Events
Recurring:
AMS Tea:
Nearly every pandemic-free week on Tuesday at 4:15PM, the AMS Student Chapter hosts the AMS Tea in Vincent 120 (first floor lounge). Come chat with us, whine about your grading, or just take social time for yourself, all while eating delicious snacks and drinking lovely tea. We promise we'll be able to do this again someday.
Introduction to Research Seminar:
Most weeks on Wednesday at 12:20, the AMS hosts the Introduction to Research Seminar in Vincent 570 (now on Zoom). This seminar is aimed at first- and second- year students who are exploring potential research areas. Professors who are looking for graduate students tell us about their research and we eat pizza. It's a win-win. On weeks when we don't have a speaker, look out for panels, question-and-answer sessions, or other fun activities! You can find the full schedule of upcoming talks on the seminar page.
Upcoming:
Past Events:
Prelim Bee
The Prelim Bee makes its triumphant return on April 16th in an all-new never-before-seen definitely-without-bugs virtual format! Gather your teams of 3 and prepare to either dazzle us with your prelim knowledge or laugh with us at how much you have forgotten since you took your prelims. Genuine 100% Certified Grade-A prelim graders Paul Garrett and Tyler Lawson will be on hand to judge your efforts.
Not looking to do math on a Friday afternoon? Come along to spectate and/or heckle the participants. And be sure to follow @ams_umn for all of your live-tweeting needs!
Editor's note: Because of *gestures broadly*, this didn't happen. We'll be back in 2022 no. matter. what.
Pi Day Celebration 3/14/21
In celebration of everyone's favorite unit for measuring angles, the AMS will be hosting a virtual pie contest this year! Get out your pandemic baking supplies, make your very best pie, and send us a picture by the end of the day on March 14th. Grad students will vote for their favorite pies and the winners will receive pi-themed pins! You'll have to eat your pie by yourself this year, but maybe that's not such a bad thing...
Congratulations to all of the participants! The awards for the 2021 Pi Day Pie Contest are as follows:
First place: Homo-clinic: A Key Lime Pie with Margarita Vibes - Sally Jankovic
Second place: Pi Radians of Blueberry Pie - Lilly Webster
Third place: The Hexagonal Delight - Claire Frechette
Best savory pie: Top This! - Robbie Angarone
Most likely to be in a bakery window: FR3NCH S1LK 4IE - Moriah Elkin
Most educational: Define your point on this pie - Cecily Santiago
And finally, the Step Function Award, which is given to a person who has never made a pie before. As we know, a step function has infinite derivative, making it infinitely difficult to start with zero pie-making experience and make your first pie. This award for culinary bravery is given to Ethan Partida and his submission At least pI tried.
e Day Celebration 2/17/21
In order to celebrate everyone's favorite logarithmic base, the AMS will be playing the hat-check game (this time featuring socks!) Imagine that n mathematicians leave their hats at the hat check. Unfortunately, the employee loses track of whose hat is whose and just hands the hats out randomly. What is the probability that none of the mathematicians get their own hat back?
The answer is not that hard to calculate and involves counting derangements, a type of permutation with no fixed points. Interestingly, if you let the number of mathematicians go to infinity, the probability converges to 1/e, or about 36.8%.
To celebrate both e day (2/7) and Valentine's Day (2/14), the AMS will be hosting a virtual sock exchange. Make sure to sign up early this year so you have enough time to mail your socks!
Ask a Postdoc Panel 12/2/20
Ever wondered what a postdoc does all day? Or how you can become one in the future? Come meet postdocs Sam Hopkins, Anila Yadavalli, and David Sherman and get all your questions answered.
Binary Day 11/11/20
We made up a math holiday and you can't stop us from celebrating. Join us for our second annual celebration of Binary Day with a fun talk from postdoc Nick Ovenhouse vaguely related to everyone's favorite base-2 number system!
Title: Binary Numbers & Computing
Abstract: I will start with discussing the basics of representing numbers (both integers and rational/real numbers) in binary, and some interesting properties of these representations. I will then discuss some of the uses of binary numbers/arithmetic in computing, and how various numbers and data structures are modeled and manipulated in a computer. In particular, I will discuss floating point arithmetic and bitwise operations.
Halloweierstrass 10/30/20
To celebrate Halloween as only mathematicians can, we will be watching the mathematical thriller Fermat's Room. You bring the 🍿and 🍫, we'll bring the 👻movie.