Mathematics Colloquia and Seminars

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In many real life applications one tracks the occurrence of $m$-many events in an interval of time. For example, the arrival of $m$ species of birds during a migration season, or the arrival of $m$ different workers needed to complete a set of jobs. The classic coupon collector’s problem asks: after $n$ observations, how likely is it that we have observed all $m$ events in our collection? In this talk we ask more sophisticated question regarding the overlaps of these events, e.g., what is the likelihood that several species of birds will be observed in a common sub-interval? To answer these questions and others we present a new geometric model using random interval graphs, nerve complexes, and stochastic processes.

Please leave pets at home during this event.