The Howard Rowlee Lecture: Alan Frieze
Carnegie Mellon University
Friday, March 22
4 PM
115 Avery Hall
Reception: 3 PM, 348 Avery Hall
“Think Randomly: The Power of the Probabilistic Method”
This lecture will give some simple examples of the use of the probabilistic method. It uses tools from probability to prove the existence of combinatorial objects that can be hard to find deterministically. This idea was pioneered by the great Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdős and it is now part of the standard toolkit for combinatorialists. We will consider four problems where we can obtain results very easily via random methods. On the other hand, in these instances, non-random constructions seem much harder to obtain.
The Howard Rowlee Lecture is an annual event that seeks to bring internationally acclaimed scholars in the mathematical sciences to Nebraska to promote public understanding of mathematical research and to stimulate the environment for mathematics research at Nebraska.
More details at: https://math.unl.edu/events/rowlee