## Seminars and Colloquia by Series

Series: Other Talks
Monday, April 11, 2011 - 17:00 , Location: Student Success Center, Clary Theater , , Alamo, California , Organizer:

Robert J. Lang is recognized as one of the foremost origami artists in the world as well as a pioneer in computational origami and the development of formal design algorithms for folding. With a Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Caltech, he has, during the course of work at NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Spectra Diode Laboratories, and JDS Uniphase, authored or co-authored over 80 papers and 45 patents in lasers and optoelectronics as well as authoring, co-authoring, or editing 9 books and a CD-ROM on origami. He is a full-time artist and consultant on origami and its applications to engineering problems but moonlights in physics: from 2007-2010 as the Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics.

The last decade of this past century has been witness to a revolution in the development and application of mathematical techniques to origami, the centuries-old Japanese art of paper-folding. The techniques used in mathematical origami design range from the abstruse to the highly approachable. In this talk, I will describe how geometric concepts led to the solution of a broad class of origami folding problems – specifically, the problem of efficiently folding a shape with an arbitrary number and arrangement of flaps, and along the way, enabled origami designs of mind-blowing complexity and realism, some of which you’ll see, too. As often happens in mathematics, theory originally developed for its own sake has led to some surprising practical applications. The algorithms and theorems of origami design have shed light on long-standing mathematical questions and have solved practical engineering problems. I will discuss examples of how origami has enabled safer airbags, Brobdingnagian space telescopes, and more. From 3:30pm-4:30pm, Informal Folding Session will take place in Skiles 236
Series: Other Talks
Monday, April 11, 2011 - 15:30 , Location: Skiles 236 , Robert Lang , Alamo, California , Organizer:
Robert Lang is recognized as one of the foremost origami artists in the world as well as a pioneer in computational origami and the development of formal design algorithms for folding. Join him for an informal folding session before his presentation.
Series: Other Talks
Sunday, April 10, 2011 - 09:00 , Location: Emory University , , Emory University , Organizer: Mohammad Ghomi
The Southeast Geometry Seminar is a series of semiannual one-day events focusing on geometric analysis. These events are hosted in rotation by the following institutions: The University of Alabama at Birmingham;  The Georgia Institute of Technology;  Emory University;  The University of Tennessee Knoxville.  The following five speakers will give presentations on topics that include geometric analysis, and related fields, such as partial differential equations, general relativity, and geometric topology. Borin Rubin (Louisiana State Univ);  Joseph Fu (Univ of Georgia);  Paul Yang (Princeton U);  Robert Gulliver (Univ of Minnesota);  Ken Stephenson (U of Tennessee).
Series: Other Talks
Friday, April 8, 2011 - 10:30 , Location: CEISMC, 760 Spring St. , Robert Ronau and Christopher Rakes , University of Louisville and Institue for Education Sciences , Organizer:
This systematic review of mathematics educational technology literature identified 1356 manuscripts addressing the integration of educational technology into mathematics instruction. The manuscripts were analyzed using three frameworks (research design, teacher knowledge, and TPACK) and four supplementary lenses (Data sources, outcomes, NCTM Principles, and NCTM Standards) to produce a database to support future research syntheses and meta-analyses. Preliminary analyses of student and teacher outcomes (i.e., knowledge, cognition, affect, and performance) suggest that graphing calculator and dynamic geometry technologies have been abundantly studied, but the strength of the evidence measures (i.e., validity and reliability) may be lacking. More specifically, research on mathematics educational technology appears at first glance to be ubiquitous, the usefulness of this research to practitioners and researchers is limited by lack of attention to research design and validity, reliability, and threats to validity (Rakes et al., 2011). Additionally, much of the research appears to be unorganized, with topics such as graphing calculators studied often, while other topics such as virtual manipulatives understudied (Ronau et al., 2010).
Series: Other Talks
Friday, March 4, 2011 - 12:00 , Location: Skiles 257 , Open Discussions , School of Mathematics, Georgia Tech , Organizer:
Are there gender differences in authority in mathematics? For instance, do students treat male and female professors differently and what can we do to overcome any negative consequences? Also, what might some positive differences be? We may also discuss issues surrounding respect and authority in research. All are welcome, but if possible, please let Becca Winarski rwinarski@math.gatech.edu know if you plan on attending, so she can get an approximate head count.
Series: Other Talks
Wednesday, February 9, 2011 - 16:15 , Location: Howey W505 , Paolo Luzzatto-Fegiz , Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Cornell University , Organizer:
Steady fluid solutions can play a special role in characterizing the dynamics of a flow: stable states might be realized in practice, while unstable ones may act as attractors in the unsteady evolution. Unfortunately, determining stability is often a process substantially more laborious than computing steady flows; this is highlighted by the fact that, for several comparatively simple flows, stability properties have been the subject of protracted disagreement (see e.g. Dritschel et al. 2005, and references therein). In this talk, we build on some ideas of Lord Kelvin, who, over a century ago, proposed an energy-based stability argument for steady flows. In essence, Kelvin’s approach involves using the second variation of the energy to establish bounds on the growth of a perturbation. However, for numerically obtained fluid equilibria, computing the second variation of the energy explicitly is often not feasible. Whether Kelvin’s ideas could be implemented for general flows has been debated extensively (Saffman & Szeto, 1980; Dritschel, 1985; Saffman, 1992; Dritschel, 1995). We recently developed a stability approach, for families of steady flows, which constitutes a rigorous implementation of Kelvin’s argument. We build on ideas from bifurcation theory, and link turning points in a velocity-impulse diagram to exchanges of stability. We further introduce concepts from imperfection theory into these problems, enabling us to reveal hidden solution branches. Our approach detects exchanges of stability directly from families of steady flows, without resorting to more involved stability calculations. We consider several examples involving fundamental vortex and wave flows. For all flows studied, we obtain stability results in agreement with linear analysis, while additionally discovering new steady solutions, which exhibit lower symmetry. Paolo is a candidate for J Ford Fellowship at CNS. To view and/or participate in the CNS Webinar from wherever you are: evo.caltech.edu/evoNext/koala.jnlp?meeting=MeMMMu2M2iD2Di9D9nDv9e
Series: Other Talks
Friday, February 4, 2011 - 12:00 , Location: Skiles 257 (Math Lab) , Group Discussion , School of Mathematics, Georgia Tech , Organizer:
All are welcome to discuss professionalism in math, including inviting a speaker, asking questions in talks, dress code at conferences and workshops, and sending polite requests to strangers. Some topics specifically pertaining to women's issues may be discussed. If possible, contact Becca Winarski (rwinarski@math.gatech.edu) if you plan to attend, however, note that everyone is welcome even if you do not respond.
Series: Other Talks
Tuesday, February 1, 2011 - 17:00 , Location: Emory University, Math and Science Center W201 , Yuri Tschinkel , New York University , Organizer: Matt Baker

If you wish to drive your own car and park, the closest parking deck is attached
to the Oxford Rd Building. There will be a charge for parking, which is $6 for 2-3 hours. Once you have parked, exit the parking garage into the building and there will be an elevator to your right. Take the elevator to level 3. You should take a left out of the elevator and proceed through the glass doors into the courtyard area. The Mathematics and Science Center will be the building to your left. Oscillatory integrals arising as Fourier transforms of local and global height functions play an important role in the spectral analysis of height zeta functions. I will explain a general geometric technique which allows to evaluate such integrals. This is joint work with A. Chambert-Loir. Series: Other Talks Tuesday, February 1, 2011 - 16:00 , Location: Emory University, Math and Science Center W201 , K. Soundararajan , Stanford University , Organizer: Matt Baker If you wish to drive your own car and park, the closest parking deck is attached to the Oxford Rd Building. There will be a charge for parking, which is$6 for 2-3 hours. Once you have parked, exit the
parking garage into the building and there will be an elevator to your
right. Take the elevator to level 3. You should take a left out of
the elevator and proceed through the glass doors into the courtyard
area. The Mathematics and Science Center will be the building to your
left.

An important theme in number theory is to understand the values taken by the Riemann zeta-function and related L-functions. While much progress has been made, many of the basic questions remain unanswered. I will discuss what is known about this question, explaining in particular the work of Selberg, random matrix theory and the moment conjectures of Keating and Snaith, and recent progress towards estimating the moments of zeta and L-functions.
Series: Other Talks
Monday, December 13, 2010 - 08:30 , Location: University of Tennessee Knoxville , , University of Tennessee Knoxville , Organizer: John McCuan
The Southeast Geometry Seminar is a series of semiannual one-day events focusing on geometric analysis. These events are hosted in rotation by the following institutions: The University of Alabama at Birmingham;  The Georgia Institute of Technology;  Emory University;  The University of Tennessee Knoxville.  The following five speakers will give presentations on topics that include geometric analysis, and related fields, such as partial differential equations, general relativity, and geometric topology. Catherine Williams (Columbia U);  Hugh Bray (Duke U);  Simon Brendle (Stanford U);  Spyros Alexakis (U of Toronto);  Alessio Figalli (U of Texas at Austin).   There will also be an evening public lecture by plenary speaker Hugh Bray (Duke U) entitled From Black Holes and the Big Bang to Dark Energy and Dark Matter: Successes of Einstein's Theory of Relativity.