SMS scnews item created by Gareth White at Mon 4 May 2009 1741
Type: Seminar
Distribution: World
Expiry: 6 May 2009
Calendar1: 6 May 2009 1300-1400
CalLoc1: Carslaw 452
Auth: garethw@asti.maths.usyd.edu.au

# SUMS Meeting: Dai -- Who Wants to be a Millionaire?

Hello SUMS members,

Thanks to all of you who turned up last week. We apparently had quite a
turnout, which is only fitting considering how good a speaker Ivan is. For
the 2nd consecutive week, we will be having a talk given by a former Sydney
Uni student. This week it will be pure mathematician (and former
statistician) Zhuo Jia Dai, who has described his talk with perhaps the
shortest abstract that I have ever seen:

"An Introduction to the P=NP Problem"

Let me fill in the details (as best I can). The P=NP Problem is a very
important problem in theoretical computer science, so important in fact,
that a \$1 million prize is being offered for its proof (it is still
unsolved). It relates to the complexity classes P and NP. To describe it
crudely, the problem asks: if the answer to a decision problem (i.e. yes or
no) can be verified in polynomial time, can the answer also be COMPUTED in
polynomial time? If yes, then P=NP.

Yes, that didn’t really explain the problem at all, now did it? Nevermind,
I’m not the one giving the talk anyway. But this IS a very interesting
problem, and Zhuo has given this talk before so he knows what he’s talking
about. In any case, I highly recommend you come!

Talk: Who Wants to be a Millionaire?
Speaker: Zhuo Jia Dai
Location: Carslaw 452
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 6, 1-2pm

Hope to see you there!

SUMS President


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