Participant Testimonials
The format, and in particular the way that participants are housed and take meals together in more-or-less isolated surroundings, is a great strength of these meetings and an important factor in their productivity. The talks and more importantly the discussions which went on throughout the week, both scheduled and informal, gave me new insight into various definitions and open questions, with direct impact on ongoing work of my own. A new project was also started at the meeting as a direct result of informal discussions with two other participants.
Chemistry, University of Sheffield
I participated in the BIRS workshop on rigidity this summer. During this meeting I reconnected with two old colleagues and made new connections with 4 or 5 new ones. This may ultimately lead to very fruitful new collaborations. Working with one of the collaborators allowed us to combine techniques from our individual works that should lead to a characterization for global rigidity of periodic frameworks. Additionally, at this meeting, various parties that have worked on complex and hyperbolic rigidity were able to get together to finally figure out what was collectively known and collectively unknown. This will greatly help progress on these questions.
My visit to BIRS saw me concentrating on developing an existing collaboration into a new area, and it provided an ideal environment for this. We certainly developed some new insights - difficult to yet know how significant these will be.
This was a useful workshop, with new insights and at least two new collaborations started. How they finish is yet to be seen. I do believe the workshop made a positive impact on the field.
Mathematics, University of California at Los Angeles
