Matrix multiplication: the hunt for $\omega$ (Mark Huber, CMC)

For centuries finding the determinant of a matrix was considered to be something that took $\Theta(n^3)$ steps.  Only in 1969 did Strassen discover that there was a faster method.  In this talk I’ll discuss his finding, how the Master Theorem for divide-and-conquer plays into it, and how it was shown that finding determinants, inverting matrices, and Gaussian elimination are the same time complexity as to matrix multiplication.