Because of space issues at SJSU, this semester only, Math/Stats colloquia will be held on Fridays at 2:30 with snacks starting at 2:00. We realize that Fridays may not be anyone’s first choice, but we hope that you faithful colloquium-goers can make it here nevertheless. (And faculty members, we will try to schedule some colloquia right after math/stats department meetings, to maximize the value of your entertainment/transportation dollar.)
The Math/Stats Colloquium brings the spring semester to an exciting close with our own Slobodan Simic on “Topology and Physics (and SQUIDs)”. Topology is sometimes jokingly described as that branch of mathematics which is unable to tell between a doughnut and a coffee mug. But topology is not some esoteric abstract game with coffee mugs made out of play dough. In fact, topology plays a crucial and subtle role in our understanding of many physical phenomena! This talk will try to explain that statement through an example (or two, time permitting).
Background: Some familiarity with vector calculus would be helpful, but no prior knowledge of physics will be assumed.
For more information, click here to see the full flyer, suitable for printing and posting.
Hope to see you there!
This week, the Math/Stats Colloquium is proud to feature our own Nida Kazi Obatake (MS Math) giving one of the best-titled colloquia of all time, “Rat GPS: Drawing Place Field Diagrams of Neural Codes Using Toric Ideals”. A rat has special neurons that encode its geographic location. These neurons are called place cells and each place cell points to a region in the space, called a place field. Neural codes are collections of the firing patterns of place cells. In this talk, we investigate how to algorithmically draw a place field diagram of a neural code, building on existing work investigating neural codes, ideas developed in the field of information visualization, and the toric ideal of a neural code.
Background: Students of all backgrounds are welcome. Abstract algebra is encouraged, but certainly not required.
For more information, click here to see the full flyer, suitable for printing and posting.
Hope to see you there!
Upcoming events:
The Math/Stats Colloquium is excited and proud to present Ellen Veomett (St. Mary’s College of California) on “Coloring Geometrically Defined Graphs”. This talk will take us through a journey of graph coloring. We’ll start with some basic definitions and the well-known four and five color theorems. We’ll also discuss the fascinating question of the chromatic number of the plane. Finally, we’ll talk about new results on box graphs, which are graphs defined using blocks and their intersections. This talk will be extremely accessible, while at the same time including some modern research topics.
Background: No particular background required. Students at every level are encouraged to attend, and students in lower-division math classes (like calculus) should find this a particularly accessible introduction to research in mathematics.
Background: One course in abstract algebra.
For more information, click here to see the full flyer, suitable for printing and posting.
Hope to see you there!
Upcoming events:
The Math/Stats Colloquium continues the homestretch of the spring semester with Nicolette Meshkat (Santa Clara Univ.) presenting some “Algebraic Approaches to Solving the Structural Identifiability Problem in Systems Biology”. The talk will explore some algebraic approaches to investigate the problem of structural identifiability of biological models, i.e., the problem of determining which unknown parameters can be quantified from given input/output data. In particular, the talk will discuss the use of computational algebraic tools such as Groebner bases and algebraic matroids to determine the identifiability properties of biological models. These tools become particularly helpful when the model is unidentifiable and can be used to help reparameterize the model over identifiable functions of the parameters.
Background: One course in abstract algebra.
For more information, click here to see the full flyer, suitable for printing and posting.
Hope to see you there!
Upcoming events: