Modular form 37a1 |
Interactive Parallel Computation in Support of Research in Algebra, Geometry and Number Theory |
A quad-core chip |
Computer manufacturers have begun delivering multiprocessor machines onto desktops; indeed, this seems to be the only means for continuing the pace of cpu power growth that we have become accustomed to. At the moment, general purpose mathematical software packages rarely exploit parallelism, and this is especially true in the areas of algebra, geometry, number theory, and combinatorics. Dramatic advances in performance will only be possible if parallelism can be harnessed in ways that are transparent to users.
We hope to bring together a diverse group of mathematics and computer science researchers and students to discuss algorithms, assess current prospects, and suggest ways to move forward. Talks and discussions will cover new algorithms that exploit parallelism, specific problems likely to benefit from dramatic speedups from parallelism, and strategies to encourage implementation of these ideas.
Examples of specific problems that we hope to address include:
Applications of parallel computation to numerical problems, e.g., in differential equations, linear algebra, etc., tend to have been more fully developed than in algebraic areas, so we will invite experts in those areas in order to hear about techniques that have been successful at attacking those problems.
In sum, we aim at the following benefits for the mathematical community:
Potential participants should register at the MSRI page on registration and funding. Any participant interested in giving a talk should indicate this, and include an abstract on their registration form. The deadline for applications to talk is Dec. 1, and the organizing committee will make its selection by Dec. 15. Application for financial support can also be made on the MSRI registration page; we especially encourage graduate students to apply.