The Slow Pitch talks will take place on Wednesdays at 4pm in Math 350, unless otherwise noted. The talks should be aimed at both undergraduate and graduate students in mathematics. Students, both undergraduate, gradute, and faculty are encouraged to give talks. Topics can vary widly. Some topics include (but are not limited to): algebra, logic, set theory, probability, analysis and geometry. To sign up to give a talk, pick an open date below and email Josh Wiscons at wiscons@colorado.edu or Ilia Mishev at Ilia.Mishev@colorado.edu.
Spring 2008 Schedule
Wednesday, January 23rd @ 4pm in Math 350
Who: TBA
Title: TBA
Abstract: TBA
Wednesday, January 30th @ 4pm in Math 350
Who: Emily Mankin
Title: Spontaneous Sync
Abstract: Systems that display essentially periodic behavior, known as oscillators, occur throughout nature: moving planets, swinging pendulums, flashing fireflies, beating hearts, communicating neurons, and more. The dynamics of these systems become especially interesting when populations of oscillators are allowed to interact. The tendency of such populations of coupled-oscillators to spontaneously synchronize their behavior without a single driving force is intuitively surprising but happens frequently. In fact, at least under certain conditions, it is theoretically guaranteed. This talk will present a surprisingly simple proof by Mirollo and Strogatz that, under fairly general assumptions, populations of pulse-coupled oscillators will synchronize for almost all initial conditions.
The talk should be accessible to most upper-level undergraduates and beyond. In the first half of the talk, the proof for the 2-oscillator case will be presented, which requires only calculus. The generalization to N-oscillators requires some linear algebra, although the idea of the proof makes sense even without it.
Wednesday, February 6th @ 4pm in Math 350
Who: TBA
Title: TBA
Abstract: TBA
Wednesday, February 13th @ 4pm in Math 350
Who: TBA
Title: TBA
Abstract: TBA
Wednesday, February 20th @ 4pm in Math 350
Who: TBA
Title: TBA
Abstract: TBA
Wednesday, February 27th @ 4pm in Math 350
Who: TBA
Title: TBA
Abstract: TBA
Wednesday, March 5th @ 4pm in Math 350
Who: Steve Limburg
Title: The hyperbolic plane, fuchsian groups, and fundamental regions
Abstract: The talk will begin with a brief introduction into the hyperbolic plane, H, and Fuchsian groups along with their action on H. I'll then give an introduction to fundamental regions of Fuchsian groups, specifically the Ford fundamental region. The background material will end with an examination of quaternion algebras and their ability to generate Fuchsian groups. Our main interest is in Fuchsian groups derived from division quaternion algebras over a totally real number field, K. I'll then present S. JohanssonŐs algorithm for finding
the Ford fundamental region for the aforementioned type of Fuchsian group. To finish, I'll also add a simple extension of JohanssonŐs algorithm for Fuchsian groups that contain elements which fix 0(in the Poincare disc).
Wednesday, March 12th @ 4pm in Math 350
Who: TBA
Title: TBA
Abstract: TBA
Friday, March 14th @ 3pm - 5pm in Math 350 (Recruitment Weekend Talks)
- 3:00 pm -
Who: Carla Farsi
Title: Orbifolds and their Euler Characteristics
- 3:15 pm -
Who: David Grant
Title: TBA
- 3:30 pm -
Who: Steve Preston
Title: Geometry of Fluid Mechanics
- 4:00 pm -
Who: Ilia Mishev
Title: Wavelets on the Poincare Upper Half-Plane
- 4:15 pm -
Who: Dana Ernst
Title: TBA
- 4:30 pm -
Who: Joe Newhall
Title: TBA
- 4:45 pm -
Who: Jonas D'Andrea
Title: TBA
Wednesday, March 19th @ 4pm in Math 350
Who: Jason Hill
Title: Self-reference and Recursion
Abstract: In this slow-pitch on some entertaining aspects of self-reference and recursion, I will discuss how one might go about creating an abstract for a mathematics talk such that the abstract contains eighteen a's, four b's, twelve c's, four d's, forty-eight e's, twelve f's, nine g's, seventeen h's, twenty-three i's, one j, two k's, nine l's, five m's, thirty n's, twenty-four o's, three p's, one q, twenty r's, forty-one s's, forty-three t's, eight u's, six v's, eleven w's, two x's, eight y's, and one z.
Wednesday, March 26th @ 4pm in Math 350
No Slow Pitch this week (Spring Break)
Wednesday, April 2nd @ 4pm in Math 350
Who: TBA
Title: TBA
Abstract: TBA
Wednesday, April 9th @ 4pm in Math 350
Who: TBA
Title: TBA
Abstract: TBA
Wednesday, April 16th @ 4pm in Math 350
Who: TBA
Title: TBA
Abstract: TBA
Monday, April 23rd @ 4pm in Math 350
Who: Dana Earnst and Jonas D'Andrea
Title: Our experience on the job market
Abstract: We will discuss our experience on the job market this year. We'll tell you all the things we learned in the process and share with you some things that seemed to work well for us and things that didn't. We hope that this will be a large group discussion with frequent questions. If you think that you will be on the job market in two years, now is the time to hear what we've learned. Everyone else that was on the job market this year should feel free to join us in discussing their experience.
Wednesday, April 30th @ 4pm in Math 350
Who: TBA
Title: TBA
Abstract: TBA
Previous Slow Pitch Schedules
Fall 2007
Spring 2007