Date Event Type Event Name Abstract
11/20/2017 Analysis Seminar Avoiding the Tragedy of the Commons in the Chemostat Many microbial populations exhibit social behavior, e.g. by producing enzymes required to digest the nutrients needed for growth. Unfortunately, this provides opportunities for "cheaters" to invade these populations. Cheaters let others produce the enzyme, and only invest in their own growth. In a...
11/17/2017 Applied Mathematics and Computation Seminar Ocean Momentum Exchanges and Dispersion due to Breaking Waves A stochastic parametrization for breaking dynamics of water waves is proposed. The parametrization derives from the analysis of Lagrangian particle paths, from computed and laboratory data. The Langevin dynamics combines a drift term​ ​largely informed by deterministic dynamic​​s and a diffusion...
11/15/2017 Mathematical Biology Seminar Nonlinear functional responses and ecological pleiotropy alter the strength of disruptive selection in consumers Disruptive selection is an important diversifying force in evolution and ecology, underlying processes such as adaptive radiation and sympatric speciation and generating variation among individuals within populations. Most theory on disruptive selection is based on generalist consumers in which...
11/15/2017 Mathematics Education Seminar Discussion of Proofs and Refutations by Imre Lakatos
11/14/2017 Number Theory Seminar Small non-trivial heights of totally p-adic numbers of degree 3
11/13/2017 Colloquium From Lecture to Active Learning What is active learning? What is the scientific evidence about it in the classroom? What is the lecture-textbook trap? What are the alternatives, and how difficult are they? What about issues such as "first contact", and linkages between before-, during-, and after-class. Is there a motto about...
11/13/2017 Geometry-Topology Seminar A New Family Satisfying the Intersection Graph Conjecture. A chord diagram is a circle with lines going across it and the intersection graph of a chord diagram shows how the lines inside the circle cross eachother. Many chord diagrams can share an intersection graph and the intersection graph conjecture asks if two chord diagrams share an intersection...
11/13/2017 Analysis Seminar Uniqueness, Non-Uniqueness, Explosion, and Duality: u'(t) = -u(t) +u^2(\alpha t); u(0) = u_0 in {0,1}; \alpha >0. We consider the two initial value problems $u^\prime(t) = -u(t) + u^2(\alpha t), u(0) = u_0\in\{0,1\},$ where $\alpha > 0$ is a fixed parameter. The equation arose as a mean-field version of mild (Fourier transformed) equations arising in fluids. Existence is clearly resolved by constant...
11/09/2017 NRT meeting
11/08/2017 Department Event Grad student social: first years meet others All graduate students are invited to the (already traditional) get-together where first-year graduate students can meet other grads in an informal setting. Come meet your peers and future colleagues! Refreshments will be served. Please confirm your participation with Branwen Purdy so we get a...
11/08/2017 Mathematical Biology Seminar TBA
11/07/2017 Number Theory Seminar Invariant measures for expanding maps, Part 2 Abstract: Having lingered on motivation last time, this week we add precision. In particular, we introduce a uniform Hausdorff metric on the space of those compact subsets of a complete metric space Y which fiber surjectively onto a compact metric space, I. Given an expansive map f of I, we...
11/07/2017 Mathematics Education Seminar MAA's Instructional Practice Guide: Introduction to a new resource The MAA Instructional Practices Guide is a companion guide to the 2015 CUPM Guide to Undergraduate Programs in the Mathematical Sciences. The IP Guide focuses on three core practices: Classroom Practices, Assessment Practices, and Course Design Practices. The guide is in draft form, preparing for...
11/06/2017 Colloquium Compatible Discretizations of Maxwell's Equations in Complex Materials Maxwell's equations are a system of vector partial differential equations that model the evolution of electromagnetic waves in a material. The response of the material is encoded in constitutive laws which, in their most general form can be nonlinear, dissipative and dispersive. In this talk, we...
11/06/2017 Geometry-Topology Seminar A quaternionic unraveling of the double-twist in three-space Physicists and mathematicians have long known it is possible to unravel a double-twist in three space, embodied in motions like the Dirac belt trick, Feynman plate trick, or Philippine candle dance. Quaternions can reveal how efficiently and beautifully this can be done, providing both theoretical...
11/04/2017 Pacific Northwest Probability Seminar The Nineteenth Northwest Probability Seminar The 19th Northwest Probability Seminar, a one-day mini-conference organized by the University of Washington, the Oregon State University, the University of British Columbia, the University of Oregon, and Microsoft Research, will be held on November 4, 2017. The conference will be hosted at...
11/03/2017 Applied Mathematics and Computation Seminar CANCELLED: Experience as an NRT Fellow 2016-17 and PNNL intern Summer 2017 The speaker will present his experience as an NRT Fellow in 2016-17. NRT http://marinerisk.ceoas.oregonstate.edu/ is a program funded by NSF which forms transdiciplinary teams of students to do research in marine sciences, combined with mathematical and statistical elements. Will's team members...
11/03/2017 Applied Mathematics and Computation Seminar A-Priori Reduced Order Modeling for Transient Neutron Diffusion High fidelity simulations in nuclear reactor physics inherently lie in high-parameter spaces and commonly suffer from the "curse of dimensionality". Current methods used to overcome this computational expense for transient neutron transport include lower-order moments-based angular treatments,...
11/01/2017 Mathematical Biology Seminar TBA
11/01/2017 Mathematics Education Seminar Discussion of Proofs and Refutations by Imre Lakatos