Upcoming Talks

Recent Talks

February 28, 2025

Speaker: Abigail Rose Drumm

Title: Coupon Collecting

Abstract: How many boxes of cereal do you need to eat before you have all the toys? How many decks of Pokemon cards do you need to buy before you have collected them all? Both of these questions are related to what is known as the coupon collecting problem, the basics of which will be presented in this talk.

February 21, 2025

Speaker: Taorui Wang

Title: Tensor Neural Network, high dimensional, NN solver, blended stuff

Abstract: This will be a report and my experience on the ML on computational mathematics—focusing on my first project Tensor Neural Network for Fokker-Planck Equation.

November 22, 2024

Speaker: Abigail Rose Drumm

Title: Random Walks and the Diffusion Equation

Abstract: We will take a little walk through a kind-of derivation of the diffusion equation from a random process.

November 15, 2024

Speaker: Caz Cherniko

Title: Achieving Photorealism Using Math

Abstract: Going over the math used in 3D rendering for modern computer graphics, including Monte-Carlo integration for evaluating BRDFs, path-tracing, and importance sampling.

November 8, 2024

Speaker: Will Zawada

Title: Linear Programming Interactive Seminar

Abstract: Linear optimization is one of the most valuable industrial skills needed for decision-making. Often times in the industry, you are tasked with difficult decisions. You might wonder about: how can I minimize the cost that I am spending? Or how can I minimize the time needed to ship a product? Or even maximize the revenue or profit of a product?, while dealing with linear constraints, since we also need to take into account other factors. During this presentation, we will explore what exactly is linear programming, how to formulate problems, and how to use a basic toolbox of techniques we can use to solve them. Because this is a seminar, this presentation will be very interactive from the get-go. Together, aside from learning the content, we will also explore our ideas, and will be tasked to brainstorm different linear programming to many different applications in the industry, including our very own backyard when making big decisions for ourselves. There will also be free candy (and no, I am not kidding). Note that we will NOT be doing any actual programming in this lecture, and no background is necessary for this presentation, however, some knowledge within linear algebra will be helpful if you are new to the topic. If you are already familiar with this, I also designed this seminar so that we can also dig deeper into more complex Linear Programming problems!

November 1, 2024

Speaker: Robin Husman

Title: Ask not what you can do for your compiler.

Abstract: How do computers understand the code we write? What even is a programming language, and what does it mean to create one? Join me on a little adventure as we explore what happens when we hit "run".

October 11, 2024

Speaker: Abigail Rose Drumm

Title: Monte Carlo Simulations of 2D Flat-Sheet Membrane Filters

Abstract: We will look at preliminary simulations from a project that aims to model the fouling of 2D flat-sheet membranes during water filtration using Monte Carlo simulations. 

October 4, 2024

Speaker: Caitlin Ho 

Title: Data-Driven Learning of Unknown System Dynamics and Physical Parameters

Abstract: Incorporating a priori physics knowledge into machine learning leads to more robust and interpretable algorithms. In this work, we combine deep learning techniques and classic numerical methods for differential equations to solve two challenging problems in dynamical systems theory: dynamics discovery and parameter estimation. Numerical results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approaches on a suite of test problems exhibiting oscillatory and chaotic dynamics, comparing the performance of various numerical schemes, such as the Runge-Kutta and linear multistep families of methods, in predicting the system dynamics and estimating physical parameters. 

September 27, 2024

Speaker: Colin Streck

Title: An Introduction to Computer Vision 

Abstract: Computer vision is the field centered around taking in image data and converting it into useful information. We'll go over some of the techniques used in it such as linear filters for edge detection and object tracking. The talk will include a demonstration. 

September 6, 2024

Speaker: Colin Streck

Title: Post-Quantum Cryptographic Primitives

Abstract: Cryptography is the art of encrypting and decrypting messages with math, basing it's security on how difficult certain problems are for computers. Growing computational power and quantum computers are enabling new ways to compute things, rendering old problems obsolete. We'll look at some of the problems deemed suitably difficult to withstand the rise of quantum computing and how they work.

August 30, 2024

Speaker: Kevin Metzler

Title: Dynamical Systems as applied to Neural Networks

Abstract: Using Dynamical Systems and some other fancy tools we have learned to invert certain types of neural networks. We will observe the relationship between sparse neural network layers and their invertibility. 

September 1, 2023

Speaker: Derek Drumm

Title: Derivative Free Optimization: GPS and MADS

Abstract: Derivative Free Optimization (DFO) is a class of optimization algorithms which, as the name suggests, avoid the calculation of derivatives. This type of optimization is particularly useful when optimizing functions whose derivative data is not available, or is difficult to calculate. I will give a brief introduction to two famous DFO algorithms, Generalized Pattern Search (GPS) and Mesh Adaptive Direct Search (MADS), as well as discuss how these algorithms are helping me in my current research area.