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
Two C&O faculty win Outstanding Performance Awards
The awards are given each year to faculty members across the University of Waterloo who demonstrate excellence in teaching and research.
Laura Pierson 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.
Sepehr Hajebi wins Graduate Research Excellence Award, Mathematics Doctoral Prize, and finalist designation for Governor General's Gold Medal
The Mathematics Doctoral Prizes are given annually to recognize the achievement of graduating doctoral students in the Faculty of Mathematics. The Graduate Research Excellence Awards are given to students who authored or co-authored an outstanding research paper.
Events
Crypto Reading Group - Seunghoon Lee & Bruno Sterner-Introduction to Coding Theory (Part 1)
Abstract: For this term's reading group, we will be hosting a study group on code-based cryptography with a focus on understanding HQC — the most recent NIST standard for post-quantum KEM/PKE. We will spend 7 weeks going over the necessary material to cover this topic before concluding with state-of-the-art HQC. A week-by-week plan is outlined at the following link: https://www.leonardocolo.com/seminars/Spring26.html.
For the first week, we will cover the basic definitions and properties of coding theory as well as go over Reed-Solomon codes.
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Tutte Colloquium -Jim Geelen-Tangles in graphs and matroids
| Speaker: | Jim Geelen |
| Affiliation: | University of Waterloo |
| Location: | MC 5501 |
Abstract: A common strategy in many proofs and algorithms is to begin by decomposing a graph into more highly connected pieces. Decomposition is easy when the goal is to obtain connected or 2-connected pieces, and decomposition into 3- or 4-connected pieces is also straightforward in many settings. For higher levels of connectivity, however, no effective and widely applicable notion of decomposition is currently known. To address this, Robertson and Seymour introduced tangles, which capture the k-connected regions of a graph without decomposing.
Algebraic and Enumerative combinatorics seminar - Kaveh Mousavand-Left modularity and extremality of some (finite and infinite) lattices via representation theory
| Speaker: | Kaveh Mousavand |
| Affiliation: | Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology |
| Location: | MC 5479 |
Abstract:Motivated by the representation theory of finite-dimensional algebras, we recently investigated the notions of left modularity and extremality in (completely) semidistributive lattices. For lattices of torsion classes, we obtain a simultaneous characterization of left modularity and extremality in terms of the behavior of certain indecomposable modules, called bricks. Our results extend the classical theory beyond the realm of finite lattices, while remaining within the framework of (completely) semidistributive lattices. Time permitting, I will also discuss extensions of these results to arbitrary infinite lattices that are completely semidistributive and weakly atomic. This talk is based on recent joint work with Sota Asai, Osamu Iyama, and Charles Paquette.
There will be a pre-seminar presenting relevant background at beginning graduate level starting at 1:30pm in MC 5417.