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The mission of the Seminar for Women in Mathematics is to provide a relaxed, supportive and stress-free environment in which women graduate students, advanced undergraduate students, postdocs and faculty in the department can interact. It also provides a place where women may give talks and discuss mathematics at a level accessible to all graduate students.

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Meeting Time and Place: Tuesday at 5pm (approximately every two weeks),  in 243 Altgeld Hall

Organizers: Sylvia Carlisle, Merc Chasman (e-mail: carlisle@math.uiuc.edu, chasman@math.uiuc.edu)

Format: The speakers for the seminar are female, usually graduate students or postdocs in the mathematics department.  Talks range in length from 30 to 50 minutes, and are at the beginning graduate level.  Talks may be on any mathematical topic, and need not represent original research.  Following the talk, interested participants choose a place to have dinner together.

You do NOT need to be female to attend the seminar.  If you are interested in being added to the mailing list, contact the organizer.

Schedule - Spring 2007
Date: May 1st
Speaker: Martha Makowski
Title: TBA

Date: April 24th
Speaker: Jennifer McNeilly
Title:  Merit, Math Ed, and More
As I complete my 6th year as a full-time member of the Math Department, it
is surprising to consider how different my focus and direction are now
than they were when I began this position.  I plan to share a brief
description of my role as Merit Director and Instructor and the many
opportunities that have been presented to me.  Included will be some
discussion of grant writing and math education.

Date: April 17th
Speaker: Melissa Simmons
Title: Bow & Stern Sequences
I will compare my recent results on the recursive bow sequence with the famous Stern sequence.
Specifically, I will introduce the generating function for the general bow sequence, and the bow
sequence modulo 2.  I will also discuss properties of b(7n+k) and other interesting facts.
The talk should be accessible to all graduate students.


Date: April 3rd
Temporary Room: 341 Altgeld
Speaker: Nil Sirikci
Title: The group of Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms
We will introduce the group of symplectomorphisms and the group of hamiltonian
diffeomorphisms on a closed symplectic manifold and discuss how they relate.
This will be an introductory talk on the subject and the basic definitions we
need will be provided, including the definition of a symplectic manifold.


Date: March 6th
Speaker: Jennifer Paulhus
Title: Using Algebra to Study Points on Curves
Abstract: Points on elliptic curves have a natural group structure on them which
allows us to use algebraic techniques to study the curves.  While
other curves do not have such a natural structure, we can define a
special object associated to the curve which is a group and use this
group to study these curves.   We give a gentle introduction to this
field, assuming no more than an undergraduate course in algebra.


Date: February 20th
Speaker: Valerie Peterson
Title: Plaiting Polyhedra
Abstract: There are all kinds of methods for constructing polyhedra out of strangely shaped
pieces of heavy paper, but in 1983 J. Pedersen discovered an ingeneous one using
only n congruent flat strips.  Given a Platonic solid, if one assumes that (1) every
edge in the model is crossed at least once, and (2) every color used has an equal area
exposed on the model's surface, then the number of necessary and sufficient strips
to plait the tetrahedron, cube, octahedron, icosahedron, and dodecahedron are,
respectively, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.  We will discuss these constructions as well as embark
on a few.  Materials and instructions will be provided, and no previous plaiting
experience will be assumed.

Date: January 23rd
Short organizational meeting

Previous Talks - Fall 2006

Date: September 12th
Speaker:Anca Mustata
Title: Algebraic Stacks
Abstract: Algebraic stacks are a useful extension of the notion of scheme in
algebraic geometry. An example is the quotient of a scheme by the
action of an affine algebraic group with finite stabilizers. In this talk
I will present a basic stack construction via the notion of groupoid
scheme. Even though the word is used in abundance, you do not need
to know what a scheme is to follow this talk. You may replace it by mostly
any other notion of space you may like: manifold, complex analytic
space, or even topological space.

Date: October 3rd
Speaker:Carolyn Wendler

Date: October 10th
Speaker:Rosona Eldred
Title: H-spaces and Coherence
Abstract: A group is a monoid is an H-space. Monoids and groups have a set
amount of associativity; different H-spaces can have differing levels of
associativity that is communicated by coherence laws. These can be thought
of as commutative polyhedral diagrams, or as maps involving different
dimensional discs. As you vary the amount of coherence you want on your
H-space, you get varying sorts of corresponding topological structures. For
instance, an H-space with every possible coherence looks like an infinite
loop space (maps from the infinite dimensional sphere into a space X). This
talk is based somewhat off of week121 of John Baez's finds in mathematical
physics.

Date: October 17th
Speaker: Jennifer Vandenbussche
Title: Friendship in Combinatorics
Abstract: The Friendship Theorem in combinatorics states that if every two
people at a party have exactly one common friend, then there is one person
who is friends with everyone.  In 1978, Vera Sos suggested a
generalization of this idea using hypergraphs.  In this talk, I will
briefly discuss the Friendship Theorem before introducing the concept of
hypergraphs.  I will discuss recent progress on Sos's generalization
(joint work with Stephen Hartke).  In particular, I will show how Integer
Programming can be used to investigate combinatorial problems.  This talk
will be accessible to anyone but hopefully still interesting to
combinatorialists - and I promise to use the words "eigenvalue" and
"group" at least once for the algebraists in the crowd.

Date: October 31st
Speaker: Erin Wolf Chambers
Title: Computing Interesting Topological Features
Abstract: Computational topology is a relatively new area in the intersection of
theoretical computer science and topology that merges classical
methods in topology with algorithmic questions motivated by
applications in graphics, sensor networks, robotics, genetics, and
many other areas.  I will provide a survey of some algorithmic
questions which have been addressed, such as computing shortest cycles
which have interesting properties such as being non-contractible,
separating, etc.  (All CS and topology definitions will be provided,
so very little background is necesesary.)


Date: November 14th
Speaker: Sonia Stimac
Title: On Ingram's Conjecture
Abstract: Ingram's conjecture states that inverse limit spaces of two tent maps
with different slopes are not homeomorphic. In recent years there has been
intensive research of topological properties of inverse limit spaces of tent maps
with classification of these spaces as ultimate goal. I will give a survey of recent
results, and discuss the current joint work with B. Raines, on how the use of
symbolic dynamics can give some insight in the structure of the inverse limit
spaces of tent maps with critical points approaching periodic points.


Links of Interest:

Check out the MSRI (Mathematical Science Research Institute) webpage.  Often they have "Connections for Women" workshops in various areas.
MSRI

Lots of info here, conferences, travel grants, lectures etc
Association for Women in Mathematics