[Fractal image] Campus Theory Seminars

Fall Semester 1995

Michigan State University College of Natural Science

MSU College of Natural Science Campus Theory Seminars are held in Room 224 of the Physics-Astronomy Building on the Michigan State University campus at 11:30 am on the first Thursday of each month during Fall Semester and on the third Thursday of each month during Spring Semester.

Refreshments are served at 11:15 am.


Thursday, 7 September 1995

Speaker: Michael F. Thorpe
Department of Physics & Astronomy, Michigan State University
Topic: Rigidity in Networks
Rigidity of Networks made up of bars and joints has important applications in mechanical structures and solid materials. We describe the transition from floppy to rigid and how these ideas can help us understand physical properties.

Thursday, 5 October 1995

Speaker: Erik D. Goodman
Case Center for Computer-Aided Engineering & Manufacturing, Michigan State University
Topic: Genetic Algorithms and Applications to Hard Global Optimization Problems
Genetic Algorithms (GA's) were conceived in the 60's by John Holland (U. of Mich.) as an approach to optimization and machine learning. GA's use a finite-length string or tree (or forest) to represent a possible solution to the problem, and mimic aspects of evolution to search the space: strings crossover and/or mutate to create new strings, then a function evaluation determines the fitness of a new solution, and the fittest ones survive to continue the process.

Thursday, 2 November 1995

Speaker: Mervyn Susser
Editor of the American Journal of Public Health and Gertrude H. Sergievsky Professor of Epidemiology Emeritus, Columbia University
Topic: Choosing a Future for Epidemiology: From the Black Box to Chinese Boxes
Mervyn Susser is best known for studies of the short and long term effects of pregnancy nutrition on later health and development (Famine and Human Development: The Dutch Hunger Winter of 1944-45, Oxford University Press, 1975), and for his interest in causal theory in epidemiology (Causal Thinking in the Health Sciences, Oxford University Press, 1972). A longstanding interest in the relationship of social and political science to medicine and public health (Sociology in Medicine, 3rd Edition, 1985) has found recent expression in his explorations of the role of epidemiology in the public policy arena and the paradigm which underlies epidemiology.

Thursday, 7 December 1995

Speaker: Michael Frazier
Department of Mathematics, Michigan State University
Topic: Wavelets: From Mathematics to Industry
We will describe the basics of the theory of wavelets and discuss some of the applications. We hope to answer the following questions: What is a wavelet? What's new and/or important about wavelets? For what sorts of problems are wavelet methods likely to be more useful than traditional Fourier analysis techniques?

For Further Information
Contact:
Raoul D. LePage
Tel: (517) 353-3984
Fax: (517) 353-3902
entropy@msu.edu

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MSU College of Natural Science Campus Theory Seminar Schedule page, created by George J. Perkins.
Updated 1995.10.04 by GJP.