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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261026T163000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261026T173000
DTSTAMP:20261013T151129Z
CREATED:20260729T200800Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20261013T151129Z
UID:10004030-1793032200-1793035800@live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io
SUMMARY:The Geography of Symplectic 4-Manifolds
DESCRIPTION:Colloquium \nSpeaker: Anar Akhmedov\, University of Minnesota \nTitle: The Geography of Symplectic 4-Manifolds \nAbstract: The symplectic geography problem\, originally posed by J. McCarthy-J. Wolfson and R. Gompf\, asks which ordered pairs of nonnegative integers are realized as (\chi(X)\,c_1^2(X)) for a symplectic 4-manifold X\, where \chi(X)=(e(X)+\sigma(X))/4. In this talk\, we will address the geography of simply connected spin and nonspin symplectic 4-manifolds with small Euler characteristic\, with nonnegative signature\, or near the Bogomolov-Miyaoka-Yau line c_1^2(X)=9\chi_h(X). We will also discuss recent developments\, including joint work with Sai-Kee Yeung on symplectic fake quadrics and related questions motivated by fake projective planes and Cartwright-Steger surfaces. \n  \n\nTo subscribe or unsubscribe to the colloquium mailing list\, please visit this link.
URL:https://live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io/event/colloquium-102626/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Colloquium
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io/media/2026/07/CMSA-Colloquium-10.26.2026.docx-scaled.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261021T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261021T150000
DTSTAMP:20261014T152454Z
CREATED:20260729T194008Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20261014T152454Z
UID:10004014-1792591200-1792594800@live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io
SUMMARY:Local learning needs dendrites
DESCRIPTION:New Technologies in Mathematics Seminar \nSpeaker: Riccardo Zecchina (Bocconi University) \nTitle: Local learning needs dendrites \nAbstract: I will present a learning scheme for recurrent networks in which nonlinear dendrites enable learning by generating and stabilizing task-relevant attractors within a representation manifold. The scheme is local in space and time and matches the performance of backpropagation through time on the same architecture\, while following a fundamentally different trajectory in weight space. Statistical physics reveals how dendritic gating and the geometry of the representation manifold support this alternative route to learning.
URL:https://live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io/event/newtech_102126/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:New Technologies in Mathematics Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io/media/2026/10/CMSA-NTM-Seminar-10.21.2026.docx-scaled.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261016T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261016T130000
DTSTAMP:20261013T183428Z
CREATED:20260729T193117Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20261013T183428Z
UID:10004002-1792152000-1792155600@live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io
SUMMARY:An Introduction to Statistical Inference for Partially Identified Models
DESCRIPTION:Member Seminar \nSpeaker: Yiqi Liu \nTitle: An Introduction to Statistical Inference for Partially Identified Models \nAbstract: Classical statistical inference often relies on asymptotic approximations that are valid for each fixed data-generating process but may fail to hold uniformly over a class of relevant distributions. Starting with the familiar t-test\, I will illustrate why this distinction matters and discuss the additional challenges that arise when the parameter of interest is only partially identified\, i.e.\, when the observed data and maintained assumptions do not determine a unique parameter value.
URL:https://live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io/event/member-seminar-101626/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Member Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io/media/2026/07/CMSA-Member-Seminar-10.16.26.docx-scaled.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261015T163000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261015T173000
DTSTAMP:20261009T184847Z
CREATED:20260729T200041Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20261009T184847Z
UID:10004023-1792081800-1792085400@live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io
SUMMARY:A tale of two Lie groups
DESCRIPTION:Geometry and Mathematical Physics Seminar \nSpeaker: Spiro Karigiannis\, University of Waterloo \nTitle: A tale of two Lie groups \nAbstract: The classical Lie group SO(4) is well-known to possess a very rich structure\, relating in several ways to complex Euclidean spaces. This structure can be used to construct the classical twistor space Z over an oriented Riemannian 4-manifold M\, which is a 6-dimensional almost Hermitian manifold. Special geometric properties of Z are then related to the curvature of M\, an example of which is the celebrated Atiyah-Hitchin-Singer Theorem. The Lie group Spin(7) is a particular subgroup of SO(8) determined by a special 4-form. Inriguingly\, Spin(7) has several properties relating to complex Euclidean spaces which are direct analogues of SO(4) properties\, but sadly (or interestingly\, depending on your point of view) not all of them. I will give a leisurely introduction to both groups in parallel\, emphasizing the similarities and differences\, and show how we can nevertheless at least partially succeed in constructing a “twistor space” over an 8-dimensional manifold equipped with a torsion-free Spin(7)-structure. (I will define what those are.) This is joint work with Michael Albanese\, Lucía Martín-Merchán\, and Aleksandar Milivojevic. \n  \n 
URL:https://live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io/event/dgphys_101526/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Geometry and Mathematical Physics Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io/media/2026/07/CMSA-Geometry-Math-Physics-Seminar-10.15.26.docx-scaled.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261014T163000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261014T173000
DTSTAMP:20261002T183533Z
CREATED:20260824T141230Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20261002T183533Z
UID:10003965-1791995400-1791999000@live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io
SUMMARY:First Proof Batch 3: Mathematicians putting AI to the test
DESCRIPTION:AI for the Working Mathematician \nSpeaker: Lauren Williams\, Harvard \nTitle: First Proof Batch 3: Mathematicians putting AI to the test \nAbstract: First Proof is an initiative that aims to obtain a nuanced\, objective assessment about the capabilities of large language models to prove specified mathematical statements. I will report on the results of First Proof’s third batch of problems. We will be scoring AI-generated solutions based on (1) mathematical correctness\, (2) quality of exposition\, and (3) quality of attributions.
URL:https://live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io/event/ai_101426/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:AI for the Working Mathematician,Colloquia & Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io/media/2026/10/CMSA-AI-for-Mathematicians-Seminar-10.14.2026.docx-scaled.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261009T163000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261009T173000
DTSTAMP:20261002T162101Z
CREATED:20260706T172115Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20261002T162101Z
UID:10003964-1791563400-1791567000@live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io
SUMMARY:Large Hypercubes
DESCRIPTION:AI for the Working Mathematician \nSpeaker: Jordan Ellenberg\, University of Wisconsin-Madison \nTitle: Large Hypercubes \nAbstract: I’ll talk about this paper: Bruhat intervals that are large hypercubes <arxiv.org/abs/2601.01235> in which we use a tool from Google\, AlphaEvolve\, to discover unexpected combinatorial structures inside the symmetric group (to be precise\, a large hypercube in the Bruhat order.) I’ll talk about why this problem was a good fit for this particular machine learning protocol\, which is a bit different from the most popular prevailing approaches. And I’ll also just talk about this large hypercube\, which is interesting in its own right!
URL:https://live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io/event/ai_10926/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:AI for the Working Mathematician,Colloquia & Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io/media/2026/07/Copy-of-CMSA-AI-for-Mathematicians-Seminar-10.09.2026.docx-scaled.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261008T163000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261008T173000
DTSTAMP:20261006T151025Z
CREATED:20260729T200006Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20261006T151025Z
UID:10004022-1791477000-1791480600@live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io
SUMMARY:Towards a Hodge theoretic mirror symmetry for punctured surfaces
DESCRIPTION:Geometry and Mathematical Physics Seminar \nSpeaker: John Alexander Cruz Morales\, Universidad Nacional de Colombia \nTitle: Towards a Hodge theoretic mirror symmetry for punctured surfaces \nAbstract: In their 1992 paper\, “Ising Model and N=2 Supersymmetric Theories\,” Cecotti and Vafa asserted that a certain hyperelliptic configuration space of chiral fields is mirror to the Ising model. Today\, this statement can be understood as an isomorphism of variations of noncommutative Hodge structures. In this talk\, I will argue how the work of Cecotti and Vafa could be connected to homological mirror symmetry for punctured surfaces\, thereby providing a Hodge theoretic perspective on the subject. \n 
URL:https://live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io/event/dgphys_10826/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Geometry and Mathematical Physics Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io/media/2026/07/CMSA-Geometry-Math-Physics-Seminar-10.8.26.docx-scaled.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261005T163000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261005T173000
DTSTAMP:20261005T140038Z
CREATED:20260729T184527Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20261005T140038Z
UID:10003983-1791217800-1791221400@live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io
SUMMARY:Spectral Methods for signal recovery in multi-modal problems
DESCRIPTION:Colloquium \nSpeaker: Subhabrata Sen\, Harvard Statistics \nTitle: Spectral Methods for signal recovery in multi-modal problems \nAbstract: Motivated by multi-modal estimation\, we will study a multi-view spiked random matrix model in which several noisy matrix observations contain correlated spikes. We will introduce a new spectral method for signal recovery in this setting and characterize the behavior of the top eigenvalue and the associated eigenvector. Our results will identify the sharp threshold for signal recovery in this problem. We will discuss broader implications for multi-modal data analysis. \nBased on joint work with Xiaodong Yang and Yue M. Lu. \n  \n\nTo subscribe or unsubscribe to the colloquium mailing list\, please visit this link.
URL:https://live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io/event/colloquium_10526/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Colloquium
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io/media/2026/07/CMSA-Colloquium-10.5.2026.docx-scaled.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261005T133000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261005T143000
DTSTAMP:20261006T184548Z
CREATED:20260930T131558Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20261006T184548Z
UID:10004052-1791207000-1791210600@live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io
SUMMARY:CMSA Special Seminar: A physical interpretation of recent singularity theorems
DESCRIPTION:CMSA Special Seminar \nSpeaker: Michael Brenner \nTitle: A physical interpretation of recent singularity theorems \nAbstract: We present a physical interpretation of recent mathematical proofs (Córdoba and Martínez-Zoroa; Buckmaster and Apogee; OpenAI) for singularity formation in nonlinear partial differential equations with smooth forcing. In our formulation\, singularity formation is driven by a forward in time process whereby a self-consistent wave–mean-flow interaction couples a similarity profile to a short-wavelength instability of the underlying PDE. This enables a smooth external force to excite short-wavelength instabilities that directly couple to the similarity profile by generating quadratic nonlinearities (Reynolds stresses). These nonlinearities drive the singularity and lead to finite time blowup. The underlying stresses must be computed self-consistently with the similarity profile itself. Our scheme is an explicit construction and allows direct numerical evaluation of the underlying similarity solutions\, determined self-consistently. The scheme is not (at present) a proof\, but an asymptotic construction. We apply this approach to the 2D incompressible porous media (IPM) equation and the 3D axisymmetric Navier Stokes equations. Finally\, we discuss connections of this overall idea to work from the 1990s on droplet break\, Euler singularities and instabilities in studies of singularities in PDEs. This is joint work with Kaylie Hausknecht.
URL:https://live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io/event/singularity_10526/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Colloquia & Seminar,Special Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io/media/2026/09/CMSA-Special-Seminar-10.5.26.docx-scaled.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261002T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261002T130000
DTSTAMP:20260925T154707Z
CREATED:20260729T192944Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260925T154707Z
UID:10004000-1790942400-1790946000@live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io
SUMMARY:Painlevé VI: the search for canonical representations
DESCRIPTION:Member Seminar \nSpeaker: Aaron Landesman \nTitle: Painlevé VI: the search for canonical representations \nAbstract: In 1902\, Painlevé classified second order differential equations whose only movable singularities are poles\, thereby obtaining the six Painlevé equations. Algebraic solutions to Painlevé’s sixth equation correspond to canonical triples of 2 by 2 complex matrices. One can alternatively view these canonical triples of matrices either as canonical representations of fundamental groups of surfaces or as local systems on certain moduli spaces of curves. In this talk\, based on joint work with Josh Lam and Daniel Litt\, we will survey what is known about these canonical representations.
URL:https://live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io/event/member-seminar-10226/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Member Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io/media/2026/07/CMSA-Member-Seminar-10.2.26.docx-scaled.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261001T163000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261001T173000
DTSTAMP:20260930T141021Z
CREATED:20260729T195934Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260930T141021Z
UID:10004021-1790872200-1790875800@live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io
SUMMARY:Skein valued curve counts and associatives
DESCRIPTION:Geometry and Mathematical Physics Seminar \nSpeaker: Tobias Ekholm\, Uppsala \nTitle: Skein valued curve counts and associatives \nAbstract: We consider Lagrangians in the cotangent bundle of a 3-manifold that give branch covers the 0-section. A circle bundle over the cotangent bundle that degenerates over the Lagrangian gives an A_n-fibration over the base 3-manifold. We equip this A_n fibration with a circle invariant positive 3-form for which fibers are co-associative and show that circle invariant associatives correspond (with first order data) to holomorphic curves in the cotangent bundle with boundary on the Lagrangian. Counts of curves with Lagrangian boundary condition\, by the values of their boundary in the skein module of the boundary condition\, are deformation invariant and this way we obtain deformation invariant counts of circle invariant associatives taking values in the skein module of the fixed-point locus. We consider an adiabatic limit of the fibration where the Lagrangian collapses onto the zero section. Here holomorphic curves converge to flow graphs that are directly related to the flow graphs in adiabatic co-associative fibrations studied by Donaldson and Scaduto. Furthermore\, sufficiently close to the adiabatic limit\, the positive 3-form (which is not closed) is tamed by another positive closed 3-form. The talk reports on joint work with Esfahani\, Shende\, and Wang. \n 
URL:https://live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io/event/dgphys_10126/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Geometry and Mathematical Physics Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io/media/2026/07/CMSA-Geometry-Math-Physics-Seminar-10.1.26.docx-scaled.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260930T163000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260930T173000
DTSTAMP:20260924T202814Z
CREATED:20260729T160453Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260924T202814Z
UID:10003963-1790785800-1790789400@live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io
SUMMARY:AI for the Working Mathematician
DESCRIPTION:AI for the Working Mathematician \nSpeaker: Harold Williams\, USC \nTitle: An Informal Introduction to Formal Proofs \nAbstract: In this talk we will give an introduction to Lean\, a programming language adapted to expressing and verifying proofs. Lean and its flagship library\, mathlib\, have been the focus of a dedicated user community for about a decade\, but their visibility has grown significantly in the last year. This is in large part because Lean makes validating large AI-generated proofs dramatically more practical: the human work is reduced from analyzing the logical correctness of an entire proof to analyzing the semantic correctness of a Lean statement. The main goal of the talk will be to build some example-based intuition for how this works in practice. Time permitting\, we will also discuss how Lean interacts with the way modern AI systems are trained\, and potential implications of formal theorem proving for the broader interaction between science and mathematics.
URL:https://live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io/event/ai-93026/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:AI for the Working Mathematician,Colloquia & Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io/media/2026/07/CMSA-AI-for-Mathematicians-Seminar-9.30.2026.docx-scaled.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260928T163000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260928T173000
DTSTAMP:20260910T172424Z
CREATED:20260729T184451Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260910T172424Z
UID:10003982-1790613000-1790616600@live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io
SUMMARY:Life on a Noisy Seascape: Extinction\, Growth\, and Diversity
DESCRIPTION:Colloquium \nSpeaker: Mehran Kardar\, MIT \nTitle: Life on a Noisy Seascape: Extinction\, Growth\, and Diversity \nAbstract: Populations and communities rarely evolve in static environments; their fitness landscapes fluctuate across space and time\, forming what may be called a noisy seascape. This talk examines how such variability modifies classical models of population dynamics and community stability. Beginning from the logistic equation\, I will show how spatiotemporal fluctuations in fitness lead naturally to power-law population statistics and\, under certain conditions\, to the empirical (fractional) Richards growth law. Extending these ideas to interacting species reveals that the combined effects of dispersal and environmental noise can stabilize large\, diverse communities despite strong competitive interactions. The resulting framework connects extinction\, growth\, and coexistence within a unified view of life on a noisy seascape. \n\nTo subscribe or unsubscribe to the colloquium mailing list\, please visit this link. \n 
URL:https://live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io/event/colloquium_92826/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Colloquium
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260925T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260925T130000
DTSTAMP:20260922T144234Z
CREATED:20260729T192854Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260922T144234Z
UID:10003999-1790337600-1790341200@live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io
SUMMARY:Member Seminar
DESCRIPTION:Member Seminar \nSpeaker: Lorenzo Riva\, CMSA \nTitle: Un-extending extended TQFTs \nAbstract: An ordinary topological quantum field theory (TQFT) assigns invariants to manifolds of dimensions n in a way that is compatible with cutting-and-gluing along submanifolds of dimension n-1. An extended TQFT assigns invariants that are also compatible with cutting along submanifolds of all codimensions. One way to formalize these notions is via functors between higher categories: an ordinary TQFT is a functor from a 1-category of (n-1)-dimensional manifolds and n-dimensional bordisms\, while an extended TQFT is a functor from an n-category of k-dimensional manifolds (for k = 0\, 1\, … \, n) each of which is a bordism between bordisms between bordisms between… and so on. It’s generally harder to deal with n-categories than it is to deal with 1-categories\, so one might want to ask: can we reframe extended TQFTs in a 1-categorical context? We will answer this question during the talk.
URL:https://live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io/event/member-seminar-92526/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Member Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io/media/2026/07/CMSA-Member-Seminar-9.25.26.docx-scaled.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260924T163000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260924T173000
DTSTAMP:20260922T145208Z
CREATED:20260729T160440Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260922T145208Z
UID:10003972-1790267400-1790271000@live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io
SUMMARY:Why do Feynman integrals know Calabi-Yau geometry?  
DESCRIPTION:Geometry and Mathematical Physics Seminar \nSpeaker: Chuck Doran\, CMSA & University of Alberta \nTitle: Why do Feynman integrals know Calabi-Yau geometry? \nAbstract: Feynman integrals provide a rich source of Calabi-Yau geometry\, but the geometric origin of these structures is often obscure. I will describe a simple point of view that begins with two-dimensional examples and leads naturally to moduli problems for vectors and polyhedra in three dimensions. I will discuss recent results for tetrahedral moduli and some new phenomena for pentahedral geometry that point toward a broader geometric framework for the Calabi-Yau structures appearing in Feynman integrals. \n 
URL:https://live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io/event/dgphys_92426/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Geometry and Mathematical Physics Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io/media/2026/07/CMSA-Geometry-Math-Physics-Seminar-9.24.26.docx-scaled.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260923T163000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260923T173000
DTSTAMP:20260924T151658Z
CREATED:20260729T160433Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260924T151658Z
UID:10003962-1790181000-1790184600@live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io
SUMMARY:Finite locally free group schemes
DESCRIPTION:AI for the Working Mathematician \nSpeaker: Akhil Mathew\, University of Chicago \nTitle: Finite locally free group schemes \nAbstract: The notion of a finite locally free group scheme is a natural generalization of the usual notion of a finite group. Lagrange’s theorem states that all nth powers vanish in a group of order n. However\, this need not hold for a group scheme. I will explain some history and motivation of this problem and describe a finite locally group scheme of order four (found by AI) where fourth powers are nonzero. \n 
URL:https://live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io/event/ai_92326/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:AI for the Working Mathematician,Colloquia & Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io/media/2026/07/CMSA-AI-for-Mathematicians-Seminar-9.23.2026.docx-1-scaled.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260922T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260922T170000
DTSTAMP:20260922T150256Z
CREATED:20260904T165515Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260922T150256Z
UID:10004041-1790089200-1790096400@live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io
SUMMARY:Mathematical Economics Seminar: Algorithmic Decision-Making
DESCRIPTION:Mathematical Economics Seminar: Algorithmic Decision-Making \nSpeaker: Ashesh Rambachan\, MIT \nTitle:  Human Decisions and Machine Predictions in Multistage Systems \nAbstract: Many high-stakes decisions go through successive stages of human review before a final decision is made\, complicating efforts to evaluate both the human decision-makers and algorithmic counterfactuals. We develop a framework for evaluating both humans and algorithms in such multistage systems and apply it to child protective services\,where human screeners first decide whether to investigate an allegation and human investigators then decide whether to open a case and provide services. The quasi-random assignment of human decision-makers identifies the effects of deploying algo-rithms throughout the system\, even though outcomes are selectively observed across stages. We find three main results when applying our framework to administrative data from Michigan’s CPS system. First\, conventional single-stage comparisons show that human screeners significantly underperform an equally selective algorithm buthuman investigators perform roughly as well as the algorithm. Second\, these conven-tional single-stage comparisons significantly overstate the gains of deploying algorithms throughout the system because of a double-counting problem\, where a case left unad-dressed at both stages is credited to the algorithm twice even though maltreatment can be prevented only once. Third\, there is meaningful heterogeneity across the human in-vestigators\, with the highest performers gathering and acting on information collected during the investigation itself that is unavailable to the algorithm. These results point to a broader feature of multistage systems\, where the scope for humans to complement algorithms grows as additional information becomes available. \n  \nSpeaker: Kosuke Imai\, Harvard University \nTitle: Triage Score: A Counterfactual Risk Assessment Instrument \nAbstract: Risk assessment instruments\, also known as “risk scores\,” are widely used in high-stakes decision-making settings such as medicine and the criminal justice system. A risk score predicts the likelihood of an undesired outcome if no intervention is made. Thus\, a sufficiently high score is often interpreted as a recommendation to intervene. However\, risk scores fail to account for what would happen if a decision-maker does intervene. This failure is problematic because effective decision making requires consideration of both or multiple potential outcomes. We propose “triage scores\,” which are based on additive counterfactual utilities and include risk scores as a special case. Unlike risk scores\, triage scores can incorporate counterfactual outcomes under alternative decisions\, enabling decision makers to incorporate a wide range of ethical and practical factors. We illustrate the use of triage scores with an application to our own randomized controlled trial evaluating a pretrial risk score. Our analysis demonstrates that triage scores are able to capture rich utility structures and yield substantively distinct results regarding policy evaluation and learning. \n 
URL:https://live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io/event/mathecon_92226/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Mathematical Economics Seminar
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260922T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260922T150000
DTSTAMP:20260728T155040Z
CREATED:20260630T154021Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260728T155040Z
UID:10003954-1790085600-1790089200@live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io
SUMMARY:CMSA Special Seminar: Deformations to the Complex Plane\, Novel Asymptotic Techniques\, and the Large t- Asymptotics of the Riemann Zeta Function
DESCRIPTION:CMSA Special Seminar \n \nSpeaker: Thanasis Fokas\, University of Cambridge \nTitle: Deformations to the Complex Plane\, Novel Asymptotic Techniques\, and the Large t-\nAsymptotics of the Riemann Zeta Function \nAbstract: The Unified Transform (also known as the Fokas method) is a powerful new method for\nsolving boundary value problems for linear and for integrable nonlinear PDEs. For linear\nPDEs\, the relevant transform is based on appropriate deformations of certain integrals from\nthe real line to the complex plane. After briefly reviewing this transform\, it will be shown\nthat combining this idea with novel asymptotic techniques has recently led to unexpected\nand exciting results regarding the large t-asymptotic analysis of the celebrated Riemann zeta\nfunction. The following two results will be discussed. First\, a simple formula will be\npresented for the difference of the functions defining the error terms in two historic\nproblems: in Atkinson’s formula and in the formula for the Dirichlet divisor problem; it will\nbe shown that this difference equals π/ 2 plus a function which is simply related to the\nsquare of the Riemann zeta function. Second\, a remarkable integral identity satisfied by the\nRiemann zeta function will be presented; this identity is obtained from an earlier identity\nderived by the speaker via contour deformation in the complex plane. Making crucial use of\nnovel asymptotic techniques obtained jointly with Jonatan Lenells\, the asymptotic analysis\nof this integral equation gives rise to an interesting identity satisfied\, for large t\, by a sum\ngeneralizing the Dirichlet divisor sum. Also\, and more importantly\, it gives rise to a specific\nintegral transform suitable for the large t-asymptotic analysis of the Riemann zeta function. \n 
URL:https://live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io/event/fokas/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Colloquia & Seminar,Special Seminar
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260916T090000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260916T103000
DTSTAMP:20260921T170120Z
CREATED:20260422T170335Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260921T170120Z
UID:10003938-1789549200-1789554600@live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io
SUMMARY:CMSA/Tsinghua Math-Science Literature Lecture: Robert Gompf: On classifying smoothings of R^4–from the beginning to the present
DESCRIPTION:CMSA/Tsinghua Math-Science Literature Lecture \nDate: September 16\, 2026 \nTime: 9:00 – 10:30 am ET \nLocation: CMSA G10\, 20 Garden Street & via Zoom Webinar \n  \n \nSpeaker: Robert E. Gompf\, University of Texas\, Austin \nTitle: On classifying smoothings of R^4–from the beginning to the present \nAbstract: The field of 4-manifold topology was born around 1981 with two independent revolutionary breakthroughs\, by Fields medalists Michael Freedman and Simon Donaldson. Freedman showed that topological 4-manifolds obeyed the well-developed theory of higher-dimensional manifolds\, while Donaldson used nonlinear analysis (gauge theory) to show that smooth 4-manifolds are quite different from their high-dimensional counterparts. The clash between the two theories makes 4-manifold topology uniquely intricate within manifold theory. One of the most startling consequences is that unlike in other dimensions\, Euclidean 4-space R^4 admits exotic smoothings. Equivalently\, there are smooth 4-manifolds that are homeomorphic\, but not diffeomorphic\, to R^4. We will trace the classification theory of these manifolds from their discovery to the most recent development (joint with Aristotelis Panagiotopoulos) that they cannot be classified by any countable family of numerical invariants. \n  \n\nBeginning in Spring 2020\, the CMSA began hosting a lecture series on literature in the mathematical sciences\, with a focus on significant developments in mathematics that have influenced the discipline\, and the lifetime accomplishments of significant scholars. \n  \n 
URL:https://live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io/event/mathscilit2026_rg/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Math Science Literature Lecture Series,Public Lecture,Special Lectures
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260911T143000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260911T153000
DTSTAMP:20260914T223220Z
CREATED:20260909T172459Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260914T223220Z
UID:10004042-1789137000-1789140600@live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io
SUMMARY:CMSA Special Lecture: New Math + AI Developments in Fluid Mechanics
DESCRIPTION:CMSA Special Lecture\nTime: 2:30 pm ET\nDate: Friday\, Sep. 11\, 2026\nLocation: Harvard Science Center Hall A & via Zoom Webinar \n  \nLecture Video \n \n  \nWith the announcement this week that AI has finished off a solution to one of the Millennium Prize Problems\, the Harvard CMSA will host this special lecture to review recent developments on the existence and smoothness of solutions to the Navier–Stokes equation. \n  \nSpeaker: Javier Gomez-Serrano\, Brown University \nTitle: New Math + AI Developments in Fluid Mechanics \nAbstract: In this talk I will discuss recent progress on finite-time singularity formation for several fluid equations\, from model problems to the Navier–Stokes and Euler systems themselves. I will put this progress in context and close with the recently announced resolution of the Navier–Stokes existence and smoothness problem\, via an explicit construction exhibiting finite-time blow-up from smooth data alongside closely related\, independently obtained blow-up results for forced Euler. Both rely on an AI-assisted proof search\, marking a new mode of mathematical discovery for problems of this depth. \n  \nThis lecture will be given in person in Science Center Lecture Hall A\, 1 Oxford Street\, Cambridge MA & via Zoom Webinar (registration required). \nZoom Webinar Registration
URL:https://live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io/event/navierstokes/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Colloquia & Seminar,Special Lectures,Special Seminar
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260911T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260911T130000
DTSTAMP:20260909T210818Z
CREATED:20241211T195028Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260909T210818Z
UID:10003643-1789128000-1789131600@live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io
SUMMARY:A beginner's guide to quantum unique ergodicity
DESCRIPTION:Member Seminar \nSpeaker: Elena Kim \nTitle: A beginner’s guide to quantum unique ergodicity \nAbstract: The Quantum Unique Ergodicity conjecture is one of the main open questions in quantum chaos. I will explain the conjecture and the progress towards its resolution.
URL:https://live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io/event/member-seminar-91126/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Member Seminar
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260910T163000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260910T173000
DTSTAMP:20260924T160742Z
CREATED:20260729T182154Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260924T160742Z
UID:10003979-1789057800-1789061400@live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io
SUMMARY:Higher Virasoro algebras
DESCRIPTION:Geometry and Mathematical Physics Seminar \nSpeaker: Brian Williams\, Boston University \nTitle: Higher Virasoro algebras \nAbstract: I will introduce and classify central extensions of the dg Lie algebra of derived global sections of the tangent sheaf on the punctured d-disk for d > 1. Then\, I will formulate and sketch the proof of a formal and universal version of the Grothendieck–Riemann–Roch theorem. Time permitting I will discuss how to generalize this work to complements of other algebraic subvarities of affine space. This is joint work with Zhengping Gui.
URL:https://live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io/event/dgphys_91026/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Geometry and Mathematical Physics Seminar
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260909T163000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260909T173000
DTSTAMP:20260910T183205Z
CREATED:20260706T171637Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260910T183205Z
UID:10003960-1788971400-1788975000@live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io
SUMMARY:Working with LLMs to do high quality math
DESCRIPTION:AI for the Working Mathematician \nSpeaker: Daniel Litt\, University of Toronto \nTitle: Working with LLMs to do high quality math \nAbstract: Much hay has been made of the capabilities of LLMs to do math autonomously\, and indeed frontier models have resolved some long-standing\, interesting open questions. But our goal is not to produce papers\, but rather to do high quality mathematics. I’ll discuss some experiments over the past year in trying to get LLMs to help with producing high quality mathematics\, non-autonomously\, and speculate a bit about the future.
URL:https://live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io/event/ai_9926/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:AI for the Working Mathematician,Colloquia & Seminar
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260903T090000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260904T170000
DTSTAMP:20260914T150911Z
CREATED:20260217T174509Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260914T150911Z
UID:10003846-1788426000-1788541200@live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io
SUMMARY:Big Data Conference 2026
DESCRIPTION:Big Data Conference 2026 \nDates: Sep. 3–4\, 2026 \nLocation: Harvard University CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge MA & via Zoom \nThe Big Data Conference features speakers from the Harvard community as well as scholars from across the globe\, with talks focusing on computer science\, statistics\, math and physics\, and economics. \nConfirmed Speakers \n\nSueYeon Chung\, Harvard\nBailey Flanigan\, MIT\nSergey Ovchinnikov\, MIT\nAriel Procaccia\, Harvard\nAdit Radhakrishnan\, MIT\nAndrew Sutherland\, MIT\nChris Wiggins\, Columbia\nRex Ying\, Yale\nWei Zhou\, Harvard\n\n  \nOrganizers \n\nMichael Desai\, Harvard\nMichael R. Douglas\, CMSA\nYannai Gonczarowski\, Harvard\nMelanie Weber\, Harvard\n\n  \nSchedule (download pdf) \nThursday\, Sep. 3\, 2026 \n8:45–9:10 am\nBreakfast \n9:10–9:15 am\nIntroductions \n9:15–10:15 am\nRex Ying\, Yale\nA Riemannian Geometry Perspective on Foundation Models\nAbstract: In development of foundation models and LLMs\, Euclidean space has been the de facto geometric setting for machine learning architectures. However\, at a large scale\, real-world data often exhibit inherently non-Euclidean structures\, such as multi-way relationships\, hierarchies\, symmetries\, and non-isotropic scaling\, in a variety of domains\, such as languages\, vision\, and the natural sciences. It is challenging to effectively capture these structures within the constraints of Euclidean spaces. This talk will cover my research that moves beyond Euclidean geometry to maintain the scaling law for the next generation of foundation models. By adopting these geometries\, foundation models could more efficiently leverage the structures. Task-aware adaptability that dynamically reconfigures embeddings to match the geometry of downstream applications\, could further enhance efficiency and expressivity. This talk will demonstrate the advantages of hyperbolic geometry in building foundation models from individual non-Euclidean components\, LLM pre-training / fine-tuning\, retrieval-augmented generation\, and mixture of expert models. We further present a comprehensive library that greatly simplifies the process of building and adapting foundation models in non-Euclidean. Finally\, the talk will enumerate a few promising directions that are being actively explored in this domain.\nVideo \n10:15–10:30 am\nBreak \n10:30–11:30 am\nAdit Radhakrishnan\, MIT\nToward universal steering and monitoring of AI models\nAbstract: Artificial intelligence (AI) models contain much of human knowledge. Understanding the representation of this knowledge will lead to improvements in model capabilities and safeguards. Building on advances in feature learning\, we developed an approach for extracting linear representations of semantic notions or concepts in AI models. We showed how these representations enabled model steering\, through which we exposed vulnerabilities and improved model capabilities. We demonstrated that concept representations were transferable across languages and enabled multiconcept steering. Across hundreds of concepts\, we found that larger models were more steerable and that steering improved model capabilities beyond prompting. We showed that concept representations were more effective for monitoring misaligned content than for using judge models. Our results illustrate the power of internal representations for advancing AI safety and model capabilities.\nVideo \n  \n11:30 am–12:45 pm\nLunch \n12:45–1:45 pm\nAndrew Sutherland\, MIT\nCrowdsourcing mathematical databases\nAbstract: The L-functions and Modular Forms Database (LMFDB) is one of the largest online repositories of mathematical research data. It contains comprehensive catalogs of mathematical objects that arise in the context of the Langlands program\, including number fields\, elliptic curves\, modular forms\, and higher-dimensional analogs of these objects. In cooperation with the Foundation for Science and AI Research (SAIR)\, we recently ran a competition aimed at solving the inverse Galois problem over Q in degree 24 (IGP24). This goal was achieved by collecting more than 50 million candidate number fields submitted by more than 100 teams\, including examples that realize all 25\,000 transitive permutation groups of degree 24 as Galois groups. AI tools and computer algebra systems played a central role in this project\, both in building the infrastructure to run the contest and in enhancing the capabilities of participants. \n1:45–2:00 pm\nBreak \n2:00–3:00 pm\nBailey Flanigan\, MIT\nAlgorithmic Tools for Trading Off Sortition Ideals\nAbstract: Citizens’ assemblies and other deliberative minipublics — representative groups of everyday people convened to deliberate on a policy issue and then make recommendations — are now used by governments around the world. Choosing who sits on these panels is the problem of sortition: randomly selecting a small group of citizens that represents the broader population. Sortition has been the subject of substantial computer science research in recent years\, and the resulting algorithms are now widely used in practice. This talk will describe the key challenges that arise in the practice of sortition\, and the algorithmic tools that have been developed to navigate them optimally. \n3:00–3:15 pm\nBreak \n3:15–4:15 pm\nChris Wiggins\, Columbia\nPrescriptive Learning at Scale: Applied and Deployed Decision-Making\nAbstract: Many applications in health and industry require making decisions while learning how the world responds to them: e.g.\, which article to recommend\, which treatment to assign\, or when to show a paywall. This problem is prescriptive\, what to do rather than what is true. Statistical decision theory has taken up the problem repeatedly since Neyman’s interwar work; recent decades have brought a new wave of results\, motivated in large part by the opportunity to make and evaluate decisions at scale online. I will highlight a thread of 21st-century results running through adaptive experimentation\, contextual bandits\, and off-policy evaluation: they combine advances in supervised learning with fundamental ideas from statistical sampling\, and now shape digital products\, from content recommendation to marketing\, as well as adaptive interventions in health. \n  \nFriday\, Sep. 4\, 2026 \n8:45–9:15 am\nBreakfast \n9:15–10:15 am\nAriel Procaccia\, Harvard\nNo Generation Without Representation\nAbstract: AI systems and democratic processes are confronting similar challenges around representation. I examine two related questions that cut across both domains. First\, how can AI enable democratic processes that handle vast spaces of opinions or statements while ensuring proportional representation of a population’s views? Second\, when AI systems themselves provide normative guidance\, whose viewpoints do they reflect\, and can we make this precise? Drawing on social choice theory\, I present formal frameworks and algorithms for both problems\, showing that meaningful representation guarantees are feasible and practical.\nVideo \n10:15–10:30 am\nBreak \n10:30–11:30 am\nWei Zhou\, Harvard\nBiobank-scale genetic discovery: from association testing to global meta-analysis\nAbstract: Biobanks linking genomic data with electronic health records provide unprecedented opportunities for genetic discovery for complex human diseases\, but they also pose analytical challenges that extend well beyond sample size. Within a biobank\, association studies must account for population structure and relatedness\, highly unbalanced case–control ratios\, rare genetic variants\, longitudinal and censored outcomes\, and the computational demands of analyzing hundreds of thousands of individuals and millions of genetic variants. Across biobanks\, additional challenges arise from differences in ancestry\, phenotype definitions\, recruitment strategies and genetic effects.In this talk\, I will discuss statistical and computational methods developed to address these challenges at successive stages of biobank analysis. These include scalable generalized linear mixed models for binary traits\, survival mixed models for censored time-to-event outcomes\, and gene- and region-based tests that aggregate rare variants. I will describe statistical approximations and computational strategies that make these analyses feasible at biobank scale while maintaining calibration in the presence of relatedness and highly unbalanced phenotypes. I will then introduce the Global Biobank Meta-analysis Initiative (GBMI) and describe how genetic evidence can be combined across biobanks without sharing individual-level data. Examples from GBMI will illustrate how combining evidence across biobanks can increase statistical power through larger sample sizes and broaden genetic discovery through greater ancestral diversity.\nVideo \n11:30 am–12:45 pm\nLunch \n12:45–1:45 pm\nSergey Ovchinnikov\, MIT\nUsing AI for protein structure modeling and design\nAbstract: In this talk\, I’ll describe recent work in model interpretability\, focusing on decomposing protein language models and structure prediction models like AlphaFold. The goal is to understand what they are learning\, their limitations and how we can use this information to develop better models and design proteins.\nVideo \n1:45–2:00 pm\nBreak \n2:00–3:00 pm\nSueYeon Chung\, Harvard/Flatiron Institute\nComputing with Neural Manifolds: A Multi-Scale Framework for Understanding Biological and Artificial Neural Networks\nRecent breakthroughs in experimental neuroscience and machine learning have opened new frontiers in understanding the computational principles governing neural circuits and artificial neural networks (ANNs). Both biological and artificial systems exhibit an astonishing degree of orchestrated information processing capabilities across multiple scales – from the microscopic responses of individual neurons to the emergent macroscopic phenomena of cognition and task functions. At the mesoscopic scale\, the structures of neuron population activities manifest themselves as neural representations. Neural computation can be viewed as a series of transformations of these representations through various processing stages of the brain. The primary focus of my lab’s research is to develop theories of neural representations that describe the principles of neural coding and\, importantly\, capture the complex structure of real data from both biological and artificial systems. \nIn this talk\, I will present three related approaches that leverage techniques from statistical physics\, machine learning\, and geometry to study the multi-scale nature of neural computation. First\, I will introduce new theories based on statistical physics and convex geometry that connect complex geometric structures that arise from neural responses (i.e.\, neural manifolds) to the efficiency of neural representations in implementing a task. Second\, I will employ these theories to analyze how these representations evolve across scales\, shaped by the properties of single neurons\, learning dynamics\, and the transformations across distinct brain regions. Finally\, I will show how these insights extend efficient coding principles beyond early sensory stages\, linking representational geometry to efficient task implementations. This framework not only help interpret and compare models of brain data but also offers a principled approach to designing ANN models for higher-level vision. This perspective opens new opportunities for using neuroscience-inspired principles to guide the development of intelligent systems.\nVideo \n\n 
URL:https://live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io/event/bigdata_2026/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Big Data Conference,Conference,Event
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260514T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260514T170000
DTSTAMP:20260502T220412Z
CREATED:20260330T154547Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260502T220412Z
UID:10003926-1778774400-1778778000@live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io
SUMMARY:Polynomial invariants of conjugation over finite fields
DESCRIPTION:Algebra Seminar \nSpeaker: Aryaman Maithani\, University of Utah \nTitle: Polynomial invariants of conjugation over finite fields\n\nAbstract: Consider the conjugation action of GL₂(K) on the polynomial ring K[X₂ₓ₂].\nWhen K is an infinite field\, the ring of invariants is a polynomial ring generated by the trace and the determinant.\nWe describe the ring of invariants when K is a finite field\, and show that it is a hypersurface.\n  \n 
URL:https://live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io/event/algebra-seminar_51426/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Algebra Seminar
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260511T163000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260511T173000
DTSTAMP:20260409T200727Z
CREATED:20251223T190403Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260409T200727Z
UID:10003848-1778517000-1778520600@live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io
SUMMARY:Statistical Shape Analysis of Complex Natural Structures
DESCRIPTION:Colloquium \nSpeaker: Anuj Srivastava\, Johns Hopkins University \nTitle: Statistical Shape Analysis of Complex Natural Structures \nAbstract: Statistical modeling and analysis of structured data is a fast-growing field in Statistics and Data Science. Rapid advances in imaging techniques have led to tremendous amounts of data for analyzing imaged objects across several scientific disciplines. Examples include shapes of cancer cells\, botanical trees\, human biometrics\, 3D genome\, brain anatomical structures\, crowd videos\, nano-manufacturing\, and so on. Shapes are relevant even in non-imaging data contexts\, e.g.\, the shapes of COVID rate curves or the shapes of activity cycles in lifestyle data. Imposing statistical models and inferences on shapes seems daunting because the shape is an abstract notion and one requires precise mathematical representations to quantify shapes. This talk has two parts. In the first part\, I will present some recent developments in “elastic representations” of structures such as functions\, curves\, surfaces\, and graphs. In the second part\, I will focus on statistical analyses: computing shape summaries\, estimation under shape constraints\, hypothesis testing\, time-series models\, and regression models involving shapes. \n 
URL:https://live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io/event/colloquium-51126/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Colloquium
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260511T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260511T160000
DTSTAMP:20260506T201809Z
CREATED:20260409T140454Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260506T201809Z
UID:10003931-1778511600-1778515200@live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io
SUMMARY:When do anomalous finite symmetries in (3+1)d enforce gaplessness?
DESCRIPTION:Quantum Field Theory and Physical Mathematics Seminar \nSpeaker: Matthew Yu (University of Oxford) \nTitle: When do anomalous finite symmetries in (3+1)d enforce gaplessness? \nAbstract: I will explain a comprehensive framework for characterizing the infrared (IR) phases of a fermionic QFTs in (3+1)d\, based on their quantum anomalies associated with a finite symmetry. We uncover a fundamental dichotomy among these anomalies: the first class of anomalies can always be realized by symmetric gapped states\, while the second class can never be realized by gapped states without breaking the given symmetry\, establishing the phenomenon of symmetry-enforced gaplessness in these settings. Using the construction of symmetry extension afforded to us by new developments in fusion 2-categories\, we construct the candidate gapped states that theories with the first class of anomalies can flow to in the IR. As an application\, I will provide examples of concrete predictions for the candidate IR phases of (3+1)d gauge theories based on our results. \n 
URL:https://live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io/event/qft_51126/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Quantum Field Theory and Physical Mathematics
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260508T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260508T130000
DTSTAMP:20260506T203007Z
CREATED:20260506T194023Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260506T203007Z
UID:10003943-1778241600-1778245200@live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io
SUMMARY:From Poincaré/Koszul duality to (twisted) AdS/CFT correspondence
DESCRIPTION:Member Seminar \nSpeaker: Keyou Zeng \nTitle: From Poincaré/Koszul duality to (twisted) AdS/CFT correspondence \nAbstract: Poincaré duality is a fundamental result in the (co)homology theory of manifolds. It has many applications in topology and vast generalizations to other types of “spaces\,” such as singular/stratified spaces and schemes. In this talk\, I will discuss a variant of Poincaré duality for factorization algebras\, also known as Koszul duality. At the end of the talk\, I will relate this notion to a mathematical formulation of what physicists call the AdS/CFT correspondence\, as proposed by Costello and Li. \n 
URL:https://live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io/event/member-seminar-5826/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Member Seminar
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260504T163000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260504T173000
DTSTAMP:20260421T135719Z
CREATED:20260323T160718Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260421T135719Z
UID:10003923-1777912200-1777915800@live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io
SUMMARY:Dynamics as intersection problem
DESCRIPTION:Colloquium \nSpeaker: Nikita Nekrasov\, Simons Center \nTitle: Dynamics as intersection problem \nAbstract: Most classical and quantum field theories are based on an action principle. However\, there are important exceptions to this — hydrodynamics and the theory of self-dual fields. In this talk we formulate the covariant relativistic fluid dynamics\, with or without magnetic fields\, as well as the theory of chiral boson in 1+1 dimensions\, self-dual tensor in 1+5 dimensions\, and self-dual four-form of IIB supergravity\, in terms of intersection theory of an auxiliary phase space. This provides a common covariant geometric framework for systems without a conventional action\, while at the same time laying the groundwork for quantization via the Kontsevich approach. Joint work with Paul Wiegmann. \n  \n 
URL:https://live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io/event/colloquium-5426/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Colloquium
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260504T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260504T160000
DTSTAMP:20260430T170629Z
CREATED:20260126T190454Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260430T170629Z
UID:10003880-1777906800-1777910400@live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io
SUMMARY:Twisted D-branes and TQFTs valued in Calabi-Yau categories
DESCRIPTION:Quantum Field Theory and Physical Mathematics Seminar \nSpeaker: Surya Raghavendran\, Yale University \nTitle: Twisted D-branes and TQFTs valued in Calabi-Yau categories \nAbstract: Recently\, Bozec–Calaque–Scherotzke have articulated a noncommutative version of the AKSZ construction\, which associates to a smooth Calabi–Yau category a fully extended TQFT valued in a category of iterated Calabi–Yau cospans. In this talk\, I will study a class of examples of such theories which arise in the context of conjectures of Costello and Li\, which describe Type II strings in certain Ramond–Ramond backgrounds as topological strings. These TQFTs capture structural features of the BPS physics of D-branes that are universal in Chan–Paton factors. Conjecturally commutative limits of the values of such theories on closed manifolds can sometimes be geometrically quantized to yield algebraic structures with Hall-type products. Examples of this paradigm include CoHAs associated to complex 3-folds\, CoHAs attached to local systems on 3-manifolds\, and the categorified Hall algebras of Porta–Sala.
URL:https://live-hu-cmsa-222.pantheonsite.io/event/qft_5426/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Quantum Field Theory and Physical Mathematics
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