ABC Seminar

 

ABC = Acquiring Basic Concept Seminar, or

ABCD = Acquiring Basic Concept Discussion. 

Let me know if you have a preferred or better name.

 

This is an informal chat with any graduate student(s) with the interest. The motivations are:

 

1.     There are many topics that every graduate student in the field should know, but often are not taught in our courses.

2.     Based on my own experience as a graduate student and after, one learns a lot from talking to various people.

 

It is intended to be short and informal so that the speaker does not feel any pressure to prepare anything ahead of time. The topics tend to vary from time to time, so feel free to come or not come anytime. I would be happy if we could meet once a month or so.

 

 

 

Friday, January 14, 2011, 12 – 12:30pm (let me know by Thursday morning if you need a different time. …)

Title:  Poincare Conjecture.

Speaker:  Yongwu Rong

Topics:  Poincare’s original conjecture, his counterexample, his modified conjecture; Whitehead’s open contractible 3-manifold; Smale and the beaches of Rio, solution for dimension five and higher; Milnor’s work on exotic 7-dim’l spheres, Kirby-Siebenmann; Freedman’s result on dimension four; Perelman’s work on classification of 3-manifolds;  The unsolved case.  

Looks like this is too much for one discussion.

 

Friday, January 28, 2011, 12 – 12:45pm

Title:  Banach-Tarski Paradox, Part I

Speaker:  Ted Turner

Abstract:

Friday, February 4, 2011, 12 – 1:00pm

Title:  Banach-Tarski Paradox, Part II

Speaker:  Ted Turner

Abstract:

Friday, March 4, 2011, 12 – 1 pm

Title:  4-Manifolds: what’s known and what’s not.

Speaker:  Yongwu Rong

 

Friday, March 31, 2011, 12 – 1 pm

Topic:   1-handles, 2-handles, … n-handles,  Dehn surgery, handle slides …

Speaker:  Yongwu Rong

 

 

Future possible topics:

 

Eight geometries in dim three.

What is computational topology?

Topology and dynamics of networks.

 

Let me know you wish list…

 

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