Seminars and Colloquia by Series

Southeast Geometry Seminar

Series
Other Talks
Time
Sunday, April 29, 2012 - 08:30 for 8 hours (full day)
Location
Skiles 005
Speaker
Southeast Geometry SeminarSchool of Mathematics, Georgia Tech

Please Note: The general public lecture will be presented by Jason Cantarella (University of Georgia) entitled The Square Peg Theorems or What does it mean to solve simultaneous equations? to take place in Klaus 1116 at 5:00PM

The Southeast Geometry Seminar is a series of semiannual one-day events focusing on geometric analysis. These events are hosted in rotation by the following institutions: The University of Alabama at Birmingham;  The Georgia Institute of Technology;  Emory University;  The University of Tennessee Knoxville.  The following five speakers will give presentations on topics that include geometric analysis, and related fields, such as partial differential equations, general relativity, and geometric topology. Jason Cantarella (University of Georgia);   Meredith Casey (The Georga Institute of Technology);  Kirk Lancaster (Wichita State University); Junfang Li ( University of Alabama at Birmingham)  Jason Parsley (Wake Forest University);

Graduate Student Probability Conference

Series
Other Talks
Time
Friday, April 27, 2012 - 08:30 for 8 hours (full day)
Location
Klaus 1116
Speaker
Probability Graduate StudentsSchool of Mathematics, Georgia Tech
Georgia Tech School of Mathematics will host the 6th Annual Graduate Student Probability Conference (GSPC) from April 27-29, 2012. The conference is open to all graduate students and post-doctoral fellows interested in probability. The two keynote speakers this year are: Professor Jean Bertoin, Universität Zürich; Professor Craig Tracy, University of California

Discrete Mathematical Biology Working Seminar

Series
Other Talks
Time
Monday, April 23, 2012 - 11:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 114
Speaker
Will PerkinsGeorgia Tech
A discussion of the paper "RNA folding with soft constraints: reconciliation of probing data and thermodynamic secondary structure prediction" by Washietl et al (NAR, 2012).

Discrete Mathematical Biology Working Seminar

Series
Other Talks
Time
Monday, April 16, 2012 - 11:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 114
Speaker
Svetlana PoznanovikGeorgia Tech
A discussion of the paper "Evaluation of the information content of RNA structure mapping data for secondary structure prediction" by Quarrier et al (RNA, 2010).

Leaping Lizards, Gripping Geckos and Crashing Cockroaches Inspire Robots, Artificial Muscles and Adhesives

Series
Other Talks
Time
Tuesday, April 10, 2012 - 11:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
IBB 1128
Speaker
Robert FullUniversity of California Berkeley

Please Note: Host: Daniel Goldman, School of Physics

Guided by direct experiments on many-legged animals, mathematical models and physical models (robots), we postulate a hierarchical family of control loops that necessarily include constraints of the body's mechanics. At the lowest end of this neuromechanical hierarchy, we hypothesize the primacy of mechanical feedback - neural clocks exciting tuned muscles acting through chosen skeletal postures. Control algorithms appear embedded in the form and skeleton of the animal itself. The control potential of muscles must be realized through complex, viscoelastic bodies. Bodies can absorb and redirect energy for transitions. Tails can be used as inertial control devices. On top of this physical layer reside sensory feedback driven reflexes that increase an animal's stability further and, at the highest level, environmental sensing that operates on a stride-to-stride timescale to direct the animal's body. Most importantly, locomotion requires an effective interaction with the environment. Understanding control requires understanding the coupling to environment. Amazing feet permit creatures such as geckos to climb up walls at over meter per second without using claws, glue or suction - just molecular forces using hairy toes. Fundamental principles of animal locomotion have inspired the design of self-clearing dry adhesives and autonomous legged robots such as the Ariel, Mecho-gecko, Sprawl, RHex, RiSE and Stickybot that can aid in search and rescue, inspection, detection and exploration.

Ford Commemorative Lecture - God does play dice - Why Quantum Mechanics is craps, how chaos crafted the Kuiper belt, and other curmudgeonly concepts

Series
Other Talks
Time
Monday, April 9, 2012 - 15:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Marcus Nano Conference Room 1116
Speaker
David FarrellyUtah State University

Please Note: Host: Turgay Uzer, School of Physics

Joseph Ford saw beauty in "Chaos" and the potential for ``villainous chaos" to be used in a constructive manner. His ideas have proved prescient. The talk will focus mainly on how chaotic dynamics may have played a key constructive -- rather than destructive -- role in shaping certain features of the Kuiper belt: in particular, the formation and properties of binary objects in the transneptunian part of the Solar System. Kuiper belt binaries stand out from other known binary objects in having a range of peculiar orbital and physical properties which may, actually, be the fingerprint of chaos in the primordial Kuiper belt. Understanding how these remote binaries formed may shed light on the formation and evolution of the Solar System itself.

Georgia Tech Workshop on Hamiltonian Dynamics and Chaos

Series
Other Talks
Time
Monday, April 9, 2012 - 14:30 for 4 hours (half day)
Location
Marcus Nanotechnology Building Room 1116
Speaker
CNS-CDSNS WorkshopGeorgia Tech

Please Note: Hosts: Michael Schatz and Predrag Cvitanovic, School of Physics

Georgia Tech Workshop on Hamiltonian Dynamics and Chaos: Ground Control to Niels Bohr: Exploring Outer Space with Atomic Physics. Workshop Committee: Cristel Chandre: Cristel.Chandre@cpt.univ-mrs.fr, Chair; Predrag Cvitanović: predrag@gatech.edu; Rafael de la Llave: rll6@math.gatech.edu; Mike Schatz: michael.schatz@physics.gatech.edu

Discrete Mathematical Biology Working Seminar

Series
Other Talks
Time
Monday, April 9, 2012 - 11:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 114
Speaker
Shel SwensonGeorgia Tech
A discussion of the paper "Understanding the Errors of SHAPE-Directed RNA Structure Modeling" by Kladwang et al (2011).

The Shape of Space

Series
Other Talks
Time
Thursday, April 5, 2012 - 16:30 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Klaus 1443
Speaker
Frank SottileTexas A&M University

Please Note: An undergraduate-accessible talk.

In this talk, I will try to give you an idea of how mathematicians manage to say anything meaningful about higher-dimensional spaces, and relate this to the recent proof of the Poincare conjecture that won the Millennium Prize of the Clay Institute. Besides bringing your enquiring minds, at least 50% of the audience needs to bring a belt for those articles will play a key role in our discussion.

Discrete Mathematical Biology Working Seminar

Series
Other Talks
Time
Monday, April 2, 2012 - 11:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 114
Speaker
Emily RogersSchool of Mathematics, Georgia Tech
A discussion of the papers "Accurate SHAPE-directed RNA structure determination" by Deigan et al (2008) and "SHAPE-directed RNA secondary structure prediction" by Low and Weeks (2010).

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