MONDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2006

DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS AND APPLIED/
COMPUTATIONAL MATH SEMINAR

TIME: 3:35 p.m.
ROOM: Ayres Hall 214
SPEAKER: James A. Reneke, Clemson University
TITLE: Decision Making in the presence of uncertainty and risk
ABSTRACT: The concepts of uncertainty and risks will be introduced in the context of Max Tegmark’s meta-modeling paradigm. Steps for a decision process in the presence of uncertainty and risk, from model construction through the final decision, will be outlined. A simple example, choosing clothing to wear for projected activities and temperatures, will be explored to illustrate the ideas.
Co-sponsored by UT SIAM Student Chapter. Snacks provided before seminar in Ayres Hall 214.

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2006

ANALYSIS SEMINAR

TIME: 3:35 p.m. – 4:25 p.m.
ROOM: Ayres Hall 309A
SPEAKER: Professor Stefan Richter
TITLE: Orthogonal polynomials


THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2006

PROBABILITY SEMINAR

TIME: 10:10 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
ROOM: Ayres Hall 209A
SPEAKER: Professor Zenghu Li, Beijing Normal University
TITLE: Stochastic interest rates and affine Markov processes


JUNIOR COLLOQUIUM -- POSTPONED

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 “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, February 10, 2006

TOPOLOGY SEMINAR

TIME: 12:20 p.m. ­ 1:20 p.m.
ROOM: 209B Ayres Hall
SPEAKER: Professor Michael Levin (Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel)
TITLE: Kolmogorov's superposition theorem
ABSTRACT: Hilbert's thirteenth problem asks if every continuous function of n variables can be
represented as a composition of continuous functions of (n-1)-variables . We will proof the famous superposition theorem of Kolmogorov answering this problem affirmatively (in spite of Hilbert's expectation that the answer is not for n>2).