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The AMS Student Chapter Seminar is an informal, graduate student-run seminar on a wide range of mathematical topics. Pastries (usually donuts) will be provided.
The AMS Student Chapter Seminar (aka Donut Seminar) is an informal, graduate student seminar on a wide range of mathematical topics. The goal of the seminar is to promote community building and give graduate students an opportunity to communicate fun, accessible math to their peers in a stress-free (but not sugar-free) environment. Pastries (usually donuts) will be provided.


* '''When:''' Wednesdays, 3:00 PM – 3:30 PM
* '''When:''' Thursdays 4:00-4:30pm
* '''Where:''' Van Vleck, 9th floor lounge (unless otherwise announced)
* '''Where:''' Van Vleck, 9th floor lounge (unless otherwise announced)
* '''Organizers:''' [https://www.math.wisc.edu/~hast/ Daniel Hast], [https://www.math.wisc.edu/~mrjulian/ Ryan Julian], Cullen McDonald, [https://www.math.wisc.edu/~zcharles/ Zachary Charles]
* '''Organizers:''' Ivan Aidun, Kaiyi Huang, Ethan Schondorf


Everyone is welcome to give a talk. To sign up, please contact one of the organizers with a title and abstract. Talks are 30 minutes long and should avoid assuming significant mathematical background beyond first-year graduate courses.
Everyone is welcome to give a talk. To sign up, please contact one of the organizers with a title and abstract. Talks are 25 minutes long and should avoid assuming significant mathematical background beyond first-year graduate courses.


The schedule of talks from past semesters can be found [[AMS Student Chapter Seminar, previous semesters|here]].
The schedule of talks from past semesters can be found [[AMS Student Chapter Seminar, previous semesters|here]].


== Spring 2017 ==
== Fall 2024 ==
<center>
{| cellspacing="5" cellpadding="14" border="0" style="color:black; font-size:120%"
! align="center" width="200" bgcolor="#D0D0D0" |'''Date'''
! align="center" width="200" bgcolor="#A6B658" |'''Speaker'''
! align="center" width="300" bgcolor="#BCD2EE" |'''Title'''
! align="center" width="400" bgcolor="#BCD2EE" |'''Abstract'''
|-
| bgcolor="#D0D0D0" |September 12
| bgcolor="#A6B658" |Ari Davidovsky
| bgcolor="#BCD2EE" |95% of people can't solve this!
| bgcolor="#BCD2EE" | [[File:Image.png|360px]]


=== January 25, Brandon Alberts ===
We will attempt to answer this question and along the way explore how algebra and geometry work together to solve problems in number theory.
|-
| bgcolor="#D0D0D0" |September 19
| bgcolor="#A6B658" |CANCELLED
| bgcolor="#BCD2EE" |NONE
| bgcolor="#BCD2EE" |NONE
|-
| bgcolor="#D0D0D0" |September 26
| bgcolor="#A6B658" |Mateo Morales
| bgcolor="#BCD2EE" |Officially petitioning the department to acquire a ping pong table.
| bgcolor="#BCD2EE" |Ever want to prove something is a free group of rank 2? Me too. One way to do this is to use a ping pong argument of how a group generated by two elements acts on a set.
I will illustrate the ping pong argument using an example of matrices, explain how it works, and explain why, kinda.


Title: Ultraproducts - they aren't just for logicians
Very approachable if you know what a group is but does require tons of ping pong experience.
 
|-
Abstract: If any of you have attended a logic talk (or one of Ivan's donut seminar talks) you may have learned about ultraproducts as a weird way to mash sets together to get bigger sets in a nice way. Something particularly useful to set theorists, but maybe not so obviously useful to the rest of us. I will give an accessible introduction to ultraproducts and motivate their use in other areas of mathematics.
| bgcolor="#D0D0D0" |October 3
 
| bgcolor="#A6B658" |Karthik Ravishankar
=== February 1, Megan Maguire ===
| bgcolor="#BCD2EE" |Incompleteness for the working mathematician
 
| bgcolor="#BCD2EE" |In this talk we'll take a look at Gödels famous incompleteness theorems and look at some of its immediate as well as interesting consequences. No background in logic is necessary!
Title: Hyperbolic crochet workshop
|-
 
| bgcolor="#D0D0D0" |October 10
Abstract: TBA
| bgcolor="#A6B658" |Elizabeth Hankins
 
| bgcolor="#BCD2EE" |Mathematical Origami and Flat-Foldability
=== February 8, Cullen McDonald ===
| bgcolor="#BCD2EE" |If you've ever unfolded a piece of origami, you might have noticed complicated symmetries in the pattern of creases left behind. What patterns of lines can and cannot be folded into origami? And why is it sometimes hard to determine?
 
|-
=== February 15, Paul Tveite ===
| bgcolor="#D0D0D0" |October 17
 
| bgcolor="#A6B658" |CANCELLED
Title: Fun with Hamel Bases!
| bgcolor="#BCD2EE" |NONE
 
| bgcolor="#BCD2EE" |NONE
Abstract: If we view the real numbers as a vector field over the rationals, then of course they have a basis (assuming the AOC). This is called a Hamel basis and allows us to do some cool things. Among other things, we will define two periodic functions that sum to the identity function.
|-
 
| bgcolor="#D0D0D0" |October 24
=== February 22, Wil Cocke ===
| bgcolor="#A6B658" |CANCELLED
 
| bgcolor="#BCD2EE" |NONE
Title: Practical Graph Isomorphism
| bgcolor="#BCD2EE" |NONE
 
|-
Abstract: Some graphs are different and some graphs are the same. Sometimes graphs differ only in name. When you give me a graph, you've picked an order. But, is it the same graph across every border?
| bgcolor="#D0D0D0" |October 31
 
| bgcolor="#A6B658" |Jacob Wood
=== March 1, Megan Maguire ===
| bgcolor="#BCD2EE" |What is the length of a <s>potato</s> pumpkin?
 
| bgcolor="#BCD2EE" |How many is a jack-o-lantern? What is the length of a pumpkin? These questions sound like nonsense, but they have perfectly reasonable interpretations with perfectly reasonable answers. On our journey through the haunted house with two rooms, we will encounter some scary characters like differential topology and measure theory. Do not fear; little to no experience in either subject is required.
Title: I stole this talk from Jordan.
|-
 
| bgcolor="#D0D0D0" |November 7
Abstract: Stability is cool! And sometimes things we think don't have stability secretly do. This is an abridged version of a very cool talk I've seen Jordan give a couple times. All credit goes to him. Man, I should have stolen his abstract too.
| bgcolor="#A6B658" |CANCELLED: DISTINGUISHED LECTURE
 
| bgcolor="#BCD2EE" |NONE
=== March 7, Liban Mohamed ===
| bgcolor="#BCD2EE" |NONE
 
|-
Title: Strichartz Estimates from Qualitative to Quantitative
| bgcolor="#D0D0D0" |November 14
 
| bgcolor="#A6B658" |Sapir Ben-Shahar
Abstract: Strichartz estimates are inequalities that give one way understand the decay of solutions to dispersive PDEs. This talk is an attempt to reconcile the formal statements with physical intuition.
| bgcolor="#BCD2EE" |Hexaflexagons
 
| bgcolor="#BCD2EE" |Come along for some hexaflexafun and discover the mysterious properties of hexaflexagons, the bestagons! Learn how to make and navigate through the folds of your very own paper hexaflexagon. No prior knowledge of hexagons (or hexaflexagons) is assumed.
=== March 15, Zachary Charles ===
|-
 
| bgcolor="#D0D0D0" |November 21
Title: Netflix Problem and Chill
| bgcolor="#A6B658" |Andrew Krenz
 
| bgcolor="#BCD2EE" |All concepts are database queries
Abstract: How are machine learning, matrix analysis, and Napoleon Dynamite related? Come find out!
| bgcolor="#BCD2EE" |A celebrated result of applied category theory states that the category of small categories is equivalent to the category of database schemas. Therefore, every theorem about small categories can be interpreted as a theorem about databases.  Maybe you've heard someone repeat Mac Lane's famous slogan "all concepts are Kan extensions."  In this talk, I'll give a high-level overview of/introduction to categorical database theory (developed by David Spivak) wherein Kan extensions play the role of regular every day database queries.  No familiarity with categories or databases will be assumed.
 
|-
=== April 5, Vlad Matei ===
| bgcolor="#D0D0D0" |November 28
 
| bgcolor="#A6B658" |THANKSGIVING
=== April 12, Micky Steinberg ===
| bgcolor="#BCD2EE" |NONE
 
| bgcolor="#BCD2EE" |NONE
Title: Groups as metric spaces
|-
 
| bgcolor="#D0D0D0" |December 5
Abstract: Given a group as a set of generators and relations, we can define the “word metric” on the group as the length of the shortest word “between” two elements. This isn’t well-defined, since different generating sets give different metrics, but it is well-defined up to “quasi-isometry”. Come find out what we can do with this! There will lots of pictures and hand-waving!
| bgcolor="#A6B658" |Caroline Nunn
 
| bgcolor="#BCD2EE" |TBA
=== April 19, Solly Parenti ===
| bgcolor="#BCD2EE" |T
 
|}
Title: Elementary Integration
</center>
 
Abstract: Are you like me? Have you also told your calculus students that finding the antiderivative of e^(-x^2) is impossible? Do you also only have a slight idea about how to prove it? Come find out more about the proof and free yourself of that guilt.
 
=== April 26, Ben Bruce ===
 
=== May 3, Iván Ongay-Valverde ===
Title: Living with Countable many reals?
 
Abstract: Can I make you believe that a countable set of reals are all the reals? If we just have countably many reals, what happens with the others? Do they have any special properties? Let's play a little with our notion of 'reality' and allow to ourselves to find crazy reals doing weird things. Hopefully, no-one's headache will last forever.

Latest revision as of 18:18, 20 November 2024

The AMS Student Chapter Seminar (aka Donut Seminar) is an informal, graduate student seminar on a wide range of mathematical topics. The goal of the seminar is to promote community building and give graduate students an opportunity to communicate fun, accessible math to their peers in a stress-free (but not sugar-free) environment. Pastries (usually donuts) will be provided.

  • When: Thursdays 4:00-4:30pm
  • Where: Van Vleck, 9th floor lounge (unless otherwise announced)
  • Organizers: Ivan Aidun, Kaiyi Huang, Ethan Schondorf

Everyone is welcome to give a talk. To sign up, please contact one of the organizers with a title and abstract. Talks are 25 minutes long and should avoid assuming significant mathematical background beyond first-year graduate courses.

The schedule of talks from past semesters can be found here.

Fall 2024

Date Speaker Title Abstract
September 12 Ari Davidovsky 95% of people can't solve this! Image.png

We will attempt to answer this question and along the way explore how algebra and geometry work together to solve problems in number theory.

September 19 CANCELLED NONE NONE
September 26 Mateo Morales Officially petitioning the department to acquire a ping pong table. Ever want to prove something is a free group of rank 2? Me too. One way to do this is to use a ping pong argument of how a group generated by two elements acts on a set.

I will illustrate the ping pong argument using an example of matrices, explain how it works, and explain why, kinda.

Very approachable if you know what a group is but does require tons of ping pong experience.

October 3 Karthik Ravishankar Incompleteness for the working mathematician In this talk we'll take a look at Gödels famous incompleteness theorems and look at some of its immediate as well as interesting consequences. No background in logic is necessary!
October 10 Elizabeth Hankins Mathematical Origami and Flat-Foldability If you've ever unfolded a piece of origami, you might have noticed complicated symmetries in the pattern of creases left behind. What patterns of lines can and cannot be folded into origami? And why is it sometimes hard to determine?
October 17 CANCELLED NONE NONE
October 24 CANCELLED NONE NONE
October 31 Jacob Wood What is the length of a potato pumpkin? How many is a jack-o-lantern? What is the length of a pumpkin? These questions sound like nonsense, but they have perfectly reasonable interpretations with perfectly reasonable answers. On our journey through the haunted house with two rooms, we will encounter some scary characters like differential topology and measure theory. Do not fear; little to no experience in either subject is required.
November 7 CANCELLED: DISTINGUISHED LECTURE NONE NONE
November 14 Sapir Ben-Shahar Hexaflexagons Come along for some hexaflexafun and discover the mysterious properties of hexaflexagons, the bestagons! Learn how to make and navigate through the folds of your very own paper hexaflexagon. No prior knowledge of hexagons (or hexaflexagons) is assumed.
November 21 Andrew Krenz All concepts are database queries A celebrated result of applied category theory states that the category of small categories is equivalent to the category of database schemas. Therefore, every theorem about small categories can be interpreted as a theorem about databases.  Maybe you've heard someone repeat Mac Lane's famous slogan "all concepts are Kan extensions."  In this talk, I'll give a high-level overview of/introduction to categorical database theory (developed by David Spivak) wherein Kan extensions play the role of regular every day database queries.  No familiarity with categories or databases will be assumed.
November 28 THANKSGIVING NONE NONE
December 5 Caroline Nunn TBA T