MaPSS: Maths Postgraduate Seminar Series: Zeina Haidar, Adarsh Kumbhari

Hello all,

We have a special MaPSS seminar this week at 17:00 on Mon 28th May in Carslaw 535.
Two speakers will be presenting their work, and as always it’ll be a great opportunity 
to see some interesting talks, meet some fellow postgrads, and get some free pizza!

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Speaker 1: Zeina Libnan Haidar

Title: Periodic Trajectories of Pseudo-Integrable Billiard within Circle with a Barrier

Abstract:  Mathematical billiard in a domain describes the motion of a particle with 
elastic reflections from the boundary. In this talk, we will focus on billiards within a 
circular domain with a barrier. Trajectories of such biulliards always have a circular 
caustic, however the motion is not integrable since the reflection is not defined at 
the end-point of the barrier. We will discuss periodic trajectories, the effect of the 
rotation number and the length of the barrier on them, and give a topological 
description of their phase space leafs.

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Speaker 2: Adarsh Kumbhari

Title: What’s the point in exercising? A cell-biology perspective

Abstract: Mitochondria are specialised organelles that produce adenosine triphosphate 
(ATP), a molecule used by cells as an energy source. Mitochondria form dynamic 
networks that constantly undergo fission and fusion in response to increased ATP 
demand. There is a lack of high-resolution data tracking the reorganisation 
mitochondrial networks in a beating heart cell. We use an agent-based model to 
simulate a mitochondrial network reorganising in beating heart cell. Our visualisation 
highlights how mitochondrial networks respond to stressors such as bouts of 
sustained vigorous physical activity.

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See you there!

Details can also be found on the school’s new Postgraduate Society website: 
http://www.maths.usyd.edu.au/u/MaPS/mapss.html 
 
Cheers,
Eric