Mathematics Colloquia and Seminars

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In this talk we will introduce error correcting codes. We will start with a simple example that was used by the Mariner 9 to transmit images of Mars to earth. Next, we will discuss a more sophisticated code that is constructed using finite geometry. This will be an example of a Low Density Parity Check code. These codes were discovered by Robert G. Gallager in the 1960's. The key ingredient in their construction is a sparse parity check matrix. One way to obtain such a matrix is from the incidence graph of a geometry which is where finite geometry enters the picture.