The n-Category Café

Here’s the description:

Categorical diagrams have multiple applications in mathematics (algebra, topology) and computer science (models and metamodels, rewriting systems, higher order languages). Diagrams (understood less strictly) can be found in physics, chemistry and other scientific domains. One meets many similar problems in computer-assisted treatment of diagrams in all these domains concerning algorithms, graphic interfaces, interaction with systems of computer algebra and other software. In spite of importance of diagrammatic methods, they are relatively little developped and underrepresented in the world of computer-assisted reasoning.

This workshop aims to bring together researchers working on these subjects, to assess the current state of the art and identify open problems and future research directions.

The main topics may be listed (non-exhaustively) as follows: algorithms that may be used in computer-assisted treatment of diagrams, treatment of diagrams in existing computer algebra systems, formal developments related to diagrams and category theory in proof-assistants, user interfaces and graphics for categorical diagrams.

There will be space for talks presenting original work, work in progress, applications, survey of previous works. We plan to provide sufficient time for discussions. Details on paper submission will be given in a further announcement.

Papers presented at the workshop will be published on the web site of the workshop and may be selected for submission, in complete and revised form, to a special issue of an international journal, in case their number and quality justify it.

Devoted readers of This Week’s Finds will know of Yves Lafont’s work on diagram rewriting and higher categories, and perhaps also Sergei Soloviev’s work on determining isomorphisms between objects in free symmetric monoidal closed categories, and the relation between this issue and Tarski’s ‘high school algebra problem’. Good stuff!