CMSA E-Newsletter 1

COMBINATORIAL MATHEMATICS SOCIETY OF AUSTRALASIA (INC)

CMSA E-Newsletter Number 1 (October 1999)

INTRODUCTION: It was decided at the July 1999 24ACCMCC (24th Australasian Conference on Combinatorial Mathematics and Combinatorial Computing) in Darwin that an electronic version of a Newsletter for the Society should be started, since the paper version of a newsletter folded a few years ago.

It was anticipated that this electronic newsletter will be distributed perhaps 3 or 4 times a year.

AIMS of the newsletter:

   to promote combinatorics within Australasia
   to provide a forum for sharing combinatorial and related information
   to keep CMSA Members informed and in touch with combinatorial and related matters

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RECENT CONFERENCE REPORTS: The 24th AUSTRALASIAN CONFERENCE ON COMBINATORIAL MATHEMATICS AND COMBINATORIAL COMPUTING (24ACCMCC) was held at the Northern Territory University (NTU) on July 5-9 1999. The conference was attended by Australian and overseas mathematicians and computer scientists as well as local staff, students and some school teachers. The conference was opened by the Honourable Peter Adamson, NT Minister for Education. A varied and interesting range of talks and social activities were included.

Invited speakers and their talks were:

   Lynn M.Batten, University of Manitoba: Blocking Sets.
   Bob Blakley, Texas A&M University: A general theory of codes.
   Diane Donovan, University of Queensland: Completing Partial Latin Squares.
   Peter Eades, University of Newcastle: Graph Drawing for Mathematicians.
   Derek Holton, University of Otago: The Four Colour Theorem and Snarks.
   Curt Lindner, Auburn University: The BowTie Algorithm
   Anne Street, University of Queensland: Partial Combinatorial Designs.
   Bill Unger, University of Sydney: Combinatorial Theory in MAGMA.
   Sue Whitesides, McGill University: Geometric Representation of Graphs.

About 30 other talks were given as well as an education discussion session.

The Combinatorial Mathematics Society of Australasia (CMSA) held its AGM.

A highlight of the conference was the presentation to Professor Anne Street (University of Queensland) of the inaugural CMSA medal.

Social activities included excursions to the Adelaide River jumping crocodile trip, the Territory wildlife park, sunset yacht cruises and a conference dinner based upon Indonesian flavours at the local Chung Wah society hall.

I would like to thank the guests, the helpers, the speakers and the sponsors which include NTU, the CMSA, the Institute of Combinatorics and its Applications (ICA), Interim Technology, Nelson Thomson Learning and NTU Uniprint.

More details of the conference can be found at http://www.cs.ntu.edu.au/homepages/rsvp/ACCMCC99.html

Ian Roberts Organiser, 24ACCMCC

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FUTURE WORKSHOP AND CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENTS:

COMBINATORICS WORKSHOP at the UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND Tuesday 2 to Friday 5 November 1999

The Centre for Discrete Mathematics and Computing at the University of Queensland will be holding a Combinatorics Workshop from Tuesday 2 November to Friday 5 November 1999. There will be no registration fee, and things will be kept fairly informal.

The main areas to be covered include:

GEOMETRIES; DESIGNS AND GRAPH DECOMPOSITIONS; CRYPTOGRAPHY. However, talks with any combinatorial flavour are welcome!

INVITED PEOPLE to talk so far include:

   Ed Dawson (Queensland University of Technology) - Divide and Conquer Attacks on Certain Irregularly Clocked Stream Ciphers
   Ebad Mahmoodian (Sharif University, Iran)
   Christine O'Keefe (Universiteit Gent/Adelaide)
   Tim Penttila (University of Western Australia) - Generalised quadrangles, translation planes and flocks of cones
   Chris Rodger (Auburn University, USA)

All are welcome. For more details, registering your interest, offering contributed talks etc, please contact ejb@maths.uq.edu.au Elizabeth J. Billington, Dept Mathematics, University of Queensland, 4072. Ph (07) 3365 2313, Fax (07) 3365 1477.

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FINITE AND TOPOLOGICAL GEOMETRY WORKSHOP Workshop on Finite and Topological Geometry and Related Topics hosted by the Institute for Geometry and its Applications at the University of Adelaide, 17 -- 21 January 2000.

Following successful workshops in the summers of 1998 and 1999, the University of Adelaide Institute for Geometry and its Applications will host a Finite and Topological Geometry Workshop during the week 17--21 January 2000.

It is envisaged that we will have a relatively small number of talks, of varying lengths, to leave plenty of time for the other aspect of the workshop.

We hope that participants will be able to prepare and present on Monday a proposal for a research problem or problems that they wish to share with other participants and which could be begun during the week of the workshop. We will have plenty of time and room available for this purpose.

There is no registration fee, and all interested are welcome.

Location : The workshop will be held in the (brand new) Engineering and Mathematics Building at the University of Adelaide, Australia.

Invited Speakers : so far include Professor Aart Blokhuis (Technical University of Eindhoven/Free University of Amsterdam), Professor Frank De Clerck (University of Ghent), Professor Andreas Schroth (University of Braunschweig) and Professor Hendrik Van Maldeghem (University of Ghent). In addition there are several surprise participants not yet confirmed.

Financial Support : There may be a small amount of financial support available to interstate and overseas participants, with graduate students being given priority. Please indicate if you wish to be considered for support.

Accommodation : If you need accommodation, please let us know.

Registration : If you wish to attend, please return (by email) the following registration form to Christine O'Keefe, preferably by 1 December 1999. Although there is no registration fee the IGA would like to have accurate records of the attendees.

For more information, please contact Christine O'Keefe or Burkard Polster (Organisers), Department of Pure Mathematics, University of Adelaide, 5005, Australia or email cokeefe@maths.adelaide.edu.au or bpolster@maths.adelaide.edu.au

REGISTRATION FORM:

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FINITE AND TOPOLOGICAL GEOMETRY WORKSHOP UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE INSTITUTE FOR GEOMETRY AND ITS APPLICATIONS 17--21 JANUARY 2000

Name:

Address:

email:

I DO/DO NOT wish to give a .... minute talk titled:

I DO/DO NOT wish to apply for financial support.

Please indicate whether you would like us to arrange accommodation for you, and give an indication of your preference.

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The 44th AUSTRALIAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY CONFERENCE will include a special session on combinatorics. This will be held at the University of Queensland from 2--5 July 2000. See the web page http://AustMS2000.maths.uq.edu.au/

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25ACCMCC will be held in Christchurch, New Zealand, from 4--8 December 2000. For more details contact Mike Steel at M.Steel@math.canterbury.ac.nz

See the webpage: http://www.math.canterbury.ac.nz/accmcc.shtml

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RECENT NEWS OF CMSA MEMBERS (akin to the ICA Bulletin information on members; but not all CMSA members are ICA Members!)

Please send in all your information!

BRENDAN McKAY has been in the news again recently in connection with the Bible Code. A CNN web page that he sent me in September is no longer valid, but in email from 10 Oct he says:

I can't find the story on CNN any more. Here is an alternative (American ABC network): http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNews/biblecode990910.html

There is a longer and more accurate press report here: http://www.slate.com/Features/codedebunk/codedebunk.asp

My own page on the subject remains: http://cs.anu.edu.au/~bdm/dilugim/StatSci

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FUTURE NEWSLETTER SECTIONS WILL ALSO INCLUDE:

   Lists of recent Australasian combinatorial PhD theses
   Preprints available from CMSA members
   A problems section
   A list of visitors, dates etc.
   Discrete mathematics education section

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NEWSLETTER FORMAT: At this stage the Newsletter is in this rather simple format. Shortly we shall endeavour to make the newsletters available from the CMSA home page http://www.math.fsc.qut.edu.au/cmsa/

However, members will still be informed by email when a new issue is available online there.

Please SEND IN your news items, no matter how small or large, preferably by email, to:

Elizabeth J. Billington

Department of Mathematics

ejb@maths.uq.edu.au

University of Queensland

CMSA E-Newsletter Editor.

Australia 4072

CLOSING DATE FOR ITEMS FOR ISSUE 2: 24 December 1999.

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