Quantum Computation

Oh, I almost forgot. I’m evidently going to be advising a senior through a project about quantum computation. Basically, he reads this survey paper by Stan Gudder from the Monthly, and then writes a paper of his own (expository, not original), and talks about it to other undergrads. Should look good, if nothing else.

Category Theory Seminar?

There are vanishingly few topics courses available this semester here. I don’t know if this is standard or not, but I think I might go buggy if I don’t find something to do other than calculus any my own work. You guys are great, yeah, but there’s only so much of the old give-and-take that makes mathematical discussions so exciting.

So I’m sounding out interest in an informal seminar on category theory here in the department. I suppose it’d be sort of like the Secret Russian Seminar, in that it’s not really on the books. I don’t know if I’m qualified to start up an official class or anything, given my rank.

Basically I’ll give a rough sketch of the basics of categories (not even as detailed as what I’ve done here), aiming at getting to applications to logic, semantics, physics, and (of course) topology as soon as possible. I may even try to make it accessible to good undergraduate students, if only to convert that many more people to the dark side benefits of categories.