Homology is a powerful tool used by mathematicians to study the properties of spaces and maps that are insensitive to small perturbations. This book uses a computer to develop a combinatorial computational approach to the subject. The core of the book deals with homology theory and its computation. Following this is a section containing extensions to further developments in algebraic topology, applications to computational dynamics, and applications to image processing. Included are exercises and software that can be used to compute homology groups and maps. The book will appeal to researchers and graduate students in mathematics, computer science, engineering, and nonlinear dynamics.

Homology is a powerful tool used by mathematicians to study the properties of spaces and maps that are insensitive to small perturbations. This book uses a computer to develop a combinatorial computational approach to the subject. The core of the book deals with homology theory and its computation. Following this is a section containing extensions to further developments in algebraic topology, applications to computational dynamics, and applications to image processing. Included are exercises and software that can be used to compute homology groups and maps. The book will appeal to researchers and graduate students in mathematics, computer science, engineering, and nonlinear dynamics.

This volume contains the lecture notes written by the four principal speakers at the C.I.M.E. session on Dynamical Systems held at Montecatini, Italy in June 1994. The goal of the session was to illustrate how methods of dynamical systems can be applied to the study of ordinary and partial differential equations. Topics in random differential equations, singular perturbations, the Conley index theory, and non-linear PDEs were discussed. Readers interested in asymptotic behavior of solutions of ODEs and PDEs and familiar with basic notions of dynamical systems will wish to consult this text.