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Join us this Thursday, 3/21 in welcoming back WFU Physics Alumni Dr. Ryan Melvin. He is a Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, Heersink School of Medicine, at the University of Alabama, Birmingham. His talk will be titled "Adventures in Time Series Analysis".
Abstract:
This seminar, tailored for physicists, embarks on an explorative journey into time series analysis, demonstrating its impact across finance, healthcare, and artificial intelligence. We begin in the financial world, where time series models are key in forecasting. Here, physicists` familiarity with exponential smoothing and Brownian motion provides a unique lens to understand these financial tools.
Shifting to healthcare, we encounter the physics of blood flow in cerebral autoregulation (the body’s dynamic ability to maintain proper oxygenation for the brain). Here we examine how time series analysis is crucial for optimized blood pressure management during cardiovascular surgery and intensive care stays.
Next, treating text as sequential data, we examine generative AI. We`ll explore how time series analysis is employed in the realm of AI, specifically in natural language processing, demonstrating its relevance beyond traditional numerical data. The seminar will conclude with a demo of several custom generative AI tools currently used in clinical research and administration.
Designed for physicists, this session highlights the interdisciplinary applications of time series analysis, revealing its ubiquitous role in diverse fields from economic predictions to medical technology and AI innovations.
**Dr. Melvin will also be doing a career event from 12pm to 1:30pm in the Olin Lobby. Feel free to join us and grab some pizza!
Join us Thursday, 3/7 for a career event (12-1pm, Olin 105) as well as our weekly seminar (4-5pm, Olin 101) with our guest, Robert Maher, coming all the way from Montana State University. His research talk is titled "Audio Forensic Analysis of Gunshot Sounds".
Abstract:
Audio forensic analysis is the field of forensic science relating to the acquisition, analysis, and evaluation of sound recordings that may ultimately be presented in court or some official venue. The primary forensic concerns are assessing authenticity, enhancing speech to aid intelligibility, and scientific interpretation and documentation. Audio forensic evidence may include gunshot sounds, and this sort of evidence is increasingly available due to home doorbell cameras, law enforcement body-worn cameras, and bystanders with smartphones. This presentation includes a description of contemporary methods and research about the interpretation of gunshot sounds for forensic purposes. Case study examples are also presented.
**Pizza will be served at the Career event, and refreshments will be served prior to the seminar in Olin 101 beginning at 3:30pm.
Congratulations Dr. Lindsey Gray, who on Friday successfully defended her thesis “Synergistic Solar Energy Harvesting Solutions”!
This week`s colloquium speaker, Burak Guzelturk, comes from Argonne National Laboratory. His talk will titled "Light-Induced Structural Responses in Matter". The presentation will take place in Olin 101 at 4pm on Thursday, 2/22. Refreshments will be served in the Olin lobby beginning at 3:30pm.
We would also like to draw attention to a PhD defense that will begin at 11am in ZSR 404. WFU Physics Lindsey Gray will be defending her thesis “Synergistic Solar Energy Harvesting Solutions”. A reception will follow a successful defense.
PS. Don`t forget about our career event tomorrow with Andrea Belanger!
Join us this Wednesday, 2/21/2024 for our first career event of the spring semester! Pizza will be served.
Join us Thursday, 2/1 for a seminar with guest Dr. Emilie Huffman from the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. Her talk is titled "Principles for Modeling Physically-Relevant Quantum Systems of Many Particles with Computers".
Abstract: Systems of many strongly-interacting particles are key to explaining many phenomena: from the magnets in our everyday experience to more exotic phenomena such as superconductivity, quantum hall physics, and emergent gauge symmetries. However, the necessary quantum mechanical treatments of these systems involve Hilbert spaces that grow exponentially with the system volume, putting naive calculations out of reach. In this talk, I will motivate three useful principles for building models that are both relevant to nature and amenable to computer simulation in polynomial time: locality, symmetry, and small ultralocal Hilbert spaces. With classical computers we will see how locality as a guiding principle allows us to study antiferromagnetism and superconductivity with relativity, and how symmetry as a guiding principle allows us to detect conformal field theories using the quantum hall effect. Finally for quantum computers we make use of small ultralocal Hilbert spaces as a guiding principle, and then design and study resource-efficient qubit-friendly models that realize continuous gauge symmetries found in fundamental physics.
The talk will be held in Olin 101 at 4pm. Refreshments will be served in the Olin Lobby beginning at 3:30 pm. Hope to see you there!
The Physics department had a blast participating in the 2024 College LAUNCH summit orchestrated by the Wake pre-college program. Pastries were had, demos were done, it was a great time all around. Until next year!
@wakeprecollege #wfuphysics
This week`s colloquium speaker, from the Physics department at Brown University, is Dr. Jiang-Xiazi Lin. Her talk is titled "Exploring Emergent Quantum Phases in Two-Dimensional Flat Band Systems"
Abstract:
Quantum phases such as superconductivity and ferromagnetism are among the most important topics in
condensed matter physics research. Recently, a family of two-dimensional flat band systems, including magic-angle twisted graphene, uncovered an abundance of symmetry breaking and novel quantum phases.
In this talk, I will introduce the recent advances in these materials and give two examples of how we engineered and
revealed new quantum phases of matter in twisted graphene. These include an orbital ferromagnetic state induced by
spin-orbit coupling and a zero-field superconducting diode effect. In the last part of the talk, I will present our discovery of a new type of Coulomb-driven rotational symmetry breaking
state in the moiré-less bilayer graphene. These examples establish the two-dimensional flat band systems as a versatile platform with multiple tuning knobs, where new physics emerges from the interplay between various quantum phases.
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The presentation is at 4pm on Thursday, January 25th in Olin 101. Refreshments will be served beginning at 3:30pm in the Olin lobby.
