Blyth Lecture Series (Nov 11)

We would like to invite all members of the Math community to the 25th Annual R. A. Blyth Lectures in Mathematics from November 9-11, 2022.

Mark Braverman earned his doctorate from the University of Toronto in 2008. Currently he is a Professor of Princeton University. His awards include a SFCM Stephen Smale Prize in 2014, a European Mathematical Society Prize in 2016, and the Abacus Medal (former Nevanlinna Prize) of the International Mathematical Union in 2022.

Series Title: Communication, Information, and Geometry

Abstract:

Communication complexity is an area of computational complexity theory that studies the amount of communication required to complete a computational task. Communication complexity gives us some of the most successful techniques for proving impossibility results for computational tasks.

Information complexity connects communication complexity with Shannon’s classical information theory. It treats information revealed or transmitted as the resource to be conserved. On the one hand, information complexity leads to extensions of classical information and coding theory to interactive scenarios. On the other hand, it provides us with tools to answer open questions about communication complexity and related areas.

In the first lecture, we will give a high-level overview of communication and information complexity. In the second lecture, we will talk about the question of minimizing surface area of tiles, which dates back to the 19th century, but turns out to have surprising connections to computational complexity and information theory. In the third lecture, we will circle back to applications of information complexity to problems in computational complexity.

First Lecture: Wednesday, November 9 from 4:00-5:00pm in BA 1160

Second Lecture: Thursday, November 10 from 4:00-5:00pm in BA 1170 

Third Lecture: Friday, November 11 from 4:00-5:00pm in BA 6183

The Wednesday lecture will be for a general audience, the Thursday lecture will be for a general math audience, and the Friday lecture will be for specialists.

Looking forward to seeing you there.