Plenary Talks
WHAT DO ALICIA BOOLE STOTT, ANCIENT INDIAN POETS AND COLORING MAPS HAVE IN COMMON?
Dr. Moira Chas
Saturday, October 16th, 9:45 AM - 10:45 AM
Alicia Boole Stott was a Victorian housewife who developed a deep grasp of four dimensional geometry and managed to express it with marvelous drawings and models.
Ancient Indian Poets counting the rhythms of verses found sequences of integers which are very familiar to nature, to art and to mathematicians.
The history of coloring maps is intricate, colorful and occasionally confusing but it will be hopefully clarified during this talk with the help of crocheted mathematical art.
These are just three instances of the enriching dialog of mathematics and art.
IMAGINING OTHER WORLDS
Dr. Gershom Spruijt
Saturday, October 16th, 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Imagination is not the opposite of rationality; rather, rationality is just one particular way we imagine the world. In this presentation we will survey the world of the imagination, and present neurological correlates for the mental processes involved. The imagination is our capacity to simulate alternative realities. These alternative realities might be considered realistic, or might be called fantastical, but in both cases the mind is constructing new worlds. There are relevant similarities between mathematical worlds and daydreaming, and hallucinating and being absorbed in a romantic comedy.
RESEARCH LABORATORIES OR WONDERLANDS: THE SCIENTIST AS ALICE
Dr. Istem Ozen
Sunday, October 17th, 9:30 AM - 10:30 AM
Is there a strict line where Science stops and Art begins or vice versa? Should there be? Could there be? Where do the two overlap and where not? How do you interact with matter as a scientist versus as an artist? How do “thought, knowledge empiricism” vs. “feeling, experience and intuition” play out during research? What can we take away from these interactions? This talk will pose arguments around these questions, intertwined with current examples from the field of “Art & Science” and personal stories.
USING ACTIVE LEARNING TO PROMOTE RISK-TAKING IN THE CLASSROOM
Elizabeth Donovan and Lesley Wiglesworth
Sunday, October 17th, 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Several studies have shown that students often prefer pedagogical strategies that use active learning as opposed to lecture. However, as faculty, we are all too familiar with students who grow terrified when pushed out of their comfort zones and are faced with new challenges in the classroom. In this talk, we will share active learning strategies that encourage students to be intellectually uncomfortable in the classroom and take risks, all while recognizing the importance of failure in the learning process. We will also share findings from literature as well as focus groups conducted with college first-years and seniors.
POETRY, BEAUTY AND MATHEMATICS: A PERSONAL JOURNEY THROUGH MIND PAINTING
Dr. Michel Lapidus
Sunday, October 17th, 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Traditionally, mathematics is thought of, by the non-expert, to be the dry land of numbers, logic and proofs. However, it is much less well known to the public that imagination, intuition and poetry, along with colorful and powerful mental images, play a key role in the creative process leading to the discovery of new mathematics. In this talk, I will briefly describe my personal journey through mathematics and other competing artistic endeavors, via “mind painting” and “poetic illuminations”.
Parallel Talks
Saturday, October 16th, Session I (10:45 AM - 11:45 AM)
ARTEMIS BLU II: INFINITY DIAMONDS IN INFINITY DIAPSALMATA
LITERARY INCARNATIONS OF DIAMONDS
Shanna Dobson
10:45 AM - 11:05 AM
In this two-part talk, we present our exciting literary incarnations of perfectoid diamonds, in the sense of Scholze, appearing in our newest fantastical mathematical-fiction novel, Artemis Blu II: Infinity Diamonds in Infinity Diapsalmata. The first incarnation is a new idea of a perfectoid-diamond hourglass, which measures emergent time as a Carrollian "looking-glass" of perfectoid diamonds, which are certain pro-'etale sheaves on the category of perfectoid spaces of characteristic p. The second is a reinterpretation of the Deleuzian concept of ‘haecceity' as a pro-diamond, when Artemis awakens inside the diamond hourglass.
A TOPOLOGICAL JOURNAL OF THE PLAGUE YEAR
Claudia Maria Schmidt
11:05 AM - 11:25 AM
In this dance piece, five salient experiences and events of the first year of the COVID 19 pandemic – the shutdown and social distancing, the course of COVID infections, the events around the death of George Floyd, the so-called New Normal everyday life, and the vaccines and mutations – are matched with metaphors form basic point-set topology – nowhere dense sets, compact spaces, the product topology, norms as related to metrical spaces, and group actions. The dance moves and the stage images depict a blend of the relevant topological definitions and the related fragments of reality.
UNIFORM CONVERGENCE: A ONE-WOMAN PLAY ABOUT MATHEMATICS
Corrine Yap
11:25 AM - 11:45 AM
Uniform Convergence is a play written and performed by Corrine Yap. It juxtaposes the stories of two women trying to find their place in a white male-dominated academic world. The first is historical mathematician Sofia Kovalevskaya, and the second is a fictional Asian-American math professor teaching a present-day real analysis course. In this talk, we will discuss the creation and development of the performance and how it has catalyzed conversations about race and gender in the mathematical community today.
Saturday, October 16th, Session II (10:45 AM - 11: 45 AM)
MATHEMATICS AND EMOTIONS
Maiko Serizawa
10:45 AM - 11:05 AM
In this 20 minutes expository talk, I will explore how emotions play a vital role in a person’s mathematical endeavour through a collection of personal stories. Considered as the most logical subject, mathematics is usually completely separated from emotions in our conscious practice. As a consequence, the emotional aspect of one’s mathematical experiences is almost never discussed throughout formal education. However, if we turn our attention to our experiences, we may discover that vital moments of our mathematical work are greatly impacted by our emotions, and hence consciously integrating them to our daily work could help us to boost productivity and to enrich our internal experiences of doing mathematics. This talk marks the beginning of the new project “Emotive Math.”
GENERATIVE ADVERSARIAL NETWORK TWO-PROTOTYPE
DIAMOND-NANOTHREAD AND CARBON NANOTUBE ELEVATOR with LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR ASTEROID BELT
Shanna Dobson, Drake Dong
11:05 AM - 11:25 AM
In this talk, we present the results of our independent study, which are threefold and a continuation of our work in our Fall 2020 independent study: first, we explored the AI language of Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) and the underlying mathematics (generator/discriminator approximation, Inverse transform, complex random variable neural networks, rejection sampling); second, we used the neural networks of the life form we developed in the fall (fully autonomous life form capable of existing at interstellar scales) to design a GAN two-prototype diamond-nanothread and carbon-nanotube elevator-transport system and accompanying life support system from Earth to the asteroid belt; third, we investigated a new reciprocity law from our new model of GANs to Grand Unified Theories (GUTs) of Mathematics and GUTs of AI and automata, realizing new symmetries created through the GANs, which required discovering new meta-symmetries connecting these already-universal symmetries.
HALE: ON MATHEMATICAL NONLINEARITY IN RELATIONS BETWEEN SENSORY CHANNELS
Shanna Dobson, Faith King
11:25 AM - 11:45 AM
Hale is a study project centered on three primary goals: to explore nonlinear relationships between sensory channels and any complexity theory underlying sensory disabilities utilizing the AI language of Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN's), to apply network theory and active inference in order to examine the nonlocality of scent and smell in the realm of shared action and embodied cognition, and finally to use symmetries across sensory channels to compress multi-dimensional information into an aesthetic visualization for individuals with sensory disabilities, possibly suitable for a medical device. The uncertainties and gaps in our understanding in relation to the interconnectedness of the senses, specifically smell with taste and memory, present a fertile space for higher math to forge clarity and new paths of understanding. We look forward to sharing and expanding our paradigms on what might be possible.
Sunday, October 17th, Session I (10:45 AM - 11:45 AM)
MATH MEETS METAPHOR
Alice Major
10:45 AM - 11:05 AM
Metaphor is not mere literary decoration but central to creative thinking. It is frequently used to generate mathematical terminology, and helps probe potential relationships among different fields of thought and between abstract ideas and the physical world. In turn, metaphors based on math concepts can be useful to poets because mathematics inhabits a liminal space between abstract ideas and real-world applications. The author, a distinguished Canadian poet who draws on math and science for inspiration, will share examples from her work.
CREATIVE WRITING IN UPPER-DIVISION MATH: POETRY BAKED INTO PI
Dr. Dan May, Rachel Gillis
11:05 AM - 11:25 AM
In the Fall 2020 semester, Dan offered his Number Theory students some small amount of class credit for writing mathematical poetry. The goal was to make the class more flexible, friendly, and open during what was sure to be a trying semester. Rachel was a student in the class, and has expanded her mathematical poetry from the class into an Honors project. In this talk, Dan will briefly talk about including poetry in an upper-division math class, and Rachel will talk about her experiences with math poetry. She will share one of her pieces (called a cadae) that overlaps math and confessional poetry. A cadae is a poem structured by the mathematical constant pi in two different ways.
CONSTRUCTAL LAW
Yazdan Pedram Razi
11:25 AM - 11:45 AM
With constructal law, we can find the optimum geometries, find solution to complex problems ranging from mechanical, chemical, aerospace, ... to pure industrial problems.
Sunday, October 17th, Session II (10:45 AM - 11:45 AM)
ARTEMIS BLU II: INFINITY DIAMONDS IN INFINITY DIAPSALMATA
LITERARY INCARNATIONS OF DIAMONDS
Shanna Dobson
10:45 AM - 11:05 AM
In this two-part talk, we present our exciting literary incarnations of perfectoid diamonds, in the sense of Scholze, appearing in our newest fantastical mathematical-fiction novel, Artemis Blu II: Infinity Diamonds in Infinity Diapsalmata. The first incarnation is a new idea of a perfectoid-diamond hourglass, which measures emergent time as a Carrollian "looking-glass" of perfectoid diamonds, which are certain pro-'etale sheaves on the category of perfectoid spaces of characteristic p. The second is a reinterpretation of the Deleuzian concept of ‘haecceity' as a pro-diamond, when Artemis awakens inside the diamond hourglass.
NEUROAESTHETICS AND CREATIVE ARTS THERAPIES: MODELING THE THERAPEUTIC EFFECTS OF ART
Stephanie Lewkiewicz
11:05 AM - 11:25 AM
Aesthetic experiences--that is, the creation, consumption, and appreciation of art--are as fundamental to our human existence as eating, sleeping, and breathing, and, moreover, understood by psychologists and neuroscientists to be an essential component of physical and mental health. The still-emerging field of neuroaesthetics aims to develop a mechanistic understanding of the neuroscience underlying our emotional relationship with art. In this talk, we will review recent experimental and modeling advances in neuroaesthetics, and discuss the potential for applied mathematics to take a lead role in the effort to employ art therapy to treat physical and mental health disorders.
COLORS, STRINGS, AND BEADS: A VISUAL LANGUAGE FOR MATH
Christian Williams
11:25 AM - 11:45 AM
There is a colorful two-dimensional language called "string diagrams", which we can use to visualize basic forms of abstract thinking. It offers a very different approach to math education, simply giving students a powerful language and allowing them to explore and express their own thinking about the world intuitively and creatively. I will present some beginning lessons, and discuss a broader vision for its development; I appreciate all feedback and ideas.
Sunday, October 17th, Lunch & Learn
THE ALL-POWERFUL AND ALMIGHTY SHAPE
Nathan Rohlander
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
Through life drawing we will explore how shapes are the building blocks of all two-dimensional art. Amorphous shapes are similar to the primordial soup. From which all life and existence started. As excess is trimmed and specified, identity starts to rear its head. We must not lose site of the past but allow it to help shape the future. An amorphous shape shifts to an abstract shape to create a representational shape. Let’s explore how interlocking shapes create form and identity through the drawing process. Through shape wonderful things are possible!