Abstract:  This talk will build a careful foundation for modeling knit objects using graphs in order to explore equivalences between knittable objects and well known graph structures and build theory for the complexity of determining knittability of graph structures. This discussion will also relate knitting properties with the topological genus of graphs and explore restrictions of general graph algorithms which are uniquely motivated by the knitting process. This foundation will be used to represent real-world knitting patterns and illustrate considerations of visualizing such patterns through force-directed graph layout algorithms.

Al Scott, a native of Worcester, Massachusetts, obtained a doctorate in Electrical Engineering from MIT in 1961. During the early 1970’s his research interests led to important contributions to the then emerging field of soliton mathematics and nonlinear wave propagation. He became one of the leading figures in the new field of nonlinear science and a founding editor of Physica D, the first journal devoted to the study of nonlinear phenomena. He was very interested in the role of nonlinear dynamics in modeling biological systems and, in particular, its applications to neuroscience.

In addition to many scholarly papers on a wide variety of topics he wrote several books on neuroscience and nonlinear science and was the editor of the comprehensive Encyclopedia of Nonlinear Science published in 2005. He joined the faculty of the Mathematics Department at the University of Arizona in 1985 and became a member of the University’s Program in Applied Mathematics. He retired from the University in 2000. His many contributions to the life of both the Program in Applied Mathematics and the Department of Mathematics were characterized by a civilized and good-humored approach to academic life. He was particularly encouraging of graduate students and it is this characteristic that is the basis for the Al Scott Prize and Lecture. The annually awarded prize is given to a senior student in the Program in Applied Mathematics and consists of a cash prize and a lecture in the Applied Mathematics Colloquium series.