About MGSC

Both attending students and speakers should familiarize themselves with the goals and philosophy of the mathematics graduate student colloquium (MGSC). Speakers should use these guidelines to help prepare the flavor and contents of their talks.

Intended Audience

The mathematics graduate student colloquium (MSGC) is intended for the entire UCI mathematics graduate student community. In particular, all talks aim to be accessible to a general mathematics graduate student audience. It is the goal of the MGSC to be as open and friendly to first-year graduate students as possible, as well as to students attending talks outside of their research areas.

Goals

Mindful of the current graduate seminar operated by the faculty, the MGSC organizers set out to satisfy different, unfilled needs of the graduate student community. Among the goals:

  1. The colloquium should provide the opportunity for students engaged in research to share their work with friends.
  2. The colloquium should serve as a showcase of work being done by graduate students, particularly dissertation work.
  3. The colloquium should provide an opportunity for graduate students to learn about other fields of specialty and keep up-to-date on the research occurring within the department.
  4. The colloquium should be accessible to the entire mathematics graduate student community.
  5. The colloquium should provide younger students a "safe," low-pressure environment to get accustomed to attending academic and professional talks. It should be a place where everybody feels comfortable asking questions.
  6. The colloquium should provide students with an opportunity to sharpen their presentation skills.
  7. The colloquium should expose first- and second-year graduate students to the work and work styles of various research groups in the department, thereby giving them a taste of what they, too, may be doing soon.
  8. On a related note, the talks should be motivating/inspirational in nature, in that students witness firsthand the vital role graduate students play in cutting-edge research.
  9. Lastly, but perhaps most importantly, talks should be fun and help to further build our friendly graduate student community.

History

Initial discussions on the goals and philosophy of the MGSC took place in the summer of 2006. Timothy Choi, John Lowengrub, and Paul Macklin greatly influenced the initial form of the colloquium. Simultaneously, Nick Alexander discussed the potential of a graduate student seminar with many graduate student colleagues. In September 2006, Nick and Paul decided to combine their efforts, and the MGSC was born.

Past Organizers

Fall 2007 Nick Alexander, Timothy Choi, and Adam Larios.
Spring 2007 Nick Alexander and Timothy Choi, under the watchful eye of Paul Macklin.
Winter 2007 Nick Alexander and Paul Macklin
Fall 2006 Nick Alexander and Paul Macklin.

Last Modified: September 26, 2007 at 02:03 PM (U.S. Pacific Time)
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