I work in the area of algebraic topology, though my research often uses analytic methods such as differential equations and differential forms. I primarily study fundamental groups of topological spaces such as cell complexes and manifolds. In addition, I often study a space by looking at its cohomology with coefficients in local systems. A hyperplane in C^n is a plane which has dimension n-1. For instance, a line in (x,y)-space is a hyperplane. A hyperplane arrangement is a union of hyperplanes in C^n. The complement of this union is of interest to many topologists. In particular, the fundamental group and local system cohomology have particularly interesting properties. In my research, I have developed a tool which can be used to study the fundamental group and is closely related to the local system cohomology.