University of Primorska Faculty of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Information Technologies
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Sunday, 3 July 2022 10th anniversary of the PhD Summer School in discrete mathematics at Rogla

The last week of June marked the successful implementation of the 10th International PhD Summer School in Discrete Mathematics, which is traditionally organized by UP FAMNIT and UP IAM. 65 mathematicians registered for this scientific meeting held in Rogla, and they were able to discuss their research work and attend various lectures between June 26 and July 2.

As in previous years, mathematicians from all over the world applied. Two mini-courses were lectured by:

  • Michel Lavrauw, Sabancı University, Turkey: »Algebraic and geometric methods in tensor theory« and
  • Mikhail Muzychuk, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel: »Coherent Configurations, Weisfeiler-Leman algorithm and Graph Isomorphism Problem«.

While invited speakers were:

  • Edwin van Dam, Tilburg University: »Pseudo-geometric strongly regular graphs with a regular point«,
  • Robert Jajcay, Comenius University Bratislava: »Group based constructions of k-regular graphs of large girth and small degree«,
  • Daniel Kráľ (Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic): »Spectral method in extremal combinatorics« and
  • Tamás Szőnyi, Eötvös Loránd University and University of Primorska: »On large minimal blocking sets in projective planes of square order«.

During the past ten years, PhD Summer School in Rogla has attracted almost 700 researchers and students from all around the world. Many of them keep returning year after year, which clearly shows both the popularity and the quality of this scientific mathematical meeting.

   

»Having the opportunity to listen to the most recent results in the field of Mathematics, from many extraordinary professors and students has been incredibly inspiring for me. Not only did I learn a lot, but I've made some amazing acquaintances and friendships. The beautiful scenery of Rogla is just a cherry on top. Events like this one help in widening the network in the professional world, opening new opportunities and just make learning fun«, said Ajla Šehović, one of the participants.

This year, the students also competed for the Best Student Talk Award. Recipient was decided by the committee members Ted Dobson, Aleksander Malnič and Russ Woodroofe and the award was given to Sam Adriaensen (Vrije Universiteit Brussel), for the talk entitled »Stability of Erdos-Ko-Rado Theorems in Circle Geometries«. He received free participation at the next year’s 11th PhD Summer School in Discrete Mathematics.


Russ Woodroofe, Ted Dobson, Sam Adriaensen and Aleksander Malnič

The committee awarded an honorable mention to Krisztina Szilagyi from Utrecht University for the talk entitled »Polynomial Kernel For Face Cover«.

As Rene Rodriguez Aldama, one of the participants, summarized, the conference was a great opportunity for students to present their work: »The Summer School in Discrete Mathematics aims to gather experts in the area and PhD students who can discuss different lines of research and expose their current works. This year, we had the privilege to presence eminent invited speakers: Edwin van Dam, Robert Jajcay, Daniel Král’ and Tamás Szőnyi. For me, the fact that students can present their work at such an international setting is a plus. The recreational activities were a success: pancakes, karaoke, dance and lots of fun. The cool weather and beautiful landscape at about 1500 m above the sea were just the extra added value to the conference.«

Read more about this year's program and participants here.