Title:     Bernstein-Bezier Techniques

Speaker:     Dr. Tatyana Sorokina, Professor of Mathematics at Towson University.

Abstract:     “Mathematics is made of 50% formulae, 50% proofs and 50% imagination.” In this talk, we will mostly adhere to the latter, and introduce some ideas related to the study of piecewise polynomials, called splines. Bernstein-Bezier bases for vector spaces of piecewise polynomials in several variables provide a powerful tool to analyze smoothness, dimension and approximation order of such functions. The talk is designed to demonstrate why such bases are superior to the standard basis in spline theory. Some new results on boundary-symmetric splines will be briefly discussed as well.

In part, the talk discusses research conducted by Dr. Sorokina during her recent sabbatical.