Macaulay2 Workshop at MSRI

We received the following announcement:
Dear Macaulay 2 user,
With funding from the NSA, we are organizing a Macaulay 2 workshop, from Friday, January 8, 2010 through Tuesday, January 12, 2010, with Thursday January 7 and Wednesday January 13 serving as the travel days. We note that this is just before the annual Joint Mathematics Meetings in San Francisco, and that the location of the workshop will be the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute in Berkeley, CA. Activities will start first thing Friday morning (possibly Thursday night).
The purpose of the workshop is to bring the Macaulay 2 developers together with those who would like to share or to develop their skills at writing packages for Macaulay 2 and at developing the corresponding mathematical algorithms. Sample software projects that might be undertaken are visible here (although this page is rather out of date at this point and we are looking for participants who might have new packages they are interested in).

Attendance is by invitation only and all who are interested are encouraged to apply. Financial support is available for approximately 15-20 people who are citizens or permanent residents of the United States. We regret this restriction, but it is due to the fact that our funding is from the NSA. We are applying for alternate sources of funding for this and future workshops, but at this time we can only offer funding to citizens and permanent residents.
If you would like to attend, please let us know as soon as possible. Everyone interested is encouraged to apply, including graduate students and postdocs. Your application should include
1. information about what algorithms you would like to work on, and what
you have done in the past,
2. whether or not you are a citizen or permanent resident of the US,
3. a good estimate of travel expenses, and whether you would require financial support for housing and meals, and if you will be willing to share a room, (rooms are in limited supply, if additional single rooms are available, and you want one, we may ask you to pay any additional cost). Everyone should include this information in the event that we obtain additional funds.
4. your current institution, and if you are a graduate student, your advisor’s name.
Applications are due by September 20, 2009 and we hope to allocate funds to participants by October 9, 2009.
Our organizers for the workshop are Amelia Taylor and Hirotachi Abo. Applications should be directed to Amelia Taylor at amelia.taylor@coloradocollege.edu
A few other pieces of information you may need:
1. If we pay for your travel, it must be on an American air carrier, if at all possible.
2. Please commit to being present for the entire workshop.
3. You will need to bring your laptop with Macaulay 2 on it to the workshop.
Hirotachi Abo
David Eisenbud
Daniel R. Grayson
Michael E. Stillman
Amelia Taylor