AMS Special Session on Languages and Groups

AMS Special Session on
Languages and Groups
Stevens Institute, Hoboken NJ
April 14-15, 2007

Where and When

The special session will be April 14-15 on the campus of Stevens Institute.

The AMS page about the meeting is 2007 Spring AMS Eastern Section Meeting

Schedule of talks

Talks are 20 minutes with a 10 minute questions/break. Talks will be held in Room 130, Edwin A. Stevens Building. See map below. There should be lots of time for discussions during Saturday lunch and after 4pm Saturday.

If you in town Friday Apr 13, Sarah Rees is speaking at the CUNY Graduate Center at 4pm.

Saturday morning session

9:30 a.m. On groups with $L$-presentations.
Zoran \v{S}uni\'{c}*, Texas A&M University
10:00 a.m. The automata that define representations of monomial algebras.
Sarah E. Rees*, University of Newcastle
10:30 a.m. Groups and Counters.
Murray Elder, Stevens Institute of Technology
Mark Kambites*, University of Manchester
Gretchen Ostheimer, Hofstra University

11:10 a.m.-12:00 p.m. Invited Address: Elisabeth Werner, Case Western Reserve University Convex bodies: Best and random approximation. Room 118, Burchard

1:30 p.m.-2:20 p.m. Invited Address: Neal Koblitz, University of Washington, Seattle Stormy marriage---A Periodizaton of the History of the Relationship between Mathematics and Cryptography. Room 118, Burchard

Saturday afternoon session

2:30 p.m. Garside Groups Have FFTP.
Derek F. Holt*, University of Warwick
3:00 p.m. Generic and Structural Properties of Random Automata.
Parisa Babaali*, Stevens Institute of Technology
3:30 p.m. Growth in Baumslag-Solitar groups: Subgroups and rationality.
Eric M Freden*, Southern Utah University
Caroline Nielson, Southern Utah University

Sunday

Sunday morning session

9:30 a.m. Automata, infinite words and groups acting on trees.
Denis Serbin*, McGill University
10:00 a.m. The Cayley semigroup of a finite semigroup.
Avi Mintz*, Hunter College
10:30 a.m. The submonoid and rational subset membership problems for graph groups.
Markus Lohrey, Universit\"at Stuttgart, FMI
Benjamin Steinberg*, Carleton University

Note that there is also a session on Mathematical Aspects of Cryptography. On Sunday afternoon their talks are:

2:30 p.m. Public key exchange: a new twist in the old plot.
Vladimir Shpilrain*, The City College of New York
3:10 p.m. Non-commutative Digital Signature.
Delaram Kahrobaei*, City University of New York
3:50 p.m. Generic Subgroups of Amalgams and Cryptography.
Benjamin Fine*, Fairfield University
Alexei Myasnikov, McGill University
Gerhard Rosenberger, Universitat Dortmund

Information for speakers

The meeting room will have whiteboards, transparency projector, and computer projector. You may send via email your computer slides to Murray before the meeting, or bring your own laptop to use with the projector.

Slides from talks

Organizers

Sean Cleary, The City College of New York
Murray Elder, Stevens Institute
Gretchen Ostheimer, Hofstra University

Registration

There will be a registration fee of about $40 for AMS or CMS members, $60 for nonmembers and $5 for emeritus members, students, or unemployed mathematicians. Participants can register at the meeting on Saturday.

Accommodation

Let us know if you can't find suitable accommodation. We recommend staying in Manhattan or Jersey City.

Location

Stevens Institute is a private univeristy with strong engineering programs, just across the Hudson River from New York City.

There is some information about getting to Stevens:

Campus map. Meeting will take place in the E.A. Stevens building, number 1 on this map.
Using public transit.
How to get from the PATH station to Stevens. The E.A. Stevens building is on River Terrace on the top of this map.
Driving directions. Parking could be tricky - more information will be posted here.

Travel possiblities to Stevens include:

Train: Hoboken is on the PATH trains, and Stevens is a short walk from the Hoboken PATH terminal. PATH stations in New York on the direct line to Hoboken are at 33rd St (Herald Square), 23rd, 14th, 9th and Christopher Streets (see this map) so staying someplace near any of those stations would be great. The 33rd St PATH station is easy to get to from the 34th St Herald Square station for the B, D, F, N, Q, R, V and W subway lines, so staying someplace along any of those lines is good, as would using the L line to get to the 14th St PATH station.
Bus: NJ Transit bus number 126 from Port Authority bus station direct to Washington Street (get out at 6th st). $2:30, exact fare required.
Driving: Parking
Participants are encouraged to park in the River lot located on Sinatra Drive. When you arrive on campus, ask to be directed to the River lot.
Do not park on the side of the streets requiring permits! Violators will be ticketed and "booted" (illegal parking fine is US$126; if your car is booted and towed, towing charges will also apply). Participants may find the metered parking side of the street to be inconvenient because they require frequent (every two to four hours) insertion of coins. .
There are ferries from Manhattan to Hoboken.

If you have any questions, please contact the organizers.

Free time

Participants are welcome to use the Algebraic Cryptography Center, Room 308 in Peirce (number 8 on the campus map, which has whiteboards, couches and an expresso machine (and tea etc.) Washington Street has restaurants, pubs etc. The best cafe in Mola - Wash st between 6th and 5th.

There will be a reception 5:30-6:30 in the Babbio Building on Saturday evening hosted by the Stevens Institute Mathematics Department.