Colloquium

Senior Math Colloquium policies

Every senior math major is required to prepare and deliver an acceptable colloquium talk or thesis presentation. Your talk should be around thirty minutes long. You can speak on any math/stat topic as long as it is interesting and new to you. Colloquium talks require meticulous preparation in close contact with a faculty advisor, over a period of at least a month.

During the Academic Year 2024-2025 the Math Colloquium will be in person and the attendance requirement will be 20+1 (20 colloquia attended and one given). The time for a colloquium presentation will be 30 minutes +/- 3 minutes. The math colloquia will be on Mondays and Wednesdays from 1-1:45pm in Wachenheim 113. Please follow the announcements on the webpage of the Math/Stat Department for more information (additional colloquia, honors thesis defenses, guest speakers, etc).

All seniors and other interested students should be sure to sign in on the attendance sheet (link below). If you do not attend at least 20 colloquia (at most 5 of which can be previously recorded from your junior year; 5 of which can be from stats colloquia), you will be dropped from the major. The colloquium you deliver counts as one of your 21. Also, there is a prize for best attendance at colloquia!

Some serious fine-print. Your colloquium presentation will be graded by faculty and you are required to earn a passing grade.

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Senior Statistics Colloquium policies

Every senior statistics major is required to prepare and deliver an acceptable colloquium talk or thesis presentation. Talks are around 30 minutes long and can be on any statistical topic as long as it is new to the presenter. To pass the colloquium requirement, talks need to be accurate, engaging, and interesting to both the presenter and the audience. Colloquium talks require meticulous preparation in close contact with a faculty advisor (any of the statistics professors in residence or any other professor in the department), over a period of at least a month.

The colloquium itself starts at 1:10 pm with 2 minutes of announcements followed by a student talk (30 minutes). After each talk, there is a brief period for questions from the audience (thesis defenses have a much longer discussion section following the talk).

Every senior major is expected to attend most of the colloquium talks throughout the entire academic year (so you’ll want to keep that Wednesday 1:10 – 1:50 pm time slot open). In order to graduate with a statistics major, you will be required to attend 20 colloquia (19 colloquia attended and one given). The colloquium you deliver counts as one of your 20, and so do the organizational meeting and the kickoff colloquium. All seniors and juniors should be sure to sign the attendance sheet. If you attend a math or computer science colloquium, you may also count up to 10 attendances (5 from math and 5 from cs) toward your total. For a Math or CS colloquium, please email the Stat colloquium chair with a brief summary of the talk within a week of the attended talk to get credit. Also, there is a prize for best attendance at colloquia!

Some serious fine-print. Your colloquium presentation will be graded by faculty and you are required to earn a passing grade.