The Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences is pleased to announce the following network-wide graduate courses in mathematical sciences. These courses are available online and provide access to experts from throughout the PIMS network.
Students at Canadian PIMS member universities may apply for graduate credit via the Western Deans' Agreement (WDA). Please be advised, in some cases students must enroll 6 weeks in advance of the term start date and will typically be required to pay ancillary fees to the host institution (as much as $270) or explicitly request exemptions. Please see the WDA section for details of fees at specific sites, and check the individual courses below for registration details.
Students at universities not covered by the WDA but which are part of the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies (CAGS) may still be eligible to register for this course under the Canadian University Graduate Transfer Agreement (CUGTA). Details of this program vary by university and are also typically subject to ancillary fees. Please contact your local Graduate Student Advisor for more information.
The courses in this section are accepting registrations. Expand each item to see the course details and registration information.
Christopher Hoffman : hoffman@math.washington.edu
University of Washington
Anthony Quas : aquas@uvic.ca
University of Victoria
Graduate Real Analysis
Measure Theory
This course is available for registration under the Western Dean's Agreement. To do this, please complete the Western Deans' Agreement form , with the following course details:
Completed forms should be returned to your graduate advisor who will sign it and take the required steps. For students at PIMS sites, please see this list to find your graduate advisor, for other sites, contacts can be found on the Western Deans' Agreement contact page .
The Western Deans' Agreement provides an automatic tuition fee waiver for visiting students. Graduate students paying normal required tuition fees at their home institution will not pay tuition fees to the host institution. However, students will typically be be required to pay other ancillary fees to the host institution, or explicitly request exemptions (e.g. Insurance or travel fees). Details vary by university, so please contact the graduate student advisor at your institution for help completing the form. Links to fee information and contact information for PIMS member universities is available below in the WDA section.
Students at universities not covered by the WDA but which are part of the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies (CAGS) may still be eligible to register for this course under the terms of the Canadian University Graduate Transfer Agreement (CUGTA). Details of this program vary by university and are also typically subject to ancillary fees. Please contact your local graduate student advisor for more information.
Ergodic theory is the study of dynamical systems from a measurable or statistical point of view. Starting with Poincaré’s recurrence theorem and the ergodic theorems of Birkoff and von Neumann ergodic theory in the early twentieth century. The field has applications to many other areas of mathematics including probability, number theory and harmonic analysis. Among the topics covered will be
This course will run between March 29th and June 6th of 2021, and is now open for registration. Please note that this course is shared between the University of Washington and the University of Victoria. The course will taught primarily by by Prof. Hoffman (UWashington) Canadian students wishing to register for credit under the WDA should use the details above for the course at the University of Victoria and should direct any registration enquiries to Prof. Quas (UVic). Please note that for some sites students must register at least 6 weeks before the course start date, for this course that deadline is February 15th, 2021.
The courses in this section are currently running and may not be accepting registrations. Expand each item to see the course details.
Martin Frankland : Martin.Frankland@uregina.ca
University of Regina
A course in general topology, or metric space topology.
A course in group theory.
This course is available for registration under the Western Dean's Agreement. To do this, please complete the Western Deans' Agreement form , with the following course details:
Completed forms should be returned to your graduate advisor who will sign it and take the required steps. For students at PIMS sites, please see this list to find your graduate advisor, for other sites, contacts can be found on the Western Deans' Agreement contact page .
The Western Deans' Agreement provides an automatic tuition fee waiver for visiting students. Graduate students paying normal required tuition fees at their home institution will not pay tuition fees to the host institution. However, students will typically be be required to pay other ancillary fees to the host institution, or explicitly request exemptions (e.g. Insurance or travel fees). Details vary by university, so please contact the graduate student advisor at your institution for help completing the form. Links to fee information and contact information for PIMS member universities is available below in the WDA section.
Students at universities not covered by the WDA but which are part of the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies (CAGS) may still be eligible to register for this course under the terms of the Canadian University Graduate Transfer Agreement (CUGTA). Details of this program vary by university and are also typically subject to ancillary fees. Please contact your local graduate student advisor for more information.
The course is a first semester in algebraic topology. Broadly speaking, algebraic topology studies the shape of spaces by assigning algebraic invariants to them. Topics will include the fundamental group, covering spaces, CW complexes, homology (simplicial, singular, cellular), cohomology, and some applications.
Bojan Mohar : mohar@sfu.ca
Simon Fraser University
Topological spaces
Continuous maps
Metric space topology
Quotient topology
Compactness
Basic notions about simplicial complexes, fundamental groups and covering spaces will be helpful, but students will also be given opportunity to self-study about these notions during the first month of the course and help will be offered during tutorials.
This course is available for registration under the Western Dean's Agreement. To do this, please complete the Western Deans' Agreement form , with the following course details:
Completed forms should be returned to your graduate advisor who will sign it and take the required steps. For students at PIMS sites, please see this list to find your graduate advisor, for other sites, contacts can be found on the Western Deans' Agreement contact page .
The Western Deans' Agreement provides an automatic tuition fee waiver for visiting students. Graduate students paying normal required tuition fees at their home institution will not pay tuition fees to the host institution. However, students will typically be be required to pay other ancillary fees to the host institution, or explicitly request exemptions (e.g. Insurance or travel fees). Details vary by university, so please contact the graduate student advisor at your institution for help completing the form. Links to fee information and contact information for PIMS member universities is available below in the WDA section.
Students at universities not covered by the WDA but which are part of the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies (CAGS) may still be eligible to register for this course under the terms of the Canadian University Graduate Transfer Agreement (CUGTA). Details of this program vary by university and are also typically subject to ancillary fees. Please contact your local graduate student advisor for more information.
This is a basic level graduate course with introduction to algebraic topology and its applications in combinatorics, graph theory and geometry. The course will cover introductory chapters from [1] and parts of [2]. With a guest lecture by Nati Linial from Israel, we will also touch some recent topics like the topology of random simplicial complexes. The instructor expects that students with interests in topology and those with interests in discrete mathematics and geometry would find the course suitable.
This is a basic level graduate course with introduction to algebraic topology and its applications in combinatorics, graph theory and geometry. The course will start with a brief review of the basic notions of topology, including the notions mentioned as prerequisites. It will continue with introductory chapters from Hatcher’s textbook [1]. Simplicial complex. Cell complex. Homotopy and fundamental group (Sections 1.1-1.3 and 1.A). Homology (Sections 2.1-2.2 and parts of 2.A-2.C). The second part of the course will concentrate on various applications of algebraic topology in combinatorics, graph theory, and geometry. We will follow relevant chapters from Matousek’s book [2]. Some of those applications use Borsuk-Ulam Theorem, which will be covered first. Time permitting, we may touch a recent flourishing topics on the topology of random simplicial complexes.
The weekly schedule will consist of four 50-minute lectures. Two to three of them will be giving new material, with some details left for the students to cover by themselves from the provided textbooks. The remaining weekly time will be used for tutorials, covering problems and examples, explaining details of proofs, and having students work in small groups and report on their solutions. The online platform used will be Zoom, with synchronous teaching that will be recorded for asynchronous viewing.
The instructor reserves the right to limit the number of students from outside of SFU. He will allow for additional students who will not take the course for credit (their homework and exams will not be graded).
Ian F. Putnam : ifputnam@uvic.ca
University of Victoria
A good course in abstract algebra, up to the first isomorphism theorem and a good course in general topology. The course is accessible to advanced undergraduates with a good background.
This course is available for registration under the Western Dean's Agreement. To do this, please complete the Western Deans' Agreement form , with the following course details:
Completed forms should be returned to your graduate advisor who will sign it and take the required steps. For students at PIMS sites, please see this list to find your graduate advisor, for other sites, contacts can be found on the Western Deans' Agreement contact page .
The Western Deans' Agreement provides an automatic tuition fee waiver for visiting students. Graduate students paying normal required tuition fees at their home institution will not pay tuition fees to the host institution. However, students will typically be be required to pay other ancillary fees to the host institution, or explicitly request exemptions (e.g. Insurance or travel fees). Details vary by university, so please contact the graduate student advisor at your institution for help completing the form. Links to fee information and contact information for PIMS member universities is available below in the WDA section.
Students at universities not covered by the WDA but which are part of the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies (CAGS) may still be eligible to register for this course under the terms of the Canadian University Graduate Transfer Agreement (CUGTA). Details of this program vary by university and are also typically subject to ancillary fees. Please contact your local graduate student advisor for more information.
The official title ‘Topology’ of this course is misleading. A better one would be ‘Topics in Dynamical Systems’. Dynamical systems is the mathematical study of models based on the idea of a topological space, representing the possible configurations of a system and a continuous map (or maps) which represent its time evolution. The systems considered in this course have two additional features: the space is compact and totally disconnected while the map is minimal in the sense that every trajectory formed by iteration on a single point is dense. Such spaces have a strongly combinatorial feel to them and one of our main goals is o provide a complete model for such systems based purely on combinatorial data called a Bratteli diagram. This model has been used extensively in topological dynamics over the last thirty years. The second main topic is to introduce a purely algebraic invariant for such systems. So the course becomes an interesting mix, moving between combinatorics, algebra and topology or dynamical systems. The overall goal is a theorem which classifies such systems up to a notion of orbit equivalence. Primarily, we will aim to understand all of the ingredients for the theorem and have some idea of how to prove it.
The text is the book Cantor MInimal Systems, written by the lecturer and published by the AMS:
It is my intention to cover all 14 Chapters, at least partially.
The grading scheme for the course will be six assignments, due roughly every two weeks. They will be weighted equally and the lowest score will be dropped before computing a final grade. There will be no tests. Students will be expected to submit their own work only, but may feel free to discuss the problems with others.
The course will be online: lectures Monday and Thursday from 11:30 am to 12:50 pm. I intend to use the first part of each lecture as a discussion for the entire class. Depending on how long these take, it may be necessary to supplement the material with recorded (i.e. asynchronous) lectures.
Greg Martin : gerg@math.ubc.ca
University of British Columbia
Solid course (preferably graduate-level) in elementary number theory
Graduate level course in analytic number theory, one that includes a proof of the prime number theorem and the corresponding "explicit formula"
Undergraduate course in probability would also be helpful
This course is available for registration under the Western Dean's Agreement. To do this, please complete the Western Deans' Agreement form , with the following course details:
Completed forms should be returned to your graduate advisor who will sign it and take the required steps. For students at PIMS sites, please see this list to find your graduate advisor, for other sites, contacts can be found on the Western Deans' Agreement contact page .
The Western Deans' Agreement provides an automatic tuition fee waiver for visiting students. Graduate students paying normal required tuition fees at their home institution will not pay tuition fees to the host institution. However, students will typically be be required to pay other ancillary fees to the host institution, or explicitly request exemptions (e.g. Insurance or travel fees). Details vary by university, so please contact the graduate student advisor at your institution for help completing the form. Links to fee information and contact information for PIMS member universities is available below in the WDA section.
Students at universities not covered by the WDA but which are part of the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies (CAGS) may still be eligible to register for this course under the terms of the Canadian University Graduate Transfer Agreement (CUGTA). Details of this program vary by university and are also typically subject to ancillary fees. Please contact your local graduate student advisor for more information.
We will begin with a quick review of the prime number theorem and the “explicit formula”, then develop the theory of Dirichlet characters, and combine these two sets of tools to prove the prime number theorem in arithmetic progressions. We will then move into comparing two counting functions of primes in arithmetic progressions, going through the history of such comparisons and learning how the normalized difference can be modeled by random variables, thus giving us a way to understand its limiting distribution. Student assessment will consist of some modest combination of presentations and reviews of research articles.
Recommended prerequisites are a solid course (preferably graduate-level) in elementary number theory, and a graduate-level course in analytic number theory, one that included a proof of the prime number theorem and the corresponding explicit formula. An undergraduate course in probability would also be helpful. Reference texts would be standard analytic number theory books by Iwaniec & Kowalski, by Montgomery & Vaughan, and by Titchmarsh. Students who are willing to learn some of this background as they go are welcome.
Classes will be held live (synchronously) on Zoom and regular attendance will be important. The current tentative schedule is to meet at 10am Pacific time on Mondays and Wednesdays and possibly Fridays. Students can join from any physical location.
Reference texts would be standard analytic number theory books by Iwaniec & Kowalski, by Montgomery & Vaughan, and by Titchmarsh.
Yaozhong Hu : yaozhong@ualberta.ca
University of Alberta
Some preparation on mathematical analysis and probability theory
This course is available for registration under the Western Dean's Agreement. To do this, please complete the Western Deans' Agreement form , with the following course details:
Completed forms should be returned to your graduate advisor who will sign it and take the required steps. For students at PIMS sites, please see this list to find your graduate advisor, for other sites, contacts can be found on the Western Deans' Agreement contact page .
The Western Deans' Agreement provides an automatic tuition fee waiver for visiting students. Graduate students paying normal required tuition fees at their home institution will not pay tuition fees to the host institution. However, students will typically be be required to pay other ancillary fees to the host institution, or explicitly request exemptions (e.g. Insurance or travel fees). Details vary by university, so please contact the graduate student advisor at your institution for help completing the form. Links to fee information and contact information for PIMS member universities is available below in the WDA section.
Students at universities not covered by the WDA but which are part of the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies (CAGS) may still be eligible to register for this course under the terms of the Canadian University Graduate Transfer Agreement (CUGTA). Details of this program vary by university and are also typically subject to ancillary fees. Please contact your local graduate student advisor for more information.
This is a one semester three credit hour course and meet twice a week, tentatively Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11:00-12:20. It is about the theory and applications of stochastic differential equations driven by Brownian motion. The stochastic differential equations have found applications in finance, signal processing, population dynamics and many other fields. It is the basis of some other applied probability areas such as filtering theory, stochastic control and stochastic differential games. To balance the theoretical and applied aspects and to include as much audience as possible, we shall focus on the stochastic differential equations driven only by Brownian motion (white noise). We will focus on the theory and not get into specific applied area (such as finance, signal processing, filtering, control and so on). We shall first briefly introduce some basic concepts and results on stochastic processes, in particular the Brownian motions. Then we will discuss stochastic integrals, Ito formula, the existence and uniqueness of stochastic differential equations, some fundamental properties of the solution. We will concern with the Markov property, Kolmogorov backward and forward equations, Feynman-Kac formula, Girsanov formula. We will also concern with the ergodic theory and other stability problems. We may also mention some results on numerical simulations, Malliavin calculus and so on.
Adam Kashlak : Kashlak@ualberta.ca
University of Alberta
Linear Algebra: vectors, matrices, quadratic forms, orthogonality, projections, eigenvalues.
Calculus: basic multivariate differential calculus such as computing gradients and finding critical points.
Statistics: an understanding of estimation and hypothesis testing, knowledge of linear regression is helpful.
Discrete Math: familiarity with topics like basic group theory and combinatorics can help, but are not required
This course is available for registration under the Western Dean's Agreement. To do this, please complete the Western Deans' Agreement form , with the following course details:
Completed forms should be returned to your graduate advisor who will sign it and take the required steps. For students at PIMS sites, please see this list to find your graduate advisor, for other sites, contacts can be found on the Western Deans' Agreement contact page .
The Western Deans' Agreement provides an automatic tuition fee waiver for visiting students. Graduate students paying normal required tuition fees at their home institution will not pay tuition fees to the host institution. However, students will typically be be required to pay other ancillary fees to the host institution, or explicitly request exemptions (e.g. Insurance or travel fees). Details vary by university, so please contact the graduate student advisor at your institution for help completing the form. Links to fee information and contact information for PIMS member universities is available below in the WDA section.
Students at universities not covered by the WDA but which are part of the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies (CAGS) may still be eligible to register for this course under the terms of the Canadian University Graduate Transfer Agreement (CUGTA). Details of this program vary by university and are also typically subject to ancillary fees. Please contact your local graduate student advisor for more information.
We will cover classical and modern methods of experimental design starting with one-way ANOVA and Cochran’s Theorem. From there, we will consider multi-factor ANOVA using a variety of combinatorial tools such as Graeco-Latin squares and incomplete block designs. There will be a brief interlude on multiple testing followed by 2 and 3 level factorial designs, fractional factorial designs, and blocking within such designs. Then, response surface designs—i.e. quadratic polynomial surfaces used for optimization of industrial processes–will be discussed. Lastly, more advanced topics will be touched on such as prime-level factorial designs and the Plackett-Burman design, which involves Hadamard matrices. Interesting datasets, connections to optimal coding theory, and at-home experiments will also be discussed. For study purposes, discussion questions will be included with the lectures and solutions will be discussed in class.
Fei Qi : Fei.Qi@umanitoba.ca
University of Manitoba
Graduate level abstract algebra and complex analysis. Knowledge to Lie algebras would be helpful but not essential.
This course is available for registration under the Western Dean's Agreement. To do this, please complete the Western Deans' Agreement form , with the following course details:
Completed forms should be returned to your graduate advisor who will sign it and take the required steps. For students at PIMS sites, please see this list to find your graduate advisor, for other sites, contacts can be found on the Western Deans' Agreement contact page .
The Western Deans' Agreement provides an automatic tuition fee waiver for visiting students. Graduate students paying normal required tuition fees at their home institution will not pay tuition fees to the host institution. However, students will typically be be required to pay other ancillary fees to the host institution, or explicitly request exemptions (e.g. Insurance or travel fees). Details vary by university, so please contact the graduate student advisor at your institution for help completing the form. Links to fee information and contact information for PIMS member universities is available below in the WDA section.
Students at universities not covered by the WDA but which are part of the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies (CAGS) may still be eligible to register for this course under the terms of the Canadian University Graduate Transfer Agreement (CUGTA). Details of this program vary by university and are also typically subject to ancillary fees. Please contact your local graduate student advisor for more information.
Vertex algebras are algebraic structures formed by the vertex operators that appear both in mathematics and in physics. In mathematics, vertex algebras are used to study the Monster group, the largest finite simple group. The representation theory of vertex algebras gives a mathematical construction to two-dimensional conformal field theories. In this course, we will take an axiomatic approach and focus on the definition, axioms, properties and examples. If time permits, we will also introduce the theory of vertex tensor categories associated to the modules for the vertex operator algebras.
https://server.math.umanitoba.ca/~qif
Lele Wang : lelewang@ece.ubc.ca
University of British Columbia
Working knowledge of probability and linear algebra
No prior knowledge on graph theory is assumed
This course is available for registration under the Western Dean's Agreement. To do this, please complete the Western Deans' Agreement form , with the following course details:
Completed forms should be returned to your graduate advisor who will sign it and take the required steps. For students at PIMS sites, please see this list to find your graduate advisor, for other sites, contacts can be found on the Western Deans' Agreement contact page .
The Western Deans' Agreement provides an automatic tuition fee waiver for visiting students. Graduate students paying normal required tuition fees at their home institution will not pay tuition fees to the host institution. However, students will typically be be required to pay other ancillary fees to the host institution, or explicitly request exemptions (e.g. Insurance or travel fees). Details vary by university, so please contact the graduate student advisor at your institution for help completing the form. Links to fee information and contact information for PIMS member universities is available below in the WDA section.
Students at universities not covered by the WDA but which are part of the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies (CAGS) may still be eligible to register for this course under the terms of the Canadian University Graduate Transfer Agreement (CUGTA). Details of this program vary by university and are also typically subject to ancillary fees. Please contact your local graduate student advisor for more information.
A large variety of data science and machine learning problems use graphs to characterize the structural properties of the data. In social networks, graphs represent friendship among users. In biological networks, graphs indicate protein interactions. In the World Wide Web, graphs describe hyperlinks between web pages. In recommendation systems, graphs reveal the economic behaviors of users. Unlike the one-dimensional linear data sequence, data appearing in the form of a graph can be viewed as a two-dimensional matrix with special structures. How to compress, store, process, estimate, predict, and learn such large-scale structural information are important new challenges in data science. This course will provide an introduction to mathematical and algorithmic tools for studying such problems. Both information-theoretic methods for determining the fundamental limits as well as methodologies for attaining these limits will be discussed. The course aims to expose students to the state- of-the-art research in mathematical data science, statistical inference on graphs, combinatorial statistics, among others, and prepare them with related research skills.
https://canvas.ubc.ca/courses/59429
All ebooks are available at https://www.library.ubc.ca/.
Raymond Spiteri : spiteri@cs.usask.ca
University of Saskatchewan
Basic background in programming and numerical analysis desirable
This course is available for registration under the Western Dean's Agreement. To do this, please complete the Western Deans' Agreement form , with the following course details:
Completed forms should be returned to your graduate advisor who will sign it and take the required steps. For students at PIMS sites, please see this list to find your graduate advisor, for other sites, contacts can be found on the Western Deans' Agreement contact page .
The Western Deans' Agreement provides an automatic tuition fee waiver for visiting students. Graduate students paying normal required tuition fees at their home institution will not pay tuition fees to the host institution. However, students will typically be be required to pay other ancillary fees to the host institution, or explicitly request exemptions (e.g. Insurance or travel fees). Details vary by university, so please contact the graduate student advisor at your institution for help completing the form. Links to fee information and contact information for PIMS member universities is available below in the WDA section.
Students at universities not covered by the WDA but which are part of the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies (CAGS) may still be eligible to register for this course under the terms of the Canadian University Graduate Transfer Agreement (CUGTA). Details of this program vary by university and are also typically subject to ancillary fees. Please contact your local graduate student advisor for more information.
Despite the extraordinary advances in computing technology, we continue to need ever greater computing power to address important fundamental scientific questions. Because individual compute processors have essentially reached their performance limits, the need for greater computing power can only be met through the use of parallel computers. This course is intended for students who are interested in learning how to take advantage of high-performance computing with the focus of writing parallel code for processor-intensive applications to be run on local clusters, the cloud, or shared infrastructure such as that provided by Compute Canada. Extensive use of pertinent and practical examples from scientific computing will be made throughout. Allowable programming languages include Julia, Matlab, Maple, sage, python, Fortran, or C/C++. Various paradigms of parallel computing will be covered via the OpenMP, MPI, and OpenCL libraries. By the end of the course, students will be expected to be able to correctly solve non-trivial problems involving parallel programming as well as appreciate the issues involved in solving such problems.
The courses in this section are no longer accepting registrations. Expand each item to see a course abstract
Martyn P. Clark : martyn.clark@usask.ca
University of Saskatchewan
A firm foundation in calculus and physics at the first year university level
Some experience in computing (e.g. Familiarity with python, R, matlab)
A strong background in hydrology e.g. As obtained by taking Geography 827 "Principles of Hydrology" at the University of Saskatchewan or a similar graduate-level course in hydrology.
Registration for this course is not currently available.
The University of Saskatchewan Centre for Hydrology is offering an intensive course on the fundamentals of process-based hydrological modelling, including model development, model application, and model evaluation. The course will explain the model constructs that are necessary to simulate dominant hydrological processes, the assumptions that are embedded in models of different type and complexity, and best practices for model development and model applications. The course will cover the full model ecosystem, including the spatial discretization of the model domain, input forcing data generation, model evaluation, parameter estimation, post-processing, uncertainty characterization, data assimilation, and ensemble streamflow forecasting methods. The overall intent of the course is to provide participants with the understanding and tools that are necessary to develop and apply models across a broad range of landscapes. Specifically, the course will convey an understanding of how to represent existing process understanding in numerical models, how to devise meaningful model experiments, and how to evaluate these experiments in a systematic way. Along the way, participants will have the opportunity to build models, run models, make changes, and analyze model output.
Reading/Textbooks
Karen Meagher
University of Regina
Joy Morris
University of Lethbridge
Karen Gunderson
University of Manitoba
Registration for this course is not currently available.
The Fall 2020 offering of Math 827, Graph Theory will consist of three units on advanced graph theory topics.
The first unit will be 6 weeks will be on algebraic techniques in graph theory taught by Dr. Karen Meagher of the University of Regina. The focus will be on spectral graph theory, adjacency matrices and eigenvalues of graphs. We will consider important families of transitive graphs where algebraic methods are particularly effective.
The second unit will be 3 weeks on Cayley graphs, taught by Dr. Joy Morris from the University of Lethbridge. This unit will focus on automorphisms, isomorphisms and the isomorphism problem, and Hamilton cycles, all in the context of Cayley graphs.
The third unit will be 3 weeks on the topic of random graphs taught by Dr Karen Gunderson from the University of Manitoba. This unit will cover various models of random graphs and some types of pseudorandomness.
James Feng : james.feng@ubc.ca
University of British Columbia
Registration for this course is not currently available.
This course will give students an overview of Non-Newtonian Fluid Dynamics, and discuss two approaches to building constitutive models for complex fluids: continuum modeling and kinetic- microstructural modeling. In addition, it will provide an introduction to multiphase complex fluids and to numerical models and algorithms for computing complex fluid flows.
Brendan Pass : pass@ualberta.ca
University of Alberta
Registration for this course is not currently available.
This course is part of a long-term initiative to develop integrated teaching and learning optimal transport infrastructure connecting the various PIMS sites. The plan is to offer this course several times over the next few years; in each iteration, ‘X’ will be chosen from the many disciplines in which optimal transport places an important role, including data science/statistics, computation, biology,finance, etc. In Fall, 2020 we will take ‘X’=“economics”.
This course is part of a long-term initiative to develop integrated teaching and learning optimal transport infrastructure connecting the various PIMS sites. The plan is to offer this course several times over the next few years; in each iteration, ‘X’ will be chosen from the many disciplines in which optimal transport places an important role, including data science/statistics, computation, biology,finance, etc. In Fall, 2020 we will take ‘X’=“economics”.
This course has two main objectives: first, to introduce a wide range of students to the exciting and broadly applicable research area of optimal transport, and second, to explore more closely its applications in a particular field, which will vary from year to year (represented by ‘X’ in the title). Optimal transport is the general problem of moving one distribution of mass to another as efficiently as possible (for example, think of using a pile of dirt to fill a hole of the same volume, so as to minimize the average distance moved). This basic problem has a wealth of applications within mathematics (in PDE, geometry, functional analysis, probability…) as well as in other fields (comparing images in image processing, comparing and interpolating between data sets in statistics, matching partners in economics, aligning electrons in chemical physics…) and is currently an extremely active research area.
The first part of the course surveys the basic theory of optimal transport. Topics covered include: formulation of the problem, Kantorovich duality theory, existence and uniqueness theory, c-monotonicity and structure of solutions, discrete optimal transport. This is the core part of the course, which is important for all areas of application, and will be largely the same each year, although the presentation of some topics may vary slightly from year to year, to ensure compatibility with ‘X’.
The second part of the course develops applications in a particular area (corresponding to ‘X’ in the title), which rotates from year to year. In Fall, 2020, we will take ‘X’ = ”economics.” A surprisingly wide variety of problems in economic theory, econometrics and operations research are naturally formulated in terms of optimal transport. As a simple, illustrative example, consider an employer assigning a large number of heterogeneous employees to a diverse set of tasks. The employees have different skill sets which affect their proficiency at different jobs in different ways; matching a particular worker with a particular job results in a surplus which depends on the characteristics of both the worker and job. Assigning the workers to tasks to maximize the overall surplus is an optimal transport problem.
Many other examples arise in econometrics (where optimal transport can be used to optimize the estimation of incomplete information, or where multi-variate generalizations of quantiles, constructed using optimal transport, can be used to study dependence structures between distributions), matching problems (matching spouses on the marriage market, or employees and employers on the labour market, for instance) industrial organization (screening problems), contract theory (hedonic or discrete choice models), and financial engineering (estimating model free bounds on derivative prices and optimizing portfolios).
In both parts, we aim to keep the presentation accessible to non-experts, so that students with no prior background in either optimal transport or economics can follow the course.
Senior undergraduates, master’s and PhD students in quantitative disciplines, such as pure and applied mathematics, statistics, computer science, economics and engineering. The course potentially may also be attractive to those working in industry with a strong background in one of these areas.
This iteration of the course will be taught by Brendan Pass, and enhanced by guest lectures from experts in applications of optimal transport in economics and finance.
In order to register in a PIMS digital course for the Western Deans' agreement you must obtain the approval of the course instructor. Once you have obtained their approval please complete the Western Deans' agreement form . The completed form should be returned to your graduate advisor who will sign it and take the required steps. For students at PIMS sites, a list of graduate advisors is given below, contacts for other sites can be found on the Western Deans' Agreement contact page . Note that: The Western Deans' Agreement provides an automatic tuition fee waiver for visiting students. Graduate students paying normal required tuition fees at their home institution will not pay tuition fees to the host institution. However, students will typically be required to pay other ancillary fees to the host institution (as much as $270) or explicitly request exemptions (e.g. Insurance or travel fees).
Please see Student Fees at the University of British Columbia for potential fees and exemption requirements.
Please see Student Fees at the University of Saskatchwan for potential fees and exemption requirements.
Please see Student Fees at Simon Fraser University for potential fees and exemption requirements.
Please see Student Fees at the University of Victoria (“Other fees” section) for potential fees and exemption requirements.
For help completing the Western Deans' agreement form, please contact the graduate advisor at your institution. For more information about the agreement, please see the Western Deans' Agreement website .