In a series of three lectures, we will consider the material in the following review
article by L. Saloff-Coste:
Probability on groups: random walks and invariant diffusions.
Notices Amer. Math. Soc. 48 (2001), no. 9, 968--977.

You may find a copy of this article at: http://www.math.cornell.edu/~lsc/pas.pdf

In the first lecture we will discuss briefly the ideas which are central to the entire study and at greater
length the basic notation and results concerning random walks on finite groups.
How many shuffles are needed to mix up a deck of cards? Our goal will be to present the current state of understanding of the answer to this question.