Time: 5:30 - 6:30 p.m Place: Jeffery Hall 118
Speaker: Troy Day (Queen's University)
Title: What does the equation $e^{-2x}=1-x$ have to do with epidemiology?
Abstract: An important goal of epidemiology is to predict the spread of infectious diseases. We will see how relatively simple mathematical models are used to generate such predictions, as well as how they are used to guide public health interventions.
Time: 5:30 - 6:30 p.m Place: Jeffery Hall 118
Speaker: Anup Dixit (Queen's University)
Title: Buffon’s needle problem.
Abstract: In 1734, Buffon asked the following question: If a needle is dropped onto a floor made of parallel wooden planks, what is the probability that it will cross one of the cracks between the planks?
In this talk, we will answer Buffon's question and indicate how it can be used to approximate the value of $\pi$. We will also discuss a few variations of this problem.
Time: 5:30 - 6:30 p.m Place: Jeffery Hall 118
Speaker: Jamie Mingo (Queen's University)
Title: Random Walks and a Truncation of Pascal's Triangle.
Abstract: Pascal's triangle has long been used for counting combinatorial objects like random walks. A random walk means that we move on some kind of grid and at each tick of the clock we take a step in a random direction.
We will see how we can use a truncation of Pascal's triangle to count walks that return their starting point on some high dimensional trees. We shall also see how this can be done in fractional dimensions.
Time: 5:30 - 6:30 p.m Place: Jeffery Hall 110
Speaker: Atabey Kaygun
Title: Can one summarize a text without reading it?
Abstract: There is an area of research that lies in the intersection of graph theory, linear algebra, probability, (discrete) stochastic processes, linguistics, literature, history and many areas in humanities.
This talk will be a leisurely excursion into this type of mathematics with examples from ongoing research. As a fun example, I will also demonstrate how one can summarize a text without actually reading it.
Time: 5:30 - 6:30 p.m Place: Jeffery Hall 110
Speaker: Francesco Cellarosi (Queen's University)
Title: Breaking the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus?
Abstract: In this talk we will ‘challenge’ the statement of the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus for the Riemann integral by constructing:
To do so, we will use some ill-behaved functions constructed by B. Riemann and V. Volterra.
Time: 5:30 - 6:30 p.m Place: Jeffery Hall 110
Speaker: Peter Taylor (Queen's University)
Title: Find the equation of this curve
Abstract: We will start with a curve generated by a stochastic process.
Your job is to build a model that will give you a theoretical formula for the curve.
Can you do it in 50 pizza-fueled minutes?
Time: 5:30 - 6:30 p.m Place: Jeffery Hall 319
Speaker: Ivan Dimitrov (Queen's University)
Title: Proof of the Sensitivity Conjecture.
Abstract: Last year Hao Huang proved that, if $P$ is a set of $2^{n-1} +1$ vertices of an n-dimensional cube, it contains a vertex with at least $\sqrt{n}$ neighbours in $P$. This settled the nearly 30-year old Sensitivity Conjecture. I will present Huang’s proof and show that the estimate $\sqrt{n}$ is sharp.
Time: 5:30 - 6:30 p.m Place: Jeffery Hall 118
Speaker: Francesco Cellarosi (Queen's University)
Title: The irrationality of $\zeta(3)$.
Abstract: This talk will discuss the famous theorem by R. Apéry who showed in 1978 that $\zeta(3)$ is irrational.
We will see a proof of this fact, due to F. Beuker in 1979, which only uses calculus.
Time: 5:30 - 6:30 p.m Place: Jeffery Hall 118
Speaker: Mike Roth (Queen's University)
Title: Pseudorandom number generation and the NSA backdoor.
Abstract: This talk will discuss a specific method in the US cryptographic standards for producing pseudorandom numbers and the backdoor in that method (apparently introduced by the NSA).
Time: 5:30 - 6:30 p.m Place: Jeffery Hall 118
Speaker: Ivan Dimitrov (Queen's University)
Title: Why 0.499999999992646 does not equal 12.
Abstract: We will see why
… and so on all the way to
However,
