SCHOOL OF SCIENCE

Seminar Schedule for 2008-09

July October January April
August November February May
September December March June


View separate schedule for Open House Nights in Astronomy.

 

Date Speaker Institution Title

September 16, 2008
3:30 pm
170 Nick

Dr. Larry Downey Penn State Behrend Forensics and the JPEG
September 23, 2008
3:30 pm
170 Nick
Dr. Joseph Paullet Penn State Behrend A Boundary Value Problem from Fluid Mechanics
October 7, 2008
3:30 pm
170 Nick
Mr. Paul Olson Penn State Behrend Suquences of Games

Forensics and the JPEG

September 16, 2008

We will discuss the mathematics of the JPEG algorithm (format)  and  its ramifications within the field of Image Forensics.  We will view several examples of images with “fraudulent” manipulations and in real time attempt  to detect these alterations  using some state of the art software. The talk should be accessible to all.

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A Boundary Value Problem from Fluid Mechanics

Setpember 23, 2008

In this talk we consider axisymmetric stagnation point flow of one fluid impinging on a disk covered with a second fluid.  A similarity reduction is employed to reduce the governing PDEs to a nonlinear ODE boundary value problem.  Previous numerical investigations of the problem in the literature indicate the existence of one solution.  Here we prove the existence of at least two solutions to the BVP.  We also obtain results concerning the possibility of further solutions and present numerical approximations to the solutions.  The proofs involved employ techniques from calculus and are accessible to undergraduates.

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Sequences of Games

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

We would like to consider two (combinatorial) games whose rules are easy to learn. The “tree game” consists of climbing (binary) trees while trying to limit your opponent’s moves, and “hackenbush” is a game in which the goal is to take the last possible coin from a set of stacked coins.

Once we have described the games, it is possible to consider infinite sequences of these games by constructions involving established patterns. Since combinatorial games have associated surreal number values, we would also be considering infinite sequences of surreal numbers.

Past work and future efforts by Behrend student researchers will be summarized.

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Updated September 5, 2008
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