Elena Gal
Categorification, Quantum groups and TQFTs
Quantum groups are mathematical objects that encode (via their "category of representations”) certain symmetries which have been found in the last several dozens of years to be connected to several areas of mathematics and physics. One famous application uses representation theory of quantum groups to construct invariants of 3-dimensional manifolds. To extend this theory to higher dimensions we need to “categorify" quantum groups - in essence to find a richer structure of symmetries. I will explain how one can approach such problem.
Carolina Urzua-Torres
Why you should not do boundary element methods, so I can have all the fun.
Boundary integral equations offer an attractive alternative to solve a wide range of physical phenomena, like scattering problems in unbounded domains. In this talk I will give a simple introduction to boundary integral equations arising from PDEs, and their discretization via Galerkin BEM. I will discuss some nice mathematical features of BEM, together with their computational pros and cons. I will illustrate these points with some applications and recent research developments.