ABC Seminar*
*ABC = Acquiring Basic Concept
Friday, November 22, 2013, 2 – 3 pm
Place:
Title: Intro
to hyperbolic geometry
Speaker: Yongwu Rong
Topics: This is
a basic introduction to hyperbolic. Much
of the talk will be based on the book “The Geometry of Discrete Groups” by Alan
Beardon.
Wednesday, October 17, 2012, 1 – 2 pm
Place: Monroe
267
Title: On
geometry of bubbles, II
Speaker: Yongwu Rong
Topics: This is
a continuation of our talk. Last time we discussed geometric properties
of 3-dimensional bubbles with various number of
regions. We reviewed Kelvin's Conjecture on space filling bubbles with equal
volumes, and Weaire–Phelan's counterexample that
was used in the Water Cube in Beijing. We also discussed 2-dimensional
bubbles such as various bubble clusters and as well as the honeycomb structure
that fills in the plane.
In this talk, we will have a
more down-to-earth look at 2-dimensional bubbles in various spaces, including
the whole plane, half plane, plane with a corner,
cones, and various surfaces. Possible connections with Voronoi diagrams will be discussed.
Wednesday, October 10, 2012,
1 – 2 pm
Title:
On geometry of bubbles
Speaker:
Yongwu Rong
Topics:
This will an informal and introductory talk on some basic facts on
geometry of bubbles. Some open problems will be discussed.
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
Friday, February 4, 2011,
12 – 1:00pm
Title: Banach-Tarski
Paradox, Part II
Speaker: Ted Turner
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…
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.
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