The basic notions seminar is aimed at providing graduate students with useful tools for research. The topics will be very broad and I would encourage students of all areas to attend. The talks will focus on heuristics, intuition, and philosophies for solving problems as well as basic technics. Mathematics is a very large universe and it helps to have 1st order knowledge in many subjects. This can save you months of work. These talks will not be soul crushing, core dumps leaving you scared and crying. On the other hand, useful information will be conveyed. Give it a try and eat some pizza. Personally, by 3:30 on Friday, all my good ideas for the week are gone.
Other titles for this seminar could be:
Stuff I wish I had learned in graduate school.
Mathematics for users and people that like to solve problems.
What can other peoples theorems and ideas do for you even when you are in unrelated areas.
The mathematical philosophies seminar.
The secret weapons seminar (PRISM please don't flag me).
The seminar is run by Ben McReynolds and Nick Miller. Please contact one of us if you wish to speak in the seminar or if you have a question about the seminar.
Present
Fall 2016 Schedule (Fridays at 3:30 PM in REC 112). We aim to have seminar every two to three weeks though speakers' schedules, holidays, and the general unpredictable nature of the universe will surely foul this up. We will have a few events this term as well. We plan to have a movie night and a special game show night.
Fall 2016 Schedule
Past
Fall 2012 Schedule
Spring 2013 Schedule
Fall 2013 Schedule
8-23: No seminar (room is booked)
8-30: Ben McReynolds (Purdue)
9-6: No seminar (room is booked)
9-13: Ben Adcock (Purdue)
9-20: Open (Ben is away)
9-27: Andrew Toms (Purdue)
10-4: Open (Ben is away)
10-11: Open (Ben is away)
10-18: Jonathon Peterson (Purdue)
10-25: Open
11-1: Ben McReynolds (Purdue)
11-8: Open
11-15: Open
11-22: Open
11-29: Thanksgiving
Spring 2014 Schedule
Fall 2014 Schedule
8-29: Open
9-5: Steve Bell (Purdue)
9-12: Open (Ben is away)
9-19: Brit Cox (Purdue: Ben is away)
9-26: Open
10-3: Ben McReynolds (Purdue: Bar Crawl day)
10-10: Open
10-17: Ben McReynolds (Purdue)
10-24: Open
10-31: Open
11-7: Aaron Abrams (Washington-Lee)
11-15: Fabrice Baudoin (Purdue)
11-21: Open
11-28: Thanksgiving
12-5: Jon Peterson (Purdue)
Spring 2015 Schedule
1-16: Open
1-23: Open
1-30: Open
2-6: Open
2-13: Open (Ben is away)
2-20: Open (Ben is away)
2-27: Open
3-6: Chris Leininger (UIUC)
3-13: Open (Ben is away)
3-20: Spring Break (Ben is away)
3-27: Open (Ben is away)
4-3: Open
4-10: Open
4-17: Open (Ben is away)
4-24: Open (Ben is away)
5-1: Benjamin Schmidt (Michigan State)
Fall 2015 Schedule
Seminar took a break.
Spring 2016 Schedule
2-12: Ben McReynolds (Purdue)
2-19: Open
2-26: Open
3-4: Thomas Sinclair
3-11: Open
3-18: Spring Break
3-25: Laszlo Lempert
4-1: Open
4-8: Russell Schwab (Michigan State)
4-15: Open (Ben is away)
4-22: Greg Buzzard (Purdue)
5-29: Open