From: bquigley@dimacs.rutgers.edu WORKSHOP ON GROUPS AND COMPUTATION Rutgers University, June 7-9, 1995 Computational group theory is an interdisciplinary field involving the use of groups to solve problems in computer science and mathematics. The workshop will explore the interplay of research which has taken place in a number of broad areas: Symbolic algebra which has led to the development of algorithms for group--theoretic computation and large integrated software packages (such as Cayley, Magma and Gap). Theoretical computer science which has studied the complexity of computation with groups. Group theory which has provided new tools for understanding the structure of groups, both finite and infinite. Applications of group computation within mathematics or computer science, which have dealt with such diverse subjects as simple groups, combinatorial search, routing on interconnection networks of processors, the analysis of data, and problems in geometry and topology. The primary workshop theme is to understand the algorithmic and mathematical obstructions to efficient computations with groups. This will require an assessment of algorithms that have had effective implementations and recently developed algorithms that have improved worst--case asymptotic times. Many algorithms of these two types depend heavily on structural properties of groups (such as properties of simple groups in the finite case), both for motivation and correctness proofs, while other algorithms have depended more on novel data structures than on group theory. The scientific program will consist of a limited number of invited lectures and short research announcements, as well as informal discussions and software demonstrations. Although it is likely that individual talks will have a theoretical or practical focus, it has become increasingly recognized since the first DIMACS Workshop on Groups and Computation that there are no clear dividing lines between theory and practice. Experience has shown that a thorough discussion of implementation issues produces a deeper understanding of the mathematical underpinnings for group computations, leading both to new algorithms and to improvements of existing ones. Some background for these discussions will be obtained through software produced by several participants. Organizers are Larry Finkelstein (Northeastern Univ.; {\tt laf@ccs.neu.edu}), William M. Kantor (Univ. of Oregon; {\tt kantor@bright.uoregon.edu}) and Charles C. Sims (Rutgers Univ.; {\tt sims@math.rutgers.edu}). Contact the organizers or DIMACS for information about attending.