The Seminar in Geometry and Statistics takes place monthly at the Department of Mathematics and Data Science of VUB (Building G, Sixth Floor, Room 6.60). It is flexible in terms of schedule and topics, though topics revolve around geometry and statistics. The organizers are Dr. Susovan Pal and myself.
DATE: 20 November 2025
SPEAKER: Alexey Lazarev (Université de Toulouse)
TITLE: TBA
ABSTRACT: TBA
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DATE: 11 December 2025
SPEAKER: Simon Jacobsson (KU Leuven)
TITLE: A Riemannian geometry of low-rank tensors
ABSTRACT: Low-rank tensors are abundant in data analysis and numerical linear algebra. We consider the set of fixed-rank tensors. When the rank is sufficiently low, then (almost) any tensor in this set is related to (almost) any other tensor via a change of basis in each mode. We view this as a transitive Lie group action and show that the set is a smooth homogeneous manifold. We also equip the manifold with a Riemannian metric that is compatible with the homogeneous structure and show how relevant quantities like gradients and geodesics can be computed efficiently. Lastly, we discuss how this can be used to numerically integrate tensor differential equations.
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DATE: 16 October 2025
SPEAKER: Marie Bormann (Bonn Universität)
TITLE: A gradient flow that is none: Heat flow with Wentzell boundary conditions
DATE: 11 September 2025
SPEAKER: Martin Andersson (Uppsala University)
TITLE: Finite-sample inference for intrinsic dimension via Gaussian kernels
DATE: 24 April 2025
SPEAKER: Alice Le Brigant (Sorbonne Université)
TITLE: The Lp Fisher-Rao metric and the alpha-connection
DATE: 18 March 2025
SPEAKER: Mauricio Che (University of Vienna)
TITLE: Spaces of Persistence Diagrams and Optimal Partial Transport
DATE: 13 February 2025
SPEAKER: Diego Bolón Rodríguez (ULB)
TITLE: A review on highest density region estimation
DATE: 23 January 2025
SPEAKER: Eddie Aamari (École Normale Supérieure de Paris)
TITLE: A theory of stratification learning: clustering-by-dimensionality with reconstruction
DATE: 12 December 2024
SPEAKER: Susovan Pal (VUB)
TITLE: Optimal lift, a tool for statistical testing on Singular Shape Spaces
DATE: 13 November 2024
SPEAKER: Claire Brécheteau (Nantes Université)
TITLE: Statistical tests for uniformity and iidness on homogeneous spaces
DATE: 11 September 2024
SPEAKER: Pierre-Antoine Absil (UCLouvain)
TITLE: Feasible and Infeasible Optimization on Manifolds