Math Sciences colloquia of previous terms:
| Spring 2005 | |
| Fall 2004 | |
| Spring 2004 | |
| Fall 2003 | |
| Spring 2003 |
Math Sciences Colloquia - Fall 2005
The Center for Applied Mathematics and the IGERT Nonlinear Systems program are sponsoring the Mathematical Sciences Graduate Student Seminar Series. We hope that this seminar series will become a fixture of Cornell's interdisciplinary programs. As part of these seminars in the mathematical sciences, Cornell graduate students will give informal one-hour talks about their research to fellow graduate students as well as professors.
The idea behind these seminars is twofold: (1) To foster interactions between graduate students in various disciplines for both academic and social purposes. (2) To allow students the opportunity to present and discuss their work with a broad group of their peers in a manner that is not currently available at Cornell. No one is going to demand or expect a polished presentation. The seminar is intended for work in progress. Students should not feel shy about presenting their work, as there are many people who will be interested in hearing about it. It's a chance for graduate students to get to know each other, practice their speaking ability, offer constructive criticism, etc.
This seminar series is a natural extension of the interdiscplinary efforts of CAM and the IGERT program. We hope
you'll inform your students and colleagues of this seminar series, and we also invite you to provide suggestions for
student speakers. These suggestions or expressions of interest to give a presentation should be e-mailed to Richard
Yamada (yamada
cam.cornell.edu).
All Math Sciences colloquia take place on Wednesdays from 12pm to 1pm in 657 Rhodes Hall. Pizza will be served during the talks.
- September 28 -
- Lauren Childs, CAM ," Understanding T-cell Differentiation:
Regression Analysis of Microarray Data "
Abstract: The activation and proliferation of T-helper cell subsets plays an important role in engaging the proper immune response to a particular antigen. Transcription factors, although primarily associated with a particular T-helper cell subset, have been shown to create network of interactions. Using a regression algorithm, refereed to as Multi-Network Inference (MNI), we query a compilation of microarray data to determine the key transcription factors in the networks involved in T-helper cell differentiation.
- October 5 -
Michael Robinson, CAM, "Studying the bifurcation
behavior of a nonlinear PDE",
Abstract: The logistic population equation is one of the simplest examples of nonlinear ODE. By adjusting the carrying capacity, this ODE exhibits a saddle-point bifurcation. What happens when diffusion is added into the mix? Now the population not only grows logistically, but it can move. This PDE still exhibits a saddle-point bifurcation. However, there are other, stranger bifurcations that occur! I shall describe some of the analytic and numerical techniques that are being used to
understand these bifurcations, and discuss a novel explicit-implicit numerical method for solving this nonlinear parabolic PDE.
- October 20
- Thanh Nguyen, CAM, "Applied Mathematics in Theoretical
Computer Science"
Abstract: Theoretical Computer Science (TCS) was born by the theory of Turing machines, but it is grown up by many areas in Mathematics: Optimization, Algebra, Probability, and recently by Game Theory, Geometry and Functional Analysis. I will try to introduce TCS through examples with some of the common used techniques. The talk will begin with a fairy tale. Hope you will enjoy it.
- November 2
- Mateo Restrepo, CAM, A special regime of the one-dimensional
coalescent? OR Why do all western people look alike?
Abstract: Spatial models for population genetics help to answer questions like: "Do all individuals in a population decend from a common ancestor?" "What is the probability that two given individuals in a population have the same allele of a particular gene?" "How does this probability depend on the distance between them?" "How long ago did a common ancestor live (if there was one)? i.e What is the expected coalescence time of two given lineages?" "Why did so many people in Ohio vote for Bush?" In this talk I will consider a simplified spatial model of population genetics, in which a population consisting of N individuals is disposed along a straight line in a continuous manner (think of a coral reef along a coast -- or Japanase people along an elongated island) My work analyzes the asymptotics of the coalescence time of the lineages, modeled as symmetric random walks, and the relation it bears with the local time of standard Brownian motion. The talk will be loaded with politically incorrect jokes.
- November 30 (1:45 p.m.)- Yannet
Interian-Fernandez, CAM, "Quantify
Boolean Satisfiability (QBF): From a random model to an algorithm"
I am going to talk about the last work I have done concerning
Quantify Boolean Satisfiability. The first part of the talk is about
a Random Model and some of its nice properties. The second part is about
some ideas on combining local search with a complete satisfiability
solver to solve some class of these formulas. Some intro on QBF: Quantified
Boolean Satisfiability is a generalization of boolean satisfiability
where both universal and existential quantification of variables is
permitted. The QBF problem permits the modelling of problems having
higher complexity than Satisfiability--from the complexity class PSPACE--including
problems from the areas of verification, planning, knowledge representation,
game playing, logic, and combinatorics.
PS: A promise to try not to be boring and to show a lot of pictures (plots).