Maurice Eggen

A parallel algorithm for Steiner systems

The construction of Steiner systems provides an interesting foundation for the study of parallelism. Basic search techniques, such as depth first or breadth first search, warrant continued study when parallelism is involved. Though the emphasis of this paper is the study and corresponding,results of implementing a parallel algorithm solving Steiner systems, Steiner systems are important in their own right and have been studied for significant periods of time. The following areas are influenced by Steiner systems: 1) Graph theory [1], 2) Applications in Geometry [2], 3) Balanced incomplete block designs and groups [3], 4) Group theory [6], 5) Applications in algebra and design theory [7], and 6) Applications in graph theory [8]. In addition, the recent article by Colbourn and Van Oorschot in the ACM Computing Surveys attests to the multitude of applications of combinatorial designs in Computer Science [11].