2022 CMS Summer Meeting

St. John's, June 3 - 6, 2022

Scientific Sessions

Please note all times are in Newfoundland Daylight Time (NDT).

 Advances in Operator Algebras Org: Cristian Ivanescu (MacEwan), Zhuang Niu (U Wyoming) and Maria Grazia Viola (Lakehead) Operator algebras—the study of algebras of bounded linear operators on a Hilbert space—is a significant branch of analysis that originated with John von Neumann and his collaborators in the early part of the 20th century as a mathematical framework for quantum mechanics. Since then, it has shown deep connections to other areas of mathematics, such as dynamical systems, geometry and topology, group theory, mathematical physics, quantum information theory, probability, etc. In this session, we welcome the participants to report on their recent advances in the field of operator algebras. Saturday June 4  (A1045) 9:00 - 9:30 Xuanlong Fu (Toronto), Tracial matricial structure and stable rank one 9:30 - 10:00 David Kribs (Guelph), Multiplicative domains, complementary quantum channels, and entanglement breaking rank 10:00 - 10:30 Elisabeth Werner (Case Western Reserve University), On the geometry of projective tensor products 14:30 - 15:00 Andrew Toms (Purdue University), The homotopy type of Cuntz classes in real rank zero C*-algebras 15:00 - 15:30 Dan Kucerovsky (New Brunswick), Comparing Hilbert module unitaries with Hilbert space unitaries; and multiplicative unitaries. 16:00 - 16:30 Nico Spronk (Waterloo), Amenability from operator algebras to algebras of harmonic analysis 16:30 - 17:00 Boyu Li (Waterloo), Imprimitivity theorems arising from Zappa-Szep actions on Fell bundles Sunday June 5  (A1045) 9:00 - 9:30 Yuqing Frank Lin (Texas A&M University), A multiplicative ergodic theorem for von Neumann algebra valued cocycles 9:30 - 10:00 Paul Skoufranis (York), Non-Commutative Stochastic Processes and Bi-Free Probability 10:00 - 10:30 Julian Buck (Okanagan College), The structure of crossed products by automorphisms of $C (X, D)$ 14:30 - 15:00 Andrew Dean (Lakehead), Structure and classification for real C*-algebras 15:00 - 15:30 Martin Argerami (Regina), Classification of certain finite-dimensional Operator Systems 16:00 - 16:30 Anamaria Savu (Alberta), Processes with zero-range interaction and integrability Analytic Number Theory and L-functions Org: Chantal David (Concordia) and Yu-Ru Liu (Waterloo) This session will focus on the latest developments of analytic number theory and L-functions, over number fields and function fields. Topics will include (but will not be limited too) zeroes and magnitude of L-functions, distribution of primes and square-free numbers, probabilistic approaches, character sums, circle method and point counting, etc. Saturday June 4  (SN2067) 9:30 - 10:00 Allysa Lumley (CRM), Selberg's Central limit theorem for quadratic dirichlet L-functions over function fields 10:00 - 10:30 Wanlin Li (CRM), On the vanishing of twisted L-functions of elliptic curves over function fields 15:00 - 15:30 Anton Mosunov (University of Waterloo), On the representation of integers by binary forms defined by means of the relation $(x + yi)^n = R_n(x, y) + J_n(x, y)i$ 16:00 - 16:30 Mike Rubinstein (University of Waterloo), Differential equations related to averages of the k-th divisor function 16:30 - 17:00 Vivian Kuperberg (Stanford), Sums of singular series and the distribution of primes 17:00 - 17:30 Nahid Walji (UBC), On the decomposition of automorphic symmetric power L-functions for GL(3) and GL(4) 17:30 - 18:00 Amir Akbary-Majdabadno (University of Lethbridge), Discrepancy estimates for the value-distribution of the quadratic twists of automorphic $L$-functions Applied geometric analysis Org: Chunhua Ou and Jie Xiao (Memorial University) Nowadays, interactions among analysis-geometry-harmonics/numerics have moved too quickly to be seen clearly. This scientific session will bring together several researchers with diverse backgrounds ranging from harmonic/numerical analysis to optimal transport theory to geometric capacities/flows/potentials with just a simple goal to not only exchange new thoughts in these areas but also foster certain collaborations. Saturday June 4  (A1049) 8:00 - 9:00 Goong Chen (Texas A&M University), Biological shapes, modal analysis, and visualization of motion 9:00 - 10:00 Alina Stancu (Concordia University), The fundamental gap of convex domains in hyperbolic space revisited 14:30 - 15:30 Zhichun Zhai (MacEwan University), Fractional Extension/Trace Inequalities via Caffarelli-Silvestre Extension 16:00 - 17:00 Suresh Eswarathasan (Dalhousie University), Eigenvalues of ellipsoids close to spheres Sunday June 5  (A1049) 8:00 - 9:00 Jun-cheng Wei (University of British Columbia), Jacobi-Toda systems and interfaces with higher multiplicities 9:00 - 10:00 Cristian Enache (American University of Sharjah), On some monotonicity properties of the $p$-torsional rigidity 14:30 - 15:30 Yunhui He (University of British Columbia), Local Fourier analysis and its application to multigrid for elliptic optimal control problems Authentic Applications Org: Kseniya Garaschuk (University of the Fraser Valley) and Anton Mosunov (Waterloo) Mathematics instructors rarely have to be convinced that the subject they teach is important, but getting this point across to students is often a challenging task. In this session, we aim to bring together first-year mathematics instructors to share authentic applications from their courses to enhance the curriculum in various service courses (life sciences, business, computer science, etc). Apart from giving a presentation, each speaker will prepare a short document describing their applications, and all the documents will be compiled and published on the First-Year Math & Stats in Canada website (firstyearmath.ca). Sunday June 5  (SN2105) 8:30 - 9:00 Emily Kozlowski (Waterloo), Student Analysis of Contextualized/Real Data in Introductory Statistics 9:00 - 9:30 Collette Lemieux and Olive Chapman (Mount Royal ; Calgary), Interactive Stories in Teaching Postsecondary Introductory Statistics 9:30 - 10:00 Lauren DeDieu (Calgary), Authentic Applications for Future K-12 Mathematics Teachers 10:00 - 10:30 Miroslav Lovric (McMaster), What's authentic about "authentic"? Monday June 6  (SN2105) 8:30 - 9:00 Diana Skrzydlo (Waterloo), Improving the Chances a Computer Science Student will Learn Probability 9:00 - 9:30 Karyn McLellan (Mount Saint Vincent), Shifting Perspectives in Mathematics 9:30 - 10:00 Sean Fitzpatrick (Lethbridge), Supporting applied content with open education technologies 10:00 - 10:30 Asmita Sodhi (Dalhousie), Connecting concepts and community Bridging the Gap & Supporting Students: Transition from High School to University Mathematics Org: Danielle Cox (MSVU), Rebecca McKay (UNB) and Karyn McLellan (MSVU) Whether in pre-pandemic, pandemic or post-pandemic times the transition from high school mathematics to university level mathematics can be a struggle for students. In this session we will explore topics that may include, but are not limited to: What does this transition look like in various regions of the country? How do we bridge the knowledge gap? What would we like to see emphasized in high school math courses? How should students prepare for university? What should we be teaching in first year? How do we best support students? What should we be mindful of when teaching math to first generation university students? To international students? To other underrepresented groups? Saturday June 4  (SN2105) 9:00 - 9:30 Shannon Ezzat (Cape Breton University), Filling gaps in mathematical maturity in pre-service elementary school teachers 9:30 - 10:00 Melissa Huggan (Mount Allison University), Asynchronous online foundational courses 10:00 - 10:30 Rebecca Milley (Memorial University), From Remote to Flipped: Incorporating asynchronous content into your in-person class 14:30 - 15:00 Andrew Skelton (York University), Will Faculty Buy In and Will Students Care? Embedding Transition Content into the First-Year Classroom 15:00 - 15:30 Catherine Roberts (College of the Holy Cross), Creating a Climate of Inclusion 16:00 - 17:00 Panel: Asmita Sodhi, Marie MacDonald, Chris Bryne & Alyssa Sankey (Dalhousie Cornell ; NLESD ; UNB), Bridging the Gap Panel Schedule to be determined Bill Williams (Gonzaga High School), SN2105 Combinatorial Game Theory Org: Melissa Huggan (Mount Allison University), Svenja Huntemann (Concordia University of Edmonton) and Rebecca Milley (Memorial) Combinatorial Game Theory is the study of two-player games with perfect information and no chance. It is an active research area intersecting combinatorics, algebra, and theoretical computer science. The purpose of this session is to bring together an international group of researchers to disseminate their latest work in combinatorial games. We expect undergraduate and graduate students to be interested in attending this session. The session will be a friendly environment for all researchers interested in combinatorial game theory to come together to discuss research ideas. Monday June 6  (A1045) 8:30 - 9:00 Rebecca Milley (Memorial University of Newfoundland), Game tree decomposition: which games are sums of other games? 9:00 - 9:30 Melissa Huggan (Mount Allison University), A partizan deletion game 9:30 - 10:00 Thomas Wolf (Brock University), Comments on Playing the Dots and Boxes Game 10:00 - 10:30 Alex Clow (St. Francis Xavier University), Chomp on Hexagonal Grids \& Other Lexicographic Products of Impartial Poset Games 15:00 - 15:30 Svenja Huntemann (Concordia University of Edmonton), Nofil played on Steiner Triple Systems 15:30 - 16:00 Lexi Nash (Concordia University of Edmonton), Enumeration, values, and stacking of distance games 16:00 - 16:30 Valentin Gledel (Umea University), Phantom Arc-Kayles Convex geometry and partial differential equations Org: Elisabeth Werner (Case Western Reserve), Deping Ye (Memorial University) and Ning Zhang (Huazhong University of Science and Technology) Convex geometry is a rapidly developing area aiming to study the geometric properties of convex bodies. It has close connections with partial differential equations. For example, one of the central problems in convex geometry, the Minkowski problem, can be solved by nonlinear partial differential equations (i.e., Monge-Ampere equation). This session brings experts in these areas to discuss recent development on convex geometry and its interaction with partial differential equations. Saturday June 4  (A1046) 9:00 - 9:30 Kateryna Tatarko (University of Waterloo), $L_p$ Steiner formula and its coefficients 9:30 - 10:00 Youjiang Lin (Chongqing Technology and Business University), The Petty projection inequalities 10:00 - 10:30 Dylan Langharst (Kent State University), Measure Theoretic Minkowski's Existence Theorem and Projection Bodies 14:30 - 15:00 Min Chen (McGill University), Alexandrov-Fenchel type inequalities in the sphere 15:00 - 15:30 Michael Roysdon (Tel Aviv University), Extensions of Zhang' inequality 16:00 - 16:30 Steven Hoehner (Longwood University), Asymptotic expected $T$-functionals of random polytopes with applications to $L_p$ surface areas 16:30 - 17:00 Han Huang (Georgia Institute of Technology), Average Case Analysis of Gaussian Elimination with Partial Pivoting 17:00 - 17:30 Ping Zhong (University of Wyoming), The Brown measure of the sum of a free random variable and Voiculescu's circular element or its elliptic deformation Sunday June 5  (A1046) 9:00 - 9:30 Aijun Li (Zhejiang University of Science and Technology), On the sine polarity and the $L_p$-sine Blaschke-Santal\'{o} inequality 9:30 - 10:00 Julian Haddad (Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais), Explicit representations of isotropic measures in extremal positions 10:00 - 10:30 Chunyan Liu (Huazhong University of Science and Technology), Ulam floating functions 14:30 - 15:00 Pengfei Guan (McGill University), A weighted gradient estimate for nonlinear PDE associated to the Christoffel-Minkowski problem 15:00 - 15:30 Sudan Xing (University of Alberta), On Multiple Lp-curvilinear-Brunn-Minkowski inequality 16:00 - 16:30 Peter Pivovarov (University of Missouri), Isoperimetric inequalities for polar Lp centroid bodies 16:30 - 17:00 Stephanie Mui (New York University), On the $L^{p}$ dual Minkowski problem for $-1 < p < 0$ 17:00 - 17:30 Jiuzhou Huang (McGill University), Flow by powers of Gauss curvature in space forms Data and Dynamical Systems Org: Tanya Schmah (University of Ottawa) and Cristina Stoica (Wilfrid Laurier) The intersection of data science with dynamical systems (including but not limited to ODEs and PDEs) is of increasing mathematical and scientific interest. On one hand it includes novel applications of data science to dynamical systems (e.g. data-driven model selection, approximate solution of DEs using deep learning, automatic detection of dynamical features) and on the other hand it entails novel uses of differential equations and dynamical system theory in machine learning (e.g. continuous-depth neural networks, PDE-based methods in computer vision). We propose to bring together researchers with interests in this area. Sunday June 5  (SN2064) 14:30 - 15:00 Giang Tran (Waterloo), Epidemiological Predictive Modelling using Delayed Time Embedding 15:00 - 15:30 Monica Cojocaru (Guelph), Reclustering populations based on mobility driven well-mixing using reinforcement learning - disease spread insights 16:00 - 16:30 Jahrul Alam (Memorial), Dictionary-based operator learning for nonlinear partial differential equations 16:30 - 17:00 Florian Puchhammer (Waterloo), Simulating Chemical Reaction Networks with Randomized Quasi-Monte Carlo 17:00 - 17:30 Maricela Best McKay (UBC), Approximation rates and training dynamics for Physics-informed Neural Networks 17:30 - 18:00 Alex Bihlo (Memorial), A multi-model physics-informed neural network approach for solving the shallow-water equations on the sphere Descent Methods in Algebra, Geometry, and Topology Org: Mikhail Kotchetov (Memorial), Dorette Pronk (Dalhousie), Yorck Sommerhäuser (Memorial) and Geoff Vooys (Dalhousie) Descent theory is all about attempting to learn about a global structure by moving downwards to its local structure where we can determine things and then reassemble these local pieces together in a compatible way. In more modern language, the study of descent is often seen as the study of sheaves or generalizations of the sheaf condition, as what it means for pieces to be compatible can be generalized and adapted to myriad contexts in algebra, algebraic topology, algebraic geometry, category theory, and even in logic. Because researchers in all areas use descent-theoretic ideas in distinct ways, we seek to bring together mathematicians from different disciplines and different walks of life to share ideas and learn from each other. This session seeks to bring together experts in many different areas of mathematics together to teach each other and learn about different approaches while also introducing graduate students to descent theory and how it maybe applied in practice. Saturday June 4  (SN4063) 9:00 - 9:30 Seidon Alsaody (Uppsala University), Algebras with Additional Structures via Torsors and Descent 9:30 - 10:00 Martin Frankland (University of Regina), Modules over bialgebroids and Beck modules 10:00 - 10:30 Ehud Meir (University of Aberdeen), Descent and generic forms using symmetric monoidal categories 14:30 - 15:00 Martin Szyld (Dalhousie University), On Tannaka Recognition and Descent for Topoi 15:00 - 15:30 Kirill Zaynullin (University of Ottawa), Canonical dimension and unimodular degree of a root system 16:00 - 16:30 Rui Fernandes (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), Multiplicative Ehresmann connections 16:30 - 17:00 Andrew Staal (University of Waterloo), Small Elementary Components of Hilbert Schemes of Points 17:00 - 17:30 Alexander Kolpakov (Université de Neuchatel), Space vectors forming rational angles 17:30 - 18:00 Vesko Valov (Nipissing University), On homogeneity of Cantor cubes Design theory and graph decompositions Org: Andrea Burgess (UNB) and David Pike (Memorial University) Combinatorial design theory has a history dating back to the 18th century when Leonhard Euler pondered the existence of orthogonal pairs of Latin squares. This session will showcase recent results in topics such as classical designs, cycle systems, graph decompositions, Latin squares and other aspects of design theory. Monday June 6  (A1049) 8:30 - 9:00 Alyssa Sankey (UNB), On strongly regular decompositions of block graphs of S($2,k,2k^2-k$) 9:00 - 9:30 Iren Darijani (Memorial), Colourings of path systems 9:30 - 10:00 Amanda Chafee (Carleton), Simulated Annealing on Single Change Covering Designs 10:00 - 10:30 Aras Erzurumluoglu (Trent), Fairness and Symmetry in Graph Decompositions 15:00 - 15:30 Alice Lacaze-Masmonteil (Ottawa), Resolvable directed cycle decompositions of the complete symmetric digraph 15:30 - 16:00 Trent Marbach (Ryerson), Pursuit-Evasion Games on Latin Square Graphs 16:00 - 16:30 Shonda Dueck (Winnipeg), Cyclic partitions of complete and almost complete uniform hypergraphs 16:30 - 17:00 Peter Danziger (Ryerson), Tic-Tac-Toe on Designs Dynamical systems and applications Org: Isam Al-Darabsah (University of Manitoba) and Yuan Yuan (Memorial University) This session aims to bring together scientists, including the young researchers, to discuss and exchange ideas in continuous and discrete dynamical systems and their recent advances and emerging applications in various fields of science and engineering. Potential topics of interest include: stability and bifurcation analysis, mathematical modeling and analysis in real applications. Saturday June 4  (A2065) 9:00 - 9:30 Gail S. K. Wolkowicz (McMaster University), The Augmented Phase-Plane for Analyzing Discrete Planar Models 15:00 - 15:30 Felicia Magpantay (Queen's University), A quantification of transient dynamics 16:30 - 17:00 Youngmin Park (University of Manitoba), Models of Vimentin Organization Under Actin Retrograde Flow 17:00 - 17:30 Jonathan Tot (Dalhousie University), On the Equilibria and Bifurcations of a Rotating Double Pendulum 17:30 - 18:00 Skye Dore-Hall (University of Victoria), Ramp Function Approximations of Michaelis-Menten Functions in a Model of Plant Metabolism Sunday June 5  (A2065) 9:00 - 9:30 Michael Y Li (University of Alberta), Accurate Long-Term Projections of COVID-19 Epidemics by Incorporating Human Behaviours 9:30 - 10:00 Stacey Smith? (University of Ottawa), Is a COVID-19 vaccine likely to make things worse? 10:00 - 10:30 Junling Ma (University of Victoria), An SIR Contact Tracing Model for Randomly Mixed Populations 14:30 - 15:00 Jude Kong (York University), Phytoplankton competition for nutrients and light in a stratified lake: a mathematical model connecting epilimnion \& hypolimnion 15:00 - 15:30 Kexue Zhang (Queen's University), Hybrid Event-Triggered Stabilization of Time-Delay Systems 16:00 - 16:30 Pei Yuan (York University), Dynamical modelling and complex dynamics for the control of pest leafhopper with generalist predatory mite in tea plantations 16:30 - 17:00 Yahui Wang (Lanzhou University/Memorial University of Newfoundland), Propagation Direction of Traveling Waves to a Competitive Integrodifference System with Bistable Nonlinearity 17:00 - 17:30 Cuiping Wang (Memorial University of Newfoundland), Dynamic Analysis of Cancer-Immune System with Therapy and Delay Geometric analysis and general relativity Org: Hari Krishna Kunduri (Memorial) and Eric Woolgar (Alberta) General relativity has long been a rich source of novel problems in differential geometry, partial differential equations, and dynamical systems. In turn, this has led to the development of new techniques in these fields that have produced rigorous proofs of physically motivated conjectures, such as the positive mass theorem and the nonlinear stability of Minkowski spacetime. Hyperbolic PDEs arise in the context of the Cauchy problem, whereas elliptic problems are naturally associated to the study of allowed initial data. Moreover, progress in the study of Einstein’s equations is closely connected with advances in the understanding of other geometric PDEs (e.g. Ricci flow). Our session will focus on new results in mathematical general relativity and associated geometric PDEs. Saturday June 4  (A3020) 8:30 - 9:00 Tristan Ozuch (MIT) 9:30 - 10:00 Hari Krishna Kunduri (Memorial), Toric asymptotically flat gravitational instantons 10:00 - 10:30 Ivan Booth (Memorial), Geometry of horizon merger during a binary black hole collision 14:30 - 15:00 Ghazal Geshnizjani (Waterloo), What happened before the big bang? 16:00 - 16:30 Da Rong Cheng (Waterloo), Existence of constant mean curvature surfaces 17:00 - 17:30 Eric Bahuaud (Seattle), Analytic semigroups, bounded geometry and geometric flows Sunday June 5  (A3020) 8:30 - 9:00 Eric Ling (Rutgers University), Remarks on the cosmological constant appearing as an initial condition for Milne-like spacetimes 9:30 - 10:00 Sharmila Gunasekaran (Alberta), Slow decay of waves in gravitational solitons 10:00 - 10:30 Graham Cox (Memorial), Evolution and bifurcation of marginally outer trapped surfaces 14:30 - 15:00 Annachiara Piubello (University of Miami), Mass and Riemannian Polyhedra 16:00 - 16:30 Zhongshan An (University of Connecticut), Initial boundary value problem of the vacuum Einstein equations 17:00 - 17:30 Demetre Kazaras (Duke), Comparison geometry and spacetime harmonic functions Geometric Group Theory Org: Eduardo Martinez-Pedroza (Memorial University) and Nicholas Touikan (UNB) The session will highlight recent advances in geometric group theory. Specif- ically, it will focus on combinatorial, geometric, algorithmic, asymptotic and probabilistic methods in group theory. This includes the study of cubical groups, hyperbolic groups, mapping class groups, orderable groups and random groups to name some examples. The session aims to provide a platform for early career researchers to present their work to an audience having broad interests with the goal of fostering collaborations. Saturday June 4  (SN4078) 9:30 - 10:00 Shivam Arora (Memorial), On Compactness properties of subgroups 10:00 - 10:30 Hadi Bigdely (McGill-Marianopolis College), Combination of groups that contain a hyperbolically embedded collection of subgroups 14:30 - 15:00 Jie Chen (McMaster), Tabulation of flat knots 15:00 - 15:30 Sam Hughes (Oxford), Profinite completions and fibring 15:30 - 16:00 Chandrika Sadanand (Bowdoin College), Hyperbolic cone surfaces and polygonal billiards Geometry of eigenfunctions and random fields Org: Graham Cox (Memorial), Suresh Eswarathasan (Dalhousie) and Dmitry Jakobson (McGill) Eigenfunctions of the Laplacian exhibit fascinating geometric structure. Despite centuries of study, many of their characteristics remain mysterious. A recent trend in probability has revealed some equally fascinating geometric structure, particularly in various ensembles of random fields including linear combinations of Laplace eigenfunctions with Gaussian coefficients. This session will focus on the geometry of eigenfunctions and related random fields, particularly on the structure of their zero sets and complements, which are dubbed nodal sets and nodal domains, respectively. All aspects of spectral geometry, however, will be considered in this session. Saturday June 4  (SN3058) 9:00 - 9:30 Alexandre Girouard (Universite Laval), Metric upper bounds for Steklov and Laplace eigenvalues 9:30 - 10:00 Jade Brisson (Universite Laval), Tubular excision and Steklov eigenvalues 10:00 - 10:30 Samuel Audet-Beaumont (Universite Laval), Constructing surfaces with large first Steklov eigenvalue multiplicity 14:30 - 15:00 Mehdi Eddaoudi (Universite Laval), On the gap between consecutive eigenvalues 15:00 - 15:30 Blake Keeler (McGill University), A logarithmic improvement in the two-point Weyl law 16:00 - 16:30 Thomas Beck (Fordham University), Nodal set estimates for perturbed rectangles 16:30 - 17:00 Madelyne Brown (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), Fourier coefficients of restricted eigenfunctions 17:00 - 17:30 Angel D. Martinez (University of Toronto Mississauga), On the symmetry conjecture for eigenfunctions Geometry of homogeneous spaces and beyond. Org: Kirill Zaynullin (UOttawa) and Changlong Zhong (SUNY) The proposed session will be focusing on new results and developments which lie in the intersection of two areas of pure mathematics: on the one side it is the algebraic geometry with emphasis on the geometric theory of quadratic forms, twisted flag varieties and torsors; on the other side it is the algebraic combinatorics with its rich variety of techniques coming from representation theory and Schubert calculus. It will address the following two emerging directions of research and interrelations between them: Geometry of generic forms, classifying spaces and versal flag varieties, generalized Schubert calculus. Saturday June 4  (SN4073) 8:00 - 8:30 Ivan Dimitrov (Queens University), A generalization of root systems 8:30 - 9:00 Colin Ingalls (Carleton University), Stacks associated with non-commutative surfaces 9:00 - 9:30 Nicole Lemire (Western University), Low-Dimensional Algebraic Tori Split by 2-groups 9:30 - 10:00 Cameron Ruether (University of Ottawa), Chevalley Generators in Étale Stalks 10:00 - 10:30 Geoff Vooys (Dalhousie University), A Pseudofunctorial Perspective on Equivariant Categories 14:30 - 15:00 Mikhail Kotchetov (Memorial University), Affine group schemes and gradings on algebras by abelian groups Global Dynamics and Propagation Phenomena of Biological Systems Org: Shuwen Xue and Xiaoqiang Zhao (Memorial) Nonlinear dynamics and differential equations provide a powerful tool in modeling and understanding some biological phenomenon such as pattern formations, biological invasions, and disease transmissions. With an active group of researchers in these fields, more and more interesting phenomena have been described via various evolution systems, and the global dynamics and propagation phenomena of such systems have been investigated in order to gain insights on recently-emerged questions in biology including those in the context of climate changes and those related to the disease outbreak. While at the meantime, new challenging mathematical problems continue to arise from the study of these biological systems, which require further exploration. In this special session, we propose to invite some related scholars to present recent advances on the global dynamics and propagation phenomena of biological systems such as integro-differential equations, functional differential equations, lattice equations, reaction-diffusion equations, and nonlocal dispersal equations. This session will serve as a platform for leading experts and young researchers to exchange new ideas and initiate potential collaborations. Saturday June 4  (A1043) 8:00 - 8:30 Jun-Cheng Wei (University of British Columbia), Traveling Waves to Gross-Pitaevskii Equation, Adler-Moser Polynomials and Kadomtsev-Petviashvili Lump 8:30 - 9:00 Ming Mei (Champlain College-Saint-Lambert and McGill University), Sharp traveling waves for time-delayed Fisher-KPP type of degenerate diffusion equations 9:00 - 9:30 Xiaoying Wang (Trent University), How spatial heterogeneity affects transient behavior in reaction-diffusion systems for ecological interactions 9:30 - 10:00 Chunyi Gai (University of British Columbia), Resource-mediated competition between two plant species with different rates of water intake 10:00 - 10:30 Laurence Ketchemen (Ottawa), Global dynamics of populations in fragmented landscapes under monostable and bistable growth dynamics 14:30 - 15:00 Yurij Salmaniw (University of Alberta), Global dynamics of a diffusive competition model with habitat degradation 15:00 - 15:30 Ryan Thiessen (University of Alberta), Travelling Waves of a New Glioma Invasion Model 16:00 - 16:30 Mingdi Huang (Xidian University and Memorial University), Propagation dynamics for time-periodic and partially degenerate reaction-diffusion systems 16:30 - 17:00 Xinjian Wang (Lanzhou University and Memorial University), Propagation phenomena for a vector-host disease model 17:00 - 17:30 Xuefeng San (Lanzhou University and Memorial University), Traveling waves for a periodic epidemic model in a patchy environment Sunday June 5  (A1043) 8:00 - 8:30 Shigui Ruan (University of Miami), Asymptotic and Transient Dynamics of SEIR Epidemic Models on Weighted Networks 8:30 - 9:00 Theodore Kolokolnikov (Dalhousie University), Stochastic and PDE models of clustering in bacterial colonies 9:00 - 9:30 Arvin Vaziry (Dalhousie University), Modelling of spatial infection spread through heterogeneous population: from lattice to PDE models 9:30 - 10:00 Michael Pupulin (University of Guelph), Travelling wave solutions in a model of Fire blight spread 10:00 - 10:30 Leyi Jiang (Memorial University), Propagation dynamics of a class of epidemic models with different diffusion speeds in a strip region 14:30 - 15:00 Zhimin Li (Memorial University), Global dynamics of a nonlocal periodic reaction-diffusion model of Chikungunya disease 15:00 - 15:30 Yuanxi Yue (Memorial University), Bistable wave speed of a Lotka-Volterra system with nonlocal dispersal 16:00 - 16:30 Na Li (Harbin Institute of Technology and Memorial University), Accelerating propagation in a periodic functional differential equation 16:30 - 17:00 Shiheng Fan (Memorial University), Traveling waves and spreading speed for a Lotka-Volterra competition model in a periodic discrete habitat 17:00 - 17:30 Shuwen Xue (Memorial University), Propagation dynamics of a parabolic-elliptic chemotaxis model in a time-periodic shifting environment Graph Searching Org: Danny Dyer (Memorial University), Stephen Finbow (St. Francis Xavier University) and Brittany Pittman (Ryerson) Graph searching encompasses a broad collection of dynamic and discrete time process in graphs including cops and robber, edge searching, firefighting, brushing and chip firing. These meaningful problems typically model real-world situations and are often algorithmically complex. This session explores recent investigations, contributions and advances in this area. Saturday June 4  (SN4068) 8:00 - 8:30 Brittany Pittman (Ryerson University), The localization capture time of a graph 8:30 - 9:00 Pawel Pralat (Ryerson University), Edge and Pair Queries---Random Graphs and Complexity 9:00 - 9:30 Todd Mullen (St. Francis Xavier University/Acadia University), Surrounding an Active Robber 9:30 - 10:00 Rylo Ashmore (Memorial University of Newfoundland), On Cuts and Cats 10:00 - 10:30 Boting Yang (University of Regina), On One-Visibility Cop-Win Strategies for Trees 14:30 - 15:00 Rebecca Milley (Memorial University of Newfoundland), Average Unmonitored Time in the Watchman's Walk Problem 15:00 - 15:30 Jared Howell (Memorial University of Newfoundland), The watchman's walk problem on graph products 16:00 - 16:30 Mozhgan Farahani (Memorial University of Newfoundland), The deduction model for cops and robber 16:30 - 17:00 John Marcoux (Memorial University of Newfoundland), Firefighting with a Distance-Based Restriction 17:00 - 17:30 Caleb Jones (Memorial University of Newfoundland), Extending Graph Burning to Hypergraphs 17:30 - 18:00 Kerry Ojakian (Bronx CC (CUNY)), Tale of two games: Pyro versus Chop and Save Graph Theory Org: Rick Brewster (Thompson Rivers University) and Gary MacGillivray (Victoria) There is a rich and diverse Graph Theory community in Canada. This session will consist of at least 10 talks covering a wide range of topics all related to graph theory. Topics will include graph colouring, decompositions, algebraic graph theory, and graph polynomials. Sunday June 5  (SN4063) 8:00 - 8:30 Richard Brewster (Thompson Rivers), List homomorphisms to signed trees 8:30 - 9:00 Evelyne Smith-Roberge (Waterloo), Planar Graphs are Local Girth Choosable 9:00 - 9:30 Ben Seamone (Montreal), Fractional eternal domination 9:30 - 10:00 Arnott Kidner (Victoria), $\Gamma$-switchable 2-colourings 10:00 - 10:30 Theodore Kolokolnikov (Memorial), It is better to be semi-regular when you have a low degree 14:30 - 15:00 Lucas Mol (Thompson Rivers), On connectivity of orientations of graphs 15:00 - 15:30 Mackenzie Carr (Simon Fraser), The Genus Polynomials of Cubic Graphs 16:00 - 16:30 Shonda Dueck (Winnipeg), The threshold strong dimension of a graph 17:00 - 17:30 Andrea Burgess (New Brunswick), Mutually orthogonal cycle systems Harmonic Analysis and PDEs Org: Scott Rodney (Cape Breton) and Eric Sawyer (McMaster) The fields of Harmonic Analysis and Partial Differential Equations (PDEs) share a common history. Recently, regularity theory for degenerate nonlinear PDEs has been closely connected to several interesting areas including: quasi-conformal mappings, weighted norm inequalities, Orlicz classes, Hardy spaces and more. The focus of this session is to promote communication between researchers working in the many fields that touch upon the intersection of harmonic analysis and PDEs. Saturday June 4  (SN2098) 8:00 - 8:30 Fletcher Gates (McMaster University), Stability of Weighted Haar Wavelets 8:30 - 9:00 Xing Fu (Memorial University), Uncertainty Principle on the Lorentz Spaces 9:00 - 9:30 William Verreault (University of Laval), Unwinding of analytic functions in RKHS and Hardy spaces 9:30 - 10:00 Brian McDonald (University of Rochester), The VC-dimension and point configurations over finite fields 10:00 - 10:30 John-Oliver MacLellan (University of Alabama), Necessary Conditions for Two Weight Weak Type Norm Inequalities for Multilinear Singular Integral Operators 14:30 - 15:00 Lyudmila Korobenko (Reed College), Hypoellipticity via sums of squares 15:00 - 15:30 Kabe Moen (University of Alabama), New bump conditions for commutators 16:00 - 16:30 Ignacio Uriarte-Tuero (University of Toronto), Two weight norm inequalities for singular and fractional integral operators in $\mathbb{R}^n$ 16:30 - 17:00 Michel Alixis (McMaster University), A two-weight T1 theorem for general Calderon-Zygmund operators for doubling weights 17:00 - 17:30 Hong Yue (Georgia College), Geometric maximal operators and BMO on product bases 17:30 - 18:00 Alex Iosevich (University of Rochester), Frame theory and finite point configurations Sunday June 5  (SN2098) 8:00 - 8:30 Mohammad Shirazi (McGill University), Prescribing the radial limits of solutions to a PDE 8:30 - 9:00 Yurij Salmaniw (University of Alberta), Eigenvalues in domains with holes: a reaction-diffusion equation approach to habitat fragmentation 9:00 - 9:30 Sullivan Francis MacDonald (McMaster University), Bounded Solutions to $p$-Poisson Equations 9:30 - 10:00 Jose Luis Luna Garcia (McMaster University), Coronizations and big pieces in metric spaces 10:00 - 10:30 Kennedy Obinna Idu (Fields Intitute), Boundedness of $\beta$-numbers and $C^{1,\alpha}$-rectifiability of sets in $\mathbb{R}^n$ 14:30 - 15:00 Siran Li (NYU Shanghai), Fractional Sobolev isometric immersions 15:00 - 15:30 Donggeun Ryou (University of Rochester), A variant of the $\Lambda(p)$-set problem in Orlicz spaces 16:00 - 16:30 Damir Kinzebulatov (Université Laval), Heat kernel bounds and form-boundedness: recent progress 16:30 - 17:00 Shaohua Chen (Cape Breton University), Global solutions for the 1-D compressible Euler equations with time-dependent damping 17:00 - 17:30 Evan Miller (University of British Columbia), On the regularity of the axisymmetric, swirl-free solutions of the Euler equation in four and higher dimensions 17:30 - 18:00 Scott Rodney (Cape Breton University), Limits of Orlicz Norms Learning Math Through Experimentation and Exploration Org: Amenda Chow (York University), Allysa Lumley (Centre de Recherches Mathematiques) and Pam Sargent (York University) The dictionary definition of experimentation is the process of performing scientific procedure, especially in a laboratory, to determine something. Exploration is defined as the action of traveling in or through an unfamiliar area in order to learn about it. This session looks at exploration and experimentation through the lens of mathematics. Exploration and experimentation are examples of experiential learning. Students receive an indelible educational experience when exposed to experiential learning. Because of the perceived nature of mathematics there can sometimes be a lack of experiential learning in a mathematics education, especially when compared to other STEM disciplines like biology, and engineering that often have laboratory components, field work and internship placements. The purpose of this session will be to help add more experiential learning through exploration and experimentation into the mathematics curriculum. This session is an opportunity to connect educators from all career levels and at both the post-secondary and high school level who have a desire to support experiential learning in the form of experimentation and exploration in their math courses and classrooms. Saturday June 4 14:30 - 15:00 Lauren DeDieu (University of Calgary), Experiential Learning in Undergraduate Mathematics Courses and Outreach Initiatives, SN3060 15:00 - 15:30 Hannah Constantin (University of Toronto), “Introduction to Proofs” as an Invitation to Exploration, SN3060 16:00 - 16:30 Brett Smith (Yale University), Exploring calculus with stories, SN3060 16:30 - 17:00 Veselin Jungic (Simon Fraser University), No strangers at this party, SN3060 17:00 - 17:30 Susan Gerofsky (University of British Columbia), Exploring and experimenting with the mathematics of classical labyrinths, SN3060 Sunday June 5 14:30 - 15:00 Thomas Wolf (Brock University), Comments on a Collection of Experiential Learning Resources, SN3058 15:00 - 15:30 Peter Taylor (Queen’s University), Paradise Lost, SN3058 16:00 - 16:30 Marie MacDonald (Cornell University), Using projects, workshops and inquiry to explore in Linear Algebra., SN3058 16:30 - 17:00 Asmita Sodhi (Dalhousie University), To project or not to project: Alternative assessment in first-year linear algebra, SN3058 17:00 - 17:30 Diana Skrzydlo (University of Waterloo), Interactive Games for Probability Models, SN3058 17:30 - 18:00 Amenda Chow (York University), Session Debrief Discussions, SN3058 Modelling the emerging infectious diseases in wildlife Org: Seyed M. Moghadas and Jingjing Xu (York University) Emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) in wildlife not only thread the wildlife populations but also impact the balance of the local ecosystem. In addition, wildlife serves as reservoirs of pathogens, and infectious diseases may split over to human communities by direct contact with humans or indirectly impacting domesticated animals. Meanwhile, infections may spread in the other direction. Examples of EIDs in wildlife include zoonotic influenza, West Nile virus, emerging coronaviruses (e.g., severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Middle East respiratory syndrome, and SARS-COVID-2), rabies, and Lyme disease. Studying EIDs usually face challenges due to the features of hosts, such as their demographic process, the seasonal spatial use or movement pattern, and the sex-age structure. Moreover, some EIDs involve multiple hosts. Nevertheless, mathematical models help us understand the characteristics of disease transmission and identify the driving factors, providing guidelines for the control or management of EIDs. This scientific session features a mixture of models that use various mathematical tools to capture the critical factors of disease transmission and hosts, and provide biological insight. Monday June 6  (A1043) 9:00 - 9:30 Martha Garlick (The South Dakota School of Mines & Technology), Connecting Local of Movement of Mule Deer with Regional Spread of Chronic Wasting Disease 9:30 - 10:00 Stacey Smith? (Ottawa), Modelling mutation in equine infectious anemia virus infection suggests a path to viral clearance with repeated vaccination 10:00 - 10:30 Jingjing Xu (York), Spreading speed of chronic wasting disease across deer groups with overlapping home ranges Recent Advances in Data Science with Applications to Epidemiology and Genetics Org: Candemir Cigsar and Yildiz Yilmaz (Memorial University) The session will focus on state-of-the-art statistical methods to solve problems arising from complex nature of diseases, human traits and epidemiological data. The purpose of this session will be to present some recent developments in statistical methodologies for the analysis of complex data structures in epidemiologic, genetic and health care research. Topics of the session will be suitable for audience with various backgrounds in mathematical sciences. Saturday June 4  (SN2064) 9:00 - 9:30 Laurent Briollais (Toronto), The Scalable Birth-Death MCMC Algorithm for Mixed Graphical Model Learning with Application to Genomic Data Integration 9:30 - 10:00 JC Loredo-Osti (Memorial), Stochastic modelling of an infectious disease outbreak 10:00 - 10:30 Brady Ryan (Michigan), Using External Reference Panel and Meta-Analysis Summary Statistics for Rare-Variant Aggregation Tests Relative Homology and Persistence Theory Org: Véronique Bazier-Matte (University of Connecticut), Thomas Brüstle (Sherbrooke) and Eric Hanson (UQAM) The study of invariants has recently unearthed a surprising connection between the study of (multiparameter) persistence modules and that of (relative) homological algebra. The purpose of this session is to bring together researchers from both of these areas, and to learn more about how to combine these two perspectives. We welcome talks which focus primarily on either subject matter (or a combination), and especially encourage participation from early-career researchers. Saturday June 4  (SN2036) 8:00 - 8:30 Session Organizers (Introduction) 8:30 - 9:30 Woojin Kim (Duke University), Persistence diagrams via limit-to-colimit maps and Möbius inversions 9:30 - 10:30 Charles Paquette (Royal Military College of Canada), Representation theory of poset quivers 14:30 - 15:30 Benjamin Blanchette (Université de Sherbrooke), Homological invariants in persistence theory 16:00 - 17:00 Ivo Herzog (The Ohio State University), Eklof's Lemma in Ideal Approximation Theory 17:00 - 17:30 Martin Frankland (Regina), Multiparameter persistence modules in the large scale Sunday June 5  (SN2036) 8:00 - 8:30 Harm Derksen (Northeastern University), Multiparameter Landscapes 8:30 - 9:30 Manuel Cortés Izurdiaga (Universidad de Málaga), Ziegler partial morphisms and approximations in exact categories 9:30 - 10:30 Anna Schenfisch (Montana State University), The Algebraic $K$-Theory of Zig-Zag Persistence Modules 14:30 - 15:30 Markus Schmidmeier (Florida Atlantic University), Symmetry and Conservation for Poset Representations 16:00 - 17:00 Ezra Miller (Duke University), Homological algebra over partially ordered real vector spaces Scientific Machine Learning Org: Ben Adcock (Simon Fraser), Alex Bihlo (Memorial University), Simone Brugiapaglia (Concordia) and Hamid Usefi (Memorial University) Machine learning is having a profound impact on many different sectors including scientific research, industry, and policymaking. Yet, its mathematical foundations are still far from being well understood. While techniques such as deep learning have produced outstanding success on a wide range of real-world applications, it is increasingly well known that such methods tend to exhibit instabilities and generally lack in interpretability. Moreover, although stochastic optimization algorithms are ubiquitous in machine learning, their convergence properties are still not fully understood in the nonconvex framework. These and other gaps between theory and practice raise the pressing need for broader, more comprehensive mathematical foundations for machine learning. The aim of this proposed session is to bring together a diverse group of leading experts in scientific machine learning. The proposed session will be a forum for discussing and exploring emerging ideas in this fast-growing and exciting field. Saturday June 4  (SN2101) 8:30 - 9:00 Rudy Brecht (Universität Bremen), Deep learning for ensemble forecasting 9:00 - 9:30 Ziad Aldirany (Polytechnique Montréal), Approximating the Operator of the Wave Equation using Deep Learning 9:30 - 10:00 Craig Gross (Michigan State), Sparsifying high-dimensional, multiscale Fourier spectral methods 10:00 - 10:30 Weiqi Wang (Concordia), Compressive Fourier collocation methods for high-dimensional diffusion equations with periodic boundary conditions 14:30 - 15:00 Ashkan Ebadi (National Research Council of Canada), Few-Shot Detection of COVID-19 Infection from Medical Images 15:00 - 15:30 Javad Rahimipour Anaraki (Huawei Technologies Canada), Personalized Classifier Selection in EEG-based Brain-Computer Interfaces 16:00 - 16:30 Giang Tran (Waterloo), SRMD: Sparse Random Mode Decomposition 16:30 - 17:00 Aaron Berk (McGill), On Lipschitzness of the solution mapping for LASSO programs 17:00 - 17:30 Yifan Sun (Stony Brook), Using flow analysis to accelerate the Frank-Wolfe method 17:30 - 18:00 Manuela Girotti (Saint Mary's), Convergence Analysis and Implicit Regularization of Feedback Alignment for Deep Linear Networks Sunday June 5  (SN2101) 8:30 - 9:00 Terrence Tricco (Memorial), Synthetic generation of multi-modal discrete time series using transformers 9:00 - 9:30 Geoffrey McGregor (Northern British Columbia), Conservative Hamiltonian Monte Carlo 9:30 - 10:00 Armin Hatefi (Memorial), Unsupervised Shrinkage Estimation Methods for Mixture of Regression Models 10:00 - 10:30 Pardis Semnani (British Columbia), Log-concave Density Estimation in Undirected Graphical Models Student Research Talks Org: William Verreault (Laval) Presentations will be given by students at the undergraduate and graduate levels. These will introduce the student’s research to a general mathematical audience. All research areas in pure/applied math, statistics, and math education will be considered Sunday June 5  (SN4068) 8:00 - 8:30 Esha Saha (Waterloo), HARFE: Hard-Ridge Random Feature Expansion 8:30 - 9:00 Bruno Staffa (Toronto), On density and equidistribution of stationary geodesic nets 9:00 - 9:30 Sonja Ruzic (Queens), Weyl Modules for Current Lie Superalgebras 9:30 - 10:00 Diba Heydary (Toronto) 16:00 - 16:30 Connor Riddlesden (Lethbridge), Combinatorial Approach to ABV-packets for $GL_n$ 16:30 - 17:00 Avleen Kaur (Manitoba), How the Friedrichs angle leads to lower bounds on the minimum singular value 17:00 - 17:30 Tonatiuh Matos Wiederhold (Toronto), Graphs of constant balancing number 17:30 - 18:00 Sina Mohammad-Taheri (Concordia), Lasso-Inspired Variants of Weighted Orthogonal Matching Pursuit with Applications to Sparse High-Dimensional Approximation Symplectic geometry and moduli spaces Org: Thomas John Baird (Memorial), Lisa Claire Jeffrey (Toronto) and Steven Rayan (Saskatchewan) We welcome all to participate in a scientific session on Symplectic Geometry and Moduli Spaces. The session theme can be broadly interpreted to include nearby aspects of algebraic and differential geometry, integrable systems, and the interaction of representation theory and physics with moduli spaces. Speakers can present emerging results or give an overview of recent themes in a broader sense. Talks will be 20-25 minutes in length with time for 5-10 minutes of questions and discussion after each talk. Saturday June 4  (SN3060) 8:00 - 8:30 Yucong Jiang (University of Toronto), Dirac structures in generalized Kähler geometry 8:30 - 9:00 Peter Crooks (Northeastern University), Symplectic reduction and sheets Sunday June 5  (SN3060) 9:00 - 9:30 Shiyu Shen (University of Toronto), Complex K-theory of the moduli space of Higgs bundles 9:30 - 10:00 Doug Park (University of Waterloo), Geography problem for simply connected symplectic 4-manifolds 10:00 - 10:30 Tom Baird (Memorial University), Harmonic forms on the Chen-Teo gravitational instanton 14:30 - 15:00 Ruxandra Moraru (University of Waterloo), Co-Higgs bundles on Poisson surfaces 15:00 - 15:30 Shengda Hu (Wilfrid Laurier University), Degree of a generalized holomorphic bundle Time series analysis: Inference and prediction Org: Masoud Nasari (Bank of Canada and Carleton University) and Mohamedou Ould-Haye (Carleton University) This session is focused on presenting the latest developments in analysis of temporal data. Significant advancements in inferential methodologies alongside with statistical and machine learning predictive models will be presented. Saturday June 4  (SN3042) 8:30 - 9:00 Bouchra Nasri (Montréal), Test of serial dependence for multivariate time series with arbitrary distributions 9:00 - 9:30 Sumanta Basu (Cornell), Frequency-domain graphical models for multivariate time series 9:30 - 10:00 Idriss Sekkak (Montréal), The stochastic epidemic modelling: The influence of incidence rates and perturbations. 10:00 - 10:30 S. Ejaz Ahmed (Brock), Implicit BIAS Problems in in High Dimensional Predictive Models: “Cut the Bias” 14:30 - 15:00 Bruno Rémillard (HEC Montreal), Change-point problems for multivariate time series using pseudo-observations 15:00 - 15:30 Ricardas Zitikis (Western), Detecting systematic anomalies when inputs are stationary time series 16:00 - 16:30 Marie-Christine Duker (Cornell), Detecting fractal connectivity in high-dimensional time series 16:30 - 17:00 Youssouph Cissokho (Ottawa), Estimation of cluster functionals for regularly varying time series: sliding blocks estimators. 17:00 - 17:30 Mamadou Y. Thioub (Montréal), Goodness-of-fit tests and robust regime selection procedure for general hidden Markov models 17:30 - 18:00 Mohamedou Ould-Haye (Carleton), Spectral analysis of Time series: Random sampling and Stationarity test To OER or not to OER – that is the question Org: Andrijana Burazin (University of Toronto Mississauga) and Miroslav Lovric (McMaster University) UNESCO defines Open Educational Resources (OER) as “teaching, learning and research materials in any medium – digital or otherwise – that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions.” This session has two goals: (i) to enable participants to discuss their experience with creating and/or using OERs, as well as to share information about where they look for OERs (there is no single repository, nor a site that would offer access or information for many OERs); (ii) to critically, and possibly with evidence, examine the place of OERs in mathematics instruction. What are good (also inappropriate) ways of using OERs in the classroom? Could OERs possibly replace in-person instruction? If so, at what cost, pedagogical and otherwise? Saturday June 4  (SN2064) 14:30 - 15:00 Patrick Walls (UBC), Jupyter workflows for creating open educational resources 15:00 - 15:30 Ami Mamolo (Ontario Tech), Developing an online OER for undergraduate mathematics teaching 16:00 - 16:30 Dan Wolczuk (Waterloo), Moving Forward with OER 16:30 - 17:00 Sean Fitzpatrick (Lethbridge), OER, PreTeXt, and Scholarship 17:00 - 17:30 Andie Burazin and Miroslav Lovric (UTM ; McMaster), To OER or not to OER: Let’s have a chat Ungrading and alternative assessments: shifting from grades to learning Org: Xinli Wang (University of Manitoba) Assessments have always been an important part of course design in higher education and K12 education. We rely on assessments to find out what students are learning, to communicate what is important to learn, to guide students’ learning journey, and to measure whether students have mastered the concepts and skills that are taught in a certain course. Traditionally, students take summative assessments: quizzes, term tests, mid-term and final exams and are assigned numerical grades after taking such assessments, and those numbers ultimately translate to a letter on their transcript. However, grades undermine interest and foster fear of failure. Students are also tempted to study or work for the grade rather than for learning. Grades have become a huge contributor to students’ stress and mental health problems. Grading is a system that is designed to categorize certain students as smarter than others, and is prone to cultural, racial, and societal biases. In this session, we will share our experiences with alternatives methods of assessment designed to communicate with students about their learning. The topics in this session include mastery-based grading, contract grading, using portfolios, group exams etc. When we design our course assessments, we have a common goal in mind: to foster growth mindset and encourage students to focus on their learning, instead of grades. Sunday June 5  (SN2105) 14:30 - 15:00 Sean Fitzpatrick (University of Lethbridge), Adventures in Alternative Assessment: A review of my non-expert attempts to liberate my gradebook 15:00 - 15:30 Keith Jones (SUNY Oneonta), Grading for a Flexible and Feedback-Oriented Calculus Course 16:00 - 16:30 Burcu Karabina and Xinli Wang (Waterloo ; University of Manitoba), Ungrading case studies: mastery-based grading and journals/reflections in several math courses 16:30 - 17:00 Tyler Pattenden (University of Western Ontario), The student perspective on mastery grading in an entry-level liberal arts mathematics class 17:00 - 17:30 Mike Pawliuk (University of Toronto Mississauga), Extreme Ungrading at scale: when 105 students decide their own final grades 17:30 - 18:00 Aaron Wangberg (Winona State University), Accessing student mathematical thinking using portfolios, self-assessment, and silent group exams Variational Analysis: Theory and Applications Org: Heinz Bauschke and Xianfu Wang (UBC Kelowna) Variational Analysis lies at the heart of modern optimization and underlies the convergence analysis of several algorithms. The purpose of this session is to bring together selected experts from the North American optimization and analysis communities to exchange ideas and present new results. Sunday June 5  (SN2067) 8:30 - 9:00 Henry Wolkowicz (University of Waterloo), A Restricted Dual Peaceman-Rachford Splitting Method for a Strengthened DNN Relaxation for QAP 9:30 - 10:00 Shawn Wang (UBC Okanagan), Bregman circumcenters: basic theory 10:00 - 10:30 Shambhavi Singh (UBC Okanagan), Strong convergence of splitting algorithms by Ryu, by Malitsky-Tam, and by Campoy applied to normal cones of linear subspaces 14:30 - 15:15 Jane Ye (University of Victoria), On relaxed constant positive linear dependence constraint qualification 16:00 - 16:30 Ziyuan Wang (UBC Okanagan), A non-Euclidean forward-reflected-backward method with inertial effects for nonconvex minimization 16:30 - 17:00 Manish Krishan Lal (UBC Okanagan), Set-valued analysis of generalized bilinear sets