Estella 1021 (Emmy Noether Room), Pomona College

Title: Controlling the unmanageable: insight into control methods for biological systems Abstract: When formulating a model for a biological system, often we want to use the model to understand the implications of management options and how to optimize the implementation. There are various methods for implementing management through control theory, ranging from basic, optimal control, […]

Title: Tropical Linear Series Abstract: In this talk I'll attempt to give a friendly and example-driven introduction to the theory of linear series on tropical curves. While in some respects mirroring the classical study of linear series, in the tropical setting there are many surprises and even basic questions remain open. This work is joint with […]

Title: On the Composition of Classical Mechanical Systems Abstract: Compositionality is a basic principle for understanding the physical world. The underlying idea is to study a system by studying the ways in which the components of the system compose to form the system. Category theory is an area in mathematics that is particularly well-suited for […]

During this student-centered Applied Math Seminar, there will be discussion and presentations about upcoming courses offered in applied mathematics, to help students make their enrollment choices for Spring 2024 and beyond.

Title Control algorithms for unmanned underwater vehicles: new approaches based on Hamilton-Jacobi equations and reinforcement learning. Abstract Unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) are defined by their ability to operate without direct human intervention.  As a result, UUVs are valuable for surveillance tasks, especially in the presence of hazardous environmental conditions. Specific applications of UUVs include seafloor mapping, […]

Title:  Recalibration of Predicted Probabilities Using the "Logit Shift": Why Does It Work, and When Can It Be Expected to Work Well? Abstract: In the context of election analysis, researchers frequently face the "recalibration problem." That is: they must reconcile individual-level vote probabilities, modeled prior to the election, with vote totals observed in each precinct […]

Title: The Hartman-Watson distribution: numerical evaluation and applications in mathematical finance Abstract: The Hartman-Watson distribution appears in several problems of applied probability and financial mathematics. Most notably, it determines the joint distribution of the time-integral of a geometric Brownian motion and its terminal value. A classical result by Yor (1981) expresses it as a one-dimensional […]

Title: Understanding SARS-CoV-2 viral rebounds with and without treatments. Abstract: In most instances, the characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 mirror the patterns of an acute infection, with viral load rapidly peaking around 5 days post-infection and subsequently clearing within 2 weeks. However, some individuals show signs of viral recrudescence of up to 10000 viral RNA copies/mL shortly […]

Title: Towards Understanding the Success of First Order Methods in Training Mildly Overparameterized Networks Abstract: For most problems of interest the loss landscape of a neural network is non-convex and contains a plethora of spurious critical points. Despite this first order methods such as SGD and Adam are in practice remarkably successful at finding optimal, […]