Seminars and Colloquia by Series

An Adaptive Sampling Approach for Surrogate Modeling of Expensive Computer Experiments

Series
Applied and Computational Mathematics Seminar
Time
Monday, February 4, 2019 - 13:55 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 005
Speaker
Ashwin RenganathanGT AE

In the design of complex engineering systems like aircraft/rotorcraft/spacecraft, computer experiments offer a cheaper alternative to physical experiments due to high-fidelity(HF) models. However, such models are still not cheap enough for application to Global Optimization(GO) and Uncertainty Quantification(UQ) to find the best possible design alternative. In such cases, surrogate models of HF models become necessary. The construction of surrogate models requires an offline database of the system response generated by running the expensive model several times. In general, the training sample size and distribution for a given problem is unknown apriori and can be over/under predicted, which leads to wastage of resources and poor decision-making. An adaptive model building approach eliminates this problem by sequentially sampling points based on information gained in the previous step. However, an approach that works for highly non-stationary response is still lacking in the literature. Here, we use Gaussian Process(GP) models as surrogate model. We employ a novel process-convolution approach to generate parameterized non-stationary.

GPs that offer control on the process smoothness. We show that our approach outperforms existing methods, particularly for responses that have localized non-smoothness. This leads to better performance in terms of GO, UQ and mean-squared-prediction-errors for a given budget of HF function calls.

Kazhdan-Lusztig theory for matroids

Series
Algebra Seminar
Time
Monday, February 4, 2019 - 12:50 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 005
Speaker
Botong WangUniversity of Wisconsin-Madison
Matroids are basic combinatorial objects arising from graphs and vector configurations. Given a vector configuration, I will introduce a “matroid Schubert variety” which shares various similarities with classical Schubert varieties. I will discuss how the Hodge theory of such matroid Schubert varieties can be used to prove a purely combinatorial conjecture, the “top-heavy” conjecture of Dowling-Wilson. I will also report an on-going project joint with Tom Braden, June Huh, Jacob Matherne, Nick Proudfoot on the cohomology theory of non-realizable matroids.

On numerical composition of Taylor-Fourier

Series
Dynamical Systems Working Seminar
Time
Friday, February 1, 2019 - 15:05 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 246
Speaker
Joan GimenoBGSMath-UB
A real Taylor-Fourier expression is a Taylor expression whose coefficients are real Fourier series. In this talk we will discuss different numerical methods to compute the composition of two Taylor-Fourier expressions. To this end, we will show some possible implementations and we are going to discuss and show some results in performance. In particular, we are going to cover how the compositon of two Fourier series can be perfomed in logarithmic complexity.

Acylindrical hyperbolicity of non-elementary convergence groups

Series
Geometry Topology Seminar
Time
Friday, February 1, 2019 - 14:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 006
Speaker
Bin SunVanderbilt
The notion of an acylindrically hyperbolic group was introduced by Osin as a generalization of non-elementary hyperbolic and relative hyperbolic groups. Ex- amples of acylindrically hyperbolic groups can be found in mapping class groups, outer automorphism groups of free groups, 3-manifold groups, etc. Interesting properties of acylindrically hyperbolic groups can be proved by applying techniques such as Monod-Shalom rigidity theory, group theoretic Dehn filling, and small cancellation theory. We have recently shown that non-elementary convergence groups are acylindrically hyperbolic. This result opens the door for applications of the theory of acylindrically hyperbolic groups to non-elementary convergence groups. In addition, we recovered a result of Yang which says a finitely generated group whose Floyd boundary has at least 3 points is acylindrically hyperbolic.

Opportunities at the Intersection of AI and Society

Series
ACO Student Seminar
Time
Friday, February 1, 2019 - 13:05 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Groseclose 402
Speaker
Nisheeth VishnoiCS, Yale University

(The talk will be at 1-2pm, then it follows by a discussion session from 2 pm to 2:45 pm.)

Powerful AI systems, which are driven by machine learning, are increasingly controlling various aspects of modern society: from social interactions (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Google, YouTube), economics (e.g., Uber, Airbnb, Banking), learning (e.g., Wikipedia, MOOCs), governance (Judgements, Policing, Voting), to autonomous vehicles and weapons. These systems have a tremendous potential to change our lives for the better, but, via the ability to mimic and nudge human behavior, they also have the potential to be discriminatory, reinforce societal prejudices, and polarize opinions. Moreover, recent studies have demonstrated that these systems can be quite brittle and generally lack the required robustness to be deployed in various civil/military situations. The reason being that considerations such as fairness, robustness, stability, explainability, accountability etc. have largely been an afterthought in the development of AI systems. In this talk, I will discuss the opportunities that lie ahead in a principled and thoughtful development of AI systems.

Bio

Nisheeth Vishnoi is a Professor of Computer Science at Yale University. He received a B.Tech in Computer Science and Engineering from IIT Bombay in 1999 and a Ph.D. in Algorithms, Combinatorics and Optimization from Georgia Tech in 2004. His research spans several areas of theoretical computer science: from approximability of NP-hard problems, to combinatorial, convex and non-convex optimization, to tackling algorithmic questions involving dynamical systems, stochastic processes and polynomials. He is also broadly interested in understanding and addressing some of the key questions that arise in nature and society from the viewpoint of theoretical computer science. Here, his current focus is on natural algorithms, emergence of intelligence, and questions at the interface of AI, ethics, and society. He was the recipient of the Best Paper Award at FOCS in 2005, the IBM Research Pat Goldberg Memorial Award in 2006, the Indian National Science Academy Young Scientist Award in 2011, and the IIT Bombay Young Alumni Achievers Award in 2016.

Estimation of smooth functionals of high-dimensional covariance

Series
Stochastics Seminar
Time
Thursday, January 31, 2019 - 15:05 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 006
Speaker
V. KoltchinskiiSOM, GaTech

We discuss a problem of asymptotically efficient (that is, asymptotically normal with minimax optimal limit variance) estimation of functionals of the form $\langle f(\Sigma), B\rangle$ of unknown covariance $\Sigma$ based on i.i.d.mean zero Gaussian observations $X_1,\dots, X_n\in {\mathbb R}^d$ with covariance $$\Sigma$. Under the assumptions that the dimension $d\leq n^{\alpha}$ for some $\alpha\in (0,1)$ and $f:{\mathbb R}\mapsto {\mathbb R}$ is of smoothness $s>\frac{1}{1-\alpha},$ we show how to construct an asymptotically efficient estimator of such functionals (the smoothness threshold $\frac{1}{1-\alpha}$ is known to be optimal for a simpler problem of estimation of smooth functionals of unknown mean of normal distribution).

The proof of this result relies on a variety of probabilistic and analytic tools including Gaussian concentration, bounds on the remainders of Taylor expansions of operator functions and bounds on finite differences of smooth functions along certain Markov chains in the spaces of positively semi-definite matrices.

Singular Elements of Linear Series part II

Series
Intersection Theory Seminar
Time
Thursday, January 31, 2019 - 13:30 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 006
Speaker
Daniel MinahanGeorgia Tech
We will finish chapter 7 of Eisenbud and Harris, 3264 and All That.Topics: Inflection points of curves in P^r, nets of plane curves, the topological Hurwitz formula.

CANCELLED - Control through canalization in modeling the innate immune response to ischemic injury - CANCELLED

Series
Other Talks
Time
Thursday, January 31, 2019 - 11:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 005
Speaker
Elena DimitrovaClemson University

Please Note: This is a SCMB MathBioSys Seminar posted on behalf of Melissa Kemp (GT BME)

Constriction of blood vessels in the extremities due to traumatic injury to halt excessive blood loss or resulting from pathologic occlusion can cause considerable damage to the surrounding tissues with significant morbidity and mortality. Optimal healing of damaged tissue relies on the precise balance of pro-inflammatory and pro-healing processes of innate inflammation. In this talk, we will present a discrete multiscale mathematical model that spans the tissue and intracellular scales, and captures the consequences of targeting various regulatory components. We take advantage of the canalization properties of some of the functions, which is a type of hierarchical clustering of the inputs, and use it as control to steer the system away from a faulty attractor and understand better the regulatory relations that govern the system dynamics.EDIT: CANCELLED

The SQG equation

Series
Job Candidate Talk
Time
Thursday, January 31, 2019 - 11:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 006
Speaker
Javier Gómez-SerranoPrinceton University
There has been high scientific interest to understand the behavior of the surface quasi-geostrophic (SQG) equation because it is a possible model to explain the formation of fronts of hot and cold air and because it also exhibits analogies with the 3D incompressible Euler equations. It is not known at this moment if this equation can produce singularities or if solutions exist globally. In this talk I will discuss some recent works on the existence of global solutions.

Pages