Aissa Wade's (Penn State) talk.

 Title: Dirac structures, contact geometry.

 Abstract:  The theory of Dirac structures on manifolds, initiated by
 T. Courant and A. Weinstein in the mid-eighties, was originally aimed
 at providing a geometric framework for the study of constrained mechanical
 systems. Dirac manifolds include both pre-symplectic and Poisson
 manifolds. In 2002, N. Hitchin introduced the notion of a generalized
 complex structure, incorporating complex structures into
 the theory of Dirac structures. In this talk, we will 
  describe generalized complex structures and give some examples.
 We will also present new connections between  the theory of Dirac
 structures and contact geometry.