Open to all early career researchers. Get to know what your fellow Ph.D students are working on!
Time: 28.02.2024 at 4:00 pm
Place: 2.28.0.102 (Attention: Change of location!)
Details are announced via mailing list "SIAM-chapter-list", or ask Franziska or Hans.
ATTENTION: This time we have two great speakers working on related fields!
Seminar Title: The Mysterious Motility of Microorganisms
First Presentation
Speaker: Agniva Datta
Topic: The mysterious motion of swimming bacteria: a bridge connecting biology and non-equilibrium physics
Abstract:
From the mesmerizing patterns formed by flocking birds to the remarkable ability of lizards to regenerate their tails, the intricate phenomena observed in living systems at different length scales beckon physicists to unravel their mysteries. These captivating puzzles often find their answers at the interface of nonlinear dynamics and non-equilibrium statistical mechanics. Not only do these solutions shed light on the underlying biology, but they also unveil previously uncharted territories within the black-box of physics far from equilibrium.
In this presentation, I will delve into a case study from my doctoral research: the motion of swimming bacteria. Our study incorporates a combination of experimental analysis utilizing the soil bacterium
Pseudomonas putida and active particle modeling. Specifically, we investigate how the disordered environment (agar) guides the migration patterns of these bacteria, resulting in remarkable motility characteristics like ergodicity breaking. In contrast to E. coli, our research reveals the transient sub-diffusion of bacteria in agar, primarily attributed to intermittent trapping. These findings underscore a dynamic run-and-trap mechanism, with trap times following a power-law distribution. I will discuss the implications of these findings and establish an intricate correlation between the micro-scale navigation of bacteria and their largescale movement in diverse and heterogeneous environments.
Second Presentation
Speaker: Jan Albrecht
Topic: Bayesian Parameter Inference for Biological Tracking Data
Abstract:
In order to understand and predict the motion patterns of microorganisms, robust methods to infer motility models from time discrete experimental data are required. Due to the internal complexity of the organisms and the ensuing quasi-random motion, stochastic models like SDEs are well suited to describe their movements.
Bayesian statistical methods provide a way to efficiently extract information from the trajectory data and provide model parameter estimates together with a measure of uncertainty.
We showcase that Bayesian methods are especially well suited when the models contain additional layers of stochasticity, for example population heterogeneity or temporal dependence of parameters. Furthermore, we demonstrate how challenges that arise when multidimensional dynamics is only partially observed, e.g. second order dynamics, can be addressed.
Fellow SIAM Student Chapter Appreciators and Frequent Guests,
To better get to know our neighbour SIAM chapters in Berlin, discuss shared experiences about studying Mathematics and exchange cool insights about research and organisation in other SFBs, we are happy to invite you to our first shared event:
The Metropolregion Potsdam-Berlin Siam Student Chapter Pub Crawl @ Friedrichshagen (approx. Boxhagener Platz).
The MPBSSCPC@F-hain, for short, will take place on 09.02.2024 starting at Train Station Berlin Ostkreuz (or Ost-X as it is known to regionals) at 6pm. We are planning on having a great time with reasonable cheap drinks, delicious food from all over the area and good company.
But there is more! With some financial support from the SIAM-Chapter treasury, we have some budget for limited free drinks!
To end with our University of Potsdam SIAM Student Chapter President's famous goodbye:
You all look very good today! Have a nice day, bye!
Your SIAM chapter officers,
Giuseppe, Josie, Hans and Franzi
Get to know what your fellow Ph.D students are working on!
Time: 25.10.2023 at 4:00 pm
Place: 2.09.2.22. Details are announced via mailing list "SIAM-chapter-list", or ask Franziska or Hans.
Speaker: Maximilian Kloppe
Topic: A Phase-Field Model of Elastic Surfaces in Flow
Abstract:
The small thickness of membranes, shells and capsules enables their efficient approximation as hyper-surfaces. Phase-field modeling provides a versatile tool to capture the motion of such elastic hyper-surfaces in fluid flow under bending and surface tension forces. However, the in-plane stretching of the surface has been widely neglected or approximated by inextensibility of the material.
In this talk, we develop a novel phase-field model for elastic hyper-surfaces in Navier–Stokes fluids, which includes bending, tension, and in-plane stretching. The model is based on a coupling of a phase-field model for two-phase flow to a fully Eulerian description of the surface deformation tensor. We apply the method to microfluidic experiments on lipid vesicles and illustrate how the results can be used to better understand the mechanical properties of cell membranes.
Get to know what your fellow Ph.D students are working on!
Time: 27.09.2023 at 4:00 pm
Place: 2.09.2.22. Details are announced via mailing list "SIAM-chapter-list", or ask Franziska or Hans.
Speaker: Paula Pirker Diaz
Topic: Self-regulation of a network of Kuramoto oscillators (Complexity Science and Complex Systems Theory)
Abstract: Persistent global synchronization of a neuronal network is considered a pathological, undesired state, and it is often caused by the loss of neurons or their regulatory agents, e.g. glial cells.
Considering a brain-like network characterized by a modular organization combined with a dynamic description of the nodes as Kuramoto oscillators, we have applied a self-regulation mechanism to keep local synchronization while avoiding global synchronization at the same time. In this talk, I am going to explain our model and the results obtained, which show that the desired state is achievable despite the simplicity of the approximation.
We are happy to announce that we founded a SIAM Student Chapter in Potsdam in February 2021. See here for general information about SIAM student chapters.
The Student Chapter is an association of students at the University of Potsdam.
What are the benefits of being organised as a SIAM Student Chapter?
Who can become a member?
How to become a member?
General information:
If you have any questions feel free to ask the PhD representatives Franzi and Hans. The faculty advisor of this Chapter is Prof. Dr. Melina Freitag.
Can you summarize the content of your research in 3 minutes? Can you do it in an entertaining way? Then our SIAM Slam might be for you!
As a joint initiative of our SIAM Chapter and the SIAM Chapters of Aachen, Heidelberg and Magdeburg, we would like to invite you to SIAM Slam. There, different participants will present their theses or other scientific findings in a very short amount of time. The audience will choose the most entertaining and informative presentation.
The event will take place via zoom on the 10th of June at 18:00. Feel free to ask Florian for the login data.
Each participant will have exactly 3 minutes for their presentation. A slideshow is allowed, however, we advise reducing the number of slides. There will be a prize for the best presentation.
If you just want to be a spectator, you are welcome to join as well. Then, no registration is needed. In the second part of the event, we will run a short quiz based on the presentations. Here, the winner will also get a small prize. We plan to close the event with an opportunity to together play games online.
If you always wanted to try your hand at being a science communicator, this is your time. Who knows, maybe you are the next Richard Feynman or Stephen Hawking? :)
