Basic Notions Seminars

Fall 2020

All talks are from 1200-1300 in the Conference or Seminar room, unless otherwise specified.

• Dec

  08
• What is...network interdiction?

  Rob Curry

  Time: 03:45 PM

  View Abstract

  In defense settings, an interdiction is an action used to block or hinder an adversary’s operations. Mathematical optimization literature often characterizes interdiction decisions as leader-follower games in which the leader first executes an interdiction attack to maximize the minimum objective a follower can obtain by solving its own optimization problem. The leader’s interdiction actions affect some portion of the follower’s problem (e.g., feasible region, objective function). In this talk, I discuss how interdiction models are related to other bi-level optimization models (e.g., robust optimization). Next, I introduce a well-studied version of a network interdiction problem, maximum-flow interdiction (Wood, 93), and I will describe how this problem can be efficiently solved using dualization techniques. Finally, I detail the recent network interdiction literature and discuss preliminary results of my current work in this area.

• Nov

  10
• What is...she going to talk about?

  Kate Thompson

  Time: 03:45 PM

  View Abstract

  TBD. Will definitely involve elliptic curves and either (a) the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture or (b) applications of elliptic curves to art [not a typo. Art!].

• Oct

  13
• What is...a shelling?

  Max Wakefield

  USNA

  Time: 03:45 PM

  View Abstract

  Determining the shape of (topological) spaces can be very difficult, especially in higher dimensions. Translating topological problems into combinatorics or algebra where one can get a handle on explicit computations can be very illuminating. In this talk we will discuss special spaces where we can combinatorially determine certain topological invariants and even their homotopy type. This talk will discuss deep relationships between combinatorics, topology and algebra.