Speakers:

William F. Shadwick (University of Waterloo)
Robert B. Gardner (University of North Carolina)

A Series of Four Seminars led by R. B. Gardner and W. F. Shadwick to introduce researchers in control theory and geometric mechanics to E. Cartan's method of equivalence. The preparation assumed of the participants is a working knowledge of exterior algebras, manifolds, principal fiber bundles and Lie groups. Topics will include:

1. Ordinary differential equations, symmetries and Lie pseudogroups.

2. The equivalence problem of E. Cartan, illustrated by control systems and mechanical systems.

3. Lifting, princial components, Lie algebra compatible absorption, reduction of structure groups.

4. Involutive systems and prolongation, ouline of solutions to problems to illustrative problems.