Student Workshop in Mathematics (SWiM@Wes)
SWiM@Wes 2025 will be held on March 29-30, 2025 in the Wesleyan University Department of Mathematics and Computer Science in Exley Science Center. The goal of the conference is to introduce the workshop-style conference to Wesleyan undergraduate students.
The mini-course topics and presenters, as well as the schedule for the weekend can be found below. Here is the poster for the conference, designed by Lydia Ahlstrom.
Registration is now closed.
Mini-Courses
A Crash Course in Cryptology: Securing Electronic Communications – Zachary Porat
Project Assistants: Stefan Hesseling and Jacob Tolman
- Course Outline: Mathematical cryptology is the study of techniques that allow us to safely communicate. The goal of the mini-course is to understand the underlying math that keeps our electronic conversations and transactions secure. First, we will learn how communications are translated into a mathematical framework. Then, we will discuss common cryptosystems and the math techniques used to ensure their security.
- Course Notes
Building Blocks of Geometric Group Theory – Eleanor Rhoads
Project Assistant: Adrienne Nolt
- Course Outline: Groups are prolific in math, but infinite groups evaded understanding until the modern era. In this course, we will introduce the foundational tools that allow us to study infinite groups, through the lens of geometry. We will first define groups via presentations, and then construct a geometric space for each group, called a Cayley graph. We will see how these two viewpoints are connected, and how interesting information can transfer between them.
- Course Notes
With plenary speaker Suzanne O’Hara talking about the Surreal Numbers! Slides from this talk can be found here.
The titles and abstracts for the contributed talks can be found here.
Schedule
| Time | Location | Saturday (3/29) | Sunday (3/30) |
| 8:45am – 9:00am | Exley 601 (Math Lounge) | Registration + Coffee/Tea | Coffee/Tea |
| 9:00am – 9:15am | Exley 601 (Math Lounge) | Opening Remarks + Coffee/Tea | Coffee/Tea |
| 9:15am – 10:15am | Exley 405 | Cryptology – Lecture 1 | GGT – Lecture 2 |
| 10:15am – 10:30am | Exley 601 (Math Lounge) | Break | Break |
| 10:30am – 11:30am | Exley 405 | GGT – Lecture 1 | Cryptology – Lecture 3 |
| 11:30am – 12:30pm | Exley 601 (Math Lounge) | Lunch | Lunch |
| 12:30pm – 1:30pm | Exley 405 | Plenary Talk | Lightning Talks |
| 1:30pm – 1:45pm | Exley 601 (Math Lounge) | Break | Break |
| 1:45pm – 2:45pm | Exley 405 | Cryptology – Lecture 2 | GGT – Lecture 3 |
| 2:45pm – 3:00pm | Exley 601 (Math Lounge) | Break | Break |
| 3:00pm – 5:00pm | Exley 618/638 | Problem Session | Problem Session |
| 5:00pm – 6:00pm | Exley 601 (Math Lounge) | Math Major Panel | |
| 6:00pm – 7:00pm | Exley 601 (Math Lounge) | Dinner |
Organizers
If you have any questions, please reach out to one of the organizers.
Arianna Zikos
| azikos@wesleyan.edu
Lydia Ahlstrom
| lahlstrom@wesleyan.edu
Zachary Porat
| zporat@wesleyan.edu
Funding
Funded by the Wesleyan University American Mathematical Society Graduate Student Chapter and the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science.
Photo Gallery
