Title: An Introduction to the Radial Basis Function Method

The radial basis function (RBF) method is a primary tool for interpolating
multidimensional scattered data. The methods' ability to handle
arbitrarily scattered data, to easily generalize to several space
dimensions, and to provide spectral accuracy have made it particularly
popular in several different types of applications. Some of the more
recent of these applications include cartography, neural networks, medical
imaging, and the numerical solution of partial differential equations
(PDEs). In this talk, we introduce the RBF method and discuss some of its
basic properties.  We follow this with an overview of some recent advances
with the method, and some new research opportunities.