From: orourke@grendel.csc.smith.edu (Joseph O'Rourke)
Subject: Re: compact two manifolds
Date: 22 Jan 2001 21:37:21 -0500
Newsgroups: sci.math
Summary: Algorithmic solution to the word problem for surface groups

In article <wo6g0ido929.fsf@sp5-2.ma.utexas.edu>,
Kevin Foltinek <foltinek@math.utexas.edu> wrote:
>In article <94cf9f$nua$1@nnrp1.deja.com> Will Self
><wself@msubillings.edu> writes:
>
>> Can anyone direct me to an algorithm that will determine when two words
>> represent the same manifold?

I may be misreading the original post, but perhaps he wanted more
of a computer algorithm, in which case this paper, which presents
"an algorithmic solution to the word problem for surface groups," 
may be of interest:

@inproceedings{s-dcc-92
, author =      "H. Schipper"
, title =       "Determining contractibility of curves"
, booktitle =   "Proc. 8th Annu. ACM Sympos. Comput. Geom."
, year =        1992
, pages =       "358--367"
}