In 2006 a special semester on Gr] obner bases and related methods was or- nized by RICAM and RISC, directed by Bruno Buchberger and Heinz Engl. The main focus of the semester were the development of the formal theory of Gr] obner bases (brie?y GB), the e?cient implementation of all algorithms related to this theory, and the promotion of recent and new applications of GB. The workshop D1 "Gr] obner bases in cryptography, coding theory and - gebraic combinatorics," Linz, May 1-6, 2006 (chairmen M. Klin, L. Perret, M. Sala) was one of the main ingredients of the semester. The last two days of this workshop, devoted to combinatorics, made it possible to bring together experts in algorithmic problems related to coherent con?gurations and as- ciation schemes with a community of people working in the area of GB. Each side was interested in understanding the computational problems and current algorithmicpossibilitiesoftheother, withaparticularobjectiveofintroducing the practical use of GB in algebraic combinatorics. Materials (mainly slides of lectures and posters) available from the site http: //www.ricam.oeaw.ac.at/specsem/srs/groeb/schedule D1.htmlprovidea helpful and vivid picture of the successful exchange of scienti?c information during the workshop D1. Asafollow-uptothespecialsemester,10volumesofproceedingsarebeing published by di?erent publishers. The current collection of papers re?ects diverse investigations in the area of algebraic combinatorics (with or without explicit use of GB), but with a de?nite emphasis on algorithmic approaches."

This volume provides an introduction to dessins d'enfants and embeddings of bipartite graphs in compact Riemann surfaces. The first part of the book presents basic material, guiding the reader through the current field of research. A key point of the second part is the interplay between the automorphism groups of dessins and their Riemann surfaces, and the action of the absolute Galois group on dessins and their algebraic curves. It concludes by showing the links between the theory of dessins and other areas of arithmetic and geometry, such as the abc conjecture, complex multiplication and Beauville surfaces. Dessins d'Enfants on Riemann Surfaces will appeal to graduate students and all mathematicians interested in maps, hypermaps, Riemann surfaces, geometric group actions, and arithmetic.

An elementary account of many aspects of classical complex function theory, including Mobius transformations, elliptic functions, Riemann surfaces, Fuchsian groups and modular functions. The book is based on lectures given to advanced undergraduate students and is well suited as a textbook for a second course in complex function theory.

An undergraduate-level introduction to number theory, with the emphasis on fully explained proofs and examples. Exercises, together with their solutions are integrated into the text, and the first few chapters assume only basic school algebra. Elementary ideas about groups and rings are then used to study groups of units, quadratic residues and arithmetic functions with applications to enumeration and cryptography. The final part, suitable for third-year students, uses ideas from algebra, analysis, calculus and geometry to study Dirichlet series and sums of squares. In particular, the last chapter gives a concise account of Fermat's Last Theorem, from its origin in the ancient Babylonian and Greek study of Pythagorean triples to its recent proof by Andrew Wiles.

In 2006 a special semester on Gr. obner bases and related methods was or- nized by RICAM and RISC, directed by Bruno Buchberger and Heinz Engl. The main focus of the semester were the development of the formal theory of Gr. obner bases (brie?y GB), the e?cient implementation of all algorithms related to this theory, and the promotion of recent and new applications of GB. The workshop D1 "Gr. obner bases in cryptography, coding theory and - gebraic combinatorics", Linz, May 1-6, 2006 (chairmen M. Klin, L. Perret, M. Sala) was one of the main ingredients of the semester. The last two days of this workshop, devoted to combinatorics, made it possible to bring together experts in algorithmic problems related to coherent con?gurations and as- ciation schemes with a community of people working in the area of GB. Each side was interested in understanding the computational problems and current algorithmicpossibilitiesoftheother,withaparticularobjectiveofintroducing the practical use of GB in algebraic combinatorics. Materials (mainly slides of lectures and posters) available from the site http://www.ricam.oeaw.ac.at/specsem/srs/groeb/schedule D1.htmlprovidea helpful and vivid picture of the successful exchange of scienti? c information during the workshop D1. Asafollow-uptothespecialsemester,10volumesofproceedingsarebeing published by di?erent publishers. The current collection of papers re?ects diverse investigations in the area of algebraic combinatorics (with or without explicit use of GB), but with a de?nite emphasis on algorithmic approaches.

This book provides an elementary introduction to Information Theory and Coding Theory - two related aspects of the problem of how to transmit information efficiently and accurately. The first part of the book focuses on Information Theory, covering uniquely decodable and instantaneous codes, Huffman coding, entropy, information channels, and Shannon's Fundamental Theorem. In the second part, on Coding Theory, linear algebra is used to construct examples of such codes, such as the Hamming, Hadamard, Golay and Reed-Muller codes.The book emphasises carefully explained proofs and worked examples; exercises (with solutions) are integrated into the text as part of the learning process. Only some basic probability theory and linear algebra, together with a little calculus (as covered in most first-year university syllabuses), is assumed, making it suitable for second- and third-year undergraduates in mathematics, electronics and computer science.

This volume provides an introduction to dessins d'enfants and embeddings of bipartite graphs in compact Riemann surfaces. The first part of the book presents basic material, guiding the reader through the current field of research. A key point of the second part is the interplay between the automorphism groups of dessins and their Riemann surfaces, and the action of the absolute Galois group on dessins and their algebraic curves. It concludes by showing the links between the theory of dessins and other areas of arithmetic and geometry, such as the abc conjecture, complex multiplication and Beauville surfaces. Dessins d'Enfants on Riemann Surfaces will appeal to graduate students and all mathematicians interested in maps, hypermaps, Riemann surfaces, geometric group actions, and arithmetic.