Exterior differential systems, Lie algebra cohomology, and the rigidity of homogenous varieties

These are expository notes from the 2008 Srni Winter School. They have two purposes: (1) to give a quick introduction to exterior differential systems (EDS), which is a collection of techniques for determining local existence to systems of partial differential equations, and (2) to give an exposition of recent work (joint with C. Robles) on the study of the Fubini-Griffiths-Harris rigidity of rational homogeneous varieties, which also involves an advance in the EDS technology.