Seminars and Colloquia by Series

Can math models help us understand the brain?

Series
Stelson Lecture Series
Time
Thursday, April 16, 2026 - 17:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
DM Smith 115
Speaker
Lai-Sang Young – New York University –

Please Note: Join us at the Stelson Reception for refreshments in the Skiles atrium from 4-4:45PM prior to the talk. Around 4:45PM we will walk over to DM Smith.

I would like to think that they can, and will illustrate by sharing some work my collaborators and I have done on the monkey visual system, which is very similar to that of humans. Specifically, I will focus on two visual properties: one is used in the detection of edges, the other is relevant when our eyes track moving objects. To explain the origin of these properties, simple mathematical ideas were first developed in idealized settings. They were then tested -- and fine-tuned -- via simulations using large-scale dynamical network models that are biologically more realistic.
 

TBA by Walton Green

Series
Analysis Seminar
Time
Wednesday, April 15, 2026 - 14:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 005
Speaker
Walton Green – Illinois State University

In-Context Operator Learning on the Space of Probability Measures

Series
Applied and Computational Mathematics Seminar
Time
Monday, April 13, 2026 - 14:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 005 and https://gatech.zoom.us/j/94954654170
Speaker
Dixi Wang – Purdue University –

We introduce in-context operator learning on probability measure spaces for optimal transport (OT). The goal is to learn a single solution operator that maps a pair of distributions to the OT map, using only few-shot samples from each distribution as a prompt and without gradient updates at inference. We parameterize the solution operator and develop scaling-law theory in two regimes. In the nonparametric setting, when tasks concentrate on a low-intrinsic-dimension manifold of source– target pairs, we establish generalization bounds that quantify how in-context accuracy scales with prompt size, intrinsic task dimension, and model capacity. In the parametric setting (e.g., Gaussian families), we give an explicit architecture that recovers the exact OT map in context and provide finite-sample excess-risk bounds. Our numerical experiments on synthetic transports and generative modeling benchmarks validate the framework.

Real bordered Floer homology

Series
Geometry Topology Seminar
Time
Monday, April 13, 2026 - 14:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 006
Speaker
Robert Lipshitz – University of Oregon –

Real Heegaard Floer homology is a new invariant of branched double covers, introduced by Gary Guth and Ciprian Manolescu, and inspired by work of Jiakai Li and others in Seiberg-Witten theory. After sketching their construction, we will describe an extension of the "hat" variant to 3-manifolds with boundary, and the algorithm this gives to compute it when the fixed set is connected. We will end with some open questions.

TBA by Maddie Brandt

Series
Algebra Seminar
Time
Monday, April 13, 2026 - 13:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 005
Speaker
Maddie Brandt – Vanderbilt University

Please Note: There will be a pre-seminar.

TBA

An Elementary Introduction to the Kontsevich Integral

Series
Geometry Topology Working Seminar
Time
Friday, April 10, 2026 - 14:00 for 1.5 hours (actually 80 minutes)
Location
Skiles 006
Speaker
Thang Le – Georgia Tech

This minicourse provides a friendly, step-by-step introduction to the Kontsevich integral. We begin by demystifying the formula and its construction, showing how it serves as a far-reaching generalization of the classical Gauss linking integral. To establish the invariance of the Kontsevich integral, we explore the holonomy of the Knizhnik–Zamolodchikov (KZ) connection on configuration spaces, utilizing the framework of Chen’s iterated integrals. We will then discuss the universality of the Kontsevich integral for both finite-type (Vassiliev) and quantum invariants, culminating in a concrete combinatorial formula expressed through Drinfeld’s associators. Time permitting, we will conclude by constructing the LMO invariant, demonstrating how it functions as a 3-manifold analog of the Kontsevich integral.

Finner-like inequalities in the Heisenberg group

Series
Analysis Seminar
Time
Wednesday, April 8, 2026 - 14:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 005
Speaker
Kaiyi Huang – University of Wisconsin-Madison –

We completely characterize the range of $L^p$-boundedness of certain multilinear Radon-like transforms involving vertical projections in the Heisenberg group. This result is now available on arXiv:2603.17147.

Pages