Topic: Folds, Intersections, and Inflections:  Distinguishing Cylinders from Moebius Bands

Abstract: On a smooth or polyhedral surface a strip neighborhood of a closed curve is either an orientable cylinder or a non-orientable Moebius band.  How can we distinguish which form it has by observing singular fold chains for projections to planes or self-intersection curves of immersions (and non-immersions) into three-space or a new phenomenon, inflection faces?  This talk gives an introduction to the geometry of characteristic classes and it features computer graphics images and animations that will make it accessible to novice and expert alike.