Monday, February 8, 2016

[DMANET] DIMACS Workshop on Distance Geometry, 26-29 July 2016

DIMACS Workshop on
Distance Geometry: Theory and Applications
26-29 July 2016 at DIMACS, Rutgers University, NJ, USA
http://dimacs.rutgers.edu/Workshops/Distance/
Call for posters and participation

Chairs:
Farid Alizadeh (Rutgers Univ.)
Leo Liberti (CNRS and Ecole Polytechnique, France)

Scientific advisory committee:
Amir Ali Ahmadi (Princeton)
Marcia Fampa (Univ. Fed. Rio de Janeiro)
Bill Jackson (Queen Mary, Univ. London)
Nathan Krislock (Northern Illinois Univ.)
Monique Laurent (CWI, The Netherlands)
Therese Malliavin (CNRS Institut Pasteur)
Michel Petitjean (Univ. of Paris 7)
Nicolas Rojas (Yale)
Amit Singer (Princeton)
Henry Wolkowicz (Univ. Waterloo)
Yinyu Ye (Stanford)

Organization: DIMACS (Tami Carpenter, Rebecca Wright)

Distance Geometry (DG) is a field of geometry which focuses on
defining and working with geometrical objects using distances between
points rather than the points themselves. From classical results such
as Heron's theorem, Euler's conjecture on the rigidity of polyhedra,
Maxwell's forces diagrams, and the link to positive semidefinite
matrices, DG has seen a veritable "engineering renaissance" in the XX
century. DG is used in architecture (rigidity of structures), spatial
conformation of molecules from inter-atomic distances, localization of
mobile sensors in communication networks, control of unmanned
underwater vehicles, control of robotic arms, solution of problems in
spatial logic, and more. One of the foremost problems in DG is that of
completing a partially specified matrix so that it is a Euclidean
distance matrix, either in a given dimension, or in any (unspecified)
dimension. Schoenberg's link means that DG is tightly linked to
Semidefinite Programming (SDP), which is one of the most popular tools
to solve DG problems, especially in the field of sensor networks.
Because so many diverse application fields appeal to DG, its
development has been somewhat fragmented, with very similar concepts
being introduced within separate communities with different names. The
aims of this conference are: (i) to attempt to reconcile some of this
fragmentation by inviting researchers from many different disciplines
to take part; (ii) to facilitate communications of technical knowledge
between the different application field communities working on DG;
(iii) to provide incentives for unifying the field of DG.

The workshop will be based on a series of invited tutorials and
lectures. So far, the following people have accepted to speak. They
are listed in no particular order, and the list is subject to change.
Bon Connelly (Cornell), Bill Jackson (QM, Univ. London), Henry
Wolkowicz (Univ. Waterloo), Amit Singer (Princeton), Jon Lee (UMich),
Steven Gortler (Harvard), Therese Malliavin (Institut Pasteur, Paris),
Ileana Streinu (Smith College), Shin-Ichi Tanigawa (Kyoto Univ.), Abdo
Alfakih (UWindsor, Canada), Carlile Lavor (Univ. Campinas), Jayme
Swarczfiter (Univ. Fed. Rio de Janeiro), Amir Ali Ahmadi (Princeton),
Man-Cho So (Chinese Univ. Hong Kong), Marcia Fampa (Univ. Fed. Rio de
Janeiro), Tibor Jordan (Eotvos Lorand Univ.), Georgina Hall
(Princeton), Frank Parmenter (MIT), Hamza Fawzi (MIT), Pablo Parrilo
(MIT), Antonios Varvitsiotis (Nat. Univ. Singapore), Nathan Krislock
(Northern Illinois Univ.), Onur Ozyesil (Princeton), Simon Billinge
(Columbia), Douglas Goncalves (Univ. Fed. Santa Catalina, Brazil),
Martin Vetterli (EPFL).

We are organizing a poster session, for which we are calling for
posters. Please write to Leo Liberti <liberti@lix.polytechnique.fr> if
you're interested in presenting a poster.

A special issue of Discrete Applied Mathematics, dedicated to the
topic of this workshop, will be guest edited by the co-chairs.
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