18.217 Notes

For the fall 2026 term, 18.217 will focus on positroids. For last year's course notes, please see Ilani Axelrod-Freed's website. Written notes will be posted quickly after each lecture, and typed notes will follow at a later date, for general reference. Please reach out with any comments/corrections. I also made a Discord Server: https://discord.gg/J9HAVVRXa for people to informally chat about the class and share combinatorics resources!

Wednesday, September 9th

We began with some general motivation for studying positroids in various areas of mathematics, and followed with a brief plan for the topics to be covered this term. We also discussed some thoughts on AI and the grading structure for the course. The final half of class gave us an introduction to various presentations of the grassmannian and ended with a hint towards Plucker coordinates and Plucker relations.

Written Notes: here
Typed Notes: coming soon



Contact:

Email 1: ef110@wellesley.edu (general & professional)