Calendar

Posted January 8, 2026

Control and Optimization Seminar Questions or comments?

Lars Gruene, University of Bayreuth SIAM Fellow
Can Neural Networks Solve High Dimensional Optimal Feedback Control Problems?

Deep reinforcement learning has established itself as a standard method for solving nonlinear optimal feedback control problems. In this method, the optimal value function (and, in some variants, the optimal feedback law also) is stored using a deep neural network. Hence, the applicability of this approach to high-dimensional problems relies crucially on the network's ability to store a high-dimensional function. It is known that for general high-dimensional functions, neural networks suffer from the same exponential growth of the number of coefficients as traditional grid based methods, the so-called curse of dimensionality. In this talk, we use methods from distributed optimal control to describe optimal control problems in which this problem does not occur.

Posted February 9, 2026

LSU AWM Student Chapter LSU AWM Student Chapter Website

Discussion session with Amber Schreve

The AWM Student Chapter is pleased to host a special discussion session with Amber Schreve, a PhD student in Finance at LSU and an actuary at the Louisiana Department of Insurance. She will share her experience as a mathematician working in the actuarial field, discussing her journey from studying mathematics to becoming an actuary. This offers a great opportunity for students to interact with Amber and ask questions about her career motivations and professional path behind transitioning from academia to industry.

Event contact: jgarc86@lsu.edu

Posted February 24, 2026

Combinatorics Seminar Questions or comments?

Steven Noble, University of Leeds
Critical groups for embedded graphs

Critical groups are finite Abelian groups associated with graphs. They arise in many different ways, for example, via the chip-firing game, through the Laplacian and via fundamental cycles and cocycles. Several results in the literature on critical groups only hold for planar graphs and their proofs rely on a plane drawing. This suggests the natural setting for the critical group might be graphs embedded on surfaces. We show how various definitions of the critical group may be extended to embedded graphs, and crucially that they give isomorphic groups. No knowledge of topology or group theory is required!

Posted February 10, 2026

Mathematical Physics and Representation Theory Seminar

Milo Moses, Caltech
Four-colorings, recoverability, and topological quantum matter

In ongoing joint work with A. Kitaev, D. Ranard, I. Kim, we have been developing a formalism for exploring topologically ordered quantum states using recovery maps. In this talk, I will explain the potential applicability of these recovery maps to the study of 4-colorings of planar graphs. Conditioned on an unproven technical lemma (which perhaps someone in the audience can demonstrate!), I can show that bridgeless planar graphs quasi-isometric to the Euclidean plane obey a medley of properties reminiscent of topological quantum order.

Posted February 9, 2026

Informal Analysis Seminar Questions or comments?

Basit Abdulfatai, Louisiana State University
Dolapo Onifade, Louisiana State University
Introduction to deep adaptive sampling and physics informed neural networks

Posted January 19, 2026

Geometry and Topology Seminar Seminar website

Ettore Marmo, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca
TBA

Posted January 15, 2026
Last modified January 16, 2026

Informal Geometry and Topology Seminar Questions or comments?

Benjamin Appiah, Louisiana State University
TBD

TBD