The purpose of this workshop is to bring together mathematicians interested in foams and their use in low-dimensional topology, representation theory, categorification, mathematical physics, and combinatorics. The workshop will focus on the foam evaluation formula and its applications. More concretely, we aim to:

(a) Give a more intrinsic definition of the foam evaluation, in order, for instance, to find similar formulas for the other Lie types;

(b) Understand the interplay between foams and matrix factorizations and further use foams for a unified and comprehensive approach to Khovanov-Rozansky link homology theories;

(c) Compare combinatorial foam evaluation with the geometric structures and invariants coming from gauge theory and symplectic geometry;

(d) Study potential applications of the foamy definition of link homology theories.

This workshop is fully funded by a Simons Foundation Targeted Grant to Institutes.

The large-time behavior of (generic) solutions of nonlinear dispersive equations set on bounded domains is almost completely open as far as rigorous analysis goes, and fairly mysterious, even from a less rigorous viewpoint. Under the assumption of weak nonlinearity, physicists and applied mathematicians have devised a theory to approach this question, known as weak turbulence, a branch of statistical physics. Weak turbulence theory predicts that the equation will enter a chaotic regime, where the exchange of energy in phase space is governed by the so-called kinetic wave equation. Justifying the derivation of the kinetic wave equation is a fascinating mathematical task, for which some results are already known, but whose solution will likely require input from nonlinear PDEs, but also probability theory. Intimately related questions are the question of Sobolev growth (how much can or does, the Sobolev norm of a nonlinear dispersive equation grow over time), as well as the analysis of... (more)

The workshop will be devoted to the analysis of wave phenomena from different perspectives: mathematical modeling and analysis, experimental physics, and numerical analysis. One of the goals of this event is to gather scientists coming from a priori distant communities but sharing a common interest in wave propagation phenomena in a broad sense (fluid mechanics, quantum mechanics, plasma physics, rigorous analysis). We plan to focus on various themes representing topical problems in these fields, from experimental reproduction of physical phenomena, numerical issues, to the most recent rigorous mathematical results.

In experimental physics, several topics will be addressed, from rogues waves and wave breaking phenomena, vortex filaments, to wave turbulence in fluids or in acoustics. The analysis of observational and experimental data, combined with PDE physical models also yields the question of data assimilation and machine learning technics in the context of wave propagation. The... (more)

Dispersive equations are ubiquitous in nature. They govern the motion of waves in plasmas, ferromagnets, and elastic bodies, the propagation of light in optical fibers and of water in canals. They are relevant from the ocean scale down to atom condensates. There has been much recent progress in different directions, in particular in the exploration of the phase space of solutions of semilinear equations, advances towards a soliton resolution conjecture, the study of asymptotic stability of physical systems, the theoretical and numerical study of weak turbulence and transfer of energy in systems out of equilibrium, the introduction of tools from probability and the recent incorporation of computer assisted proofs. This semester aims to bring together these new developments and to explore their possible interconnection.

Dispersive phenomena appear in physical situations, where some energy is conserved, and are naturally related to Hamiltonian systems. This semester proposes to explore... (more)

A challenge for mathematical modeling, from toy dynamical system models to full weather and climate models, is applying data assimilation and dynamical systems techniques to models that exhibit chaos and stochastic variability in the presence of coupled slow and fast modes of variability. Recent collaborations between universities and government agencies in India and the United States have resulted in detailed observations of oceanic and atmospheric processes in the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea, and the Indian Ocean, collectively observing many coupled modes of variability. One key target identified by these groups was the improvement of forecasts of variability of the summer monsoon, which significantly affects agriculture and water management practices throughout South Asia. The Monsoon Intraseasonal Oscillation is a northward propagating mode of precipitation variability and is one of the most conspicuous examples of coupled atmosphere-ocean processes during the summer... (more)

Spectra, the Association for LGBTQ+ Mathematicians, was conceived in the last ten years with its first official event in 2015 -- a panel discussion at the JMM in San Antonio. Since then, Spectra has organized events at various conferences to bring together people of the LGBTQ+ community.

Spectra is organizing this conference to provide opportunities for LGBTQ+ mathematicians both to celebrate achievements and to spark conversations of challenges in our community. This will be a space for attendees to share their research across all areas of mathematics (theoretical, applied, and math education) and to interact and create support networks within and across their research communities.

Spectra is proud to organize its first official conference and create an intentional space for LGBTQ+ mathematicians. This will be an event where LGBTQ+ mathematicians at all career stages can interact and network with their peers. Further, it will facilitate discussions for creating better environments... (more)

GirlsGetMath@ICERM is a five-day non-residential mathematics program that is open to high schoolers, regardless of gender, who live in or near greater Rhode Island and who will be entering the 10th or 11th grade in the fall of 2021. (Exceptions made for existing 2020 applicant pool.)

GirlsGetMath occurs in an encouraging environment that builds young students' confidence in math and science.

GirlsGetMath expands participants' understanding and knowledge of mathematics through computations and experimentations.

GirlsGetMath provides expert mathematical training and mentoring.

GirlsGetMath@ICERM encourages 20-25 high schoolers to explore topics such as cryptography, the mathematics of voting, matrix algebra, prime numbers and factoring, and fractals.

The goals of the program are:

• to show young... (more)

The adoption of D-module techniques has transformed the interface between commutative algebra and algebraic geometry over the last two decades. The discovery of interactions and parallels with the Frobenius morphism has been an impetus for many new results, including new invariants attached to singularities but also D- and F-module based algorithms for computing quantities that used to be unattainable.

Our goal for this workshop is to discuss computational aspects and new challenges in singularity theory, focusing on special varieties that arise from group actions, canonical maps, or universal constructions. By bringing together geometers, algebraists, and invariant theorists, we will address problems from multiple perspectives. These will include comparisons of composition chains for D- and F-modules, the impact of group actions on singularity invariants, and the structure of differential operators on singularities in varying characteristics.

The Women in Algebraic Combinatorics Research Community will bring together researchers at all stages of their careers in algebraic combinatorics, from both research and teaching-focused institutions, to work in groups of 4-6, each directed by a leading mathematician. The goals of this program are: to advance the frontiers of cutting-edge algebraic combinatorics, including through explicit computations and experimentation, and to strengthen the community of women working in algebraic combinatorics.

Successful applicants will be assigned to a group based on their research interests. The groups will work on open problems in algebraic combinatorics and closely related areas, including representation theory, special functions, and discrete geometry. Several of the proposed projects will extensively involve experimentation and computation, which will increase the likelihood that concrete progress is made over the course of the initial workshop and following 6 months, and provide useful... (more)

There has been significant progress over the last few years in the theory and applications of Reinforcement Learning (RL). While RL theory and applications have had a rich history going back several decades, the major recent successes have occurred due to a successful marriage between deep learning approaches for function approximation embedded within a reinforcement learning framework for decision-making (Deep RL). On one hand, there has been a richer understanding of Stochastic Gradient Descent (SGD) for non-convex optimization, its impact in driving training error to zero in deep neural networks, and on the generalization ability of such networks for inference. On the other hand, there has been an explosion of research on iterative learning algorithms with strong statistical guarantees in the settings of reinforcement learning, stochastic approximation and multi-armed bandits.

This workshop aims to bring leading researchers from these two threads, with the goal of understanding... (more)