Fri, 03 Jun 2016

10:00 - 11:00
L4

Unanticipated interaction loops involving autonomous systems

James Sutherland
(Thales Security and Consulting)
Abstract

We are entering a world where unmanned vehicles will be common. They have the potential to dramatically decrease the cost of services whilst simultaneously increasing the safety record of whole industries.

Autonomous technologies will, by their very nature, shift decision making responsibility from individual humans to technology systems. The 2010 Flash Crash showed how such systems can create rare (but not inconceivably rare) and highly destructive positive feedback loops which can severely disrupt a sector.

In the case of Unmanned Air Systems (UAS), how might similar effects obstruct the development of the Commercial UAS industry? Is it conceivable that, like the high frequency trading industry at the heart of the Flash Crash, the algorithms we provide UAS to enable autonomy could decrease the risk of small incidents whilst increasing the risk of severe accidents? And if so, what is the relationship between probability and consequence of incidents?

Glioblastoma is an aggressive form of brain tumour, which is characterised by life expectancies of less than 2 years from diagnosis and currently has no cure. The only intervention available to a patient is having the infected area of their brain cut away as soon as the tumour cells are observed.

Thu, 26 May 2016

16:00 - 17:00
C5

Cohomogeneity one Ricci solitons

Alejandro Betancourt
(Oxford)
Abstract

Abstract: Ricci solitons are genralizations of Einstein metrics which have become subject of much interest over the last decade. In this talk I will give a basic introduction to these metrics and discuss how to reformulate the Ricci soliton equation as a Hamiltonian system assuming some symmetry conditions. Using this approach we will construct explicit solutions to the soliton equation for manifolds of dimension 5.

Fri, 10 Jun 2016

10:00 - 11:00
L4

Occurrence detection, correlation and classification among large numbers of time series

Alexander Denev
(Markit)
Abstract

Markit is a leading global provider of financial information services. We provide products that enhance transparency, reduce risk and improve operational efficiency.

We wish to find ways to automatically detect and label ‘extreme’ occurrences in a time series such as structural breaks, nonlinearities, and spikes (i.e. outliers). We hope to detect these occurrences in the levels, returns and volatility of a time series or any other transformation of it (e.g. moving average).

We also want to look for the same types of occurrences in the multivariate case in a set of time series through measures such as e.g. correlations, eigenvalues of the covariance matrix etc. The number of time series involved is of the order 3x10^6.

We wish to explain the appearance of an ‘extreme’ occurrence or a cluster of occurrences endogenously, as an event conditional on the values of the time series in the set, both contemporaneously and/or as conditional on their time lags.

Furthermore, we would like to classify the events that caused the occurrence in some major categories, if found e.g. shock to oil supply, general risk aversion, migrations etc. both algorithmically and by allowing human corrective judgement (which could become the basis for supervised learning).

Mon, 23 May 2016

12:00 - 13:00
L3

Marginal deformations of N=1 SCFT's and generalised geometry

Michela Petrini
(LPTHE Jussieu)
Abstract
Generalised Geometry is a very powerful tool to study gravity duals of strongly coupled gauge theories. In this talk I will discuss how Exceptional Geometry can be used to study marginal deformations of N=1 SCFT's in 4 and 3 dimensions.
Fri, 20 May 2016

11:00 - 12:00
C2

Universal thickening of C_p

Damian Rössler
(Oxford University)
Abstract

This is the 4th talk of the study group on Beilinson's approach to p-adic Hodge theory, following the notes of Szamuley and Zabradi.

I shall finish the computation of the module of differentials of the ring of integers of the algebraic closure of Q_p and describe a universal thickening of C_p.

I shall also quickly introduce the derived de Rham algebra. Kevin McGerty will give a talk on the derived de Rham algebra in W5 or W6.

Wed, 18 May 2016

16:00 - 17:00
C1

Residual properties of amalgams

Gareth Wilkes
Abstract

I will discuss the circumstances in which residual finiteness properties of an amalgamated free product $A\ast_c B$ may be deduced from the properties of $A$ and $B$, with particular regard to the pro-p residual properties.

Tue, 17 May 2016

10:00 - 11:00
C1

Number theory tools for Cryptographic Applications

Giacomo Micheli
(Oxford University)
Abstract

In this lecture we describe the effective Chebotarev Theorem for global function fields and show how this can be used to describe the statistics of a polynomial map f in terms of its monodromy groups. With this tool in hand, we will provide a strategy to remove the remaining heuristic in the quasi-polynomial time algorithm for discrete
logarithm problems over finite fields of small characteristic.

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