Faculty/Graduate Student Seminar
Xi Huo
University of Miami
From Mathematics to Biology: Modeling, Learning, and Data
Friday, February 27, 2026, 4:00pm
Ungar 506
Abstract: In this talk, I will use an ongoing research project to illustrate how mathematical models can be connected to real biological problems. We combine differential equations, statistical methods, and machine learning to analyze and predict mosquito population data from Miami-Dade County. I will highlight how integrating mechanistic models with real data helps improve prediction and supports decision-making for the prevention and control of vector-borne diseases under environmental uncertainty.
Graduate Student Seminar
Claudio Fabroni
University of Miami
Algebraic Cycles and Normal Functions
Friday, February 20, 2026, 4:00pm
Ungar 411
Faculty/Graduate Student Seminar
Bahman Angoshtari
University of Miami
Stochastic Control in Lifetime Financial and Retirement Planning
Friday, February 13, 2026, 4:00pm
Ungar 506
Abstract: Stochastic control provides a mathematical framework for making optimal decisions over time under uncertainty, with applications across many fields. In this talk, I illustrate how stochastic control can be used to analyze economically meaningful problems involving long-term consumption and investment planning over an individual's lifetime. The first application studies an investor who forms habits and exhibits loss aversion, evaluating consumption relative to a personal benchmark that evolves over time. I show how these behavioral features shape long-run consumption and portfolio choices and lead to intuitive optimal strategies. The second application focuses on retirement planning, where a retiree can invest in financial markets and gradually convert wealth into lifetime income through annuity purchases, while assessing consumption relative to its historical peak.
Graduate Student Seminar
Sehong Park
University of Miami
Horizons in Noncompact Fill-ins of Nonnegative Scalar Curvature
Friday, February 6, 2026, 5:00pm
Ungar 411
Abstract: We investigate complete Riemannian 3-manifolds with nonnegative scalar curvature and topology $\Sigma \times (-\infty, 0]$, where $\Sigma$ is a 2-sphere. After a brief review of the relevant Riemannian geometry, we will discuss certain geometric conditions that ensure the existence of a horizon homologous to the boundary. This talk is based on joint work with Pengzi Miao.
Graduate Student Seminar
Aleksandar Bahat
University of Miami
A Mostly Coherent Introduction to Mirror Symmetry II
Friday, November 14, 2025, 4:35pm
Ungar 411
Abstract: I'll begin with a historical overview of the origins of mirror symmetry, introducing some of the relevant notions from complex geometry along the way. In the second part of the talk, I'll focus on the homological version of mirror symmetry: coherent sheaves, derived categories, and what these things look like in the case of the projective line.
Faculty/Graduate Student Seminar
Shulim Kaliman
University of Miami
Gromov's Ellipticity
Friday, November 7, 2025, 4:30pm
Ungar 506
Abstract: The Oka-Grauert principle is a heuristic principle that allows to reduce some problems in complex analysis to purely topological questions. In his seminal paper in 1989, Gromov introduced some criteria for a complex (algebraic) manifold to satisfy this principle. We describe one of these criteria - the (algebraic) ellipticity of a manifold in the sense of Gromov. We show that all complete uniformly rational varieties are algebraically elliptic (a variety is uniformly rational if each point in it has a neighborhood isomorphic to an open subset of an affine space). As a consequence, we establish that every complex complete n-dimensional unirational variety admits a surjective morphism from C^n.
Graduate Student Seminar
Aleksandar Bahat
University of Miami
A Mostly Coherent Introduction to Mirror Symmetry
Friday, October 31, 2025, 3:30pm
Ungar 411
Abstract: I'll begin with a historical overview of the origins of mirror symmetry, introducing some of the relevant notions from complex geometry along the way. In the second part of the talk, I'll focus on the homological version of mirror symmetry: coherent sheaves, derived categories, and what these things look like in the case of the projective line.
Faculty/Graduate Student Seminar
Bruno De Oliveira
University of Miami
On the Absence of Symmetric Differentials on Horikawa Surfaces
Friday, October 24, 2025, 4:30pm
Ungar 506
Abstract: At the end of the lecture, we describe recent work on the absence of symmetric differentials on Horikawa surfaces. The lecture will start by introducing the main concepts and the circles ideas to lead to the title of the talk, e.g. classification schemes (Kodaira dimension, cotangent dimension, and the geography of surfaces of general type) and hyperbolicity of complex manifolds. We also describe previous work that led to the conjecture that surfaces of general type with Chern ratio c^2_1/c_2<1/5 have no symmetric differentials or (weaker) have non-big cotangent bundles.
Faculty/Graduate Student Seminar
Mina Teicher
University of Miami
How Does the Brain Work?
Friday, October 10, 2025, 4:30pm
Ungar 506
Abstract: In this talk, I will review the current challenges in neuroscience, the existing brain imaging devices, and the projects I am currently working on. In particular:
First, I will describe the model of brain activity that I believe in. Second, I will explain our machine learning algorithm for localizing the epileptic focus. Third, I will outline an algorithm we developed for the mind-reading of numbers.
Graduate Student Seminar
Mohammed Ghoneim
University of Miami
Lagrangian Floer Homology and Fukaya Category
Friday, October 3, 2025, 4:30pm
Ungar 411
Abstract: Floer homology plays a key role in the topology of 3- and 4-dimensional manifolds. In this talk, we'll introduce Lagrangian Floer homology and how it relates to instanton Floer homology through the Atiyah-Floer conjecture. We then discuss Fukaya categories as a more general construction that is richer in structure and provides more information about the Lagrangians in a symplectic manifold.
Faculty/Graduate Student Seminar
Bruno Benedetti
University of Miami
Simplicial Complexes and Decompositions of Manifolds
Friday, September 26, 2025, 4:30pm
Ungar 506
Abstract: Every manifold can be decomposed M into balls of the same dimension, with prescribed intersections. This is called a "handle decomposition of M". We sketch one (and if time permits, two) ways to interpret this notion combinatorially, that is, in the language of "simplicial complexes".
One is a bridge towards face numbers of simplicial complexes; the other one, completely unrelated, is a bridge towards a simple way to explain homotopy.
This is partly joint work with Karim Adiprasito.
Graduate Student Seminar
Andres David Ramirez Ruiz
University of Miami
Introduction to Seiberg-Witten Invariants
Friday, September 19, 2025, 4:30m
Ungar 411
Abstract: I will introduce the Seiberg-Witten equations and the associated monopole moduli space. Then I will comment on how the Seiberg-Witten invariants are constructed and give some sample theorems that can be proven with them.
