Title: Math as Art and Recreation Speaker: Peter Kagey, HMC Abstract: Recreational Mathematics is an area of math which is rooted in exploration and playfulness, and includes puzzles, games, art, and more. This talk takes a closer look at these ideas, emphasizing how a foundation of curiosity and play can lead to insightful connections with various […]
Title: Shrinkage Estimation for Causal Inference and Experimental Design Speaker: Evan T. R. Rosenman, Assistant Professor of Statistics, Claremont McKenna College Abstract: Passive collection of observational data -- in settings such as medicine, insurance, and e-commerce -- is a ubiquitous feature of modern life. For statisticians, these ever-proliferating datasets are both promising and perilous. Observational […]
Title: Mirror Symmetry and Zeta Values Speaker: Sheel Ganatra, University of Southern California Abstract: Mirror symmetry is a conjectural correspondence, born out of ideas in string theory, between two geometries of very different nature. In its earliest mathematical appearance, mirror symmetry was used to make predictions for certain numerical measurements of one space in terms of […]
Title: Evolution of an Intriguing Recreational Math Problem Speaker: Shawn McMurran, California State University San Bernardino Abstract: Besides being popular and entertaining, recreational mathematics problems are often of historical interest. In this presentation we will highlight the origin and evolution of one such simply stated yet deep problem. The problem emerged during the eighteenth century […]
Title: A Group-Theoretic Ax-Katz Theorem Speaker: Pete L. Clark, University of Georgia Abstract: The Chevalley-Warning Theorem is a result from 1935 asserting that the number of solutions to a low degree polynomial system over a finite field is divisible by the characteristic of the field. It is an important result -- it includes a conjecture […]
