[grads] [Sem-coll] AM Dept. Colloquia & Seminars 4/18 - 4/25

[Joe Millham]

Greetings!
Please join the Applied Mathematics Department for the following
colloquia and seminars, today and next week. The talks are open to
all, and graduate students are especially encouraged to attend.  These
seminars fulfill the requirements of Math 593.

Friday, April 18, 2008
Weizhu Bao (National University of Singapore)
"Numerical Methods for Problems in Unbounded Domains"
12:45 pm E1 106
See abstract below
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Monday, April 21, 2008
Aaron Yip (Purdue University)
"Dynamics on Inhomogeneous Landscapes"
4;40 pm E1 106
See abstract below

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Janos Pach (Courant Institute, NYU)
"Points Surrounding the Origin"
4:40 pm E1 106
See abstract below

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Thursday, April 24, 2008
William Yslas Velez (University of Arizona)
"Increasing the number of mathematics majors"
4:40 pm E1 106
See abstract below

===========================================
===========================================


Friday, April 18, 2008
Weizhu Bao (National University of Singapore)
"Numerical Methods for Problems in Unbounded Domains"
12:45 pm E1 106
Many boundary value problems of partial differential equations (PDEs)
involving unbounded domain occur in many areas of applications, e.g.
fluid flow around obstacles, coupling of structures with foundation,
wave propagation and radiation, quantum physics and chemistry etc. One
of the main numerical difficulties is the unboundedness of physical
domain.
     In this talk, I first review different numerical approaches for
problems in unbounded domain. Then I present high-order nonlocal/local
artificial boundary conditions (ABCs) for second-order elliptic PDE
and reduce it to a problem defined in a bounded computational domain.
New `optimal' error estimates for the finite element approximation of
the problem is reported. Extension of the results to Navier system for
linear elastic and Stokes equations for incompressible material is
given. Furthermore, the method is applied successfully to
Navier-Stokes for incompressible viscous flow around obstacles.
Numerical results are also reported to confirm our error estimates.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Monday, April 21, 2008
Aaron Yip (Purdue University)
"Dynamics on Inhomogeneous Landscapes"
4;40 pm E1 106
This talk will cover some basic concepts of dynamics on inhomogeneous
landscapes. Two examples will be used to illustrate its application
and analysis. The first is the manipulation and separation of
particles by means of holographical optical traps. The second is the
motion by mean curvature of a surface in inhomogeneous medium. The
mathematical emphasis is on the investigation of the effective
properties and the critical phenomena concerning the pinning and
de-pinning transition.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Janos Pach (Courant Institute, NYU)
"Points Surrounding the Origin"
4:40 pm E1 106
For d > 2 and n > d+1, let P = { p1, . . . , pn } be a set of points
in Rd whose convex hull contains the origin O in its interior. We show
that if P ∪ O is in general position, then there exists a d-tuple Q =
{ pi1, . . . , pid } ⊂ P such that O is not contained in the convex
hull of Q ∪ {p} for any p ∈ P \ Q. Generalizations of this property
are also considered.

We also show that for disjoint, non-empty, finite point sets A1, . . .
, Ad+1 in Rd in general position with respect to the origin, if the
origin is contained in the convex hull of Ai ∪ Aj for all 1 ≤ i < j ≤
d+1, then there is a simplex S containing the origin such that |S ∩
Ai| = 1 for every 1 ≤ i ≤ d+1. This is a generalization of Bárány's
colored Carathéodory theorem, and dually, it gives a spherical version
of Lovász' colored Helly theorem.

Joint work with Andreas Holmsen and Helge Tverberg.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Thursday, April 24, 2008
William Yslas Velez (University of Arizona)
"Increasing the number of mathematics majors"
4:40 pm E1 106

In the late 1980's I began my efforts to increase the success rate of
minorities in first semester calculus. The interventions that I
devised were very time consuming and as the number of minority
students increased, I could not manage that kind of effort. I
developed my Calculus Minority Advising Program in an effort to meet
with scores of minority students each semester. This program consists
of a twenty-minute meeting with each student at the beginning of each
semester. These meetings with students eventually transformed my own
attitude about the importance of mathematics in their undergraduate
curriculum.

I took over the position of Associate Head for Undergraduate Affairs
in the department four years ago. I set a very modest goal for myself:
to double the number of mathematics majors. With more than 500
mathematics majors I have reached that goal. I think the next doubling
is going to be much harder to achieve. My work with minority students
provided me with the tools to accept this new challenge of working
with all students.

This talk will describe my own efforts to encourage ALL of our
students that a mathematics major, or adding mathematics as a second
major, is a great career choice.





-- 
Joe Millham
Administrative Assistant
Department of Applied Mathematics
Illinois Institute of Technology
10 W. 32rd St.
Chicago IL 60616
312.567.8984 (Phone)
312.567.3135 (Fax)

_______________________________________________
sem-coll mailing list
sem-coll at math.iit.edu
http://math.iit.edu/mailman/listinfo/sem-coll