Un of Tenn | Math Department

Seminars and Colloquiums
for 2010-2011

Week of November 1, 2010

Speaker:

Professor Joan Lind, Monday
Mr. Vajira Manathunga, Monday
Ms. Samantha Tracht, Tuesday
Mr. Keith Penrod, Wednesday
Professor Stefan Richter, Wednesday
Professor Mike Guidry, Physics Seminar, Thursday
Dr. Paul Thurston, UBS Investment Bank, Thursday
Dr. Paul Thurston, UBS Investment Bank, Friday

If you are interested in giving or arranging a talk for one of our seminars or colloquiums,
please review our calendar.

If you have questions, or a date you would like to confirm, please contact Dr. Fernando Schwartz.

Monday, November 1

PROBABILITY SEMINAR
TIME: 10:10 – 11:00 am
ROOM: Temple 303
SPEAKER: Professor Joan Lind
TITLE: "Holder regularity of the SLE trace" -- part II
ABSTRACT: For each k > 0, the Schramm-Loewner Evolution trace is a random two-dimensional curve. We will continue looking at computations related to the Holder regularity of these curves.

ALGEBRA SEMINAR
TIME: 3:35 – 4:25 pm
ROOM: AC 113A
SPEAKER: Vajira Manathunga
TITLE: "Noncommuting graph of a group"
ABSTRACT: The noncommuting graph T(G) of a non-abelian finite group G is define as follows. The vertices of T (G) are represented by the noncentral elements of G, and two distinct vertices are joined by an edge if they do not commute. We will begin with a brief introduction to noncommuting graphs of a group. Next we consider the following question: Let G and H be two non-abelian finite groups whose noncommuting graphs are isomorphic. Then is |G|=|H|? We will illustrate the counterexample given by A.R.Moghaddamfar in "About Noncommuting Graphs", Siberian Math. J., 47, No. 5, 911-914 (2006).

Tuesday, November 2

MATH BIOLOGY SEMINAR
TIME: 11:00 am
ROOM: 403B, Blount Hall, 1534 White Ave., NIMBioS
SPEAKER: Samantha Tracht
TITLE: "Reproduction numbers and sub-threshold endemic equilibria for compartmental models of disease transmission"

Wednesday, November 3

TOPOLOGY SEMINAR
TIME: 12:20 – 1:10 pm
ROOM: BEC 202
SPEAKER: Keith Penrod
TITLE: "Infinite Product Spaces. Examples"

ANALYSIS SEMINAR
TIME: 3:35 – 4:25 p.m.
ROOM: AC 113
SPEAKER: Professor Stefan Richter
TITLE: "Boundary behavior and invariant subspaces in spaces of analytic functions", 3

PHYSICS SEMINAR
TIME: 4:45
ROOM: Nielsen Physics Building, Room 415
SPEAKER: Professor Mike Guidry
TITLE: "Programming Android for Mobile Scientific and Educational Applications."
Abstract: Earth is being invaded by Androids. No, not THAT kind of android! The invaders are small, highly-connected mobile devices running the Google Android operating system. Android smartphones are outselling both RIM Blackberry and Apple iPhone by steadily increasing margins in the U. S., and are on track soon to overtake Nokia Symbian systems worldwide. They offer unprecedented development opportunity through a free, open source and cross-platform Applications Programming Interface and Software Development toolkit. They are programmed primarily in Java and XML, promote development of object-oriented software in a model-view-controller architecture, and provide access to the device hardware through abstraction layers. This talk will give an overview of programming Android devices with a focus on possible scientific and educational applications. It will emphasize concepts rather than lines of code and should be useful to programmers and non-programmers alike. This presentation also will serve as introduction to a free, hands-on Android programming workshop to be offered later this year, based on an online course being developed by the speaker at http://eagle.phys.utk.edu/guidry/android/.

The seminar will be at 4:45 p.m. in the Nielsen Physics Building, Room 415.

Thursday, November 4

JUNIOR COLLOQUIUM
TIME: 3:35 – 4:25 pm
ROOM: HBB 102
SPEAKER: Dr. Paul Thurston, UBS Investment Bank
TITLE: "An Introduction to Fractal Geometry with Applications in Engineering, Biology and Finance"
ABSTRACT: In an undergraduate calculus course, we usually study geometric objects that are, in some sense, regular. Examples of such 'regular' geometric objects include circles, spheres, and polyhedra. Experiencing the natural world around us, we often find that the most common objects in nature, such as trees, mountains, and even the circulatory systems of animals, are much more 'jagged', or irregular. The term 'fractal' is often used to describe irregular objects such as these examples found in nature.

Fractal Geometry provides a mathematical tool with which to study such irregular geometric objects, and hopefully, gain more insight into naturally occurring phenomena. Popularized by Benoit Mandelbrot, many of us have seen the exotic artwork inspired by fractals adorning paintings, posters and clothing. Recently, fractals have found many practical applications in Engineering, Biology and Finance. (For example, every modern smart phone nowadays comes equipped with a fractal, and these smart phones wouldn't work very well without the fractal.)

In this talk, I'll describe the basic elements of fractal geometry and present numerous practical examples of fractals in Engineering, Biology and Finance.

Students with any background in undergraduate calculus should find the presentation very accessible.

***Pizza will be available in AC113***

Friday, November 5

COLLOQUIUM
TIME: 3:35 – 4:25 pm
ROOM: HBB 102
SPEAKER: Dr. Paul Thurston, UBS Investment Bank
TITLE: "Multifractal Stochastic Volatility with applications to High Frequency Trading and Mortgage Portfolio Risk Management"
ABSTRACT: Many studies of empirical financial data have uncovered the existence of persistence (or long-memory) particularly in the volatility components. The initial efforts to incorporate this behavior into financial models focused on the use of long-range dependent processes, and/or fractionally integrated time series. Recent studies have uncovered a much more complex phenomenon where the degree of persistence is a dependent on the sampling frequency. Such complexity is beyond ability of the standard fractional models to fully explain. In response, a new class of models has been proposed by Mandelbrot, Calvet and Fisher based on multifractal stochastic processes. In this survey talk, I will review the work of Mandelbrot, Calvet-Fisher, Thurston-Li, and explore applications of these models to statistical arbitrage and mortgage portfolio risk management.

Past notices:

Seminars from 2009-2010 academic year