Embedded Files
Tuesday, February 12 (6:00pm, SC 507)
Tuesday, February 12 (6:00pm, SC 507)
Why do Math?
Why do Math?
Speaker: Professor Martin Nowak (Harvard University, Departments of Mathematics and Biology)
Abstract: Cooperation means that one individual pays a cost for another to receive a benefit. Cooperation can be at variance with natural selection: Why should you help a competitor? Yet cooperation is abundant in nature and is an important component of evolutionary innovation. Cooperation can be seen as the master architect of evolution and as the third fundamental principle of evolution beside mutation and selection. I will present mathematical principles of cooperation.
See http://math.harvard.edu/whydomath for more details
Error Correcting Codes
Error Correcting Codes
Speaker: Garrett Brown
Abstract:
Imagine you as a child have developed a secret code with a friend that you wish to transmit over a string telephone. The problem is, string telephones aren’t always quite clear, and your friend doesn’t always receive the message perfectly. To solve this problem, you would like to develop a system where the message itself has added information (e.g. repetition) that makes it easier for your friend to correct a mistake if it should occur. This is the essence of error correcting codes. Error correcting codes are a surprising application of linear algebra to solve a discrete problem. In particular, it is an example of why linear algebra in its most general form is developed with the set of scalars being a field rather than just R or C. This talk will assume only that the audience has an idea of vectors in R n, and matrices with real entries.
Tuesday, February 5 (6:00pm, SC 507)
Tuesday, February 5 (6:00pm, SC 507)
Tuesday, January 29 (6:00pm, SC 507)
Tuesday, January 29 (6:00pm, SC 507)
Euler In Action
Euler In Action
Speaker: William Dunham, Harvard University
Abstract: Bill Dunham will speak at the first Math Table of the semester on Tue, Jan 29 at 6pm in SC 507. He will present one of Euler's solutions to the Basel problem (1 + 1/4 + 1/9 + ... = ???) in a way that will require only knowledge of l'Hospital's Rule and complex numbers, and give a little bit of historical background.
Report abuse