COCOA VII

COmputational COmmutative Algebra
and
International School on Computer Algebra

Queen's University Kingston, Ontario, Canada
16-21 July 2001

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Dear Friends,

We are pleased to announce that the Seventh Edition of the biennial COCOA meeting will take place this coming July at Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, located on the shores of Lake Ontario and the mouth of the St. Lawrence River, near the Thousand Islands.

This year we will continue in the very successful format which was initiated in the COCOA VI meeting in Torino in 1999. The meeting COCOA VII will be preceded by a three and a half day intensive School on Computer Algebra, offered to a limited number of doctoral students and recent post doctoral fellows. The School will be followed by two and a half days of the COCOA meeting in its usual format, i.e. invited lectures, contributed papers and demonstrations of computer algebra systems.

Now for the details:

SCHOOL:
Monday July 16, 2001 - Thursday, July 19, 2001
COCOA VII:
Thursday, July 19, 2001 - Saturday July 21, 2001.

THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL

There will be two intensive courses offered in the School:

Course A: Applications of Computer Algebra - Tomas Recio and Laureano Gonzalez Vega.

Course B: Computational Commutative Algebra - Chris Peterson

Assistants for the Courses: for Course A, Gema Diaz and for Course B, Martin Kreuzer.
In addition we will have the support of John Abbott, Anna Bigatti, Massimo Caboara and David Perkinson.

Each course will run for approximately 8 hours, and to that will be added the tutorials for the courses. In addition there will be assistance available to aid in the use of the computer algebra systems CoCoA and Macaulay. Participants who own laptops are encouraged to bring them for use during the tutorials. The CoCoA software is available for installation by downloading it from the CoCoA web page, http://cocoa.dima.unige.it.

There is space in the school for at most 18 participants, who should currently be enrolled in a doctoral programme somewhere in the world or be recent postdoctoral fellows. All students who are accepted for admission to the School will receive a scholarship which will cover some of the expenses associated with their participation. Those wishing to participate in the School should submit a LETTER OF APPLICATION to either:

Lorenzo Robbiano robbiano@dima.unige.it or
Anthony Geramita geramita@dima.unige.it or tony@mast.queensu.ca.
The Letter of Application should include the applicant's CV as well as the applicant's reasons for wanting to take part in the school. There should also be included the (email) address of one mathematician who can act as referee for the application.

Applications should be submitted by March 1, 2001 and the final decisions about scholarships will be made by March 15, 2001 by the Organizing Committee (A. Geramita, L. Robbiano, T. Recio).

Those accepted to participate in the school are expected to arrive in Kingston, Ontario on Sunday, July 15 (the courses will begin on Monday morning) and remain at least until midday on Thursday, July 19. All participants in the School are encouraged (but not obligated) to remain for the COCOA VII meeting, which will begin during the afternoon of July 19.

COCOA VII

As mentioned above, the COCOA VII meeting will formally begin on Thursday afternoon (July 19) and continue until Saturday afternoon (July 21). The meeting will take place in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics (Jeffrey Hall) of Queen's University.

There is space in the programme for a limited number of research communications and demonstrations. WE encourage potential speakers to submit abstracts (in standard LaTeX or Plain TeX) for consideration by the organizers. These should be submitted by email to either Geramita or Robbiano at the email addresses given above.

ACCOMMODATIONS

The business of the conference and school, as well as the lodging of all the conference and school participants, will be on the grounds of Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario (lodging will be either in the modern student dormitory, Victoria Hall or in the University Hotel - The Donald Gordon Center).

ABOUT KINGSTON

Kingston is located on the shore of Lake Ontario near the mouth of the St. Lawrence River and near the wondrous Thousand Islands. It was, for a long time, the capital city of UPPER Canada (its neo-classical City Hall recalling this former glory).

However, during the Napoleonic Wars (the theater of war in North America known as the War of 1812) the Americans sided with the French (their allies in the not long distant War of Independence) and against the British and this exposed the lakeside city of Kingston to the attacks of the American Fleet of the Great Lakes. The capital was removed to Ottawa, never to return to Kingston again. The city, founded as the trading post called Fort Frontenac, is one of the oldest and most charming cities of North America and was the site of Olympic sailing events. In summertime it is host to tourists looking to enjoy its magnificent climate and beautiful location.

We expect to keep participants of the conference busy enough to not be distracted by these surroundings!

TRAVEL INFORMATION

Kingston is easily accessible by train, plane and automobile.

It is the center of the Toronto-Montreal train corridor and so there are many trains stopping there every day of the week.
Dorval Airport in Montreal is a 5 minute taxi ride from the Via Rail train station.
Trains also arrive in Kingston from Ottawa.
There is also air service available from Toronto's Pearson Airport.
It is possible to arrange (at a very reasonable cost - approximately $90 CDN) ground transportation from either Syracuse (New York) airport to Kingston (about a 3 hour drive) or from Ottawa airport (about a 2.5 hour ride). Those interested in this ground transportation should contact Professional Shuttle Service (Kingston) at 613 - 544-7424.

More information about costs, accommodations, method of payment, registration fees for the meeting etc. will come in the next announcement.

We look forward to seeing you in Kingston in July.
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to write to us.

Best regards,
Tony Geramita, Tomas Recio and Lorenzo Robbiano