Colloquium

Title: p-Norm Approval Voting Speaker: Michael Orrison, Professor of Mathematics, Harvey Mudd College Abstract: Approval voting is a relatively simple voting procedure: Given a set of candidates, each voter chooses a subset of the candidates, and the candidate chosen the most is then declared the winner. Interestingly, approval voting can be viewed as an extreme […]

Title: Building the Fan of a Toric Variety Speaker: Reginald Anderson, Department of Mathematical Sciences, Claremont McKenna College Abstract: Roughly speaking, algebraic geometry studies the zero sets of polynomials, which lead to objects called varieties. Since the zero sets of polynomials do not always pass the vertical line test, we enlist other methods to study […]

Title: Thinking Inside the Box: A combinatorial approach to Schubert Calculus Speaker: Sami H. Assaf, Department of Mathematics, University of Southern California Abstract: Given 2 lines in the plane, how many points lie on both? If we rule out the case where the two lines are the same, and we work in projective space so […]

Title: Equality Cases of Geometric Inequalities Speaker: Igor Pak, Department of Mathematics, University of California, Los Angeles Abstract: Geometric inequalities go back to antiquity, and so do their equality cases.  As everyone knows, the circle is the only case when the isoperimetric inequality is sharp.  But what happens to other geometric inequalities?  Apparently, as the […]

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Title: What is a moduli space? Speaker: Javier Gonzalez Anaya, Department of Mathematics, Harvey Mudd College Abstract: A natural endeavour in mathematics is to classify objects according to their properties. For example, we can readily identify straight lines in the plane, or recognize different kinds of triangles depending on their symmetries. Less intuitive, however, is that […]

Title: Slope gap distributions of translation surfaces Speaker: Taylor McAdam, Department of Mathematics, Pomona College Abstract: How “random” are the rational numbers? To make sense of this question, let us consider the set of Farey fractions of level n—that is, the rational numbers between 0 and 1 with denominator at most n. It turns out that these distribute uniformly in the […]

Title: Lonely Runners and My Favorite Polyhedron Speaker: Matthias Beck, Department of Mathematics, San Francisco State University Abstract: We study the Lonely Runner Conjecture, conceived by Wills in the 1960's, and originally phrased in terms of Diophantine approximation: Given positive integers n_1, n_2, ..., n_k, there exists a positive real number t such that for all […]

Title: Adinkra Heights and Color-Splitting Rainbows Speaker: Ursula Whitcher, American Mathematical Society Abstract: Adinkras are decorated graphs that encapsulate information about conjectural relationships between fundamental particles in physics. If we color the edges of an Adinkra with a rainbow of shades in a specific order, we obtain a special curve that we can study usingalgebraic […]

Title: “The science of Mathematics is not crystallized into text-books” : The Bryn Mawr Mathematical Journal Club (1896 — 1924) Speaker: Jemma Lorenat, Pitzer College Abstract: As mathematics departments in the United States began to shift toward standards of original research at the end of the nineteenth century, many adopted journal clubs as forums for […]

Title: Graph Complexes and Moduli Spaces of Curves Speaker: Siddarth Kannan, UCLA Abstract: I will begin by defining a certain combinatorial object called a graph complex. Then I will give a brief introduction to the moduli space of curves. The study of the geometry of this moduli space has occupied several generations of mathematicians, across […]

Title: Math as Art and Recreation Speaker: Peter Kagey, HMC Abstract: Recreational Mathematics is an area of math which is rooted in exploration and playfulness, and includes puzzles, games, art, and more. This talk takes a closer look at these ideas, emphasizing how a foundation of curiosity and play can lead to insightful connections with various […]