Seminars & Colloquia

Monday, November 2, 2009

Counting contingency tables: algorithms and asymptotics

Mon, 11/02/2009 - 2:00pm, Klaus 1116W

Alexander Barvinok, University of Michigan        Organizer:

I will discuss recent progress on the construction of randomized algorithms for counting non-negative integer matrices with prescribed row and column sums and on finding asymptotic formulas for the number of such matrices (also known as contingency tables). I will also discuss what a random (with respect to the uniform measure) non-negative integer matrix with prescribed row and column sums looks like.

Tea and light refreshments 1:30 in Room 2222.  Organizer: Santosh Vempala

Thursday, October 29, 2009

A survey of sparse approximation

Thu, 10/29/2009 - 11:05am, MiRC 102

Anna Gilbert, Mathematics, University of Michigan        Organizer: Prasad Tetali

The past 10 years have seen a confluence of research in sparse approximation amongst computer science, mathematics, and electrical engineering. Sparse approximation encompasses a large number of mathematical, algorithmic, and signal processing problems which all attempt to balance the size of a (linear) representation of data and the fidelity of that representation. I will discuss several of the basic algorithmic problems and their solutions, including connections to streaming algorithms and compressive sensing.