Speaker: Jessica Sidman, Professor in Mathematics and Computer Science, Amherst College Title: Frameworks in Motion: Design, Theory, and Fabrication Abstract: What do your umbrella, a folding gate, and a scissor lift have in common? They all involve frameworks made of rigid parts attached at flexible joints and are designed to move with one degree of freedom. […]

Speaker: Jesse Wolfson, Associate Professor of Mathematics, University of California, Irvine CA Title: Braids, Polynomials, and Hilbert's 13th Problem Abstract: There are still completely open fundamental questions about polynomials in one variable. One example is Hilbert's 13th Problem, a conjecture going back long before Hilbert.  Indeed, the invention of algebraic topology grew out of an […]