Week of October 20, 2008 xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hard Problems: The Road to the World's Toughest Math Contest
A new video released this summer by the Mathematical Association of America may leave you wondering what the world would be like if, from a young age, more people could fearlessly tap into the beauty and satisfaction of challenging mathematical problems.
Treated to a simple but profound look into the experience of students preparing for the International Mathematical Olympiad, viewers will hear young mathematicians talk about how their participation gives them a "better understanding of the worldwide mathematical community -- how math works in other countries and other parts of the world" only to discover that it is not so different from their own.
During the filming of this work, Elgin Johnston chaired the MAA Committee on American Mathematical Competitions, the group responsible for overseeing policy for mathematical competition structure. As Johnston arrives at a meeting, viewers see him meeting one of the participants.
The film also features Melanie Wood, the first young woman ever to make an IMO team. Wood, enrolled in public high school in Indianapolis, was a member of the team coached by Johnston that traveled to Taiwan. Johnston coached for four years in the 90's and took IMO teams to Argentina and Taiwan.
Other reviews can be found at MAA Reveiws and The Online Gargoyle.
New research assistantship available spring 2009
Hailiang Liu and colleagues from six other universities have been awarded a National Science Foundation Focus Research Group (FRG) grant: Kinetic Description of Multiscale Phenomena: Modeling, Theory and Computation. See www.cscamm.umd.edu/frg for more information.
If you are interested in this assistantship please email hliu@iastate.edu.
National Security Agency awards
Siu-Hung (Richard) Ng received funding for his project entitled, HOPF Algebras, Quasi-HOPF Algebras and Invariants of Tensor Categories.
Ryan Martin received funding for his project, Extremal Graph Theory and Applications in Computer Science.
Funding opportunities resource
The Department is developing a "funding opportunities" link that can be found the home page. Currently, internal grant opportunites are listed, as well as a deadlines page. We plan to add external oppportunities in the future.
Deadlines
Remember to check the departmental calendar for deadlines.
Colloquia and Seminars
Combinatorics, Algebra and Number Theory Seminar
Monday, October 20 at 4:10 p.m. in 298 Carver - Andrew Wells and Jonathan Smith: Report from the AMS Sectional Meeting, Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Computational and Applied Mathematics Seminar
Monday, October 20 at 4:10 p.m. in 160 Carver - Karin Dorman
Discrete Mathematics Seminar
Tuesday, October 21 at 2:10 p.m. in 268 Carver - Ji-Hyeok Choi on Some mixed anti-Ramsey numbers on cycles
Matrix Groups Seminar
Tuesday, October 21 at 2:10 p.m. in 128 Carver - Kenneth Driessel on Semi-simple and nilpotent matrices
Mathematics Colloquia
No colloquium this week.
Probability Seminar
Wednesday, October 22 at 2:10 p.m. in 282 Carver- Vivek Roy (Statistics) on
Convergence rates for MCMC algorithms for Bayesian multivariate Student's t regression
Elliptic Curves and Related Topics
Wednesday, October 22 at 4:10 p.m. in 290 Carver - Ling Long on Isogeny
Graduate Student Seminar
Wednesday, October 22 at 4:10 p.m. in 305 Carver - Cliff Bergman on TeX
Interior-Point Methods Seminar :
Thursday, October 23 at 2:10 p.m. in 118 Carver - Kenneth Driessel on Self-concordancy and Newton's method (continued)
Transitions
Graduate student birthdays this week:
Yiping Hao 10/20; Michael Hilgeman 10/20.
Transitions is a new feature in Weekly Reader where announcements regarding life transitions, i.e., family, job, etc. of those associated with the Department may be published at the request of the individual. Send submissions to tuttle@iastate.edu
