International
conference on geometric and combinatorial methods in group theory and
semigroup theory.

Preliminary Schedule

Monday, May 15

7:30--8:40
Registration
Breakfast
Bessey 104
Bessey 108
8:50--9:00
CBA Building 143
Opening Remarks
9:00--9:50
CBA Building 143
David Epstein, University of Warwick, UK
Constructive definition of compact metric spaces
10:00--10:50
CBA Building 143
Jean-Eric Pin, LIAFA, Université Paris VII, France
Semigroups and infinite words
11:00--11:30
Break (Coffee in Bessey 108)
  Oldfather Hall 207 Oldfather Hall 208
11:30--11:50 Bill Bogley, Oregon State University, USA
Homological decision problems for groups with solvable word problem
Jorge Almeida, University of Porto, Portugal
Tameness of pseudovarieties of groups
12:00--12:20 Eric Swenson, Brigham Young Univ., USA
Infinite torsion in CAT(0) groups
Manuel Delgado, University of Porto, Portugal
Computing the abelian kernel of a finite monoid
12:30--2:30
Lunch
Oldfather Hall 207 Oldfather Hall 208
2:30--2:50 László Márki, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungary
Enlargements and Rees matrix coverings
David A. Jackson, Saint Louis University, USA
Decision problems for semigroups
3:00--3:20 Chris Hruska, Cornell University, USA
Towers, ladders, and the B.B.Newman Spelling Theorem
Christine Heitsch, Univ. California, Berkeley, USA
Computational complexity of generalized pattern matching, and an exponential lower bound on one algorithmic approach
3:30--4:00 Break (Coffee in Bessey 108)
4:00--4:50 Bessey 117
Karen Vogtmann, Cornell University, USA
Computing invariants of automoprhism groups of free groups
5:00--5:50 Bessey 117
John Rhodes, University of California, Berkeley, USA
Some of the techniques used in my proof that complexity is decidable for finite automata and semigroups
6:30--9:30 Conference Reception

Tuesday, May 16

7:30--8:45
Registration
Breakfast
Bessey 104
Bessey 108
9:00--9:50
CBA Building 143
Jean Berstel, Université Marne-la-Vallée, France
Recent results on extensions of Sturmian words
10:00--10:50
CBA Building 143
Martin Bridson, Oxford University, UK
The geometry and grammar of normal forms in discrete groups
11:00--11:30
Break (Coffee in Bessey 108)
  Oldfather Hall 207 Oldfather Hall 208
11:30--11:50 Sava Krstic, Oregon Graduate Institute, USA
Cohomology of string groups
Libor Polák, Masaryk University Brno, Czech Republic
A classification of regular languages by semilattice-ordered semigroups
12:00--12:20 Alair Pereira do Lago, Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil
Local groups in free Burnside groupoids
Stephen Pride, University of Glasgow, UK
Sphere packings for groups and monoids
12:30--2:00
Lunch
Oldfather Hall 207 Oldfather Hall 208
2:00--2:20 Xiangdong Xie, University of Utah, USA
Tits boundary and quasi-isometries between CAT(0) 2 complexes
David Peifer, Univ. North Carolina, Asheville, USA
Circular braid groups
2:30--2:50 Cornelia Drutu, Max Planck Institut, Bonn, Germany
Filling in solvable groups and in lattices
Nik Ruskuc, University of St Andrews, UK
Todd--Coxeter type method(s) for finitely presented inverse semigroups
3:00--3:20 Volker Diekert, Universität Stuttgart, Germany
Equations in free groups with rational constraints
Rick Thomas, University of Leicester, UK
The reduced word problem in groups
3:30--4:00 Break (Coffee in Bessey 108)
4:00--4:50 Bessey 117
Noel Brady, University of Oklahoma, USA
CAT(0) dimension and geometric dimension for 3-generator Artin groups
5:00--5:50 Bessey 117
Jon McCammond, Texas A&M University, USA
The curvature of posets associated to the braid groups

Wednesday, May 17

7:30--8:45
Registration
Breakfast
Bessey 104
Bessey 108
9:00--9:50
CBA Building 143
Rostislav Grigorchuk, Hebrew Univ. Jerusalem and Steklov Inst., Moscow, Russia
The presentation and algorithmic problems for branch groups
10:00--10:50
CBA Building 143
Pascal Weil, LaBRI - CNRS, Bordeaux, France
Profinite methods in semigroup theory
11:00--11:30
Break (Coffee in Bessey 108)
11:30--12:20
CBA Building 143
Victor Guba, Vologda State University, Russia
Structural results about diagram groups
Afternoon free
6:30--9:00
Conference Banquet

Thursday, May 18

7:30--8:45
Registration
Breakfast
Bessey 104
Bessey 108
9:00--9:50
CBA Building 143
Friedrich Otto, Universität Kassel, Germany
On the relationship between FDT, FHT and FP3 for finitely presented monoids
10:00--10:50
CBA Building 143
James Cannon, Brigham Young University, USA
Ample twisted face-pairing manifolds
11:00--11:30
Break (Coffee in Bessey 108)
  Oldfather Hall 207 Oldfather Hall 208
11:30--11:50 Daniel Farley, SUNY Binghamton, USA
Finiteness and CAT(0) properties of diagram groups
Isabel M. Araújo, University of St Andrews, UK
Finite generation and finite presentability of unions of semigroups
12:00--12:20 Michael Mihalik, Vanderbilt University, USA
Classifying Coxeter groups with locally connected boundary
Vlad Sergiescu, Institut Fourier, Grenoble, France
Groups almost acting on trees - an overview
12:30--2:00
Lunch
Oldfather Hall 207 Oldfather Hall 208
2:00--2:20 Robert Gilman, Stevens Institute of Technology, USA
Groups with context-free multiplication table
Lev Shneyerson, Courant Institute, USA
Growth, identities, and a bounded height condition for semigroups
2:30--2:50 Rita Gitik, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
Algorithmic problems in negatively curved groups
James Mitchell, University of St Andrews, UK
Semigroup vs. group presentations
3:00--3:20 Igor Mineyev, Univ. of South Alabama, USA
l1-homology of combable groups and 3-manifold groups
Mark Lawson, University of Wales, UK
Tiling semigroups
3:30--4:00 Break (Coffee in Bessey 108)
4:00--4:50 Bessey 117
Benjamin Steinberg, University of Porto, Portugal
Free products of LERF groups: Revisited
5:00--5:50 Bessey 117
Paul Schupp, University of Illinois, USA
Computational complexity and the uniform membership problem for Coxeter groups and Fuchsian groups

Friday, May 19

7:30--8:45
Registration
Breakfast
Bessey 104
Bessey 108
8:30--9:00
Tornado
9:00--9:50
CBA Building 143
Ruth Charney, Ohio State University, USA
Metric characterizations of buildings
10:00--10:50
CBA Building 143
Alexei Miasnikov, The City College of CUNY, USA
Genetic algorithms in algebra
11:00--11:30
Break (Coffee in Bessey 108)
  Oldfather Hall 207 Oldfather Hall 208
11:30--11:50 Andrew Duncan, Univ. of Newcastle, UK
Quadratic exponential equations in one-relator products and hyperbolic groups
Michael Hoffmann, University of Leicester, UK
Automatic and biautomatic semigroups
12:00--12:20 Murray Elder, University of Melbourne, Australia
Finiteness of almost convex groups
Akihiro Yamamura, Communications Research Laboratory, Tokyo, Japan
Embedding theorem for groups
12:30--2:00
Lunch
2:00--2:50 Bessey 117
Stuart Margolis, Bar Ilan University, Israel
Inverse semigroup theoretic methods in group theory
3:00--3:30 Break (Coffee in Bessey 108)
3:30--4:20 Bessey 117
Sapir, Vanderbilt University, USA
Some applications of Higman embeddings

End of Conference

Page last edited 5/12/00 by S. Hermiller.