges and universities, and who have expressed a strong interest in bringing material from these workshops into contact with students in their undergraduate research programs and classrooms.