Math Club Talks/Events Recent/Upcoming

This list is by no means all-inclusive. Please be patient as we are in the process of updating our site.

CANCELED:

Ken Rosen will no longer come and give a guest lecture.

Saturday April 14, 10am, Location TBA
16th Annual Mathematics Competition: In Memory of Dr. Richard Mahoney

Thursday April 5, 7pm in B1 Holmes
"Problems in the game of Go" with guest Ruhan Zhao.

Saturday, March 31st, 9:30AM-12:30PM- New Math Competition for students in the area edition of the University of Rochester Math Olympiad for college students.
Open to Cornell, RIT, Nazareth, Saint Bonaventure, SUNY-Brockport and University of Rochester students. The exam is Putnam style: everybody will take the test at their own school. The exam will have 4 proof-based problems. In terms of the level of the problems, two of the problems will be below Putnam level and two at Putnam level (among these two: one will be Putnam-easy, the other one Putnam-medium). Three prizes will be awarded: first prize $250, second prize $200 and the third prize $150.

Tuesday Feb. 27, 7pm in B1 Holmes - "Games and Strategy"
Bring your favorite game, and we will discuss strategies and winning. We will also consider which games to look at more deeply in our semester long look at Games and Strategies.

Tuesday Feb. 13, 7pm in B1 Holmes- Organizational Meeting

Last Semester's Events

Thursday September 14, 2006 4:30 207 Holmes
- First Meeting - Organizational - Agenda) Plan next few meetings, Plan Contests, hand out first few challenge problems, elect officers, etc.

Thursday September 28, 2006 4:30 207 Holmes - Logic puzzles and games-

Thursday October 12, 2006 4:30
207 Holmes - "The Mathematics of Chess" - Michael Steves . Also submit latest challenge problems.

Thursday November 2, 2006 at 6pm
Location 207 Holmes- "History and math of IQ tests" - Momchil Kyurchiev, also submit latest challenge problems- note the CHANGE in TIME

Thursday, November 15, 4:30 pm in 207 Holmes
"Fractals" Milen Nikolov

Final meeting- week of December 4-8
Topic = open, possible ideas- work out some of the Putnam problems? general study break perhaps over the weekend? Watch a movie?

September 14, 2005 Wednesday 5pm- First meeting: Organizational meeting and we may do some problems or other things of interest. Location 205 Holmes

September 29, 2005 Thursday 5pm- Lecture and "Fun" problmes

Lecture- "Primes in P", Howard Skogman, SUNY Brockport
This talk will introduce the recent polynomial time algorithm for testing whether a given integer is prime or not. The talk should be accessible to all. Location 207 Holmes

October 10, 2005 Monday 5pm- Lecture and journal problmes

Lecture- "An introduction to RSA cryptography", Howard Skogman, SUNY Brockport
This talk will introduce one of the most important cryptosystems (method of encoding and decoding information to keep secret)- RSA. This system is the backbone of all secure communications in a public setting- especially over the internet. Did you ever wonder what a "secure" connection was, or how does a website protect my private information- come and find out. The talk should be accessible to all- the only thing you need is modular arithmetic. Location 101 Edwards

October 24, 2005 Monday 5:30pm- Assorted fun

We will meet in 102 Edwards to tie up some loose ends- journals, problems, perhaps recover RSA, update on BSG, Math and Music etc.

October 31, 2005 Thursday 5:30pm- Math Movie!!! - 102 Edwards

We will watch the movie "Fractals an Animated Discussion" with interviews with Benoit Mandelbrot and Lorenz. (+ Snacks)

November 2, 2005 Wednesday 5:30pm- Guest Lecture - Holmes 205

"Holey Knight's Tours",
Darren A. Narayan and Shelley K. Speiss*
Rochester Institute of Technology
Abstract: A holey knight's tour is a knight's tour on an m x n board where one or more squares have been removed. We consider boards where m and n are odd and the corner squares are colored black. We investigate the presence of holey knight's tours on boards missing a single black square. In particular, we show the existence of a holey knight's tour on m x n boards where m and n are at least 7 and any black square is removed. Finally, we explore the general problem of removing more than one square.

November 7, 2005 Monday 5:30pm- 102 Edwards- Movie time

"The Proof"
For over 350 years, some of the greatest minds of science struggled to prove what was known as Fermat's Last Theorem -- the idea that a certain simple equation (x^n+y^n=z^n, n>2) had no solutions. Now hear from the man who spent seven years of his life cracking the problem, read the intriguing story of an 18th century woman mathematician who hid her identity in order to work on Fermat's Last Theorem, and demonstrate that a related equation, the Pythagorean Theorem, is true.

November 10, 2005 Thursday 5:30pm- Guest Lecture 102 Edwards

"Just what is so hard about Fermat's Last Theorem" (tent. title) Marcus Jaiclin ,
Click on title for link to notes from the talk.

February 3, 2006, Thursday 5pm - Organization and in-house lecture - 114 Holmes

Talk "On the gaps between primes", Howard Skogman
We will begin with some organization for the semester and then have a talk. Location TBA

February 14, 2006, Tuesday 11:30am - Road trip- meet outside FOB

Talk at St. John Fisher College, Carmen Ana Klosterman
The speaker will discuss the mathematics related to the work she did at Goddard Space Center (NASA). Pizza and pop will be provded

February 17, 2006, Friday 4:00pm - Math Movie - 12th floor Mortimer

"Proof"
We will watch the recent movie "Proof"- usual snacks/drinks.

March 3, 2006, Friday 4:00pm - Problem session - 12th floor Mortimer

We will work on the Microsoft interview questions+snack

April 26, 2006, Thursday 6:00pm - 12th floor Mortimer- Budget and planning stuff.

April 29?, 2005: Twelfth Floor Mortimer: Pancakes and ... (also the math competition will be held that morning before the pancakes).
April 15, 2005: 209 Holmes, 3:30pm:: More String Theory Videos
April 7, 2005: 215 Holmes, 5:00pm:: Colin Adams, Williams College, "Why Knot"
March 6, 2005: 12th floor Mortimer, 12pm noon: Pancake lunch- come attack the "Pancake Problem"
February 25, 2005: 209 Holmes, 2:30 pm: Stringtime at Brockport, "The theory of Everything" - videos about string theory
November 30, 2004: 204 Holmes, 3:30 pm 204 Holmes: Beth Warner, SUNY Brockport (undergraduate) "Bands around non-convex sets"
November 19, 2004: FOB 203C seminar room, 1:15-2:00pm: Dan Barbosu, North University of Baia Mare, "Schurer - Stancu Type Operators"
November 15, 2004: 12th floor Mortimer, 5:45pm: Video on Chaos Theory, "Fractals: An Animated Discussion"
November 11, 2004: 105 Edwards, 5pm: Michele O'Brien, Development Engineer, Eastman Kodak Company, "Mathematics In Industry"
October 26, 2004: 105 Edwards, 5pm: Marcus Jaiclin, Adjunct Professor, SUNY Brockport, "The Mathematics of Voting Methods"
September 23, 2004:: Event- "Fun with math toys", 12th floor Mortimer.