University of Utah Theory Reading Group
We are a student-led reading group in the Kahlert School of Computing, and every week we discuss research
from across the field of theoretical computer science. All are welcome!
Logistics
Time: Fridays, 12:00-1:30pm.Location: MEB 3515, or sometimes MEB 3147 (LCR) when external speakers are invited.
Contact: Eli Friedman (eli.friedman at utah.edu). Send questions, comments, or requests to speak.
Fall 2026 Schedule
| Date | Speaker | Title |
|---|---|---|
| August 28 | Felicia Lucke (ENS Lyon) | Finding Matching Cuts |
| September 4 | Prasanth Yalamanchili | Minimizing the Kirchhoff Index |
| September 11 | Eli Friedman | The CUT Query Model |
Previous Terms
Spring 2026
Spring 2026 Schedule
| Date | Speaker | Title |
|---|---|---|
| January 21 February 4 |
Siddhant Chaudhary | Large Deviations for Sums of Partly Dependent Random Variables [Janson04]
Entropy-Based Concentration Inequalities for Dependent Variables [RA15] |
| February 11 | Eli Friedman | Balls into Bins and Power of Two Choices [ABKU99] |
| February 18 | Dylan McKellips | Courcelle's Theorem [Courcelle90] |
| March 4 | Alex Crane | Various proofs of Brooks' Theorem |
| March 18 | Prasanth Yalamanchili | Clustering-Based Edge Augmentation for Minimizing the Kirchhoff Index [BY26] |
| March 25 | Eli Friedman | Simple Approximation Algorithms for Polyamorous Scheduling [BGJ+25] |
| April 1 | Bruce Brewer | A Dynamic Data Structure for Priority-Queue Updates [BW26] |
Fall 2025
Fall 2025 Schedule
| Date | Speaker | Title |
|---|---|---|
| September 5 | Alex Crane | Edge Modification for Probabilistic Graphs [BCJ+25] |
| September 12 | Siddhant Chaudhary | Learning Entangled Single-Sample Gaussians [CDKL14] |
| September 16 | Eli Friedman | Threshold Algorithms for Prophet Inequality Problems |
| October 14 | Md Mumtahin Habib Ullah Mazumder | Maximizing Non-monotone Submodular Functions [FMV11] |
| October 21 | Dylan McKellips | Computing Dense and Sparse Subgraphs of Weakly Closed Graphs [KKS23] |
| November 4 | Prasanth Yalamanchili | Graph Sparsification |
| November 11 | Bruce Brewer | Voronoi Diagrams |
| November 18 | Anastasiia Tkachenko | Computing Dominating Sets in Disk Graphs with Centers in Convex Position [TW25] |