5/25/2008: Groups of Symmetries: From Points to Tilings of the Plane (Talia Fernos)

In this workshop we will introduce the modern day notion of a group through the study of symmetry. We will study objects by looking at their symmetries and study the symmetries by looking at the objects on which they act. This modern day perspective on groups has flourished into an area of research called geometric group theory. Through the workshop, we hope to understand what types of planar symmetries there are and how they lead to various tilings, or tessellations of the plane.