Young Topologists Meeting 23 @EPFL

We are glad to announce that next year’s Young Topologists Meeting (YTM) will take place at EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland, from July 24th to July 28th 2023.

The purpose of YTM is to offer young topologists an occasion to come together and present their work in a relaxed and informal setting.

The program will consist of short talks given by the participants and two series of lectures by Professor Katharine Turner (Austalian National University) and Professor Marc Hoyois (University of Regensburg).

Registration is now open until the 31th of march, please fill in the following form if interested.

Information about the conference is available at: ytm2023.epfl.ch. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the organizers via ytm2023@epfl.ch

We are looking forward to seeing you in Lausanne!

Kind regards,

The organizers

Nicolas Berkouk, Hadrian Heine, Henry Kirveslahti, Samuel Lavenir, Kelly Maggs, Olivia Monjon, Victor Roca i Lucio, Bernadette Stolz-Pretzer

Danish-Swedish summer school on TDA and spatial statistics

Dear colleagues,
It is our pleasure to announce the Danish-Swedish summer school on TDA and spatial statistics to be held at Aalborg University from June 26-30, 2023.

The school is a five-day event with the aim of educating researchers to work at the interface of Topological Data Analysis (TDA) and Spatial Statistics. The principal target group are PhD students and postdocs in applied topology, statistics, and related subjects. Although dealing with similar problems, until recently there has been little interaction between TDA and spatial statistics. The summer school will thus be a major stepping stone for networking and knowledge sharing between these branches of applied topology and statistics.

The invited lecturers are:

    Wojciech Chachólski (KTH) TBA
    Anne Estrade (Université Paris Cité) The geometry of Gaussian fields
    Érika Roldán (MPI Leipzig) Topology and Geometry of Random Cubical Complexes
    Rasmus Waagepetersen (Aalborg University) Cox processes – mixed models for point processes

Further information and the registration can be found on the website https://www.dstda.com/

The registration fee of 50 Euros covers the lunches and coffee breaks; registration deadline: April 30, 2023.

We are looking forward to an inspiring event.

Best regards, the organizers
Christophe Biscio, Wojciech Chachólski, Ottmar Cronie, Lisbeth Fajstrup, Adélie Garin, Christian Hirsch, Martina Scolamiero

Workshop: Randomness in Topology and its Applications

Dear all,

We are pleased to advertise an upcoming workshop on Randomness in Topology and its Applications to be held March 20-24, 2023, at the Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation in Chicago.

We have an amazing line up of speakers and there will also be a poster session. It will be possible to attend virtually. More details and registration is at https://www.imsi.institute/activities/randomness-in-topology-and-its-applications/

Best wishes,

Sayan Mukherjee, Katharine Turner and Shmuel Weinberger

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Randomness in Topology and its Applications

Place: Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (Chicago).

Date: 20-24 March, 2023

Recent years have seen an enormous growth in the applications of topology to other disciplines from the biological sciences to materials science, and from dynamical systems to cosmology and engineering. Many of these are factored through “topological data analysis” (TDA), but not all, with notable exceptions among those from dynamics and from engineering. All of these applications are due to topology’s capacity to define precise invariants from imprecise data: topological invariants (like the winding number of a curve around a point) are usually discrete and have some stability properties (here, to arbitrary perturbations that don’t move points as much as their distance to that point) that make them attractive.

However, topological stability is quite different from ordinary statistical stability. A single outlier can completely change the apparent topology of a space. One of the ways of dealing with this, persistence, has had numerous applications within pure math in recent years (in differential geometry, group theory, and approximation theory, to name three). The study of topology of random processes, and how the randomness perturbs topology is thus arising as an important scientific issue with potentially very wide significance. This workshop will bring together workers who have been dealing with this in different settings and in different ways, which should lead to progress in both application domains, and in a longer run, on the fundamental problems.

Organizers:

Sayan Mukherjee, Katharine Turner, Shmuel Weinberger

Confirmed Speakers:

Omer Bobrowski, Gunnar Carlsson, Fred Chazal, Lorin Crawford, Herbert Edelsbrunner, Teresa Heiss, Matthew Kahle, Facundo Memoli, Washington Mio, Konstantin Mischaikow, Anthea Monod, Liz Munch, Daniel Perez, Vanessa Robins, Erika Roldan, Alex Strang, Jonathan Taylor, Sarah Tymochko, Bei Wang, Yusu Wang, Erin Wolf-Chambers

*Three* Tenure Track Positions in Data Science at UAlbany

In September, Justin Curry posted here about an open Assistant Professor position in Data Science (tenure track) in the department of Mathematics and Statistics at UAlbany.

Since then, our department has obtained two more lines for tenure track positions in data science, one at the level of Assistant Professor and the other at the level of Full Professor. The two additional lines are part of a large cluster hire dedicated to staffing a new $75 million AI Initiative.

People working in topological data analysis and machine learning are especially encouraged to apply, as are members of groups underrepresented in STEM.

Review of Applications begins on January 12th, 2023.

Feel free to contact me or Justin if you have questions.

eCHT: online algebraic topology course using Hatcher’s textbook

Hi all,

In Winter 2023, the electronic Computational Homotopy Theory (eCHT) online research community is offering an online algebraic topology course using Hatcher’s textbook. More information is available at the link:
https://s.wayne.edu/echt/echt-courses/algebraic-topology-homology-and-cohomology-winter-2023/

Please see the below information from Dan Isaksen:

********************
I’m writing about an online course to be offered in Winter 2023 that may be a good fit for people in applied topology. Please share this information with anyone who might be interested.

The electronic Computational Homotopy Theory (eCHT) research community is an online home for mathematicians with interests in homotopy theory and related topics. The community is sponsored by a National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Training Group (RTG) grant. See
s.wayne.edu/echt
for more information about eCHT in general.

In Winter 2023, we will offer an online graduate course on introductory algebraic topology. This course could be well-suited to some students, especially if their institutions are not offering introductory algebraic topology this year. Our target audience includes first-year PhD students with interests in algebra, geometry, or topology; and masters students who are preparing to enter a PhD program soon. We are also open to enrolling advanced undergraduate students under certain circumstances.

See
https://s.wayne.edu/echt/echt-courses/algebraic-topology-homology-and-cohomology-winter-2023/
for more information, including a syllabus, grading policies, prerequisites, and application instructions. We do not charge tuition, but students are generally expected to enroll for independent study credits at their home institutions.

Please reach out if you have any questions.

Thanks,

Dan Isaksen
Professor, Department of Mathematics, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, USA
isaksen@wayne.edu

WASP TDA Postdoc at KTH, Stockholm, Sweden – deadline 14 December

Martina Scolamiero writes:
We currently have an open position for a two year postdoc to join our Topological Data Analysis group at the mathematics department of KTH in Stockholm.

https://www.kth.se/en/om/work-at-kth/lediga-jobb/what:job/jobID:561932/type:job/where:4/apply:1

The group has been growing lately and we are currently  two faculty members: Wojciech Chacholski and Martina Scolamiero, five postdocs and four PhD students.

We are interested in a variety of topics including: definition and computation of persistence based invariants, homological methods for the study of discrete dynamical systems, homological algebra for poset representations, applications to neuroscience and machine learning. 

The position is financed by WASP, which also offers great opportunities for networking and collaboration with researchers working in mathematical foundations of A.I. 

Women in Computational Topology 3

We are happy to announce the third Women in Computational Topology workshop, which will take place in July 2023.

For further information, in particular concerning how to apply to participate, please see the detailed description below.

Best wishes,

Heather Harrington, Kathryn Hess, Claudia Landi, and Erin Wolf Chambers

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WinCompTop: Women in Computational Topology 3

BERNOULLI CENTER
at EPFL, Lausanne (Switzerland)
JULY 17-21, 2023

Deadline for application: 1 Dec 2022
Application form: link

Scientific Overview
The Bernoulli Center at EPFL (Switzerland) will host the third workshop for Women in Computational Topology. These workshops are designed to strengthen the computational topology community by bringing together women as well as gender-diverse researchers at various stages in their careers (from graduate students to senior researchers) and from across the world, fostering research, collaboration, and mentorship between members of gender minorities in computational topology, offering them networking and research opportunities in mathematics and computer science.
Participants will spend one week working together in small groups to solve one of a selection of open questions in computational topology: WinCompTop participants will begin generating new results in collaboration with other participants. To achieve this goal, participants will start working together remotely before the workshop itself to prepare the background and, following the workshop, the research network will be maintained and strengthened by publishing a proceedings volume and organizing follow-up conferences or reunions for participants and other researchers in the area. Mentoring and professional development will happen both formally and informally. Preference for covering local expenses will be given to graduate students and early career researchers.

Organizers and contacts:
Erin Wolf Chambers (St. Louis University), erin.chambers@gmail.com
Heather Harrington (University of Oxford), harrington@maths.ox.ac.uk
Kathryn Hess (EPFL), kathryn.hess@epfl.ch
Claudia Landi (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia) clandi@unimore.it

Selected topics and group leaders:

The specific research groups, along with the group leader submitting the idea, are:

  • Project 1: Decompositions of the persistent homology transform, led by Katharine Turner (Australian National University)
  • Project 2: Multilevel sparsification of higher-order data, led by Bei Wang (University of Utah)
  • Project 3: Studying self-similarity of complex networks with persistent magnitude, led by Nina Otter (Queen Mary University London)
  • Project 4: Differential forms for TDA, led by Anthea Monod (Imperial College London)
  • Project 5: Directed topology and multidimensional persistence, led by Lisbeth Fajstrup (Aalborg University) and Brittany Fasy (Montana State)

Return of the PSHT Seminar

Dear all,
We invite you to rejoin the Persistence, Sheaves and Homotopy Theory online seminar, held the second Tuesday of each month, from 3pm to 4:30pm CET. We send reminders and Zoom coordinates to the seminar’s mailing list closer to the seminar days. 

The aim of the seminar is to gather together the mathematical communities who have a common interest in the theoretical aspects of persistence, such as its connections to sheaf theory, homotopy theory, symplectic geometry, and representation theory.

Here is the program for the next two sessions; please visit the seminar’s website for abstracts:

November 8th, 3-4:30 pm CET:

– Ezra Miller (Duke university)
– Benjamin Blanchette (Université de Sherbrooke)

December 13th, 3-4:30 pm CET:

– Claudia Landi (Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia)
– Benedikt Fluhr (Technical University of Munich)

Website: https://psht-seminar.github.io/index.html
Mailing list: https://groups.google.com/g/psht-seminar

Please don’t hesitate to spread the word with your colleagues and we hope to see you on November 8th!

Best regards,
Nicolas Berkouk, François Petit, and Luis Scoccola

Joint AATRN/STMS Seminar Series, Fridays October 7, 14, 21, 28

Dear colleagues,

We are excited to launch a collaborative series between the Applied Algebraic Topology Research Network (AATRN) and the Statistical Thermodynamics & Molecular Simulations (STMS). Each event will feature two speakers, one from the STMS community and one from the AATRN community. Both speakers, however, have interests within the purview of the other community, i.e., mathematicians who work on problems that are relevant to theoretical and computational chemistry, and statistical thermodynamicists who develop and use tools from applied mathematics. As such, the intent is to enhance discussions and collaborations between the two communities. Each seminar will comprise of two 25-minute talks (one from each community) followed by questions and discussions. 

We will have four seminars on the four Fridays of October. Our first seminar will be on Friday, October 7, 2022, 10:45 AM-12:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time. Our speakers will be Prof. Titus van Erp (Norwegian University of Science and Technology) and Prof. Jose Perea (Northeastern University). At the following link, you can find their abstracts and speaker bios. You must register for the event at the following link, after which you will receive the Zoom information:

https://lu.ma/AARTN-STMS-10072022-vanErp-Perea

We would also like to bring to your attention our website that has our full schedule:

STMS: https://sites.google.com/view/stms2021/home

Schedule: https://sites.google.com/view/stms2021/schedule 

AARTN: https://www.aatrn.net

Friday October 7; 10:45am EDT, Titus van Erp; 11:15am EDT, Jose Perea

Friday October 14; 10:45am EDT, Liz Munch; 11:15am EDT, Claire Adjman

Friday October 21; 10:45am EDT, Erik Santiso; 11:15am EDT, Jie Liang

Friday October 28; 10:45am EDT, Yusu Wang; 11:15am EDT, Reid van Lehn

We look forward to seeing you virtually at these events. Please feel free to pass along this information to anybody who might be interested.

Regards, Henry Adams, Aurora Clark, Amir Haji-Akbari, Sapna Sarupria, Kelin Xia

MSRI program on Algorithms, Fairness, and Equity

Please see the program webpage: https://www.msri.org/programs/353

August 21, 2023 to December 20, 2023

This program aims to bring together researchers working at the interface of fairness and computation. This interface has been the site of intensive research effort in mechanism design, in research on partitioning problems related to political districting problems, and in research on ways to address issues of fairness and equity in the context of machine learning algorithms.

These areas each approach the relationship between mathematics and fairness from a distinct perspective. In mechanism design, algorithms are a tool to achieve outcomes with mathematical guarantees of various notions of fairness. In machine learning, we perceive failures of fairness as an undesirable side effect of learning approaches, and seek mathematical approaches to understand and mitigate these failures. And in partitioning problems like political districting, we often seek mathematical tools to evaluate the fairness of human decisions. This program will explore progress in these areas while also providing a venue for overlapping perspectives.

The topics workshop “Randomization, neutrality, and fairness” will explore the common role randomness and probability has played in these lines of work.

Organizers: Vincent Conitzer (Duke University), Moon Duchin (Tufts University), Bettina Klaus (Université de Lausanne), Jonathan Mattingly (Duke University), Wesley Pegden (Carnegie Mellon University)