Maths Seminar Series: Daniel Horsley, Monash University – Locating arrays and disjoint partitions

Wednesday 6 May 2020 – 11:00am – 12:00pm

The Mathematics Research Lab welcomes Daniel Horsley from the School of Mathematics at Monash University to share his research.

Abstract 

Covering arrays are combinatorial objects used for designing testing procedures to determine whether faults are present in complex systems. In particular, they are used extensively in software testing. Locating arrays are variants of covering arrays that further allow any faults found to be precisely located without the need for further testing. It turns out that the existence problem for a simple kind of locating array is equivalent to a natural question in extremal set theory concerning families of disjoint partitions. In this talk I will introduce locating arrays, discuss this equivalence, and outline a complete solution to the problem.

Bio

A/Prof Daniel Horsley is an ARC Future Fellow in the School of Mathematics at Monash University. His research interests are focused in combinatorial design theory and include Steiner triple systems, edge decomposition of graphs, colourings of designs, and combinatorial arrays.