06271 Executive Summary - Challenges in Symbolic Computation Software

Symbolic computation software allows mathematicians, scientists, engineers, or educators to deal with elaborate calculations using a computer. The applications range from introducing the experimental method in fields of pure mathematics to practical applications, for instance, in cryptology, robotics, or signal theory. The software includes mainstream commercial products such as Maple or Mathematica and highly specialized, public domain systems such as CoCoa, Macaulay2, or Singular. Symbolic computation software implements a variety of sophisticated algorithms on polynomials, matrices, combinatorial structures, and other mathematical objects in a multitude of different dense, sparse, or implicit (black box) representations. The subject of the seminar was innovation in algorithms and software, bringing algorithm designers, software builders, and software users together