【2017 Seminar】Jun 22

Robert Kozma, University of Memphis & University of Massachusetts Amherst Presents:
Generalizations of percolation processes: From Brains to Stars
June 22, 2017 at 16:00 for 1 hr
Room 11-17, Graduation School of Information Science and Technology, Hokkaido University

Percolation processes over lattices and graphs gained wide popularity in the past two decades. Here we introduce a new class of generalized percolation processes with the following features: (i) relaxing the requirement on the strict monotonicity of the percolation process; (ii) combining regular lattices with random graphs as the network over which the percolation dynamics is studied; (iii) introducing two classes of nodes, excitatory and inhibitory, respectively.

These generalizations are motivated in part by the structure and dynamics of the cortical tissue, as well as other transient dynamical phenomena observed in the nature.

We show that the generalized percolation model can serve as a firm mathematical basis to interpret intermittent singular space-time dynamics observed in various temporal and spatial scales, including microscopic non-local effects at the subatomic level, mesoscopic brain dynamics, and very large-scale oscillations in variable stars in distant Galaxies.

Robert Kozma is Professor of Computer Science at University of Massachusetts Amherst and Professor of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Memphis. Dr. Kozma holds a Ph.D. in Physics (Delft, Netherlands, 1992).

Previously, he had a joint appointment with the Division of Neurobiology and the EECS at UC Berkeley, and many visiting positions, including at NASA/JPL, Sarnoff Co., Princeton, NJ; Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (LBL). He has been Associate Professor at Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan and Lecturer at Otago University, Dunedin, New Zealand.

He is President of INNS (2017-2018); serves on the Board of IEEE SMC Society (2016- 2018); has served on the AdCom of the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society (2009- 2012), and on the Board of Governors of the International Neural Network Society (2007- 2012). He has been General Chair of IJCNN2009, Atlanta, USA.

Dr. Kozma is the recipient of the INNS Gabor Award. He is Fellow of IEEE and Fellow of INNS.