Linz has, due to the work of Günter Pilz (cf. [Pil83]) and his group, a prominent position in the near-ring world. The school of W. Nöbauer (cf. [LN73]) has made Austria a central point for the study of polynomials over universal algebras. In this project, in particular the near-ring of polynomials over a group will be investigated. The algebra group of our department has traditionally a very close contact to RISC-Hagenberg, especially to the group of Doz. Dr. Jochen Pfalzgraf. Therefore this project, which is located on the borderline of pure algebra, applied algebra and symbolic computation, fits perfectly into the academic setting of Linz.
The work on this project will particularly take advantage of the following visitors who will stay at our department during the academic year 1995/96.