Prairie Discrete Math Workshop (15w2206)

The Banff International Research Station will host the "Prairie Discrete Math Workshop" workshop from August 7th to August 9th, 2015.

Discrete mathematics is a branch of math that has applications to computer science. It includes the study of networks, experimental design, and the encoding of data. The prairie provinces have a number of strong research groups within this field. The distances can make it hard to interact, so these groups need a recurring workshop to bring them together, to exchange ideas and expand the excellent research that already takes place here.

The ``Prairie Discrete Math Workshop" was established to fill this need. The first gathering was held in Regina in 2002, there have been workshops held almost every year in various locations across the prairies and into BC, including Regina, Lethbridge, Winnipeg, Kelowna, Calgary, and Kamloops (with two or three workshops having been held in several of these locations). Unfortunately, no workshop was organised in 2014, so this represents both the first time for the workshop to be held in Banff, and a revival of this workshop.

The Banff International Research Station for Mathematical Innovation and Discovery (BIRS) is a collaborative Canada-US-Mexico venture that provides an environment for creative interaction as well as the exchange of ideas, knowledge, and methods within the Mathematical Sciences, with related disciplines and with industry. The research station is located at The Banff Centre in Alberta and is supported by Canada's Natural Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), Alberta's Advanced Education and Technology, and Mexico's Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACYT).