Speaker: Allan Steel (Magma, Sydney) Title: Constructing Ordinary Representations of Finite Groups via Extension Time & Place: 15:05 - 16:00, Thursday 3 October 2024, SMRI Seminar Room. Abstract: I will describe practical methods for the construction of ordinary representations of a finite group G via the extension of existing representations defined on a proper subgroup of G. I will also describe how, using an implementation of this algorithm within Magma, I was able to construct for the first time minimal-degree faithful ordinary representations of most of the large sporadic simple groups, such as the Baby Monster.