Teachers
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| Matt DeVos | Chris Godsil |
Matt DeVos is a prominent discrete mathematician with significant results in a wide array of subjects, including structural graph theory, combinatorial optimization, algebraic graph theory, and additive number theory. He earned a Ph.D. from Princeton under the direction of Paul Seymour in 2000, became an assistant professor at Simon Fraser University in 2007, and recently won a Sloan Fellowship.
Chris Godsil is among the foremost researchers in the world of algebraic graph theory, and recently coauthored (with Gordon Royle) the definitive book on the subject. He is a full professor in the department of Combinatorics and Optimization at Waterloo, and he is widely known for an impressive body of research on topics such as strongly regular graphs and association schemes. More recently, Chris has turned his attention to the exciting new topic of quantum walks. This is a fascinating graph construct motivated by quantum physics, and his work here is helping to lay the foundation for this important subject.
Course
The centrepiece of this program is an intensive course in Algebraic Graph Theory. Over the first two weeks, this will feature 3 hours a day of instruction together with daily homework assignments. We wish to promote collaboration and group work, so we encourage students to work together on these problems. Furthermore, we will be introducing students to the mathematical programming language Sage, and we will use this as an educational aid. Indeed, both our instruction, and homework assignments will incoroporate this exciting tool.Overall, the course will cover the basics of a graduate level introduction to Algebraic Graph Theory. This includes a thorough development of the theory of vertex transitive graphs, an introduction to strongly regular graphs, designs, and other importannt combinatorial structures. Additionally, we will highlight interactions between this subject and Structural Graph Theory and Additive Number Theory.