Other Talks
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A Tourist's Guide to O-minimality
(Rose-Hulman Mathematics Seminar, October 2022;
MAA Indiana Section Meeting,
September 2021; Purdue Student Colloquium, March 2019)
Abstract: Though the real numbers may seem like safe and familiar territory, the longer one works with them the more one begins to discover what terrible subsets lurk within them. I invite you to step away from this chaos and into the idyllic world of o-minimality, where sets and functions behave nicely. After some time in the visitors' center to learn about the definition of an o-minimal structure, we will walk to the pinnacle of the cell decomposition theorem, from which one can view most of the notable results in o-minimal geometry. You may even leave with a souvenir proof that all groups are Abelian.
Slides (Rose-Hulman Mathematics Seminar)
Slides (MAA Indiana Section Meeting)
Slides (Purdue Student Colloquium)
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LaTeX Workshop
(Purdue Bridge to Research Seminar, September 2022)
Abstract: LaTeX is ubiquitous for mathematical typesetting, whether in research articles, presentations, handouts and quizzes, or snippets of code inserted into casual communication. This makes life awkward if you have entered graduate school with little or no LaTeX experience. Starting from the basics, this workshop will provide you with the skills to create a variety of documents and acquaint you with many of the capabilities LaTeX offers. Potential topics include custom commands, lists, theorem environments, spacing and alignment, bibliography basics, images/figures/diagrams, cross-references, and Beamer basics.
The workshop will offer plenty of opportunities for practice, so please bring along a laptop. You may wish to create an Overleaf account ( https://www.overleaf.com/) or prepare to access LaTeX by some other means before arriving.
Source Code (.zip file with .tex file, images, etc.)
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Applied Knot Theory
(Purdue Student Colloquium, October 2020)
Abstract: This talk displays an effort (together with all its false starts) to create a framework by which to describe a particular application in knot theory terms. After introducing enough knot theory to get by, we will examine the application in order to establish some working definitions, and begin to determine whether any insight can be gained from exploring a connection between knot theory and this application.
The viewer is warned that this talk may prove more instructive regarding the application than the associated mathematics. If you have a bit of string and tape to hand, there may be an opportunity to recreate a few examples.