| EPSRC Reference: |
EP/M022641/1 |
| Title: |
CoDiMa (CCP in the area of Computational Discrete Mathematics) |
| Principal Investigator: |
Linton, Professor S |
| Other Investigators: |
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| Researcher Co-Investigators: |
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| Project Partners: |
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| Department: |
Computer Science |
| Organisation: |
University of St Andrews |
| Scheme: |
Standard Research - NR1 |
| Starts: |
01 March 2015 |
Ends: |
29 February 2020 |
Value (£): |
294,007
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| EPSRC Research Topic Classifications: |
| Algebra & Geometry |
Logic & Combinatorics |
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| EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications: |
| No relevance to Underpinning Sectors |
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| Related Grants: |
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| Panel History: |
| Panel Date | Panel Name | Outcome |
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24 Nov 2014
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CCP Networking Call
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Announced
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Summary on Grant Application Form |
Computational Discrete Mathematics applied computers to a number of areas within pure mathematics,
including abstract algebra, combinatorics and number theory and their applications in, for instance,
cryptography, network routing, experimental design and others. Although less visible than the use
of numerical methods in solving continuous problems such as differential equations, computation in
discrete mathematics has an equally long history.
The project is aimed at the community-building activities centred around the two main open-source
software systems, GAP and Sage. GAP (www.gap-system.org) is a 25 year old software package widely
used for computations in important areas of pure mathematics, especially in abstract algebra, the
mathematics of structure and symmetry. The Sage project is a free open-source general mathematics
software system, started in 2005 with the ambitious aim of providing an open-source alternative
to such well-established closed systems. Sage builds on the Python and incorporates dozens of
open-source mathematical packages, in particular GAP, Singular, PARI/GP and others.
GAP and Sage both have quite well established user communities in the UK and internationally.
However these communities are limited in a two ways, which the CCP is designed to address.
Firstly they are limited by discipline -- while finite group theorists are well aware of GAP,
for instance, few physicists or computer scientists are; while Sage is well known in number
theory research, it is still not much used in the UK for mixed symbolic-numeric work; etc.
Secondly the level of involvement of users is limited. Users need support to become programmers;
programmers to become package authors and package authors to become contributors to the core
system and all need support to best use parallel programming.
The proposed software management and user support activity underpins the whole project. The
CCP will provide baseline support in these areas which will have a direct impact on GAP's
sustainability. It will support the rollout of its next mainstream version, GAP 5, which
supports shared memory parallelism, and will facilitate the transition to GAP 5 in the user
and developer communities.
For the Sage system, of which GAP is an essential component, the CCP funding will facilitate
tighter Sage-GAP integration, in particular regarding memory management and parallelisation,
and incorporating into Sage as many GAP packages as possible; the latter currently is done
on an ad hoc basis, is hard to maintain and error-prone.
Last but not the least, closer GAP-Sage collaboration will allow GAP to learn from the newer
Sage project which has been very successful in using modern tools and software development
workflows and in being exceptionally welcoming to new developers.
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Key Findings |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Potential use in non-academic contexts |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Impacts |
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| Description |
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk |
| Summary |
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| Date Materialised |
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Sectors submitted by the Researcher |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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| Project URL: |
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| Further Information: |
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| Organisation Website: |
http://www.st-and.ac.uk |