PhD Qualifying Examination


"The Art of Metric Embeddings - A technique oriented approach"

Mr. Qin ZHANG


Abstract:

During the last two decades, embeddings into finite metric spaces has
emerged as an important area of research in both discrete mathematics and
computer science. The powerful techniques underlying this research find
numerous applications in the design and analysis of algorithms. In this
survey, we try to cover the basic approach and techniques, as well as some
of their applications.

Unlike most surveys, we do not put as much emphasis on the results
achieved in this burgeoning field. The reason is that metric embedding is
such a wide domain that it seems impossible for us to present a
comprehensive review in a short survey. Instead, we try to uncover the
most essential ideas and techniques used in the field and relate them to
similar methods used in other areas. We hope this approach would be useful
to people who wish to understand why and how metric embeddings can yield
so many deep and surprising results in algorithm design.


Date:     		Thursday, 30 August 2007

Time:                   2:00p.m.-4:00p.m.

Venue:                  Room 3416
			lifts 17-18

Committee Members:      Dr. Mordecai Golin (Supervisor)
			Dr. Siu-Wing Cheng (Chairperson)
			Dr. Ke Yi
			Dr. Lap Chi Lau (CSE, CUHK)


**** ALL are Welcome ****