Suppose we have a method of sending information, but the message which is received could have corrupted data. There is no way to recover the missing information, right? Well, mathematicians have found ways to make even unreliable methods of transporting information reliable. These methods are currently used in many aspects of life, from NASA probes sending data through unstable environments to CDs where errors in transmission are introduced by skipping. In this talk, we will discuss the mathematics of error-correcting codes, and see how linear algebra plays a large role in solving this problem.

USG funded