Rotation distance, triangulations and hyperbolic geometry

Corneliu Hoffman (https://github.com/corneliuhoffman) presents the paper:

"Rotation distance, triangulations and hyperbolic geometry"

by D.D. Sleator, R.E. Tarjan, W.P. Thurston (1988, downloadable from https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~sleator/papers/rotation-distance.pdf)

Abstract

This is a 30 years old paper with some lovely connections between really cool maths and computing. The talk is going to explain the Sleator-Tarjan-Thurston approach while also introducing some cool maths and perhaps some connections to physics. There would be no real proofs. This work has also been been made combinatorial here:
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1207.6296.pdf

The Speaker

Corneliu (https://githubcom/corneliuhoffman) is a mathematician and currently software developer at Droit. Until a few months ago he worked in academia teaching and doing research in Group Theory. Aside from Group Theory he is interested in logic, Theorem Proving and Type Theory especially as they relate to education.

Location:

Wellcome Trust
Jenner Room
215 Euston Road
London NW1 2BE
https://goo.gl/maps/njW8Gp38P6q

The nearest tube station is Euston/Euston Square. The schedule:

• 6.30pm: pizza and drinks
• 7:00pm: presentation starts
• 8:00pm: presentation end

Meetup are captured on video and uploaded on the PWL London Youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEYe-1uDIkjPtuH_qhoybnA