Please join us for the last math club meeting of the semester in LGRT 1528 from 5-6pm tonight. We’ll rally around pizza, soda and our love of math, and reminisce. It’s also a great chance for you to propose future math club activities or talks if you’d like to give one next semester. I’ll also bring Set.
4/20 – Robin Koytcheff: Knots, Links and linking number
Robin will talk tonight in LGRT 1528, 5-6pm about knots and links. Here’s his abstract:
I will introduce the mathematical study of knots, links, and the Gauss linking number. The talk will involve pictures, some brief history, and an elementary formula in terms of counting crossings. At the end, I will reinterpret this formula in terms of multivariable calculus.
Hope to see you there! Pizza and soda will be provided.
4/6 – Mark Lowell: A Metapopulation Model of Interstellar Colonization
The math club meets again this Wednesday, 4/6, from 5-6pm in LGRT 1528. Come have pizza and hear graduate student Mark Lowell discuss the Fermi paradox and his use of mathematical modeling to explain it. Here’s an abstract:
A Metapopulation Model of Interstellar Colonization
This Wednesday, Mark Lowell will solve the Fermi Paradox – don’t miss it! By adapting and modifying the Levins metapopulation model from mathematical ecology to modeling interstellar colonization, he will show how we can explain the absence of aliens in our solar system. If time permits, he will also discuss the use of subgradient optimization methods to solving very-high-dimensional quadratic equations.