A beginner adventure into the world of groupoids and their C*-algebras

Groupoids are a lovely answer to the question “what happens if we cross a group with a space?”. This talk introduces (topological) groupoids and shows how they generalise both groups and topological spaces. We then set down the path of defining C*-algebras associated to (nice enough) groupoids and exhibit a number of different C*-algebras which can be expressed as groupoid C*-algebras. Intended as an introduction with motivating examples; the prior knowledge required is just a little elementary topology, group theory, and some knowledge of C*-algebras.