Course Title: Geometry and complexity theory

This will cover central problems in theoretical computer science from
a geometric perspective. Topics in computer science: the complexity of 
matrix multiplication, both upper and lower bounds, Valiant's conjecture 
on permanent v. determinant and variants, the problem of explicitness: 
how to find hay in a haystack. Geometry that will be covered: rank
and border rank of tensors, basic representation theory and algebraic
geometry. I will follow http://www.math.tamu.edu/~jml/simonsclass.pdf, 
which will be rewritten in more polished form over the summer.

Background required: a strong background in linear algebra.
Some experience with algebraic geometry and/or representation
theory would be helpful but is not required.