Speaker:  Dr. Frank Ruskey

Abstract:

Venn diagrams are familiar to most of us. But did you know that Venn diagrams exist for more than three categories? That they can be drawn symmetrically for an arbitrarily large numbers of categories? That they can be drawn nicely on a tennis ball? That there are many interesting unresolved problems about them? Problems that are easy to state and understand, but fiendishly difficult to solve?

In this talk we will review the interesting history of Venn diagrams, their basic properties, and some of their many practical uses. The talk will be lavishly illustrated with various Venn diagrams: some of historical note, some of practical utility, many of mathematical interest and many newly discovered.

Bio of speaker: 

Frank Ruskey is a professor of Computer Science at the University of Victoria. His main research interests are in combinatorial algorithms and combinatorial mathematics, with emphasis on  Gray codes and Venn diagrams.