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'''General Information''':  Cookie seminar will take place on Mondays at 3:30 in the 9th floor lounge area.  Talks should be of interest to the general math community, and generally will not run longer then 20 minutes.  Everyone is welcome to talk, please just sign up on this page.  Alternatively I will also sign interested people up at the seminar itself.  As one would expect from the title there will generally be cookies provided, although the snack may vary from week to week.  To sign up to bring snacks one week please visit the [[Cookie_Sign-up|Cookie Sign-up]]
'''General Information''':  Cookie seminar will take place on Mondays at 3:30 in the 9th floor lounge area.  Talks should be of interest to the general math community, and generally will not run longer then 20 minutes.  Everyone is welcome to talk, please just sign up on this page.  Alternatively I will also sign interested people up at the seminar itself.  As one would expect from the title there will generally be cookies provided, although the snack may vary from week to week.   


To sign up please provide your name and a title.  Abstracts are welcome but optional.
==Spring 2013==
==Monday, January 28, Will Mitchell==
Title:  an unsolved graph isomorphism problem from plane geometry
Abstract:  A geometric 4-configuration is a collection of <math>$n$</math> lines and $n$ points in
the Euclidean plane with the property that each of the lines passes through exactly four
of the points, and each of the points lies on exactly four of the lines.  No
illustration of a 4-configuration appeared in print until 1980.  The so-called
"celestial configurations" are a well-behaved family of these objects.  After discussing
the construction and nomenclature of the celestial configurations, I'll describe an open
problem regarding their graph-theoretical properties.


To sign up please provide your name and a title.  Abstracts are welcome but optional.
==Monday, February 4, Paul Tveite==


'''Seminar talks''':


January 30
Math and redistricting: Redrawing of congressional districts in the US is a
{|border="2"
political process with interesting results. It's also an interesting
|Speaker || George Craciun
mathematical problem. I'll introduce a couple measures of irregularity of
|-
districts and a couple algorithms for objectively drawing district lines.
|Title || Persistence in biological networks
|-
|Abstract || I will describe some open problems in mathematical biology, having to do with existence of invariant regions for nonlinear dynamical systems. There is NSF grant funding (RA support) to work on some of these problems.
|}


February 6
{|border="2"
|Speaker ||  Leland Jefferis
|-
|Title || Intuitive computational methods
|}


February 13
{|border="2"
|Speaker ||  Diane Holcomb
|-
|Title || A brief (and highly non-rigorous) introduction to Brownian Motion.
|}


February 20
==Monday, February 18, Diane Holcomb==
{|border="2"
|Speaker ||  Uri Andrews
|-
|Title || Hercules and the Hydra
|-
|Abstract || We will talk about important techniques of self-defense against an invading Hydra. The following, from Pausanias (Description of Greece, 2.37.4) describes the beginning of the battle of Hercules against the Lernaean hydra:


As a second labour he ordered him to kill the Lernaean hydra.
Title: The mathematics of apportionment
That creature, bred in the swamp of Lerna,
used to go forth into the plain
and ravage both the cattle and the country.
Now the hydra had a huge body, with nine heads,
eight mortal, but the middle one immortal. . . .
By pelting it with fiery shafts he forced it to come out,
and in the act of doing so he seized and held it fast.
But the hydra wound itself about one of his feet and clung to him.
Nor could he effect anything by smashing its heads with his club,
for as fast as one head was smashed there grew up two.
|}


Abstract:  Every year the United States conducts a census and then gives out or apportions seats in the House of Representatives to each of the states according to its population, unfortunately the constitution doesn't provide much guidance on how exactly to do this.  I'll go over a bit of the history of how the US has apportioned the seats in the House and some of the math behind the different methods. 


February 27


{|border="2"
|Speaker ||  Beth Skubak
|-
|Title || Polynomials, Ellipses, and Matrices: Three questions, one answer.
|-
|Abstract || Given two points a,b in the unit disk, when is there a cubic polynomial with roots on the circle with a,b as critical points?
I'll describe the connection between this question and two others, and give the one concise answer for all three.  The result, and the proof, extend very naturally to any finite number of points.
|}




March 5


{|border="2"
|Speaker || 
|-
|Title ||
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|Abstract ||
|}




March 12


{|border="2"
|Speaker || 
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|Title ||
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|Abstract ||
|}


==Monday, March 11, David Diamondstone==


March 19
Title: "pi" in different metrics


{|border="2"
Abstract: In honor of pi day, we will explore the other values pi might have had, if we lived with a non-Euclidean metric. Examples include the universe of Carl Sagan's ''Contact'', surfaces of constant curvature, and metrics which arise from norms on '''R'''<sup>2</sup>.
|Speaker || 
|-
|Title ||
|-
|Abstract ||
|}

Latest revision as of 18:24, 26 September 2014

General Information: Cookie seminar will take place on Mondays at 3:30 in the 9th floor lounge area. Talks should be of interest to the general math community, and generally will not run longer then 20 minutes. Everyone is welcome to talk, please just sign up on this page. Alternatively I will also sign interested people up at the seminar itself. As one would expect from the title there will generally be cookies provided, although the snack may vary from week to week.

To sign up please provide your name and a title. Abstracts are welcome but optional.


Spring 2013

Monday, January 28, Will Mitchell

Title: an unsolved graph isomorphism problem from plane geometry

Abstract: A geometric 4-configuration is a collection of [math]\displaystyle{ $n$ }[/math] lines and $n$ points in the Euclidean plane with the property that each of the lines passes through exactly four of the points, and each of the points lies on exactly four of the lines. No illustration of a 4-configuration appeared in print until 1980. The so-called "celestial configurations" are a well-behaved family of these objects. After discussing the construction and nomenclature of the celestial configurations, I'll describe an open problem regarding their graph-theoretical properties.

Monday, February 4, Paul Tveite

Math and redistricting: Redrawing of congressional districts in the US is a political process with interesting results. It's also an interesting mathematical problem. I'll introduce a couple measures of irregularity of districts and a couple algorithms for objectively drawing district lines.


Monday, February 18, Diane Holcomb

Title: The mathematics of apportionment

Abstract: Every year the United States conducts a census and then gives out or apportions seats in the House of Representatives to each of the states according to its population, unfortunately the constitution doesn't provide much guidance on how exactly to do this. I'll go over a bit of the history of how the US has apportioned the seats in the House and some of the math behind the different methods.





Monday, March 11, David Diamondstone

Title: "pi" in different metrics

Abstract: In honor of pi day, we will explore the other values pi might have had, if we lived with a non-Euclidean metric. Examples include the universe of Carl Sagan's Contact, surfaces of constant curvature, and metrics which arise from norms on R2.

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