MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2006

DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS AND APPLIED/
COMPUTATIONAL MATH SEMINAR

TIME: 3:35 – 4:30 p.m.
ROOM: Ayres Hall 309A
SPEAKER: Mike Saum
TITLE: Optimization of Floating Point Calculations, (part 1 of 2)
ABSTRACT: Everyone wants their computer programs to run fast, but how does one design the computer program to run as fast as possible? This first seminar will provide a “gentle” introduction to the Intel Pentium4 architecture and memory hierarchy. In addition, we will discuss various data layout issues and their impact on performance, loop optimization techniques to improve performance, and various compiler choices and optimization flags and their effect on program performance.

THURSDAY, MARCH 2, 2006

PROBABILITY SEMINAR

TIME: 10:10 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
ROOM: Ayres Hall 209A
Meeting on graduate catalog revision for stochastics.

JUNIOR COLLOQUIUM

TIME: 3:30 p.m.
ROOM: Ayres Hall 214
SPEAKER: Professor Ken Stephenson
TITLE: Quadrilateral Shapes with Round Circles
ABSTRACT: Circles are perhaps the most familiar of the “ideal forms” whose study reaches back thousands of years to the ancient Greeks. We will discuss how circles can be used to judge more complicated SHAPES. In particular, by experimenting with a range of “quadrilateral” shapes – filling them with patterns of circles – we will find how to distinguish one from another. Continued fractions, the golden ratio, and some other topics with ancient roots will also make surprise appearances.

Pizza will be served at 3:30 p.m.

FRIDAY, MARCH 3, 2006

GREBE (Graduate Researchers in Ecology, Behavior, and Evolution) SEMINAR

TIME: 3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
ROOM: SERF 307 (Science & Engineering Research Facility)
SPEAKER: Rick Dilling
TITLE: Conditions for sympatric speciation in a model of blowflies
(I am one of three graduate students giving a 15 minute presentation on some of their research.)