Dr. Matthew Willis
Connecticut College

February 9, 2016
12:30 pm – 1:30 pm
SCP-229

“The Combinatorics of Counting Catalan Numbers”

Abstract: In this talk we will focus on a few specific counting problems.  Some will be geometric or algebraic in nature using only polygons or graphs.  Other examples will be purely combinatorial involving  objects  such  as  “Young  diagrams”  and “Young  tableaux”.   Along the way we will encounter one of the most well-known counts in this subject:  the Catalan numbers. We will also discuss how some of these counts relate to some recent research in this field.