links to various local research seminars
KU Leuven Seminar on Number Theory and Algebraic Geometry — Department of Mathematics
KU Leuven Methusalem project: Colloquia, Seminars & Lectures — Department of Mathematics
online:
A video playlist of some research lectures (Enis Kaya also has a nice collection here)
links to some mathematical organisations in Belgium:
recreational: MathsJam- Bollebus - PRIME - Wisknutselfestival - mathfest
educational: uitwiskeling - Vlaamse Vereniging Wiskunde Leraars - Wiskunde & onderwijs magazine archief - CIEAEM
Outreach
I am always interested in dissemination of recreative mathematics and mathematical arts. If you know interesting material on this topic: please feel free to share!
Here are a few documents that came out of various outreach endeavours. Feel free to use them at own risk.
For KU Leuven's summer of science, colleagues and I designed some number theory projects for high school students. versie in het nederlands.
I made an escape room using Euclidean geometry clues for use in high school classrooms, email me if you want the documentation. I plan to refine the design and share it publicly later.
For the problem-solving enthousiasts: while volunteering for VWO I proposed a number of problems, here is a collection of some of these problems. At the bottom of the linked page I also list some high school problem solving and number theory resources. Ik schreef ook cursussen voor de olympiade training van VWO (combinatoriek, getaltheorie, veeltermen). Stuur me een email indien je graag een kopie wilt.
Hier zijn enkele van mijn favoriete problemen in combinatoriek die ik eens heb verzameld toen ik assistent was voor het vak 'Discrete wiskunde' aan de KU Leuven.
Some rather old notes for PROMYS talks -- beware of mistakes and a crammed writing style: Bernouilli numbers, Dedekind sums, Hilbert's tenth problem, graph coloring
Various internet links:
didactical resources:
d3gt.com great for learning graph theory interactively
Natural number game lean tutorial
Typst: The new foundation for documents interesting new latex alternative
visualisation of mathematics & mathematical art
https://isohedral.ca/ website of Craig Kaplan
Mathematische Modelle: Aus den Sammlungen von Universitäten und Museen | Springer Nature Link
Illustrating Mathematics – ICERM Semester Program Fall 2019 and the resulting Mathematical Art Galleries
https://www.bridgesmathart.org/ the annual bridges conference in mathematical art
Martin demaine's homepage (make sure to check the mathematical puzzle fonts!)
math & music:
A note on music scoring and geometry by Mourougane - De Gérando
Motivic rhythms by Alain Connes
various
The Philosophy of Real Mathematics, by John Baez
A 1940 Letter of André Weil to Simone Weil on Analogy in Mathematics
Quomodocumque (blog of Jordan Elleberg)
on social topics:
jokes
How do you call the oid-ification of a monoid? (hint: a monoidoid is incorrectoid). answer: a category
cyclotomic memes (inactive since 2021)
some personal opinions
In the ongoing earth destruction (of which climate collapse is only one disaster), we should absolutely minimize flying movements. At the universities this means we should mostly attend local seminars and conferences. Let us not stop talking about caring for the planet and its earthlings. I endorse initiatives such as CAGE.
I avoid using GPTs and other generative AI in classroom tasks. we should all be raising more awareness about the ecological risks that AI data centers create, like the huge consumption of energy and water, the generation of new hazardous waste and their strong dependence on unsustainably mined rare earth minerals, see this UN report or this MIT report. We should also be warned by the terrifying potential geopolitical threats. It is severely worrying how much irrepairable ecological damage AI and its data centers are already creating, how much generative AI fails to be transparant technology, and how it kills human creativity and undermines expert authority in the long run. Let the humans learn from their own mistakes, not the mistakes of machines. At this moment, it is not clear to me if 100% ethical, sustainable and transparant generative AI research can even exist. Please prove me wrong and send me counterarguments. Occasionally I use Confer, it is a open-source encrypted alternative to chatGPT, and does not sponsor psychopathic criminals like Trump.
Universities and governments should follow legal obligations dictated by international law -- in the midst of an extraordinary humanitarian crisis and brutal genocide by the Isreali government I fully support the public letter of Belgian Universities for Palestine which carefully questions the existing collaborations with institutions based in occupying countries. I also signed the Belgian Citizen's Bill for Palestine Echoing the Call for Justice. Everyone should consider taking action to put academic and economic pressure on the Israeli institutions as well as to put political pressure on local governments to recognize the Palestinian state unconditionally. And let us also not forget to keep raising our voices for oppressed people in Cuba, Lebanon, Iran, Sudan, Congo, Yemen, Kurdistan, Afghanistan, ...
Here is a copy of Researching Palestine.