Past Talks

Winter 2023Fall 2022Winter 2022Fall 2021Winter 2021Winter 2020Fall 2019Summer 2019Winter 2019

Past and current IWSS Chairs/Organizers:

Dr. Nikhil Aravindakshan (Co-organizer: Fall 2023 – present)

Dr. Stanley Yao Xiao (Chair/Organizer: Fall 2022 – present)

Dr. Geoffrey McGregor (Chair/Organizer: Winter 2021 – 2022)

Dr. Andy Wan (Chair: Winter 2019 – 2020, Organizer: Winter 2019 – 2023)

Recorded talks starting from the fall of 2021 are made available online on the UNBC-IWSS Video Channel. Click on the play button below for a specific talk video.

Fall 2023

DateSpeakerTopic & AbstractAffiliation
September 28
PIMS-UNBC Distinguished Colloquium Series
(NHSC 9-235, 2:30-3:30pm)
Dr. Jingwei HuStructure-Preserving Particle Method for the Vlasov-Landau-Maxwell EquationUniversity of Washington
October 5Organizational Meeting
October 12
October 19Dr. Stanley XiaoRepresentation of integers by polynomials in two variablesUniversity of Northern British Columbia
October 26No Talk
November 2No Talk
November 9Dr. Edward Dobrowolski1 + sqrt(17) is not the Mahler measure of an algebraic numberUniversity of Northern British Columbia
November 16Dr. Asif IqbalStructural Control for Wind and Seismic ApplicationsUniversity of Northern British Columbia
November 23Dr. Fatma CicekFrom L-functions to their linear combinationsUniversity of Northern British Columbia
November 30

Winter 2023

DateSpeakerTopic & AbstractAffiliation
January 13Organizational Meeting
January 20Dr. Stanley XiaoThe geometry of (some) algebra
UNBC Mathematics
January 27Abid AfzalHow to simulate molecular dynamics the “right” way
UNBC Chemistry
February 3Dr. Mohammad Reza NamaeeConcept of geo-environmental engineering and importance of proper landfill design
UNBC School of Engineering
February 10
(Special Time: 3:30-5:00pm,
Location: 7-158)
Dr. Eric MillerUltra cold neutrons at TRIUMF:  TUCAN and the neutron electric dipole moment experimentUBC TRIUMF
February 17Dr. George JonesThe Cosmic Microwave Background: A Treasure Trove of Physical Effects and Information
UNBC Physics
February 24Mid-Semester Break
March 2
PIMS-UNBC Distinguished Colloquium Series
Prof. Cameron L. StewartArithmetic and Transcendence
University of Waterloo
March 10Adedoyin AdekunleRecovery of curdlan from aerobic granular sludge wastewater treatment systems
UNBC School of Engineering
March 17
Mario Salinas ToledanoTreatment wetlands for on-site domestic wastewater: a modelling approach using the SINDy algorithm
UNBC School of Engineering
March 24
Marsden Memorial Lecture Series
Prof. Melvin LeokThe Connections Between Discrete Geometric Mechanics, Information Geometry, Accelerated Optimization and Machine Learning
University of California, San Diego
March 31
Manveer KaurRecovery of xanthan from aerobic granular sludge (AGS) wastewater systems
UNBC School of Engineering

Fall 2022

DateSpeakerTopic & AbstractAffiliation
September 16Organizational Meeting
September 23Dr. Mohammad RaoufiInterdisciplinary Research in Construction Using Artificial Intelligence and Simulation
UNBC School of Engineering
September 30National Day for Truth and Reconciliation
October 7Dr. Erik JensenMaxwell’s Demon: Is It Dead Yet?
UNBC Physics
October 14Dr. Stanley XiaoHeights in number theory and counting elliptic curves
UNBC Mathematics and Statistics
October 21UNBC Convocation Event
October 28Cancelled due to FA Annual General Meeting
November 4Dr. Pranesh KumarNeutrosophic Analysis of the Experimental Data
UNBC Mathematics and Statistics
November 11Remembrance Day
November 18Dr. Andy WanHow “topology” can be used to find hidden structures in high dimensional data sets
UNBC Mathematics and Statistics
November 25Jibrael OdoomOn oily wastewater treatment using absorption
UNBC School of Engineering
December 2Son ChauGenerative Adversarial Networks and its real-world applications
UNBC Computer Science

Winter 2022

DateSpeakerTopic & AbstractAffiliation
January 14Organizational Meeting
January 21
Dylan FosslMolecular Translation: The Application of Deep Learning Language Models in Chemical Reaction Prediction
UNBC Computer Science
January 28Dr. June Garcia-BecerraAdapting to the 21st century through regenerative ecological engineering – the case of urban and peri-urban water reuse

UNBC School of Engineering
February 4Dr. Asif IqbalInstrumentation of Infrastructure for Seismicity and Structural Monitoring

UNBC School of Engineering
February 11Galen SeilisA Gentle Introduction to Geometric Deep Learning
UNBC Computer Science
February 18Dr. Kendra Furber & Dr. Scott RosendahlThe Aging Brain: Insights from FTIR-Spectroscopy
UNBC Northern Medical Program & Canadian Light Source
February 25Mid-Semester Break
UNBC Research Week

March 1
1-2 pm
Dr. Samuel WongInference of Dynamic Systems from Noisy and Sparse Data via Manifold-constrained Gaussian Processes
University of Waterloo
Statistics and Actuarial Science
March 11Dr. Lei ZhangStructural Performance of Mass Timber Panel-Concrete Composite Floors with Notched Connections
University of Alberta
Structural Engineering
March 18Dr. David HyndmanFire Suppression for a New Reality: The Path to Using Safer Chemistry
Chief Science Officer at FireRein
March 25Dr. Andy WanConservative Numerical Methods and their Applications
UNBC Mathematics
April 1Dr. Geoffrey McGregorConservative Hamiltonian Monte Carlo
UNBC Mathematics

Fall 2021

DateSpeakerTopic & AbstractAffiliation
September 17Organizational Meeting
September 24Dr. Ramla QureshiSustainable Structures versus Fire Hazards – The Current Score
UNBC School of Engineering
October 1Dr. Wenbo ZhengGrain Shape and Permeability of Sand: Characterization and Quantification
UNBC School of Engineering
October 8Dr. Stanley XiaoA Primer on Prime Number Theory
UNBC Mathematics
October 15Galen SeilisPractical Approaches to Faster and Leaner Python
UNBC Computer Science
October 22Dr. Hossein KazemianMetal Organic Framework Materials (MOFs): Synthesis and Environmental Applications
UNBC Chemistry
October 29Dr. Chao KangRock Avalanche and Debris Flow: A Case Study
UNBC School of Engineering
November 5Dr. Alia HamiehMoments of L-Functions
UNBC Mathematics
November 12Dr. Oliver IorhemenSustainable wastewater treatment using aerobic granular sludge and opportunities for resource recovery
UNBC School of Engineering
November 19Dr. Margot MandyThe Role of Molecular Hydrogen in Star Formation
UNBC Chemistry
November 26Dr. Pranesh KumarNeutrosophic Statistics – I: Understanding and Analyzing Imprecise Data
UNBC Statistics
December 3Dr. JB NationWhales as Marine Ecosystem Engineers
University of Hawaii

Winter 2021

DateSpeakerTopic & AbstractAffiliation
January 15 –Organizational Meeting –
January 22Dr. Geoffrey McGregorParametric Interpolation Framework for 1-D Scalar Conservation LawsUNBC Math
January 29Dr. George JonesHawking Radiation from Black Holes UNBC Physics
February 5Galen SeilisA Gentle Introduction to L-SystemsUNBC CPSC
February 12 –
February 19 Dr. Jean-Sebastien BernierSimulating Quantum Materials UNBC Physics
February 26Colton AartsAn Active Learning Approach to Emotion DetectionUNBC CPSC
March 4Dr. James WatmoughCase importation and community spread: post-pandemic control and the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in low density populationsUniversity of New Brunswick
March 12Dr. Pranesh KumarNeutrosophic Logic and Numbers: Why, What and FunUNBC Statistics
March 19Dr. Stephen Rader5000-dimensional vectors: analyzing large data sets in biochemistryUNBC Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
March 26Theran BassettIntroduction to Modular Forms and Analytic Techniques used in the Field UNBC Math
April 2Kai LanThe Lattice Method for Finding Conserved Quantities of Dynamical SystemsUNBC Math
April 9Mason LegereConnection in Dynamical Systems and Machine LearningUNBC Math
April 15Dr. Nilima NigamWhy should we care about Steklov Eigenproblems?Simon Fraser University

Winter 2020

DateSpeakerTopic & AbstractAffiliation
January 16 –Organizational Meeting –
January 23 Dr. Saqib Hakak Rise of Fake News: Issues and Challenges UNBC CPSC
January 30 Hunter Lowe Orbital Mechanics in General Relativity: Applying Special Functions to Schwarzschild Geodesics UNBC Physics
February 6Conan Veitch Generating Swarm Behaviours in Multi Robot SystemsUNBC CPSC
February 13 Colton AartsDetecting Emotions and Parasocial Relationships on Twitter UNBC CPSC
February 20 – Mid-Semester Break –
February 27 Dr. George Jones Groups, Algebra and ParticlesUNBC Physics
March 5
Location: Agora 7-150 Time: 1:30-2:30pm
 Dr. Malabika PramanikNeedles, Bushes, Hairbrushes and PolynomialsUniversity of British Columbia
March 12 Davis GouletImproving Schema Generation for Multi-Entity JSON Arrays UNBC CPSC
Due to prevention efforts for the spread of COVID-19, all IWSS talks have been cancelled for the winter semester.
March 19 Noé DucharmeRandom Matrices and Number Theory UNBC Math
March 26
April 2
April 9
April 16
Location: Agora 7-212 Time: 1:30-2:30pm
 Dr. Nilima Nigam Simon Fraser University

Fall 2019

DateSpeakerTopic & AbstractAffiliation
September 12 –Organizational Meeting –
September 19 Weixian Lan Conformal mapping and its application to Laplace’s equation UNBC Math
September 26

 

(Special Location: Agora 7-152)

Dr. Tiago Salvador Math Colloquium:

 

 Threshold dynamics algorithms for curvature motion of networks of surfaces

 University of Michigan
October 3Dr. David CaspersonTwo digit schemes for the online construction of height-balanced treesUNBC CPSC
October 10 Dr. Mohammad El Smaily An introduction to reaction diffusion systems (from a mathematical perspective) UNBC Math
October 17

 

 Dr. Parimala Thulasiraman CPSC Colloquium:

 

A Distributed Traffic Aware Clustering and Predictive Algorithm for Intelligent Transportation Systems

University of Manitoba
October 24

 

 Dr. Anna Kwiatkowski  PHYS Colloquium:

 

Precision atomic and nuclear physics experiments with ion traps at TITAN

 TRIUMF
October 31

 

 Seth Lowry Terahertz Reflection Imaging for Concealed Interface Inspection UNBC Physics
Due to on-going job actions, all talks after November 7 have been cancelled and will be rescheduled next semester.
November 7Colton AartsUNBC CPSC
November 14

 

Dr. Steven J. MillerPIMS Distinguished Lecture: 

 

Benford’s Law: Why the IRS should care about the 3x+1 problem and the Zeta function (and you should too!)

Williams College
November 21 Noé Ducharme –UNBC Math
November 28Hunter Lowe – UNBC Physics

Summer 2019

DateSpeakerTopic & AbstractAffiliation
June 3

 

(Special Time:  2-3pm, Location: Agora 7-150)

Dr. James JackamanMath Colloquium:

 

A Comparison of Conservative Finite Element Methods for Hamiltonian PDEs on Nonuniform Meshes

Memorial University of Newfoundland

Winter 2019

DateSpeakerTopic & AbstractAffiliation
January 10 –Organizational Meeting –
January 17Dr. Andy WanVolume-Preserving Numerical Methods UNBC Math
January 24Dr. Gurpreet LakhaA Meta-Heuristic Optimization Tool for Simplified Protein Structure Prediction UNBC CPSC
January 31Brae Stoltz Music Composition using Algorithms UNBC CPSC
February 7Hongyuan Shi Limitations of Deep Machine Learning UNBC CPSC
February 14 Noé Ducharme Low Lying Zeros of L-FunctionsUNBC Math
February 21Mid-Semester Break
February 28James McCurdy  UNBC Statistics
March 7

 

(Special Location: Agora 7-150)

Dr. Edward Wilson-EwingCAP Lecture:

 

Quantum Gravity and the Big Bang

 University of New Brunswick
March 14Devon Harker Examining the Effects of Enhanced Compilers on Student Productivity UNBC CPSC
March 21Dr. Cigdem Guloksuz Statistics and Machine Learning UNBC Statistics
March 28 Hunter Lowe The Abundance of Free Neutrons in the Early UniverseUNBC Physics
April 4

 

(Special Time: 12-1pm, Location: Agora 7-150)

Geoff McGregorMath Colloquium:

 

Equal Area Principle and Area-Preserving Parametric Interpolation

McGill University
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