Design in Combinatorics and Statistics
LMS/EPSRC Short Course
Queen Mary, University of London, 9-13 September 2002
The London Mathematical Society Research Meetings Committee has approved
a proposal for a Short Course entitled "Design in Combinatorics and Statistics"
to take place at
Queen Mary, University of London, in the week 9-13 September
2002. The course is sponsored by the
London Mathematical Society and the
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.
The course is organised by R. A. Bailey, Peter J. Cameron, Ruth Silverstone
and Sharon Woolf.
Description
Many topics in Combinatorial Design originated in
Statistics. Two-designs began life as balanced incomplete-block
designs for agricultural field trials; symmetric designs from Hadamard
matrices originated in efficient factorial designs for industrial
experiments; association schemes were invented for partially balanced
incomplete-block designs. In other instances there has been parallel
development under different names; for example, nets are the same
thing as square lattice designs and linear codes the same as the duals
of fractional factorial designs.
However, the knowledge that these topics cross from Combinatorics into
Statistics has been lost on both sides, particularly at beginning PhD
level, with the result that there can be much reinvention of the
wheel. The aim of this course is to give PhD students in both
Combinatorics and Statistics the basic building blocks in the area and
to give them the language to be able to understand one another's
literature.
Moreover, the course will give these PhD students an opportunity to
meet other PhD students and PDRAs, both in their own area and in the
other, and discuss their research interests in this wider group.
Lecture topics
There will be three short courses of lectures in the programme:
Combinatorial Design
This course, by
Dr. Ian Anderson,
University of Glasgow, will cover:
- t-designs
- symmetric designs and Hadamard matrices
- projective and affine geometries
- orthogonal arrays
- codes
Statistical Design
This course, by
Professor R. A. Bailey,
Queen Mary, will cover:
- block designs and efficiency factors
- lattice designs
- factorial designs, including Plackett-Burman designs
- Latin squares
- orthogonal block structures
Interface
This course, by
Professor Peter Cameron,
Queen Mary, will cover:
- basic algebra (Abelian groups, finite fields, real symmetric matrices)
- two languages for incomplete-block designs
- factorial designs and codes
- chamber systems versus geometries
- association schemes
In addition, there will be three guest lectures:
- Dr Leonard Soicher (Queen Mary): "Computational methods for
combinatorial design theory"
- Dr Mike Grannell (Open University): "Topological design theory"
- Professor Donald Preece (University of Kent and Queen Mary): "Bringing
on the dancing girls"
Further information
The class tutors are Peter Dobcsányi and Matt Ollis.
A provisional timetable is available here in
PDF format. On Wednesday (time to be announced) there will be a presentation
by Carol Wallace, Associate Mathematics Programme Manager at EPSRC, on
funding opportunities; she will answer questions about the EPSRC mathematics
programme.
Peter J. Cameron
13 August 2002.