Events for 11/08/2021 from all calendars

Geometry Seminar

Time: 3:00PM - 4:00PM

Location: zoom

Speaker: V. Makam

Title: Emerging applications of invariant theory to statistics

Abstract: Maximum likelihood estimation is a technique in statistics that is widely used to recover the probability distribution in a statistical model that best explains the empirical data. A curious connection between stability notions in invariant theory and maximum likelihood estimation for a large class of statistical models was uncovered by Amendola, Kohn, Reichenbach, and Seigal, with recent results in complexity theory forming a bridge. In this talk, I will give an overview of these connections, present some exciting results in a few different settings and sketch out the potential future directions. I will be presenting joint work (and work in progress) combining a few projects with Gergely Berczi, Harm Derksen, Cole Franks, Eloise Hamilton, Philipp Reichenbach, Anna Seigal, and Michael Walter.

Mathematical Biology Seminar

Time: 4:00PM - 5:00PM

Location: BLOC 302

Speaker: Alexandru Hening, Texas A&M University

Title: Harvesting in discrete-time stochastic population models

Abstract: We analyze the long-term behavior of interacting populations which can be controlled through harvesting. The dynamics is assumed to be discrete in time and stochastic due to the effect of environmental fluctuations. We present powerful extinction and coexistence criteria when there are one or two interacting species. We then use these tools in order to see when harvesting leads to extinction or persistence of species, as well as what the optimal harvesting strategies, which maximize the expected long-term yield, look like. For single species systems, we show under certain conditions that the optimal harvesting strategy is of bang-bang type: there is a threshold under which there is no harvesting, while everything above this threshold gets harvested.