Abstract: This workshop aims to unite leading experts and emerging researchers in the fields of minimal dynamics, renormalization, and C∗-algebras to explore cutting-edge advancements and foster interdisciplinary collaboration. By bringing together these communities who rarely have the opportunity to engage directly, the workshop will provide a unique forum for the exchange of ideas and the cross-pollination of methods. Participants will showcase recent developments and establish connections between seemingly distinct areas, promoting a deeper understanding of shared mathematical structures.
The central focus of the workshop will be the study of topological invariants, such as cohomology and K-theory, and their roles in diverse contexts including dynamical systems, operator algebras, and mathematical physics. These invariants serve as powerful tools for capturing and classifying intricate properties of systems, and their study has profound implications across mathematics and physics. By highlighting these connections, the workshop will pave the way for new insights and collaborations, driving progress at the interface of these vibrant research areas.
Speaker: Derek Paley ((UMD/Aerospace Engineering)) - https://aero.umd.edu/clark/faculty/58/Derek-A-Paley When: Tue, October 6, 2026 - 2:00pm Where: Kirwan Hall 3206
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Abstract: This talk will describe ongoing research in robotic triage at the University of Maryland under the DARPA Triage Challenge competition. UMD Team RoboScout aims to demonstrate a standoff sensing capability using COTS sensors placed on uncrewed air and ground mobile robotic platforms with AI-based casualty assessment algorithms that provide automated, real-time labeling of mass-casualty injuries in the field. The overall goal is to focus on assessing from a distance using non-contact, standoff signature acquisitions for the leading causes of preventable trauma death. The specific research objective is to apply tools from AI and perception, medical trauma and sensors, and robotics and autonomy to develop physiological signatures of severe injuries, data-driven models to detect them, and mobile platforms to collect the sensor data. UMD is a finalist in the upcoming competition in November 2026.
Bio: Derek A. Paley is the Willis H. Young Jr. Professor of Aerospace Engineering Education in the Department of Aerospace Engineering and the Institute for Systems Research at the University of Maryland, where he has been on the faculty since 2007. He served as Director of the Maryland Robotics Center (2019–2025) and the UMD Autonomous Micro Air Vehicle Team (2014–2024) and was a Sabbatical Fellow at The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in 2025-2026. Paley received the B.S. degree in Applied Physics from Yale University in 1997 and the Ph.D. degree in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Princeton University in 2007. Paley’s research interests are in the area of dynamics and control, including AI and autonomy for national security and public safety. Paley is Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. He served as an Associate Editor for AIAA Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, IEEE Transactions on Control of Network Systems, and IEEE Control Systems.
Speaker: Juan R. Cebral (George Mason University) - When: Tue, October 6, 2026 - 3:30pm Where: Kirwan Hall 3206
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Abstract: Brain aneurysms are focalized pathological dilatations of cerebral arteries. Assessing their risk of rupture and hemorrhage is crucial for making personalized patient management decisions that minimize complications and optimize clinical outcomes. In addition to identifying and combining risk factors, detailed understanding of the mechanisms leading to vascular wall degeneration and weakening as well as healing after device deployment is extremely valuable for optimizing management strategies, designing novel therapeutic approaches, minimally invasive treatments and endovascular devices. In our previous work we have developed and used image-based patient-specific computational fluid dynamics models to identify hemodynamic rupture risk factors as well as flow conditions that favor healing after endovascular treatment. These (and others’) studies have highlighted several biological processes responsible for wall remodeling and degradation that drive the disease progression, including inflammation, cell proliferation, pathogen infiltration, hypoxia, collagen fiber remodeling and degradation, thrombus formation, device coverage and endothelizalization, to name a few. Motivated by these findings, our current efforts focus on the development of mathematical and computational models of cell behavior and interaction with their biomechanical environment. These models use a hybrid continuum-agent-based strategy where cells are modeled with a level set function that is convected with a local velocity field arising from a combination of forces including internal structural loads, contacts, chemotaxis, fluid drag, and tissue viscosity. Cell tracking and state variables are used to model processes such as cell activation, differentiation, phagocytosis, proliferation, damage, and death. Field equations are solved to update the biomechanics environment. This approach enables testing hypotheses about cell behavior and their effects and raises several intriguing mathematical questions.
Speaker: Sunder Sethuraman (University of Arizona) - https://sundersethuraman.github.io/ When: Wed, October 7, 2026 - 2:00pm Where: Kirwan Hall 1311
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Abstract: In a nutshell, we identify the fluctuation scaling limit of the bulk empirical mass in a system of particles (random walks) interacting by `gradient exclusion' on d-dimensional lattices as an SPDE, described as a generalized Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process. Although the hydrodynamic (LLN) limit has been shown in a variety of models, less is known about their fluctuations. A main difficulty is to perform a continuum homogenization of micro particle rates with respect to fluctuation scales. When starting in an invariant measure, so-called `Boltzmann-Gibbs' homogenizations have been successful. However, understanding the fluctuations, when starting from `non-equilibrium' initial conditions, has remained mostly an open question. In this talk, we describe progress on a general multi-scale procedure in d<4 to accomplish the needed homogenization. This is joint work with Claudio Landim.
Speaker:Â Nam Le (Indiana) When: Thu, October 8, 2026 - 3:30pm Where: MTH3206
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Abstract: We will discuss the solvability and uniqueness for several degenerate Monge-Ampère equations including the Monge-Ampère eigenvalue problem in real Euclidean spaces that involve singular Borel measures. Our approach systematically analyzes the Monge-Ampère energy from the variational point of view and appropriately exploits monotonicity arguments. We will examine several essential tools: the mixed Monge-Ampère measure, Aleksandrov-Blocki-Jerison type maximum principles, convex envelope, comparison principles for subcritical equations, and integration by parts whose failure leads to symmetry breaking and nonuniqueness phenomena.
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