[cmath] Avner Magen Memorial Lecture: Avi Wigderson (Institute for Advanced Study)

[Andrea Yeomans]

Public Lecture Announcement:

Avner Magen Memorial Lecture
Avi Wigderson (Institute for Advanced Study)

May 25, 2012 at 11:00 a.m.
Fields Institute, Room 230

The Fields Institute and the University of Toronto Department of
Computer Science are proud to welcome Avi Wigderson, who will deliver
the Avner Magen Memorial Lecture.

Title: Randomness

Is the universe inherently deterministic or probabilistic? Perhaps more
importantly, can we tell the difference between the two?

Humanity has pondered the meaning and utility of randomness for
millennia. There is a remarkable variety of ways in which we utilize
perfect coin tosses to our advantage: in statistics, cryptography, game
theory, algorithms, gambling... Indeed, randomness seems indispensable!
Which of these applications survive if the universe had no randomness in
it at all? Which of them survive if only poor quality randomness is
available, e.g. that arises from "unpredictable" phenomena like the
weather or the stock market?

A computational theory of randomness, developed in the past three
decades, reveals (perhaps counter-intuitively) that very little is lost
in such deterministic or weakly random worlds. In the talk I'll explain
the main ideas and results of this theory.

The talk is aimed at a general audience, and no particular background
will be assumed.


For more information, please visit
www.fields.utoronto.ca/programs/scientific/11-12/public_lectures