The C&O department has 36 faculty members and 60 graduate students. We are intensely research oriented and hold a strong international reputation in each of our six major areas:
- Algebraic combinatorics
- Combinatorial optimization
- Continuous optimization
- Cryptography
- Graph theory
- Quantum computing
Read more about the department's research to learn of our contributions to the world of mathematics!
News
Laura Pierson wins Governor General's Gold Medal
The Governor General’s Gold Medal is one of the highest student honours awarded by the University of Waterloo.
Sepehr Hajebi wins Graduate Research Excellence Award, Mathematics Doctoral Prize, and finalist designation for Governor General's Gold Medal
The Mathematics Doctoral Prizes are given annually to recognize the achievement of graduating doctoral students in the Faculty of Mathematics. The Graduate Research Excellence Awards are given to students who authored or co-authored an outstanding research paper.
Three C&O faculty win Outstanding Performance Awards
The awards are given each year to faculty members across the University of Waterloo who demonstrate excellence in teaching and research.
Events
C&O Reading Group -Rian Neogi
Title: : Optimal Item Pricing in Online Combinatorial Auctions
| Speaker: | Rian Neogi |
| Affiliation: | University of Waterloo |
| Location: | MC 6029 |
Abstract: I will present a paper by Correa, Cristi, Fielbaum, Pollner, and Weinberg. The paper studies the online combinatorial auction problem when buyers are interested in sets of size at most d. They show that there exist item prices such that the posted price mechanism under these prices results in an allocation that is (d+1)-approximate with respect to the offline benchmark. They show the existence of these prices through a novel use of Brouwer's fixed point theorem.
Tutte colloquium-Ashwin Nayak
Title:Learning quantum states
| Speaker: | Ashwin Nayak |
| Affiliation: | University of Waterloo |
| Location: | MC 5501 |
Abstract: Suppose we are given a sequence of quantum registers initialized to the same quantum state rho, and would like to learn the state rho. That is, we would like to design an algorithm that produces a classical description of an approximation to the state. How many copies of rho dowe need to be able to produce a suitable approximation? This talk will be a gentle introduction to the problem and related results.
Tutte Colloquium - Samuel Jaques
Title: The Landscape of Quantum Computing
| Speaker: | Samuel Jaques |
| Affiliation: | University of Waterloo |
| Location: | MC 5501 |
Abstract: Quantum computers will be able to break all the cryptography we have relied on for the last 4 decades, but when will they have this power? In this talk I will give a high-level overview of where quantum computing technologies are today, the path they will need to take, and what kind of discoveries could help or hinder progress in quantum computing.