Monday, 11 October 2021

Past newsletters can now be reached via the department website.

[Click on “About” and then “News and Events”].

Newsletter is sent out when there is something new.

Please send entries by the end of the workweek –Ed.

MEETINGS AND SEMINARS IN THE DEPARTMENT

TUESDAYS

Seminar on Topological Semigroups

The seminar will include applications to Ramsey theory.

Tuesdays, 10:10 am

Contact coordinator for zoom invite.

Coordinator Dennis Davenport

Combinatorics Seminar

Meeting at 3pm on Tuesdays this semester.

Contact coordinator Lou Shapiro for zoom link

WEDNESDAYS

Applied Math Reading Seminar

Wednesdays online from 12 to 1pm.

Students will get to practice studying papers and working on research problems. This semester the topic is Machine Learning. Session 2 to N will be recorded.

Please write the coordinator for original handouts or for the recording link.

Contact coordinator for zoom link as well.

Coordinator: Katie Gurski

Math team/Math Club meetings

Organizers: Jill McGowan (math club), Lou Shapiro (math team)

Number Theory Seminar

Select Wednesdays, 4-5pm, on zoom

Next talk on Oct 19, Sankar Sitaraman

(If departmental meeting is scheduled for that time, seminar will be moved to following Wednesday).

Topic: Artin’s Primitive Roots Conjecture

The first few talks will be introductory. In general the talks will be accessible to graduate students and advanced undergraduates.

Coordinator: Sankar Sitaraman

Thursdays

Graduate Student Seminar

TBA

Coordinator: Noel Bourne

Fridays

Mathematics Department Colloquium

This semester our Colloquium talks are shared between us and Cornell's Colloquium.

October 15, 4:10pm – 5:00pm

Luca Spolaor, UCSD

Singular behavior of min-max minimal hypersurfaces in dimension 8

On Friday, October 8, Ken Ono of University of Virginia talked about the Riemann Hypothesis.

TALKS AND WORKSHOPS OUTSIDE DEPARTMENT

1. (Thanks to Aziz Yakubu) Undergraduate research event at Duke University

Saturday, October 30, 2021

Duke University, Durham, NC

New Connections in Math (NCM21) is a research symposium for undergraduate students interested in analysis, probability, PDE, computation, and applied mathematics. The program will include:

student research talks and poster session, faculty keynote speakers, a panel discussion with grad students and faculty about opportunities for graduate study, and many opportunities to interact with other mathematicians.

More information

2. Wikipedia assignments in math courses

Wikipedia assignments are a good supplement to a course, especially advanced or specialized courses. The application to run a Wikipedia assignment in Winter/Spring 2022 is now open! The deadline to submit your application is November 21, 2021. To submit your course page, login at https://dashboard.wikiedu.org and click on create course to either clone an existing page or start one from scratch. Be sure to hit the submit button when you're ready.

3. (Thanks to Aziz Yakubu) Data Challenge

Prof. Kathy Weaver of the University of Maryland, College Park runs a data challenge. Howard students are welcome to participate.

More information about the program.

You can contact her at datachallenge@umd.edu to find out how to participate.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

1. (Thanks to Yeona Kang and Dennis Davenport)

Congratulations to math majors Naomi Rankin and Nina Bryan for being

selected for oral presentation at the NAM MATHFest on Oct 1. Naomi won the award for best presentation.

Her presentation was titled “Agent-Based Model of COVID-19 on the Diamond Princess Cruise Ship.”

Nina Bryan talked about “Ensemble Learning Model in Regression QSPR Application.”

SCHOLARSHIP AND FELLOWSHIP OPPORTUNITIES

(from various sources)

1. Virtual Career Fair for FDA

Wednesday, Oct 13. Hosted by Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Engineering. Registration website.

2. (Thanks to Dennis Davenport) AMS Congressional Fellowships

The American Mathematical Society (AMS) will sponsor a Congressional Fellow from September 2022 through August 2023. The Fellow brings his/her/their technical background and external perspective to the decision-making process in Congress. Now in its 17th year, the AMS Congressional Fellowship provides a unique public policy learning experience, and demonstrates the value of science-government interaction. The program includes an orientation on congressional and executive branch operations,. and a year-long seminar series on issues involving science, technology, and public policy.

Candidates should have three letters of recommendation sent to the AMS by the February 1, 2022 deadline.

More information and application

3. (Thanks to Dennis Davenport)

Air Force Office of Scientific Research Summer Faculty Fellowship Program (SFFP) is currently accepting applications for FY2022 until 30 November 2021 from qualified faculty members interested in conducting research at Air Force (AF) Research Labs/Center. Visit their website for more information.

Statistics position at California State University Channel Islands (CSUCI) This is a public university located in Ventura County, California.

Application website.

4. (Thanks to Aziz Yakubu) NASA MINDS program (design -build)

NASA MUREP Innovative New Designs for Space (NASA MINDS), which is a design and build program, is now accepting applications and will be providing funding to Minority Serving Institutions to participate in the program.

NASA MINDS seeks to educate students as well as advance technologies that support NASA’s Artemis Mission in some way. There is no cost to participate. In fact, it will provide up to $1,500 to build the project, as well as a $1,000 faculty stipend to mentor a team. Your team will have the opportunity to be selected for trophies, as well as awards up to $5,000. The deadline to submit is October 18th, 2021.

TO APPLY VISIT: https://nasaminds.org/application/

In previous newsletters:

NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) (deadline Oct 22).

The AMS Claytor-Gilmer Fellowship

The NIH-Wide Stadtman investigator search

Solar Energy Innovators Program

Seeking volunteer math tutors

Hertz Foundation fellowship for graduate students

INTERESTING ARTICLES AND WEBSITES

1. Inaugural Claytor-Gilmer Fellowship

Mohamed Omar of Harvey Mudd College has been awarded the inaugural fellowship. This award seeks to recognize and support outstanding African-American mathematicians. Prof. Omar applies algebra to problems in discrete mathematics.

2. Mathematician achieves breakthrough on the n-queens problem in Chess

The problem involves finding number of ways n queens can be placed on an n by n chessboard without any of them being able to attack any other.

Quanta magazine article