Faculty Advisor

Beezer, Robert

Area of Study

Science and Mathematics

Publication Date

Summer 2013

Abstract

The concept of a finitely presented group is a topic which students do not normally see until graduate school. Through contributions to the open source computer algebra system Sage, I was able to accomplish my goal of making finitely presented groups more accessible to undergraduate students. Implementing this goal required a series of smaller tasks, all building together to expand the original framework regarding this type of group representation. I began my research by creating a catalogue of named groups easily accessible to the user as finitely presented group objects, along with a method to convert from a permutation group to an isomorphic group presentation. Once I implemented the functionality for easily initializing specific group presentations, I began working with operations involving these groups such as direct product and semidirect product. Thanks to my contributions to the Sage source code, undergraduate algebra students can now create the typical groups seen in their course work with a single command, as well as manipulate and understand these groups using tools that are similarly accessible to them.

Publisher

University of Puget Sound

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