Fall 2026 Calendar
A date-by-date working plan
This calendar uses McGill’s approved Fall 2026 academic dates. Lecture topics after September 14 are a working plan and will change as the notes develop. The midterm date is tentative.
Teaching calendar
| Date | Meeting | Topic |
|---|---|---|
| Mon Aug 31 | Lecture 1 | The curse of dimensionality: integration, Monte Carlo, covers, and volume |
| Wed Sep 2 | Lecture 2 | Convex hulls and sparse approximation: Carathéodory and Maurey’s method |
| Mon Sep 7 | — | No class — Labour Day |
| Wed Sep 9 | Lecture 3 | Gaussian width: dual norms, convexification, and entropy |
| Mon Sep 14 | Lecture 4 | Tails of random variables: sub-Gaussian variables and Chernoff bounds |
| Wed Sep 16 | Lecture 5 | Geometric discrepancy and Orlicz norms |
| Mon Sep 21 | Lecture 6 | Bernstein’s inequality and dimension reduction |
| Wed Sep 23 | Lecture 7 | Coordinate embeddings |
| Mon Sep 28 | Lecture 8 | Extreme singular values I: nets and operator norms |
| Wed Sep 30 | Lecture 9 | Extreme singular values II: small-ball estimates |
| Mon Oct 5 | Lecture 10 | Extreme singular values III: rectangular sub-Gaussian matrices |
| Wed Oct 7 | Lecture 11 | Max-cut and a first combinatorial optimization application |
| Fri Oct 9–Wed Oct 14 | — | No class — Fall Reading Break |
| Mon Oct 19 | Lecture 12 | Gaussian random matrices |
| Wed Oct 21 | Lecture 13 | Grothendieck’s inequality I |
| Mon Oct 26 | Lecture 14 | Grothendieck’s inequality II and midterm review |
| Wed Oct 28 | — | Tentative in-class midterm |
| Mon Nov 2 | Lecture 15 | Covariance estimation I |
| Wed Nov 4 | Lecture 16 | Covariance estimation II |
| Mon Nov 9 | Lecture 17 | Gaussian processes and Dudley’s entropy integral |
| Wed Nov 11 | Lecture 18 | Gaussian and Lipschitz concentration |
| Mon Nov 16 | Lecture 19 | Gaussian width revisited |
| Wed Nov 18 | Lecture 20 | Applications of Gaussian width |
| Mon Nov 23 | Lecture 21 | Generic chaining I |
| Wed Nov 25 | Lecture 22 | Generic chaining II |
| Mon Nov 30 | Lecture 23 | Concentration of energy on the sphere |
| Wed Dec 2 | Lecture 24 | The smallest singular value problem |
| Thu Dec 3 | Lecture 25 | Monday make-up schedule: synthesis and applications |
Academic dates
- Monday, August 31: classes begin.
- Monday, September 7: Labour Day; classes cancelled.
- Tuesday, September 15: add/drop deadline.
- Tuesday, September 22: withdrawal-with-refund deadline.
- Friday, October 9–Wednesday, October 14: Fall Reading Break; classes cancelled.
- Tuesday, October 27: withdrawal-without-refund deadline.
- Thursday, December 3: Monday-schedule make-up day.
- Friday, December 4: classes end.
- December 5–6: study days.
- Monday, December 7: examinations begin.
The official McGill calendar takes precedence if any institutional date changes.
Quiz section
Homework presentations will take place in a separate quiz section. Its day, time, and room are still to be announced, so no section meetings have been invented on this calendar. Kevin Xiao will communicate the private presenter rotation.