Previous Conferences & Workshops

Nov
29
2016

Computer Science/Discrete Mathematics Seminar II

Combinatorial rigidity of graphs embedded in $\mathbb{R}^2$
Orit Raz
10:30am|S-101

In this talk I will review some of the classical (and fundamental) results in the theory of graph rigidity.

Nov
28
2016

Members’ Seminar

Asymptotic representation theory over $\mathbb Z$
1:15pm|S-101

Representation theory over $\mathbb Z$ is famously intractable, but "representation stability" provides a way to get around these difficulties, at least asymptotically, by enlarging our groups until they behave more like commutative rings. Moreover...

Nov
28
2016

Computer Science/Discrete Mathematics Seminar I

Stochastic block models and probabilistic reductions
11:15am|S-101

The stochastic block model (SBM) is a random graph model with planted clusters. It has been popular to model unsupervised learning problems, inhomogeneous random graphs and to study statistical versus computational tradeoffs. This talk overviews the...

Nov
22
2016

Computer Science/Discrete Mathematics Seminar II

Theory of accelerated methods
10:30am|S-101

In this talk I will show how to derive the fastest coordinate descent method [1] and the fastest stochastic gradient descent method [2], both from the linear-coupling framework [3]. I will relate them to linear system solving, conjugate gradient...

Nov
21
2016

Members’ Seminar

Modular forms with small Fourier coefficients
1:15pm|S-101

Computing the class number is a hard question. In 1956, Iwasawa announced a surprising formula for an infinite family of class numbers, starting an entire theory that lies behind this phenomenon. We will not focus too much on this theory (Iwasawa...

Nov
21
2016

Computer Science/Discrete Mathematics Seminar I

On the effect of randomness on planted 3-coloring models
Uri Feige
11:15am|S-101

The random planted 3-coloring model generates a 3-colorable graph $G$ by first generating a random host graph $H$ of average degree $d$, and then planting in it a random 3-coloring (by giving each vertex a random color and dropping the monochromatic...