Simon Fraser University

Manin’s conjecture is a conjectural asymptotic formula for the counting function of rational points on Fano varieties over global fields. Mainly with Brian Lehmann, I have been studying exceptional sets arising in this conjecture. In this talk I...

All talks will take place on the Burnaby Mountain campus of Simon Fraser University. Details to follow.

The first cotangent cohomology module $T^1$ describes the first order deformations of a commutative ring. For Stanley-Reisner rings, this module has a purely combinatorial description: its multigraded components are given as the relative cohomology...

When we iterate functions over finite structures, there is an underlying natural functional graph. For a function $f$ over a finite field $\mathbb{F}_q$, this graph has $q$ nodes and a directed edge from vertex $a$ to vertex $b$ if and only if $f(a)...

Recently, Mohar introduced a variant of the cops and robber game that is played on geodesic spaces. In this talk we discuss the rules of the game and strategies for the players when the game is played on compact surfaces of constant curvature, in...

Given a family R of rectangles in the plane, the packing number of R, denoted by $\nu$(R), is the maximum size of a set of pairwise disjoint rectangles in R, and the hitting number, denoted by $\tau$(R), is the minimum size of a set of points having...

Usage-Based Insurance (UBI) is one of the most recent innovations by auto insurance companies that links the premium rates of customers to their actual driving performance. In this program, drivers’ behaviours are monitored directly while they drive...

We consider covering graphs obtained by lifting trees as voltage graphs over cyclic groups. We generalize a tool of Hell, Nishiyama, and Stacho, known as the billiard strategy, for constructing Hamiltonian cycles in the covering graphs of paths. The...

Every animal cell is filled with a cytoskeleton, a dynamic gel made of inextensible filaments / bio-polymers, such as microtubules, actin filaments, and intermediate filaments, all suspended in a viscous fluid. Similar suspensions of elastic...

Many geometry processing tasks can be performed by solving partial differential equations (PDEs) on surfaces. These PDEs usually involve boundary conditions (e.g., Dirichlet or Neumann) defined anywhere on the surface, not just on the physical...