5-day minicourse on Symmetry Studies Eindhoven, March 14 - 18, 2005 organized in cooperation with
Prof. Marlos Viana University of Illinois at Chicago USA	Prof. Arjeh Cohen TU Eindhoven The Netherlands

Marlos Viana is Associate Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He received his PhD from Stanford University under I. Olkin and his MSc. and BSc. from the Federal University at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where he received the guidance of L. Nachbin and his colleagues at the Mathematics Institute. His areas of professional activities include theoretical and applied interests, both in statistics and mathematics. Some of his recent work concentrates on symmetry studies, structured data, scientific reasoning, statistical optics, combined statistical inference, order statistics, statistical assessment of screening tests and instrumentation, and Bayesian inference. Prof. Viana has given invited lectures and short courses and visited at several institutions. He is also director of the Laboratory for Statistical Assessment of clinical tests at the University of Illinois. In 1982 he received the F. Figueira Award from the Brazilian Academy of Medicine (in collaboration with C. Santanna), for pioneering research on the association between respiratory problems and passive smoking in children. His forthcoming book "Structured Data - An Introduction to the Study of Symmetry in Applications" will be published by Cambridge University Press.

Arjeh Cohen studied mathematics and theoretical computer science at Utrecht, where he obtained his Ph.D. degree in 1975. He worked at the Openbaar Lichaam Rijnmond (Rotterdam), the Technische Universiteit Twente (Enschede), CWI (Amsterdam), and at the Universiteit Utrecht, where he became a full professor in 1990. Since 1992, he has been a full professor of Discrete Mathematics at the Technische Universiteit Eindhoven. He is the scientific director of RIACA, chairman of the board of the research school EIDMA, and president of the OpenMath Society. He occupied visiting positions in Ann Arbor, Ber Sheva, Jerusalem, Kobe, Naples, Pasadena, Rome, Santa Cruz, and Sydney. Cohen's main scientific contributions are in groups and geometries of Lie type, and in algorithms for algebras and their implementations. He is also known for his work on interactive mathematical documents. Nine students have received a Ph.D. under his supervision. Currently, he is on the editorial board of three research journals and the ACM book series of Springer-Verlag. He published 86 papers, coauthored four books, and (co-)edited another eight.

Contents
The aim of the course is introducing the theory and methods of symmetry studies, including the notions of structured data and data reduction by symmetrically equivalent components. The motivation is derived from a variety of disciplines, including physics, chemistry and molecular biology, where notions of symmetry play a significant role proposing natural models, and from the intent of applying these principles to the analysis of experimental data. With the language and methods of symmetry studies, newer questions and potential answers may eventually be identified. The course will introduce new algebraic methods to systematically decompose a varied of large, structured sets of data with the purpose of simplifying and better understanding these data. Specialized computing tools will also be introduced to facilitate the practicing of these analysis.
Detailed overview: http://www.uic.edu/~viana/symmetry_studies_overview.pdf

The course starts by Arjeh Cohen who will provide the audience with the necessary group theory for Viana's course. This will include an introduction to the theory of group representations. The applications of this theory to the statistical analysis of structured data is the content of the last part of the minicourse by Marlos Viana.

Time and Place
Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, The Netherlands, March 14 -- 18, 2005.

Admission fee
The admission fee for this minicourse is EURO 700. However, our courses are free of charge for EIDMA members and for university students in general. Reductions or exemptions do apply to members of other academic insitiutes. For the exact conditions please see our minicourse registration form.

Registration
You can register by sending a completed registration form to ms. Henny Houben at eidma@tue.nl before the end of February 2004.
Please note that your registration is only official after our written confirmation of its receipt.