• Speaker: Zhongshan An, University of Michigan
• Title:  Geometric boundary conditions for the Einstein equations and quasi-local mass
• Date: 01/23/2023
• Time: 4:10 PM - 5:00 PM
• Place: C304 Wells Hall (Virtual Meeting Link)
• Contact: Sabrina M Walton (waltons3@msu.edu)

The Einstein equations are the most fundamental equations for spacetimes in general relativity. They relate the geometry (curvatures) of a spacetime with its physical property. When a spacetime has nonempty boundary, it is natural to ask what geometric boundary conditions are well-posed for the Einstein equations. The investigation of geometric boundary conditions both gives rise to interesting geometric PDE problems in differential geometry, and also plays an important role in the study of quasi-local mass for compact spacetimes in general relativity. In this talk, we will discuss geometric boundary conditions for the vacuum Einstein equations, from both the hyperbolic and elliptic aspects. Furthermore, we will talk about applications of these geometric boundary value problems in the construction of quasi-local mass.

• Speaker: Vince Melfi, MSU; Jenny Green, MSU; John Keane, MSU
• Title: Fostering a Culture of Instructional Development in the Department of Statistics and Probability: Our Journey with First-Year Graduate Teaching Assistants
• Date: 01/24/2023
• Time: 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM
• Place: 115 Erickson Hall
• Contact: Lisa Keller (kellerl@msu.edu)

How do we support graduate students to teach introductory statistics classes, which themselves are undergoing dramatic transformation? In this talk, we will get to engage with lessons learned and questions still unanswered as we embarked on the journey of developing an instructional mentoring program for the Department of Statistics and Probability.

• Speaker: Yibo Gao, University of Michigan
• Title: CANCELLED: Symmetric structures in the strong Bruhat order
• Date: 01/25/2023
• Time: 3:00 PM - 3:50 PM
• Place: C304 Wells Hall
• Contact: Bruce E Sagan (bsagan@msu.edu)

The Bruhat order encodes algebraic and topological information of Schubert varieties in the flag manifold and possesses rich combinatorial properties. In this talk, we discuss three interrelated stories regarding the Bruhat order: self-dual Bruhat intervals, Billey-Postnikov decompositions and automorphisms of the Bruhat graph. This is joint work with Christian Gaetz.

• Speaker: Wlodzimierz Bryc, University of Cincinnati
• Title: Stationary measures of the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang equation and their limits
• Date: 01/25/2023
• Time: 3:00 PM - 3:50 PM
• Place: Online (virtual meeting) (Virtual Meeting Link)
• Contact: Konstantin Matetski (matetski@msu.edu)

I will overview recent results of [Corwin and Knizel, 2021] on the existence of stationary measures for the KPZ equation on an interval and [Barraquand and Le Doussal, 2022], [B.-Kuznetsov-Wang-Wesolowski, 2022] who found two different probabilistic descriptions of the stationary measures as a Markov process and as a measure with explicit Radon-Nikodym derivative with respect to the Brownian motion. The Markovian description leads to rigorous proofs of some of the limiting results claimed in [Barraquand and Le Doussal, 2022]. I shall discuss how the stationary measures of the KPZ equation on [0,L] behave at large scale as L goes to infinity which according to [Barraquand and Le Doussal, 2022] depending on the normalization, should correspond to stationary measures of a hypothetical KPZ fixed point on [0,1], to the stationary measure for the KPZ equation on the half-line, and to the stationary measure of a hypothetical KPZ fixed point on the half-line. The talk is based mostly on a joint work with Alexey Kuznetsov (ALEA 2022).

• Speaker: Katie Lewis, University of Washington
• Title: Disability Equity in Mathematics Education: Accessibility, Re-mediation, and CompensationAbstract
• Date: 01/25/2023
• Time: 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM
• Place: 252 EH (Virtual Meeting Link)
• Contact: Lisa Keller (kellerl@msu.edu)

Equity in mathematics education research has only recently begun to consider students with disabilities. In this talk, I focus specifically on students with mathematics disabilities – students who have a neurological difference in how their brains process numerical information. Prior research on mathematics disabilities (i.e., dyscalculia) has predominantly taken up a deficit frame, documenting the ways in which students with dyscalculia are deficient in terms of speed and accuracy. In my work, I argue that this deficit orientation is problematic, and I offer an alternative. I take up an explicitly anti-deficit framing and draw upon sociocultural learning theories and Disability Studies to orient my work. In this talk I use multiple case studies to explore ideas about accessibility, re-mediation, and compensation across a range of mathematical topics. This anti-deficit work provides an alternative vantage point to understand disability in mathematics education and suggests avenues to work towards equity. I close by considering ways that mathematics education equity research can be in service of and in partnership with the populations that we study. Zoom option: https://msu.zoom.us/j/95059549382 Passcode: PRIME