ICMS

Jun 1, 2010 - Jun 3, 2010

The Burn, Edzell

Organisers

Name	Institution
Kessar, Radha	University of Aberdeen
Neunhöffer, Max	University of St Andrews

The Society will host its thirteenth residential meeting for postgraduate students from all Scottish universities at The Burn, a mansion house situated in extensive grounds near Edzell, in June 2010. The aim is to provide an informal setting for students to meet others working in similar areas. Participants are encouraged to give short talks on their research and the programme will also consist of other intellectual activities, with ample time left for socialising and exploration of the grounds.

Arrangements

The cost of the meeting will be subsidised by the Society, but it is necessary to make a charge to each student of £45.00, payable in advance. Usually each department reimburses their students for this event, but we are currently reviewing this. This fee covers the cost of accommodation and all meals at The Burn, from Tuesday evening to Thursday afternoon. Places are strictly limited to 28 and will be allocated (by ballot if necessary) to those who registered before the preliminary closing date of 31 March 2010. There are still places available and Registration will continue until 11 May 2010.

We are not able to reimburse the cost of travel to The Burn, but you may be able to recover this from your department. We will provide transport to The Burn from Montrose station for the outgoing journey on Tuesday 1 June and also for the return journey on Thursday 3 June. See further details below. 

Participation
Registration for this meeting is now closed.

Timetable
The meeting will begin in the afternoon on Tuesday 1 June at 15.15, and will end after lunch on Thursday 3 June at 13.30.

How to get there
The Burn is 1½ miles east of Edzell on the B966 road. If you intend to travel by CAR, you should aim to arrive at the Burn before 15.15 on Tuesday 1 June. Please visit this link for driving instructions. Please note that it is your responsibility to ensure that you are properly insured. Some insurers may regard the trip as business travel, particularly if expenses are being refunded.

If you are travelling by TRAIN, you should go to MONTROSE. We will provide transport to The Burn from Montrose station for the outgoing journey on Tuesday 1 June and also for the return journey on Thursday 3 June.

• For the outgoing journey on Tuesday 1 June the minibus will depart at 14.45.

• For the return journey on Thursday 3 June the minibus will depart at 13.30.

Please note places are strictly limited to those who have requested minibus transportation. The journey between the Montrose station and The Burn will take approximately 30 minutes.

On Tuesday 1 June, 2010.

Suitable trains to Montrose are:

Aberdeen Departs 13.42 Arrives 14.17

Dundee Departs 14.00 Arrives 14.32

Edinburgh Departs 12.30 Arrives 14.07

Glasgow Queen Street Departs 12.41 Arrives 14.32

Leuchars Departs 13.23 Arrives 14.07

Stirling Departs 13.07 Arrives 14.32 

Further information about rail travel can be found at the National Rail or Scot Rail website.

Facilities
Bedding and a towel are provided at the Burn House. If you have indicated a special diet, this will be catered for. Tennis, croquet and bowls can be played in the grounds, and the area is good for hill-walking. (Note that you are responsible for your own safety during any activity).

The Burn contact details
The Burn
Glenesk
Brechin
Angus DD9 7YP

Contact numbers are:
(01356) 648281 (business)
(01356) 648395 (residents)

Rules
Please read the enclosed Customs of the House (pdf file available here). The Customs of the House are currently being revised, so you will find that things are more relaxed at The Burn House. For instance, towels are now provided.

Note the strict rules:
DON'T BRING DRINK INTO THE HOUSE FROM OUTSIDE.
DON'T TAKE DRINK TO YOUR BEDROOM.

Giving a Talk
• Talks should be 20 minutes long. Session chairs will be keeping a close eye on the time, so don't overrun!

• There are no blackboards at the Burn. You must prepare over-head projector transparencies, a data projector is available for those wishing to give a Acroread presentation. A computer will be available for this purpose which will run Adobe Acroread. Bring your talk on a USB key, or as a last resort you can e-mail the talk directly to Dr Max Neunhoeffer.

• Please remember that you may be the only expert in your subject area at the Burn - so don't make things too difficult for the rest of us.

Not Giving a Talk
Those of you who are not giving a talk will be allocated the job of session chair or helper.

Further Information
Contacts:

Dr Radha Kessar
Institute of Mathematics, King's College, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB24 3UE.
Tel: 01224 272609
Email: r.kessar@abdn.ac.uk

Dr Max Neunhöffer
Department of Mathematics & Statistics, University of St Andrews, Mathematical Institute, North Haugh, St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9SS.
Tel: 01334 463807
Fax: 01334 463748
Email: neunhoef@mcs.st-and.ac.uk

Johanna Kytöharju
ICMS, 15 South College Street, Edinburgh, EH8 9AA.
Tel: 0131 650 9816
Fax: 0131 651 4381
Email: johanna.kytoharju@icms.org.uk

 

Programme

Tuesday 1 June

15.15	Coffee
Chair/Helping	Simon Craik
16.00	Muhammad Qureshi (University of Glasgow) Blood flow in systemic and pulmonary arteri
17.00	Coffee
Chair/Helping	Alistair Wallis
17.30	Nina Menezes (University of St Andrews) The probability of generating a finite simple group
19.00	Dinner
20.15	“Icebreaker” (bring pen, paper, brain)

 

Wednesday 2 June

09.00	Breakfast
Chair/Helping	TBA
10.00	Jonathan Fraser (University of St Andrews) The visible part of fractal sets
10.30	Michael Livesey (University of Aberdeen) An introduction to Brauer characters
11.00	Zoe O’Connor (Heriot-Watt University) A group theoretic approach to public key cryptography
11.30	Coffee
Chair/Helping	TBA
12.00	Nick Loughlin (University of Glasgow) Games
12.30	Markus Pfeiffer (University of St Andrews) Word problems of groups, monoids and semigroups
13.00	Packed lunch
14.00	Excursion/leisure time
19.00	Dinner

 

Thursday 3 June

09.00	Breakfast
10.00	Max Neunhöffer (University of St Andrews) Discussion: How to give good presentations
11.00	All Further activities to be announced
12.45	Lunch

 

Presentations:

Presentation Details
Fraser, Jonathan
The visible part of fractal sets
View Abstract Hide Abstract
I will introduce the concept of the 'visible part' of a fractal set in the plane, talk about some well known results in the area and if time permits briefly mention my own work.
Livesey, Michael
An introduction to Brauer characters
View Abstract Hide Abstract
Generalising the notion of ordinary characters and the surjectivity of the decomposition map.
Loughlin, Nick
Games
View Abstract Hide Abstract
We'll define roughly what it means to consider a "game" mathematically; we'll also examine some notions of strong and weak solvability for a game, and give several examples of games which have been solved weakly and strongly.
Menezes, Nina
The probability of generating a finite simple group
View Abstract Hide Abstract
Given a finite group G we can calculate the probability that d randomly chosen elements generate the whole group. I will discuss results for the probability of generating finite simple groups with 2 randomly chosen elements, in particular results for alternating groups.
O'Connor, Zoe
A group theoretic approach to public key cryptography
View Abstract Hide Abstract
A practical application of pure maths! Unsurprisingly, it's an application to cryptography. I will describe the algebraic algorithm for public key cryptography, and explain how the conjugacy search problem in group theory can be applied to create a potentially strong method for generating public keys. For example in RSA you're limited to searching for and using increasingly large primes as key generators, whereas with this group theoretic method, you have a much more readily accessible choice of key generators.
Pfeiffer, Markus
Word problems of groups, monoids and semigroups
View Abstract Hide Abstract
Finitely presented groups, monoids and semigroups seem to lend themselves very well for practical use in computational algebra, but unfortunately many problems like the word problem or the isomorphism problem are either undecidable in general or intractible complexity wise. We will take a look at the other end of the scale: What monoids do have a particularly simple word problem and what kind of computational machinery seems to be useful in this area.
Qureshi, Muhammad
Blood flow in systemic and pulmonary arteries
View Abstract Hide Abstract
Mathematical models for predicting blood flow and pressure in systemic arteries have been developed by treating systemic arteries as a tree of bifurcating and compliant vessels. The arterial tree is further divided in to larger and smaller arteries and coupled together through an outflow boundary condition at the terminal of larger arteries. Blood flow and pressure in the larger arteries is modelled using one-dimensional equations derived from axisymmetric Navier-Stokes equations for the flow in complaint and tapering vessels. The smaller blood vessels in the vascular beds are modelled as an asymmetric structured tree with specific area and asymmetry ratios between parent and daughter vessels. The tree is truncated after a given minimum radius. In certain diseases like diabetes, there are fewer small vessels than normal per unit volume (rarefaction). To model rarefaction we need to make changes to the structured tree that models the vessels in vascular beds. Methods for achieving this, along with preliminary elements, will be described in this talk.

Participants

Name	Institution
Craik, Simon	University of St Andrews
Fraser, Jonathan	University of St Andrews
Livesey, Michael	University of Aberdeen
Loughlin, Nick	University of Glasgow
Ma, Xingshuang	University of Glasgow
Menezes, Nina	University of St Andrews
Norman, Sophie	University of Glasgow
O'Connor, Zoe	Heriot-Watt University
Pfeiffer, Markus	University of St Andrews
Policzew, Daria	University of Aberdeen
Qureshi, Muhammad	University of Glasgow
Reid, Fergus	University of Aberdeen
Saxena, Prashant	University of Glasgow
Wallis, Alistair	Heriot-Watt University