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
Three 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.
Prof. Alfred Menezes is named Fellow of the International Association for Cryptologic Research
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.
Events
Algebraic and enumerative combinatorics seminar-Maximilian Wiesmann
Title:Arrangements and Likelihood
| Speaker | Maximilian Wiesmann |
| Affiliation | Max Planck |
| Location | MC 5479 |
Abstract: In this talk, we establish connections between hypersurface arrangements and likelihood geometry. The central object is the likelihood correspondence which captures the dependence between data and critical points of the likelihood function of a statistical model parametrized by the polynomials defining the arrangement. In particle physics, this same object is known as the scattering correspondence. The connection to hypersurface arrangements leads to a new description of the prime ideal of the likelihood correspondence, which is often computationally advantageous. This description is based on the Rees algebra of the likelihood module of the arrangement, a module closely related to the module of logarithmic derivations. We present results for generic and graphic arrangements.
I hope this is fine like this. I do not plan to include a pencil-and-paper activity during the pre-talk, but I would like to show some computations. Is it possible to easily switch between blackboard and projector?
There will be a pre-seminar presenting relevant background at the beginning graduate level starting at 1pm,
Algebraic and enumerative combinatorics seminar-Alex Fink
Title:The external activity complex of a pair of matroids
| Speaker | Alex Fink |
| Affiliation | Queen Mary University of London |
| Location | MC 5479 |
Abstract: In 2016, Ardila and Boocher were investigating the variety obtained by taking the closure of a linear space within A^n in its compactification (P^1)^n; later work named this the "matroid Schubert variety". Its Gröbner degenerations led them to define, and study the commutative algebra of, the _external activity complex_ of a matroid. If the matroid is on n elements, this is a complex on 2n vertices whose facets encode the external activity of bases.
In recent work with Andy Berget on Speyer's g-invariant, we required a generalisation of the definition of external activity where the input was a pair of matroids on the same ground set. We generalise many of the results of Ardila--Boocher to this setting. Time permitting, I'll also present the tropical intersection theory machinery we use to understand the external activity complex of a pair.
For those who attended my talk at this year's CAAC on this paper, the content of the present talk is meant to be complementary.
There will be a pre-seminar presenting relevant background at the beginning graduate level starting at 1pm,