Events

E.O.T.

April 7, 2024

5:00 PM–8:00 PM
Laurel Creek Firepit

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The term is ending. Summer is coming. Some of you maybe happy. Some of you may be sad. Some of you may be graduating. However you are feeling about the end, you should come to EOT to vent talk and spend time with your fellow sufferrers PMAMCOC members.

Hope to see y'all there!

Over 9000 !

April 1, 2024

5:00 PM–7:00 PM
STC 0010

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Is it an unexpected factorial if there's a space between? Or would you rather prefer me just "escaping" the factorial as in "9000!"?

Anyway, for those of you who don't yet know how Over 9000 works, there will be a series of questions defining N, and contestants must determine/guess/divine whether N is above or under 9000. Teams with the most right answers or most wrong answers win.

Hope to see y'all there!

AMATH Prof talk (non-lite)

March 28, 2024

4:30 PM–5:30 PM
MC 2034

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More surprises before the term end. Two talks in Join us for a AMATH Prof Talk on Thur, Mar 28, 16:30 at MC2034 with Prof. Henry Shum.

Title: Mathematical modelling of bacteria, active droplets, and microrobots

Abstract: Bacteria are relatively simple microorganisms that have evolved surprisingly effective modes of motility that have allowed them to survive and thrive in almost every environment on Earth, including inside the human body. These and other forms of natural locomotion have inspired designs for artificial motility from aircraft to nanorobots. Focusing on microscale motion in viscous fluids, we consider models for flagellated bacterial motility in which long, passive flagellar filaments are turned by a rotary motor to propel the cell forward like a propeller. Using the same framework for the hydrodynamics, we also discuss synthetic systems of active droplet suspensions and magnetically actuated microrobots.

PMATH Prof Talk with Prof. Alexandru Nica

March 26, 2024

5:00 PM–6:00 PM
MC2034

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We got a few surprises for you before the term end. Join us for a PMATH Prof Talk on Tue, Mar 26, 17:00 at MC2034 with Prof. Alexandru Nica.

Title: Non-crossing partitions, and free probability basics

Abstract: The collection NC(n) of non-crossing partitions of [1,…,n] is one of the many combinatorial structures counted by the n-th Catalan number. I will discuss how the NC(n)'s appear in considerations related to the so-called "free independence for non-commutative random variables". In the reverse direction, non-commutative probability offers a possible framework for studying enumeration questions in the non-crossing world, for instance in connection to some interesting diagrams known as "meandric systems".

Another SASMS!!

March 21, 2024

6:30 PM–9:00 PM
MC 4061

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The universe just hates perfection. This SASMS was gonna be on the same day of the week at the same place at the same time as the previous one. I had so many jokes planned but for the website and email but alas. The room had to be changed. I am salty about it still so you get -1 jokes.

Time Speaker Title
0 6:30pm E-Therng Lee and Avish Kathpal Chaos and Fractals
1 7:30pm Pure Math Club Dinner :)
2 8:00pm Patrik Buhring (Ab)Using Desmos for Fun and Profit
3 8:30pm Easty Guo Cool Math Contest Problems Part 2

Abstracts:

0: Most of us have seen fractals before, either in art or in mathematics. But have you ever wondered about the rigorous definition of a fractal or how they are generated? This talk will focus on developing mathematical building blocks to help us understand the mathematical definition of fractals and how to construct them. We will delve into the theory of chaotic functions, fractals, and iterated function systems. Hope you enjoy!

1: Food

2: Desmos is a great tool for plotting your favourite functions like y = sin(x) and y = x^2, however the capabilities of this graphing calculator extend far beyond plotting such simple equations. In this talk, we explore a lot of "niche" features of Desmos and look at 10 example graphs. (Did you know Desmos is turing complete? And in a nice way too!)

3: some cool math contest type problems i found.

Hope to see y'all there!

SASMS time!!

March 14, 2024

6:30 PM–9:00 PM
MC 4059

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What you've been waiting for is finally here.

Time Speaker Title
0 6:30pm Chad Villeta A Surprising Appearance of the Golden Ratio in Geometry
1 7:00pm Alex Pawelko The Cross Product in R^7 (and Other Fun Adventures with Division Algebras)
2 7:30pm Pure Math Club Dinner :)
3 8:00pm Evan Girardin How to Make a Portal
4 8:30pm Gian Cordana Sanjaya A Generalized Math Contest Problem

Abstracts:

0: Sangaku are Japanese geometry problems embedded onto wooden tablets, which were hung up as offerings at Shinto shrines and temples. We'll start with a classic example, and make our way towards a special sangaku problem that my high school math teacher gave to me as a challenge.

1: Did you ever hear your linear algebra professor vaguely mention something like “there's a cross product in R^7” and then immediately change the topic, never to mention things again? In this talk, we're changing the topic back! We'll discuss cross products and a class of intimately related objects: normed division algebras over the reals. In particular, we'll discuss the quaternions and octonions, which are responsible for the cross products in R^3 and R^7, and discuss why these are the only two cross products that exist. This talk is aimed roughly at the level of a first course in linear algebra.

2: (insert joke about food here)

3: Two-way portals modulo poisonous moon rocks and black holes. As seen in Portal (2007) and Portal 2 (2011), the hit puzzler video games by Valve Software. The 30 minutes you will lose to this talk pale in comparison to the many thousands of hours I have lost to these two video games.

4: We look at a generalization of the IMO Shortlist 2017 A3 problem on a function f : S -> S on a finite set S satisfying a certain functional equation. We showcase some nice techniques used to solve this generalization. We discuss the case where S is not necessarily finite if time permits. Expect some graph drawing.

Hope to see y'all there!

AMATH Prof Talk (lite)

March 7, 2024

5:00 PM–6:00 PM
RCH 204

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Another month, another talk. This one will tickle the fancy of a lot of you.

Scientific Machine Learning talk by PhD canditate Lena Podena.

Abstract: Scientific machine learning is an area that encompasses: machine learning (ML) in regimes of sparse or noisy data, ensuring ML models abide by physical constraints in the problem, and using ML to perform scientific discovery. In this talk, I will cover approaches in the field such as physics-informed neural networks (PINNs), universal differential equations (UDEs), and universal physics-informed neural networks (UPINNs). PINNs are an influential method developed by Raissi et al. in 2019 in order to solve forward and inverse problems of differential equations (DEs) using neural networks, and performs particularly well in cases of sparse and noisy data. Although PINNs can be used to fit parameters, they cannot be used to learn entire components of DEs. UDEs and UPINNs perform this task with different methodology, enabling scientific discovery in a data-driven way.

C&O Prof Talk With Prof. Jane Gao

February 14, 2024

5:00 PM–6:00 PM
MC2054

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Got any 💕valentine's day 💕 plans?
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Well, you do now! Join us at the first C&O talk of 2024 on Wednesday, Feb 14 17:00 at MC2054 with Prof. Jane Gao.

Counting Regular Graphs: History, Techniques and Applications
Abstract: "Starting from the 100 prisoner puzzle, we explore the world of counting regular graphs and other related combinatorial objects. We review different techniques that have been applied to solve these problems in the literature; some as easy as using the generating functions seen in MATH239 and CO330, whereas others involve intricate combinatorial treatment and asymptotic analysis. Both the problems of counting graphs and the techniques developed in solving the counting problems have many applications. Meanwhile, many open problems remain in this challenging research area."

Disorganizational Meeting

January 10, 2024

5:00 PM–6:00 PM
MC 5501

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O Congregation,

Your presence is requested. It has been decreed that the PMC shall assemble for its termly hallowed Disorganizational Meeting on this Wednesday in MC 5501. Here, every member may vote for who their sacred Executives for the term shall be, one of whom could be you.

Snacks will be provided for those faithful. A full list of positions to be elected is found below:

  • President
  • Vice President of Pure Math
  • Vice President of Applied Math
  • Vice President of Combinatorics and Optimization
  • Vice President of Pop
  • Vice President of Finances
  • Vice President of Propaganda
  • Secretary

Eight positions; I trust that you will run for one.

See you there!

Evan Girardin
Soon-to-be Ex-God-Emperor of Everything, PMAMC&OC