The C&O department has 36 faculty members and 60 graduate students. We are intensely research oriented and hold a strong international reputation in each of our six major areas:
- Algebraic combinatorics
- Combinatorial optimization
- Continuous optimization
- Cryptography
- Graph theory
- Quantum computing
Read more about the department's research to learn of our contributions to the world of mathematics!
News
Prof. Alfred Menezes is named Fellow of the International Association for Cryptologic Researc
The Fellows program, which was established in 2004, is awarded to no more than 0.25% of the IACR’s 3000 members each year and recognizes “outstanding IACR members for technical and professional contributions to cryptologic research.”
C&O student Ava Pun receives Jessie W. H. Zou Memorial Award
She received the award in recognition of her research on simulating virtual training environments for autonomous vehicles, which she conducted at the start-up Waabi.
Jeremy Chiwezer wins Governor General's Gold Medal
The Governor General’s Gold Medal is one of the highest student honours awarded by the University of Waterloo.
Events
URA Seminar - Kohdai Kuroiwa
Title: Rate-distortion theory for quantum data compression
Speaker: | Kohdai Kuroiwa |
Affiliation: | University of Waterloo |
Location: | MC 5479 |
Abstract: Quantum data compression is a fundamental quantum information processing task, where the sender compresses many copies of a given quantum state into the smallest possible storage space before transmitting it to the receiver. Among various quantum data compression setups and analyses, the trade-off between the efficiency (rate) and the error of the compression has been investigated using the framework of quantum rate-distortion theory, in which a small error is tolerated to improve the rate. In this talk, adopting the quantum rate-distortion theory, we reveal the optimal rate-error trade-off of quantum data compression with and without the assistance of quantum entanglement. Moreover, we generalize these results to figure out the full rate region where both the communication and entanglement rates vary. Thus, we successfully obtain a complete form of the rate-distortion theory of quantum data compression with entanglement.
Graphs and Matroids - Peter Nelson
Title: Self-dual axioms for infinite matroids on lattices
Speaker: | Peter Nelson |
Affiliation: | University of Waterloo |
Location: | MC 5479 |
Abstract: In an informal sequel to my recent Tutte colloquium on the topic, I will talk about axiomatizing infinite matroids with a modular lattice in place of the usual ground set. I will present three sets of axioms that characterize these objects; two of the axiom sets are self-dual.
Algebraic and Enumerative Combinatorics - Karen Yeats
Title: Chord diagrams, triangulations, and $\phi^p$ amplitudes.
Speaker: | Karen Yeats |
Affiliation: | University of Waterloo |
Location: | MC 5479 |
There will be a pre-seminar presenting relevant background at the beginning graduate level starting at 1pm.
Abstract: I will discuss some combinatorics of non-crossing chord diagrams that arose in the context of proving a conjecture from my coauthor's thesis which said that the global Schwinger formula of Cachazo and Early could be decomposed into a sum over cones indexed by non-crossing chord diagrams and that the amplitudes can be read off the chord diagrams by a triangulation construction.
For this talk I will focus on the combinatorics, but will hand wave over the physics at some point between the seminar and the pre-seminar.
Joint work with Bruno Giménez Umbert.