Campus Theory Seminars

Fall Semester 1995

Michigan State University College of Natural Science

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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