Week 1

intro to class, went over syllabus, LaTeX, criticized Assignment 0

Week 2

group discussions of one of the following papers: Niven's proof of the irrationality of pi, Zagier's one line proof, or Mantel's Theorem

Week 3

worked through this proof as a class

Week 4

we worked in groups to understand one of the three papers from week 2 (see above). understanding comes when you feel like you could more or less communicate the proof to someone who has not read it

Week 5

dissected Joke 1.1 from Aluffi's Algebra: Chapter 0 (found on page 41) to determine whether or not it is funny

Week 6

looked at and discussed the various ways textbooks introduce the idea of an equivalence relation

Week 7

read one of the following three textbook introductions: Game Theory, Noiseless Coding, and Projective Plane.

Week 8

explained the topics from the previous week to one another

Week 9

we read and discussed this blog post by Tim Gowers as a work of mathematical exposition

Week 10

NO CLASS. Optional Individual Meetings in SEO 633 to discuss what you might propose as a paper in our meeting in Week 11. Sign Up Here

Week 11

NO CLASS. individual meetings this week about paper proposal. sign up here

Week 12

Class on Monday only! Guest Speaker Jeremy Kun. Please read the four blog posts about google ranking starting here. I will have office hours from 2pm - 3pm in SEO 633 on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Please come talk to me about your paper if you haven't already or if you want to.

Week 13

NO CLASS. Office hours everyday in SEO 633 from 2pm to 3pm. Please work on your research papers and come see me if you have any questions.

Week 14

No Class. Work on your papers and have a great thanksgiving. Office hours from 2-3 in SEO 633 on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.

Week 15

NO CLASS. individual meetings this week about rough draft. sign up here.

Finals Week

no class, obv, but your final paper is due Friday, December 12th at 5:00pm