Research Interaction Teams (RIT)

Spring 2011

RITs are informal groups designed to foster interaction between faculty, students, and postdocs, and to get students interested in current research. Most of them meet as informal seminars with active student participation (and in many cases, student organization as well). Note: RITs were formerly listed on the VIGRE pages. Now that the VIGRE grant has officially ended, they have been moved here.

• Student Dynamics Seminar/RIT
  Organizers: James Tanis and Brendon Berg.
  Meeting Time: 3:30-5:30 PM Tuesdays.
  Location: MTH 1308.
• Stochastic Dynamics: Models, Analysis, and Numerics
  Organizers: Maria Cameron, Dio Margetis, Sandra Cerrai, Leonid Koralov
  Meeting Time: 3-4 PM Wednesdays.
  Location: MTH1308.
  Description: The goal of this RIT is to explore connections of rigorous mathematical theories for stochastic differential equations and stochastic dynamics with models and methods of other disciplines (e.g., chemistry, physics, materials science). The topics to be explored include:

  1. Review of the basic mathematical theory of SDEs and stochastic dynamics (e.g., Brownian motion, Large Deviation Theory, Transition Path Theory).
  2. Review of numerical methods used for SDEs and in stochastic modeling (e.g., stochastic integrators for direct simulations, methods for computing the most likely transition paths between metastable states: path-based methods and Hamilton-Jacobi solvers), as well as their applications.
  3. Discussion of some open related problems in the physical sciences.
• RIT on 3-manifolds
  Organizer: Aaron Magid
  Meeting Time: Tuesdays and Thursdays 2-3:15 PM.
  Location: MTH 0102
  Description: We will discuss some of the major breakthroughs in low-dimensional topology prior to Thurston's geometrization conjecture. These include the Kneser-Milnor decomposition into prime and irreducible pieces, the Kneser-Haken finiteness theorem, the loop and sphere theorems proven by Papakyriakapolous, Waldhausen's theorem on homotopy equivalences, and the existence of the characteristic submanifold due to Jaco-Shalen-Johannson (JSJ decomposition). Understanding how a surface can be immersed or embedded inside a 3-manifold is at the heart of low-dimensional topology. To study surfaces in 3-manifolds, we will introduce normal surface theory and the concept of PL-area developed by Jaco, Rubinstein, Hass, and Scott.
• Immunology and Cancer Dynamics RIT
  Organizers: Courtney Davis, Amanda Galante, Shelby Wilson, and Doron Levy
  Meeting Time: Fridays, 2:00 PM, starting February 4th
  Location: CSIC 4122
• NEXTOR (National Center of Excellence for Aviation Operations Research) RIT
  Organizers: Michael Ball (mball@rhsmith.umd.edu), David Lovell (lovell@umd.edu), Robert Hoffman (Robert.Hoffman@metronaviation.com)
  Meeting Time: Fridays, 10:00 - 12:00
  Location: AVW 2168
  Description: The University of Maryland has been part of NEXTOR, the National Center of Excellence for Aviation Operations Research for over 10 years. NEXTOR is a five-university consortium funded by the FAA, NASA and members of the aviation industry. Maryland and the other NEXTOR universities have brought to bear faculty and students from Engineering, Economics, Applied Math and Business to carry out a broad range of aviation research. Maryland researchers have most specifically focused on problems in air traffic flow management (ATFM). This area has become particularly important in recent years since the U.S. is embarking upon the development of NextGen, the Next Generation Air Transportation System.
  In this RIT, we focus on research challenges needed to improve ATFM in the short term and also challenges posed by NextGen. Specific topics covered include stochastic optimization models used to optimize flow management decisions in the presence of weather uncertainty, rationing and resource exchange methods used with the U.S. collaboration decision making (CDM) processes and statistical models used to estimate system costs and address certain policy questions.
  Related research areas include Operations Research, Stochastic Modelling, Statistics, Economics and Transportation Engineering.
  All students will be required to make at least one presentation within the semester.
• Applied PDE RIT
  Organizers: Stuart Antman, Sandra Cerrai, Manoussos Grillakis, David Levermore, Doron Levy, Matei Machedon, Dionisios Margetis, Antoine Mellet, Eitan Tadmor, Konstantina Trivisa, Peter Wolfe
  Meeting Time: 3:00pm - 3:50pm Mondays
  Location: MTH 1311
  Description: We will study mathematical aspects of applied partial differential equations. These might include well-posedness, long-time behavior, attractor dynamics, stability of coherent structures, asymptotic limits, and the relationship between chaos and stochasticity.
• Geometry and Physics RIT
  Organizers: Hisham Sati and Jonathan Rosenberg
  Meeting Time: 3:15pm - 5:00pm Wednesdays. (Some weeks we will only use half of the time slot.)
  Location: MTH 1311
  Description: We intend to organize a new RIT ("Research Interactive Team") on the general theme of Geometry and Physics. This will be an informal learning seminar and we hope that students will give most of the lectures. Topics will include various areas where modern geometry and topology interacts with ideas from theoretical physics. Examples include loop groups and loop spaces and "string topology" and "string structures", gauge theory and geometry of vector bundles and moduli spaces, etc. Since the subject is interdisciplinary, and involves a mixture of physics, geometry, and topology, we assume the participants have some background in one of these topics but not necessarily in all of them. We will pick out some interesting papers to read and discuss. For the spring semester, the main topic will be "topological quantum field theories" (TQFT). This topic is independent of what we did in the fall semester.
• RIT on Numerical Methods for PDE
  Organizer: Ricardo Nochetto
  Meeting Time: Tuesdays 2-3pm.
  Location: MTH 1308
• RIT on Bioinformatics
  Organizers: James Yorke and Aleksey Zimin
  Meeting Time: Thursdays 3:15-5:00
  Location: CSS (Computer and Space Science Bldg) room 4311
  Description: This "RIT" ("Research Interactive Team") is on the general theme of determining what the DNA sequence (of ACGT's) is for a species. Students will be able work on projects aimed at evaluating the accuracy of published genome sequences and/or finding better ways to determine the sequence. Students will acquire hands-on experience with genome assembly and mapping tools.
  Our group's next project is to determine the DNA sequence of a pine tree genome. This genome is 7 times bigger than any genome whose sequence is known so it will be a real challenge. This project cannot be done using any existing software packages and techniques. We have to develop new ingenious approaches to dealing with the amounts of data never seen before in any large scale genome assembly project.
  This RIT is aimed at students who have computer skills. Knowledge of Unix, Perl or Python, Matlab is desired.