Day 1 - Monday
Breakfast 7:00-8:00 (Dining Hall)
Registration 8:00 - 8:20 (Bond Hall 201)
Welcome words 8:20-8:30 (Bond Hall 201)
8:30-9:20
Lisa Naples
Abstract: Suppose that we want to run some errands at various locations throughout town. What is the most efficient way for us to travel from location to location and then return home?
In this course, we will begin by exploring how ideas from graph theory can help us to answer this question.
We will then extend the task by assuming that we need to visit infinitely many locations. We will see that tools from statistics and calculus can sometimes be used to determine efficient routes through sets. We will also explore situations in which these tools can fail to help us find a reasonable route.
Relevant background from graph theory, statistics, and calculus will be introduced in the course.
9:30-10:20
Alex Barrios
A marginal note and its unintended consequences
Abstract: In 1637, Pierre de Fermat wrote in the margins of his copy of Diophantus's Arithmetica, that he had a proof that x^n + y^n = z^n has no positive integer solutions for n >= 3, but that the margin was too narrow to contain it. The marginal note would later be found by his son, who shared it with the mathematics community. Over the next three centuries, every serious attempt to solve this deceptively simple problem led to new mathematics. This problem would come to be known as Fermat's Last Theorem, and in this lesson, we trace its history and discover why proving a statement about ordinary whole numbers eventually forced mathematicians to discover entirely new kinds of numbers.
Break 10:30-11:00
11:00-11:50
Brett Jefferson
Lunch 12:00 - 1:30 (Dining Hall)
1:30-2:20
Brett Jefferson
Abstract: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory began with a primary focus on nuclear science and the implications for our country's safety and security. In its more than 50-year history, the lab has grown to cover a wide array of scientific areas including natural language processing, cognitive modeling, power grid science, and data science. . . and these are just the types of projects I work on. In part one of this talk, I will share my experiences as a data scientist at PNNL. In part two, I will talk about a problem that I accidentally walked into involving topology.
2:30-3:30
Free time!
Dinner (Dining Hall)