Past Events

Consider a word (a sequence of letters) on an alphabet of size k. This word contains a pattern if it contains (consecutive) subwords that realize the pattern and avoids it

The deletion distance between two binary words of length n is the smallest k such that the words have a common subsequence of length n-k. A set of binary words

CUT is a class of partition games played on a finite number of finite piles of tokens. We will discuss some interesting properties of these games. Link to video: https://vimeo.com/772201058

In a recent breakthrough [STOC'21], Lin proves that there is no fpt-algorithm that can approximate the clique problem with any constant ratio unless FPT= W[1]. This is subsequently improved by

Let ex(n,F) denote the maximum number of edges that an F-free graph can have. One of the few ways we know how to get general lower bounds on ex(n,F) is

Mendelian randomization (MR) has become a popular approach to studying the effect of a modifiable exposure on an outcome by using genetic variants as instrumental variables (IVs). Two distinct challenges

Reproducibility is vital to ensuring scientific conclusions are reliable, but failures of reproducibility have been a major issue in nearly all scientific areas of study in recent decades. A key

One of the most famous results in extremal graph theory is Turàn's theorem, which leads to a series of remarkable results which we now consider Turàn-type problems. The study of

Most data sets comprise of measurements on continuous and categorical variables. Yet, modeling high- dimensional mixed predictors has received limited attention in the regression and classification statistical literature. We study

A subset of a group is said to be product free if it does not contain the product of two elements in it. We consider how large can a product

Many real world decision making situations involve the decisions of multiple parties Typically in such situations each party wants to optimize its own objectives even knowing that their actions affect the objectives of others and vice versa Game theory is the mathematical science intended to model such situations Yet many

Subtitle: Eliahou Theory and application to enumerating Legendre Pairs In his seminal 1994 paper entitled "Enumerative combinatorics and coding theory", Shalom Eliahou proposes a theory/method to enumerate the values of

In the talk, we discuss the probability of Boolean functions with small max influence to become constant under random restrictions. Let f be a Boolean function such that the variance

In this talk, we describe a simple but intriguing hierarchical structure found in random-scan Gibbs samplers, or Glauber dynamics. This structure connects Gibbs samplers targeting higher dimensional distributions to Gibbs

Steinitz's theorem gives a neat characterisation for the graphs (1-skeleta) of 3-dimensional convex polytopes. In this talk, I will sketch one direction of the proof (using shadows), and give a

The study of log-concave inequalities has played a central role in the study of the order theory. One such inequality is Stanley's inequality, which asserts the log-concavity of the sequence

The ability of machine learning techniques to process rich sensory inputs such as vision makes them highly appealing for use in robotic systems (e.g., micro aerial vehicles and robotic manipulators).

In this talk I'll discuss a simple combinatorial randomized procedure, which is styled Star Contraction. Then, I'll discuss applications of this technical procedure, with the central one being a randomized

The Knaser graph K(n,k) is the graph whose vertices are the n-subsets of {1,2,..,2n+k} and two vertices are connected if and only if they don't intersect. An example is the

Stochastic Gradient Descent (SGD) is a widely deployed algorithm for solving estimation problems that arise in statistics and learning. Accordingly, SGD has been analyzed from many perspectives to understand its