Math 9511L: Category Theory (Summer 2019)

Essential information

Textbook

The course will follow Chapters 1-5 of:

  • Riehl, Category Theory in Context, Dover Publications 2016.

The entire book is available for free download in pdf format from the author's website. Students are also welcome to consult:

  • Mac Lane, Categories for the Working Mathematician, 2nd Edition, 1978.

Course content

The topics will include:

  • Categories, Functors, Natural Transformations;
  • Representability and the Yoneda Lemma;
  • Limits and Colimits;
  • Adjoint Functors;
  • Monads and their Algebras;
  • Simplicial Methods and Higher Category Theory.

Evaluation

The final grades will be based on the following components:

  • assignments: 40%
  • midterm exam: 40%
  • final presentation: 20%

Assignments

There will be four assignments, each worth 10% of the final grade. The first three will cover the textbook material and the fourth will cover the final part of the course (simplicial methods and higher category theory).

Midterm Exam

There will a 2-hour midterm exam covering the topics covered in the textbook (i.e., excluding the final part of the course).

Final Presentation

During the final week of the course, each student will be required to give a 50-minute presentation. The instructor will prepare a list of potential topics, but the students are welcome, and in fact encouraged, to suggest their own topic. The topic of the presentation must be a meaningful application of categorical methods to any area of mathematics, computer science, physics, or philosophy that is approved by the instructor. The instructor is reasonable. (-:

Accommodation and Accesibility

If you are unable to meet a course requirement due to illness or other serious circumstances, you must provide valid medical or supporting documentation to the Academic Counselling Office of your home faculty as soon as possible. If you are a Science student, the Academic Counselling Office of the Faculty of Science is located in WSC 140, and can be contacted at scibmsac@uwo.ca.

For further information, please consult the university’s medical illness policy at

http://www.uwo.ca/univsec/pdf/academic_policies/appeals/accommodation_medical.pdf.

If you miss the Final Exam, please contact your faculty’s Academic Counselling Office as soon as you are able to do so. They will assess your eligibility to write the Special Exam (the name given by the university to a makeup Final Exam). You may also be eligible to write the Special Exam if you are in a “Multiple Exam Situation”

http://www.registrar.uwo.ca/examinations/exam_schedule.html

Academic Policies

The website for Registrarial Services is http://www.registrar.uwo.ca.

In accordance with policy, http://www.uwo.ca/its/identity/activatenonstudent.html, the centrally administered e-mail account provided to students will be considered the individual’s official university e-mail address. It is the responsibility of the account holder to ensure that e-mail received from the University at his/her official university address is attended to in a timely manner.

 

Scholastic offences are taken seriously and students are directed to read the appropriate policy, specifically, the definition of what constitutes a Scholastic Offence, at this website:

http://www.uwo.ca/univsec/pdf/academic_policies/appeals/scholastic_discipline_undergrad.pdf.

Student Accessibility Services

Western is committed to achieving barrier-free accessibility for all its members, including graduate students. As part of this commitment, Western provides a variety of services devoted to promoting, advocating, and accommodating persons with disabilities in their respective graduate program.

Graduate students with disabilities (for example, chronic illnesses, mental health conditions, mobility impairments) are encouraged to register with Student Accessibility Services, a confidential service designed to support graduate and undergraduate students through their academic program. With the appropriate documentation, the student will work with both SAS and their graduate programs (normally their Graduate Chair and/or Course instructor) to ensure that appropriate academic accommodations to program requirements are arranged.  These accommodations include individual counselling, alternative formatted literature, accessible campus transportation, learning strategy instruction, writing exams and assistive technology instruction.

http://www.sdc.uwo.ca/ssd/