Spela Spenko
Université Libre de Bruxelles
My stay at the LUMS was from November 5 to November 19. The purpose of my stay was to teach an advanced algebra course in the IMM program.
In the first week, we covered the topics Principal ideal domains, Unique factorisation domains and Sym- metric polynomials following Professor Stevenhagen’s Algebra 2 notes, in the second week we focused on field extensions following Professor Stevenhagen’s Algebra 3 notes.
In the first week, I gave 4 theory classes and 3 tutorials, while in the second week, I taught 2 theory classes and 3 tutorials.
Students were well prepared; the first part of the course was taught by Professor Anwar where group theory and the basics of ring theory were discussed. The course will be taken over by Professor Stevenhagen, the final goal of the course is Galois theory.
The students are smart, highly motivated, and hard-working. The theory classes were interactive, we arrived at the right definitions, propositions, and theorems by discussions, where almost all students were actively involved. During the tutorials, the students were working alone or in small groups on exercises.
At the end of my visit, I delivered a seminar on HMS symmetries and hypergeometric series in the John Conway Spirited Seminar Series.
The overall experience was highly positive. I experienced great hospitality and an immense energy drive of students, faculty and staff in the Mathematics department.
Admissions
Applicants are divided into two groups: "International Applicants" who have foreign citizenship and "Pakistani Applicants" who either hold Pakistani citizenship, have dual citizenship, or are Pakistanis residing outside the country.