Undergraduate Mathematics Symposium
Saturday, October 13, 2012
University of Illinois at Chicago

Symposium poster

Plenary lectures

• Nathan Dunfield (UIUC)
  Mathematical truths: experiment, proof, and understanding
  Abstract: Experimentation has played an important role in mathematical discovery for centuries. With the rise of powerful computers, more complex mathematical objects can be studied in this way. After explaining why "a topologist is someone who can't tell a coffee cup from a doughnut", I will give a concrete example of how experimentation lead (eventually!) to a new result in the mathematical area of topology. Along the way I will discus different forms of mathematical knowledge, contrasting the results from experiment with logical proofs on the one hand and intuitive understanding on the other.
• Ramin Takloo-Bighash (UIC)
  Distribution of orders in number fields
  Abstract: An order, or a number ring, is a subring with identity of the ring of integers of a number field which is a module of maximal rank over the ordinary ring of ingeres. In this talk I will discuss some old problems and recent theorems on how orders are distributed.
• Andrea Young (Ripon College)
  Discrete Differential Geometry
  Abstract: Discrete differential geometry is a growing field of mathematics that has a wide variety of applications including computer graphics, medical imaging, geometric modeling, and discrete exterior calculus. In this talk, I will discuss discrete approximations of smooth 2- and 3-dimensional manifolds and describe how one can interpret the curvature of such objects. I will also discuss some problems that can (and have!) been studied and solved by undergraduates.

Schedule of events

Previous symposia

2011

2010

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