Welcome to the AGNT Seminar at Rice!
Fall 2021
AG Group, 423 HBH, 3:30pm - 4:30pm, Details [here]
QA Group, 427 HBH, 3:00pm - 4:00pm, Details [here]
August 25, 2021 : Learning Groups [in-person]- see above
September 1, 2021 : AG Speaker [in-person]
Tony Várilly-Alvarado, Rice University
Title: Rational surfaces and locally recoverable codes
Abstract: Motivated by large-scale storage problems around data loss, a budding branch of coding theory has surfaced in the last decade or so, centered around locally recoverable codes. These codes have the property that individual symbols in a codeword are functions of other symbols in the same word. If a symbol is lost (as opposed to corrupted), it can be recomputed, and hence a code word can be repaired. Algebraic geometry has a role to play in the design of codes with locality properties. In this talk I will explain how to use algebraic surfaces birational to the projective plane to both reinterpret constructions of optimal codes already found in the literature, and to find new locally recoverable codes, many of which are optimal (in a suitable sense). This is joint work with Cecília Salgado and Felipe Voloch.
September 8, 2021 : Learning Groups - see above
September 15, 2021 : QA Speaker [in-person]
Sean Sanford, Indiana University
Title: Fusion Categories over Non–Algebraically Closed Fields
Abstract: Much of the early work on Fusion Categories was inspired by physicists desire for rigorous foundations of topological quantum field theory. One effect of this was that base fields other than the complex numbers were rarely considered, if at all. The relevant features of $\mathbb C$ that make the theory work are the fact that it is characteristic zero, and algebraically closed. This talk will focus on the interesting things that can be found when the algebraically closed requirement is removed. The content will be introductory, with lots of examples.
September 22, 2021 : Learning Groups - see above
September 29, 2021 : AG Speaker [in-person]
Alex Barrios, Carleton College
Title:TBA
October 6, 2021 : Learning Groups - see above
October 13, 2021 : QA Speaker [online]
Zachary Dell, Ohio State University
Title: TBA
October 20, 2021 : Learning Groups - see above
October 27, 2021 : AG Speaker [in-person]
Elisa Bellah, University of Oregon
Title: TBA
November 3, 2021 : Learning Groups - see above
November 10, 2021 : QA Speaker [online]
Agustina Czensky, University of Oregon
Title: TBA
November 17, 2021 : Learning Groups - see above
November 24, 2021 : (no activity)
December 1, 2021 : AG Speaker [online]
Humberto Diaz, Washington University
Title: TBA
December 8, 2021 : QA Speaker [online]
Florencia Orosz, University of Denver
Title: TBA
