The conference "Geometric and Asymptotic Group Theory with Applications" will be held May 28-31, 2013 at the City College of New York. This conference will be devoted to the study of a variety of topics in geometric and asymptotic group theory, with special emphasis on statistical methods, interactions with theoretical computer science, and applications to information security. The conference will include leading specialists in various aspects of the geometric, asymptotic, and algorithmic group theory. More specifically, this includes: group actions, quasi-isometries, growth, asymptotic invariants, random walks, algorithmic problems and their complexity.
Geometric and asymptotic group theory is an essential part of modern mathematics. It interfaces with a number of important areas of mathematics and theoretical computer science, including low-dimensional topology (essential in modern physics), geometry, graph theory, combinatorics, complexity theory, and information theory, in particular information security. The synergistic effect of the interactions between people in these areas that the conference will promote has the potential to result in new long-term collaborations and advances in research.
www.stevens.edu/algebraic/GAGTA/index.htm
was held May 28-May 31 at the City College of New York. Previous meetings have been held in Spain, Germany, the US and Canada. The goal of the meeting was to foster interaction between junior and senior researchers in Group Theory (a branch of Abstract Algebra), as well as researchers in related areas like Cryptography and Theoretical Computer Science. The meeting was a huge success with 110 registered participants and 61 lectures. The state of the art in several lines of current research in group theory were presented by the plenary lecturers. Young researchers had the opportunity to present their work in a series of shorter lectures. There was a special session on Cryptography where lectures were given by both Mathematicians and Computer Scientists, creating the opportunities for interdisciplinary research. Standard methods of public key cryptography used on the internet and in E-commerce are based on groups satisfying the commutative law. A number of approaches have been suggested using noncommutative groups and it is hoped that some of these approaches can lead to advantages over the current methods. Some of the leading experts in group-based cryptography, as well as experts in classical cryptography attended. The City College of New York is a minority-serving institution and local graduate students were able to attend some of the talks.
