We recommend that non-UIC participants attend online. Any non-UIC participants who would like to attend in-person events need to register with the organizer at least three days before the seminar. If you have any questions, please contact Eloy Reyes.

# MSCS Seminar Calendar

Monday November 29, 2021
Algebraic Geometry Seminar
Quotient singularities in positive characteristic
Christian Liedtke (Technical University Munich)
2:00 PM in Zoom
We study isolated quotient singularities by finite group schemes in positive characteristic. We compute invariants, study the uniqueness of the quotient presentation, and compute some deformation spaces. A special emphasis is laid on the dichotomy between quotient singularities by linearly reductive group schemes and by group schemes that are not linearly reductive. We essentially classify the linearly reductive ones, give applications, and make some conjectures. This is joint work with Gebhard Martin (Bonn) and Yuya Matsumoto (Tokyo).

Combinatorics and Probability Seminar
Empirical measures, geodesic lengths, and a variational formula in first-passage percolation
Erik Bates (Wisconsin)
2:00 PM in 636 SEO
We consider the standard first-passage percolation model on Z^d, in which each edge is assigned an i.i.d. nonnegative weight, and the passage time between any two points is the smallest total weight of a nearest-neighbor path between them. This induces a random disordered” geometry on the lattice. Our primary interest is in the empirical measures of edge-weights observed along geodesics in this geometry, say from 0 to [n\xi], where \xi is a fixed unit vector. For various dense families of edge-weight distributions, we prove that these measures converge weakly to a deterministic limit as n tends to infinity. The key tool is a new variational formula for the time constant. In this talk, I will derive this formula and discuss its implications for the convergence of both empirical measures and lengths of geodesics.

Departmental Colloquium
No other talks at this time
Departmental Hold
3:00 PM in Zoom

Analysis and Applied Mathematics Seminar
Regularity of anisotropic minimal surfaces
Antonio De Rosa (U Maryland)
4:00 PM in Zoom
I will present a $C^{1,\alpha}$-regularity theorem for m-dimensional Lipschitz graphs with anisotropic mean curvature bounded in $L^p$, $p > m$, in every dimension and codimension.
Tuesday November 30, 2021
Departmental Colloquium
No other talks at this time
Departmental Hold
3:00 PM in Zoom

Logic Seminar
A topological zero-one law and elementary equivalence of finitely generated groups
Denis Osin (Vanderbilt University)
4:15 PM in 636 SEO
The space of finitely generated marked groups, denoted by $\mathcal G$, is a locally compact Polish space whose elements are groups with fixed finite generating sets; the topology on $\mathcal G$ is induced by local convergence of the corresponding Caley graphs. I will describe a necessary and sufficient condition for a closed subspace $\mathcal S\subseteq \mathcal G$ to satisfy the following zero-one law: for any sentence $\sigma$ in the infinitary logic $\mathcal L_{\omega_1, \omega}$, the set of all models of $\sigma$ in $\mathcal S$ is either meager or comeager. In particular, the zero-one law holds for certain subspaces associated to hyperbolic groups. This leads to the following (somewhat unexpected) corollary: generic limits of non-cyclic, torsion-free, hyperbolic groups are elementarily equivalent. We will discuss other applications and open problems.
Wednesday December 1, 2021
Departmental Colloquium
No other talks at this time
Departmental Hold
3:00 PM in Zoom

Statistics and Data Science Seminar
Minimax Off-Policy Evaluation for Multi-Armed Bandits
Cong Ma (University of Chicago)
4:00 PM in Zoom
This talk is concerned with the problem of off-policy evaluation in the multi-armed bandit model with bounded rewards. We develop minimax rate-optimal procedures under three different settings. First, when the behavior policy is known, we show that the Switch estimator, a method that alternates between the plug-in and importance sampling estimators, is minimax rate-optimal for all sample sizes. Second, when the behavior policy is unknown, we analyze performance in terms of the competitive ratio, thereby revealing a fundamental gap between the settings of known and unknown behavior policies. When the behavior policy is unknown, any estimator must have mean-squared error larger---relative to the oracle estimator equipped with the knowledge of the behavior policy---by a multiplicative factor proportional to the support size of the target policy. Moreover, we demonstrate that the plug-in approach achieves this worst-case competitive ratio up to a logarithmic factor. Third, we initiate the study of the partial knowledge setting in which it is assumed that the minimum probability taken by the behavior policy is known. We show that the plug-in estimator is optimal for relatively large values of the minimum probability, but is sub-optimal when the minimum probability is low. In order to remedy this gap, we propose a new estimator based on approximation by Chebyshev polynomials that provably achieves the optimal estimation error. This is a joint work with Banghua Zhu, Jiantao Jiao and Martin Wainwright.

Computer Science Theory Seminar
TBA
Kevin Zhou (UIC)
4:00 PM in 636 SEO

Tian Wang & Jacob Mayle (UIC)
5:00 PM in Zoom
Thursday December 2, 2021
Commutative Algebra Seminar
Cancelled
Cancelled
3:00 PM in Zoom

Departmental Colloquium
No other talks at this time
Departmental Hold
3:00 PM in Zoom
Friday December 3, 2021
Departmental Colloquium
No other talks at this time
Departmental Hold
3:00 PM in Zoom
Monday December 6, 2021
Departmental Colloquium
No other talks at this time.
Departmental Hold
3:00 PM in Zoom
Tuesday December 7, 2021
Departmental Colloquium
No other talks at this time
Departmental Hold
3:00 PM in Zoom
Thursday January 6, 2022
Departmental Colloquium
No other talks at this time
Departmental Hold
3:00 PM in Zoom
Friday January 7, 2022
Departmental Colloquium
No other talks at this time
Departmental Hold
3:00 PM in Zoom
Tuesday January 11, 2022
Departmental Colloquium
No other talks at this time
Departmental Hold
3:00 PM in Zoom
Wednesday January 12, 2022
Departmental Colloquium
No other talks at this time
Departmental Hold
3:00 PM in Zoom
Thursday January 13, 2022
Departmental Colloquium
No other talks at this time
Departmental Hold
3:00 PM in Zoom
Friday January 14, 2022
Departmental Colloquium
No other talks at this time
Departmental Hold
3:00 PM in Zoom
Tuesday January 18, 2022
Departmental Colloquium
No other talks at this time
Departmental Hold
3:00 PM in Zoom
Monday January 31, 2022
Analysis and Applied Mathematics Seminar
TBA
Evelyn Richman (UIC)
4:00 PM in 636 SEO

Analysis and Applied Mathematics Seminar
TBA
Evelyn Richman (UIC)
4:00 PM in 636 SEO
Monday March 7, 2022
Analysis and Applied Mathematics Seminar
TBA
Daesung Kim (UIUC)
4:00 PM in 636 SEO
TBA
Wednesday March 9, 2022
Statistics and Data Science Seminar
TBA
Alexander Petersen (Brigham Young University)
4:00 PM in 636 SEO
Monday March 14, 2022
Analysis and Applied Mathematics Seminar
TBA
4:00 PM in 636 SEO
TBA
Friday March 18, 2022
Departmental Colloquium
TBA
3:00 PM in 636 SEO
Wednesday March 30, 2022
Statistics and Data Science Seminar
TBA
Peijun Sang (University of Waterloo)
4:00 PM in Zoom
Friday April 8, 2022
Departmental Colloquium
TBA
Shiv Karunakaran (Michigan State University)
3:00 PM in Zoom
Wednesday April 13, 2022
Statistics and Data Science Seminar
TBA
Yong Zeng (University of Missouri-Kansas City)
4:00 PM in Zoom
Wednesday April 20, 2022
Statistics and Data Science Seminar
TBA
Linglong Kong (University of Alberta)
4:00 PM in 636 SEO
UIC LAS MSCS > persisting_utilities > seminars > seminar calendar