INFORMATION:
Mathematics workshops
Questions?
Email us at
MathEvents@udayton.edu
Fall Math Events 2004
Workshop Information for Conversations among Women in Mathematics:
Code Breaking
Dr. Amy Bellis, National Security Agency
Through several hands-on examples, we will explore two simple methods
of encoding information and discuss strategies for breaking codes.
This
workshop is suitable for both high school and college students.
Crayons and Computers: Awesome Pictures of Mathematics
Dr. Annalisa Crannell, Franklin and Marshall College
It is easy to see, just by looking, that certain kinds of art are beautiful.
But how could we "see" beautiful mathematics just by looking? It would help if
we could first understand the mathematics that lies within various kinds of
visual art. We will take an artistic mathematical tour through Amish quilts
(symmetry and tessellations), Japanese woodblock paintings (fractal geometry),
and especially Renaissance perspective painting (similar triangles).
This workshop is aimed mainly at high school students.
Pondering Pebbling Problems
Dr. Aparna Higgins, University of Dayton
Suppose you want to move some material from point A to point B. You need
several steps, and at every step, you lose half of the material. If your goal is
to get a certain amount of material to any specified point, how much do you need
to start with? More precisely, distribute pebbles (non-negative integers) on the
vertices of a graph. Define a pebbling move as: "Remove two pebbles from a
vertex, move one pebble to an adjacent vertex, and throw away the second
pebble." What is the minimum number of pebbles needed so that any distribution
of this number of pebbles will guarantee that one pebble will reach an
arbitrary, but fixed, vertex in a finite number of pebbling moves? This number
is the pebbling number of the graph.
In this workshop, participants will get some hands-on experience in finding
pebbling numbers for several classes of graphs. In addition, participants will
work on some open problems in pebbling and get a taste of doing mathematical
research.
This workshop is aimed mainly at
college students.
Geometry with Geometer's SketchPad
Dr. Becky Krakowski, University of Dayton
We will go through a brief introduction/review of SketchPad (a dynamic geometry software package) -- advanced or beginning users are welcome!
We will then explore some
interesting applications, such as choosing the best location for a new fire
station that will help protect three suburban neighborhoods.
This workshop is aimed mainly at high
school students.
I'M MY OWN GRANDPA! Smullyan's Robots,
Their Programs, and Undecidability in Mathematics
Dr. Carol Schumacher, Kenyon College
Kurt Gödel's theorems on the incompleteness of formal mathematical systems
are among the greatest accomplishments of mathematics. The workshop presents an
approach to the ideas in Gödel's work, based on some of the "robot puzzles" of
Raymond Smullyan. In an imaginary world, robots build and program other robots,
according to the rules laid down in their own programming. Sometimes the
"offspring" resembles the "parent" and sometimes not. Other robots roam the
world, destroying other robots of a given type. By exploring the ecology of this
bizarre world, we can discover fascinating insights into the nature of formal
logical systems.
This workshop is aimed mainly at
college students.