9703855 Kulkarni This award provides support for a conference on algebraic combinatorics and its applications. The conference is to be held at Oakland University in May 1998. The organizers will focus thier activity on recent developments and surveys in algebraic combinatorics. The organizers are making a special effort to stress applications of algebraic combinatorics in commutative algebra, number theory, algebraic geometry, theoretical computer science, coding theory, and mathematical physics. The organizers will encourage participation of minorities, women and graduate students. This conference will provide a timely opportunity for national and international experts in algebraic combinatorics to participate in the active exchange of new ideas and techniques, and for young researchers to broaden their horizons into applications of algebraic combinatorics. This conference is in the general area of Combinatorics. One of the goals of Combinatorics is to find efficient methods of studying how discrete collections of objects can be arranged. The behavior of discrete systems is extremely important to modern communications. For example, the design of large networks, such as those occurring in telephone systems, and the design of algorithms in computer science deal with discrete sets of objects, and this makes use of combinatorial research.
