Department of Discrete Mathematics

From the department's life

7th Student Conference

December 2023

The 7th Student Conference of the "Snark" Research Student Association will be held at AGH on 8-9 December 2023. There will be invited talks by distinguished guests: Jarosław Grytczuk, Andrzej Grzesik, Mária Maceková and Paweł Naroski. Members of the Circle and doctoral students will talk about their scientific areas of interest. This conference is another in a series started in 2016 to popularise discrete mathematics among students at AGH and other universities. More information about the conference can be found on the KNMD website.

Jakub Przybyło's success

November 2023

According to the ranking of the Science-Wide Author Databases of Standardised Citation Indicators - World's TOP 2% Scientists, prepared by Stanford University and the Elsevier publishing house, our colleague Jakub Przybyło has been included among the 2% of most frequently cited scientists in the world in 2022. Congratulations for your success, Jakub!

AGH University Teacher Laurel

October 2023

On 10 October 2023, the winners of the 4th edition of the competition "AGH University Teacher Laurel" were announced during a gala event at the "Studio" Club. The competition is organised by the AGH University Student Government (URSS AGH) under the patronage of the Rector. A great accomplishment was achieved by our colleague Lech Adamus, who won the award for the best lecturer! This is the most prestigious of the five categories in this competition. Huge congratulations, Lechu!

Sabbatical at KMD

November 2022

From the beginning of October until the end of September 2023 we are hosting Sibel Özkan from Gebze Technical University in Turkey. She is the first professor in mathematics to spend her one-year sabbatical at WMS! Sibel Özkan is working with Mariusz Meszka.

9th Polish Combinatorial Conference

September 2022

At the research and conference center of the Mathematical Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Będlewo from September 18 to 24, 2022, the 9th Polish Combinatorial Conference took place. This series of conferences is addressed primarily to young Polish combinatorialists. Our department was represented by six people, including three PhD students.

AGH is a co-organizer of these conferences, along with UAM, PAN, PW, UJ and UW. Mariusz Wozniak has been a member of the Scientific Committee for many years. From the next meeting in 2024 Jakub Przybylo also will be a member. Moreover, the Organizing Committee will include Monika Pilśniak and Aleksandra Gorzkowska, who has already performed organizational duties this year.

KMD at MGTC 2022

September 2022

As many as 6 people from our department attended the Maribor Graph Theory Conference (September 11-15, 2022), dedicated to Sandi Klavžar's 60th birthday. On this occasion, we prepared a gift for the Jubilarian in the form of a printout of his mathematical family tree. Its presentation by Mariusz Woźniak was even noted in the Maribor daily newspaper!

Mariusz Woźniak also delivered an invited plenary lecture. A special session devoted to Wilfried Imrich's contributions to the development of graph theory in Slovenia and especially at the University of Maribor was led by Monika Pilśniak. She did not miss the opportunity to also recall his scientific contributions to KMD as a visiting professor at AGH.

Cracow Summer School in Discrete Mathematics

July 2022

On July 4 - 8, 2022, the first Cracow Summer School in Discrete Mathematics took place in Cracow. It was attended by 33 young mathematicians from 12 countries on 4 continents! Lectures and exercises in two modern branches of discrete mathematics: percolation and combinatorial limits were conducted by two leading experts in these fields, Tobias Müller (University of Groningen, Netherlands) and Daniel Kráľ (Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic). The classes were held at the WMS and at the headquarters of the Cracow NBP branch on Basztowa Street. The school was held as part of the celebration of the 25th anniversary of WMS and was a great success for Monika Pilśniak, who for the first time found understanding and support of the WMS dean for such a form of promoting the Faculty and Department. It is worth noting that one of the fruits is establishing an active scientific cooperation with Tobias Müller, who is just now hosting Jakub Kwaśny in Groningen. Most probably the school will have a continuation in the following years. For more information, visit http://www.cssdm.agh.edu.pl/.

9th Cracow Conference on Graph Theory

June 2022

On June 5 - 10, 2022 in the hotel "Perła Południa" in Rytro the 9th Cracow Conference on Graph Theory was held. It was attended by 72 mathematicians from 16 countries. This event inaugurated the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Department of Applied Mathematics of AGH. The scientific program included 6 invited plenary lectures, 35 contributed talks and a problem session. There was also a special birthday session for Mariusz Woźniak's with the participation of four foreign co-authors of the Jubilarian's papers, which was prepared by his doctoral students. The participation of invited guests and doctoral students was partially subsidized by MEiN and WMS AGH. More information, including photos from the conference, can be found at http://www.9ccgt.agh.edu.pl/.

Mariusz Woźniak's jubilee

January 2022

On 18th January 2022, a celebratory meeting of the Department was held on the occasion of Mariusz Woźniak's jubilee. The commemorative speeches emphasised Mariusz's merits as a mentor with charisma and an outstanding organiser of science. One of his most important priorities is to train perfectly prepared successors so that the works he creates may be continued and developed for the benefit of the Faculty, the Department and individuals. We hope that Mariusz will continue to be the scientific leader of our Department for many years to come.

AGH University Teacher Laurel

October 2020

On 28th October 2020, a celebratory gala was held to announce the winners of the first edition of the ,,AGH University Teacher Laurel" competition. We are most pleased to announce that our colleague Monika Pilśniak received a honourable mention in the category of Tutor of Students Research Circle. The measure of her success is the fact, that there are 139 such research circles at AGH, and that the recommendations and the decision in the competition were made by the students themselves. Heartfelt congratulations!

More information on AGH webpage: https://www.agh.edu.pl/info/article/laur-dydaktyka-agh-znamy-nazwiska-nauczycieli-akademii-szczegolnie-docenionych-przez-studentow/

The winners of ,,The outstanding" competition from our Department

June 2020

We are pleased to inform that our two colleagues: Lech Adamus and Jakub Przybyło took the first two prizes in this year's edition of ,,The outstanding" competition. The prize is awarded to the best educator of the Faculty of Applied Mathematics, AGH University.

This was the second edition of the competition, organized by the student government. More than 200 students of our Faculty cast their vote. Congratulations to the winners!

Remote PhD thesis defence

June 2020

On 4th June 2020 took place the first in our Faculty (and probably not only the Faculty) public PhD thesis defence conducted remotely. Almost 30 people attended using Internet link and additional 10 people were present in the room.

Sincere congratulations to Magdalena Tyniec-Motyka and her supervisor, Mariusz Meszka.

Monika Pilśniak's tour in Slovenia

October 2019

On 14th-18th October 2019, Monika Pilśniak, the winner of the first edition of the Petra Šparl Award, established by Slovenian Society of Discrete and Applied Mathematics for young woman mathematicians, gave three different speeches on all three Slovenian public universities in Maribor, Ljubljana and Koper. She presented the results of her research, including the most recent findings, devised after receiving the prize.

The winner of the second edition of the Petra Šparl Award will be announced on 11th July 2020, during the closing ceremony of 8th European Congress of Mathematics in Portorož.

On the Trail of Women in Mathematics

September 2019

On 31th August - 2nd September 2019, our faculty hosted a conference "On the Trail of Women in Mathematics – in Honor of Sofia Kowalewska" organized by Polish Women in Mathematics and Faculty of Applied Mathematics AGH-UST, in collaboration with Polish Mathematical Society and Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences of University of Rzeszów. The conference was a part of a larger series, „Śladami kobiet w matematyce".

The session dedicated to discrete mathematics was organized by Sylwia Cichacz-Przeniosło and Agnieszka Gőrlich.

The 2018 Petra Šparl Award for Monika Pilśniak

May 2018

Monika Pilśniak is the winner of the first edition of the Petra Šparl Award which is an international price established by Slovenian Society of Discrete and Applied Mathematics to recognise in each even-numbered year the best paper published in the previous five years by a young woman mathematician. The award ceremony took place on May 27th on the conference "Graphs, groups and more" in Koper. Before an audience of over 100 mathematician from almost 30 countries, Marston Conder from University of Auckland, New Zealand, the Head of the Commitee (first from the right), announced the verdict. The laureate had an invited talk on the conference. She has also been invited to give lectures on all three public universities in Slovenia: in Koper, Maribor and Ljubljana, and incorporated to the Award Commitee. More information in the recent volume of Ars Mathematica Contemporanea.

The discrete mathematics in Slovenia is an unusual phenomenon. In this 2-million population country in the last 40 years a number of strong discrete mathematics specialists have emerged. The numbers only enforce this claim: 93 doctorates and 2500 citations, according to MathSciNet, of the papers of each of: Sandi Klavžar, Dragan Marušič (first from the left) and Bojan Mohar. The next, 8th European Congress of Mathematics will take place in Portorož on July 2020. The chairman of the scientific committee is Dragan Marušič, the first professor of discrete mathematics in Slovenia. The vice-chairwoman is Klavdija Kutnar, one of the candidates to Petra Šparl Award, n.b. the co-supervisor of the doctoral dissertation of our fellow, Paweł Petecki.

(500+)th Discrete Mathematics Seminar

May 2018

On Tuesday, May 8th 2018, the Department celebrated its (500+)th seminar. The occasion of the celebration (a birthday cake instead of the buns!) was a fact that it was the meeting number 500 since prof. Mariusz Woźniak set up a webpage of the seminar. The seminar number 1 took place on December 2nd, 1999 and the speaker was prof. Peter Mihok from Košice. On the 500th seminar, the speaker was his former PhD student, prof. Gabriel Semanišin.

The exact number of the meetings was 500 + some unknown constant. The Discrete Mathematics Seminar on AGH was initiated on the beginning of the '70s by prof. Zdzisław Skupień. Later, it was led by professors Adam Paweł Wojda, Mariusz Woźniak, Mariusz Meszka and now Jakub Przybyło. During the meeting, Dean Vsevolod Vladimirov handed prof. Woźniak and prof. Skupień bouquets of flowers.

Prof. Gabriel Semanišin took the occasion as the Dean of the Faculty of Science, P.J. Šafárik University in Košice to decorate prof. Mariusz Woźniak with a Brown Medal of Merit of his faculty, in recognition of their long-time, fruitful cooperation. Congratulation!

In the new Scottish Café

April 2018

During their trip to Lviv, Wilfried Imrich, Rafał Kalinowski, Monika Pilśniak and Leonid Płachta visited the new Scottish Café, opened in 2015 near the non-existent, fabled Scottish Café. Inside, there are exhibited the portraits of Polish mathematicians that were working there, in Lwów, before the second world war. A replica of the famous Scottish Book is also displayed. In addition, a new Scottish Book is open to inscribe new open problems. The visitors took the opportunity.

Cooperation with the University of Mashhad

March 2018

Invited by prof. Madjid Mirzavaziri from the Department of Pure Mathematics, Ferdowsi University Of Mashhad (دانشگاه فردوسی مشهد), Rafał Kalinowski and Monika Pilśniak ran a Winter School on Graph Theory in March 2018. Almost 30 academics, students and graduates attended their lectures.

The cooperation with the University of Mashhad started in 2016 when Mohammad Hadi Shekarriz had his 6-month PhD internship in our department. Later, in July 2017, we hosted prof. Mirzavaziri in our seminar.

Prof. Wilfried Imrich receives a honorary degree

January 2018

Prof. Wilfried Imrich (Montanuniversität Leoben, Austria) has recently received a honorary degree from the University of Maribor (Slovenia) on January 31st, 2018.

He is a visiting professor of WMS for 9 years and he has been running multiple courses for the students of the Faculty (and sometimes also for the students of Computer Science) which have been highly popular among them. He also has been cooperating with the Department of Discrete Mathematics. Currently he is one of the leaders of the Polish-Austrian project "Symmetry breaking by colourings" (the other leader is Monika Pilśniak).

This year he is conducting another course for our under- and postgraduate students, titled "Products of directed and undirected graphs". The course starts on March 5th.

President of Hereditarnia Club from WMS.

October 2017

20th Hereditarnia Workshop was held on September 22-24th. It was Szklarska Poręba where the scientists from Austria, Slovenia, Slovakia and Poland shared their new results about hereditary properties of graphs. Hereditarnia Club consociates over 65 mathematicians from Europe, South Africa and USA, four of which are from the Department of Discrete Mathematics of AGH. According to the custom, an election was held and the President-elect for 2018 is dr hab. Rafał Kalinowski who had an invited talk. Congratulations!

Prof. Mariusz Woźniak will be a juror of PTM Stefan Banach Main Prize and PTM Prize for young mathematicians.

June 2017

We are pleased to announce that by a resolution of the Board od Delegates of the Polish Mathematical Society (PTM), prof. dr hab. Mariusz Woźniak has been appointed a member of the Jury of PTM Stefan Banach Main Prize and PTM Prize for young mathematicians for years 2018-2020. Congratulations!

Organizational successes of "Żmirłacz"

February 2016

By the decision of the contest committee "Grant Rektorski" 2016 ("Rector's Grant" 2016), the Students Research Circle of Discrete Mathematics "Żmirłacz" has received a financial support of two projects, scheduled for realization in the forthcoming term.

The first of these is a scientific camp, during which the circle members shall have opportunity to discuss the achieved scientific results and integrate themselves, aiming at better future cooperation. This shall be the first awayday of this type, and since the circle is a new initiative, its members want to get to know themselves better. An important goal is also to show the younger members of the circle how dynamically discrete mathematics develops and how much is yet to be discovered in this discipline.

The second one is a scientific conference, due to which the circle members shall have opportunity to get acquainted with most recent scientific research in discrete mathematics, with special emphasis on graph theory, and to present their own results to wider audience. Such conference would be unique in the Faculty of Applied Mathematics, as neither student's conference organised thus far by the faculty aimed mainly at exchange of scientific results, rather than popularization of mathematics and presentation of previously known solutions.

The circle's management hopes that due to this type of experiences exchange new ideas shall appear, and that these two events shall initiate a new fine tradition.

Research Circle of Discrete Mathematics

September 2015

A group of creatively interested in discrete mathematics students has been operating for a couple of terms in our Faculty. Participating in seminars they presented strong willingness of learning and applying various research techniques, trying out their skills in discrete mathematics.

By the decision of the vice-rector Anna Siwik, on September 29, 2015 the Students Research Circle of Discrete Mathematics "Żmirłacz" was constituted. The circle's management consists of: chairman Jakub Kwaśny, vice-chairman Monika Bednarz, secretary Angelika Dudzik. Scientific advisors of the circle are Dr. Monika Pilśniak and Dr. Jakub Przybyło.

The students plan to focus their activity within three sections: STG (structural graph theory), MPAT (probabilistic, algebraic and topological methods) and PA (algorithmic problems).

LaBRI Cracovie

June 2015

Guests from LaBRI Bordeaux, that is Olivier Baudon and Herve Hocquard.

Herve Hocquard on KMD seminar

June 2015

One June 9, 2015, during the KMD Seminar a talk was delivered by Herve Hocquard.

Olivier Baudon on KMD seminarD

June 2015

Olivier Baudon delivered a talk in Discrete Mathematics Seminar on June 2, 2015.

Wilfried Imrich - herzlich willkommen!

May 2015

On May 14, 2015 Wilfried Imrich visited KMD Seminar.

Erika Škrabuľáková on GTG meeting

May 2015

On May 28, 2015, a contributor of a meeting of the Graph Theory Group was Erika Škrabuľáková.

Juliem Bensmail on GTG meeting

April 2015

Juliem Bensmail took part in GTG meeting on April 16, 2015.

Talk on... crutches

March 2015

On March, 2016, on GTG meeting, a talk was delivered by the departament's emploee Jakub Przybyło. As the atendees report, he could not have supported his thesis without crutches.

Changing of the guard in Hereditarnia

January 2015

Mirko Horňák, recent president of Hereditania, visited the seminar on January 23, 2006. In the last photo jointly with his successor Mariusz Woźniak.

Andre Raspaud on seminar

October 2014

Andre Raspaud (LaBRI Bordeaux, France)delivered a talk on the Discrete Mathematics Seminar on October 14, 2014.

Our visitors from LaBRI

November 2013

Two of our colleagues from Laboratorie Bordelais de Recherche en Informatique, Olivier Baudon and Julien Bensmail, were our guests on November 1-11, 2011. Julien within the Discrete Mathematics seminar delivered a lecture "Imposing vertex-part relationships while arbitrarily partitioning a graph".

GTG awayday

October 2012

On October 18, 2012, the traditional Thursday working meeting of the Graph Theory Group took place in Rabka. A talk in Park Zdrojowy was delivered by Rafał Kalinowski "0n arbitrartily partitionable Cartesian products".

Internship in the Department of Discrete Mathematics:

October 2012

Julien Bensmail from LaBRI (Bordeaux) left on 7 October 2012. Julien was the first PhD student who did his monthly internship in our department.

Snark, i.e., żmirłacz

December 2012

In December 2009, a ceremonial meeting of the department was oranized. This way a change of status - since it was the only change that had occured - of a colleague Zdzisław Skupień was celebrated.

Apart from occasional speeches and a fantastic menu, it is worth to mention a gift that was presented by the department's members to their father-founder.

A dispute about wether it should be called `żmirłacz' or `snark' has been continued for years, and there is no hope for its ending.

It is only certain that this monster had the following limerick in its mouth (some things should not be translated):

Raz jeden Zdzisław z Krakowa, profesor matematyki,
Miał także w dziedzinie polowań, znane i cenne wyniki.
Pozwólcie, że wytłumaczę,
że chodzi tu o żmirłacze,
a nie, że strzelał byki.

In the second picture the recipient illustrates a well known conjecture, that every snark has, in properly chosen units, length e.