The Official Blog of the UMass Math Club

This week our speaker is Nathan Harman, a graduating senior! His talk “Fibonacci Numbers and Linear Algebra,” will be accompanied by pizza and soda. Come enjoy the last Math Club meeting of the semester Wednesday at 5:30 in LGRT 1634.

Abstract:
The Fibonacci numbers are a sequence defined recursively by F_0=0 F_1=1 and F_n=F_(n-1)+F_(n-2) (i.e. each term is the sum of the two previous terms).  The sequence starts 0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13… and has a number of interesting identities relating the terms to one another. Linear algebra is the study of vector spaces and linear maps between them. Just how are these things related to one another? Come to math club and find out! Hated linear algebra when you took the course? Come to math club and find out why you are WRONG.  Don’t know any linear algebra? Don’t worry about it, I will go over all the relevant terms.

This week our speaker is Stephen Oloo. His talk “Combinatorial rigidity and … unfolding robot arms?”  will be 5:30 on Wednesday in LGRT 1634. Pizza and soda will be served!

Abstract:
In this talk we will use our intuitive, physical understanding of rigidity
to define, mathematically, what it means for a graph to be rigid. We will
then examine the link between the rigidity of a graph and the number of
vertices and edges it contains (running into some high level maths along
the way). Finally we will see how these ideas can be used to prove some
cool theorems.
Don’t know what a graph is? Don’t like the sound of the word combinatorial?
Have no fear; all will be explained.

Hi everyone,

Come celebrate Pi Day with some pizza, soda, and a great talk! This week, Jennifer Koonz will be speaking about the theory behind the game Set. There should be some time at the end of the talk to play Set ourselves!

This Wednesday 2/29 our speaker is Konstantinos Gourgoulias. He will be talking about an application of game theory to a biological problem. Come join us for pizza and soda with the talk at 5:30 in LGRT 1634!

Abstract:

In this talk, I will present a very simple model of the interactions between four strains of the e. Coli bacterium. First of all, we will get to know the important difference between them and how that difference can be exploited in the construction of the model. Then we will see how we can use that model to get some results back and why those results could mean anything in the real world. By the end of the talk, you will have gained an idea of both the challenges and the usefulness of applied mathematics, hopefully without even realizing it.

I would really like this to be an interactive talk, so I won’t get into more specifics. Some tags for this talk could be : simulation, evolutionary game theory and (naive) Monte Carlo methods. Not familiar with those terms? Don’t worry cause I will explain anything needed.

Oh, and did I mention that we will have videos from simulations, too?

This week our speaker is Julie Rana. Her talk will be on “Working in the Symmetric Group or: How to talk about gift lists, spider webs, and the Rubik’s cube all at the same time.” As usual we will meet in LGRT 1634 at 5:30 PM. Pizza and soda will be served.

Abstract:
Groups are math objects that appear all over the place, from clocks to
calendars to snowflakes and of course, the Rubik’s cube. In this talk,
you’ll learn what a group is and we’ll describe a few fun examples.
We’ll then talk about my favorite example the symmetric group, and the
fact that it gives us a way to discuss all groups at once. Have a
Rubik’s cube? Bring it so we can play with it during the talk!