Events for Spring 2006:

Date	Speaker(s)	Title(s)	Abstract
Feb.1	Dept. faculty and students	Interested in summer research? Graduate school?	Department faculty and student veterans will offer advice on  applying for undergraduate research programs for summer 2006 and on getting ready to apply to graduate programs for 2007-2008.  Pizza and beverages  at 12:15 in 416 Clapp.
Feb. 8	Harriet Pollatsek, MHC	Factoring 2	This talk will be a no-prerequisite excursion from the integers to the complex numbers to the algebra and combinatorics of "difference sets in groups." Pizza and beverages at 12:15 in 416 Clapp.
Feb. 11		SUMS at Brown University	See website at http://www.math.brown.edu/SUMS
Feb. 15	from The Geometry Center	"Not Knot", a film	The film "Not Knot", created by The Geometry Center at the University of Minnesota, is a guided tour into computer -animated hyperbolic space.  It proceed from the world of knots to its complementary space, what's not a knot.  The video shows the geometry of the knot complement, the space  around the knot, changing into hyperbolic space, and then you see what it is like to "fly through" the hyperbolic space.  Pizza and beverages at 12:15 in 416 Clapp.
Feb. 20	Ellen Stein,   Eric  Hansen	Dual degrees and master's degrees at Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth	Dean Stein and Prof Hansen will describe the dual degree options and master's degrees in applied science and engineering management at the Thayer School.  3-4:30, in 416 Clapp.
Feb. 22	sarah-marie belcastro, Xavier University	Graphs, surfaces, coloring and YOU	This presentation will introduce the field of topological graph theory.  Along the way, YOU will get to work on some elementary problems and present your insights, so that YOU will acquire a sense of how mathematicians approach topological graph theory questions.  Pizza and beverages will be served.
Mar. 1	Nate Whitaker, Prof. Math., UMass	Modelling Tumor Angiogenesis	Prof. Whitaker will derive a model for the growth of blood vessels induced by growth factors from the tumor.  This is called tumor induced angiogenesis.  The model will be solved numerically and work in progress will be discussed.   Pizza and beverages at 12:15 in 416 Clapp.
Mar. 8	Brian Knep, artisti/engineer	Mathematics and art: modelling pattern formation	Pizza and beverages at 12:15 in 416 Clapp. Talk in 402 Clapp.
Mar. 15	Frank Gould, Wesleyan University	The Platonic and Archimedian solids and other generalizations	We start with the 5 platonic solids and generalize in 4 ways: (1) The family tree in n dimensions.  (2) The Archimedean solids, the prisms and anti-prisms.  (3) Allowing lines and polygons  to "pass through each other unnoticed".  (4) Regular polygonal tilings in Euclidean 2-dimensional spaces other than the sphere.  At the end, we each construct a "faceted cuboctahedron" from 4 business cards.  We discover the space in which it's a tiling from the Euler characteristic.  Pizza and beverages at 12:15 in 416 Clapp.
Mar. 29	Dept. faculty	Information session on 300-level courses, spring 2006	Come learn about 300-level courses in mathematics and statistics for fall 2006, including both MHC courses and offerings in the Valley.  Pizza and beverages at 12:15 in 416 Clapp.
Apr. 5
Apr. 7	MHC Senior Symposium	Seniors in math. stat. and the sciences will speak on their research; seniors in all disciplines will also be speaking.	12:00 - 6:00 pm.  Math/Stat/CS talks 12-3 in L3 Cleveland.
Apr. 8	HRUMC at Westfield State, featured speaker Ken Ono, Prof. of Math, U. Wisconsin	Opportunities for student talks, plus the plenary address by Prof. Ono.
Apr. 12	Chris Gole, Smith College	Spirals in Plants?	Many plants exhibit two families of spirals, and most often the numbers of spirals in these two families are consecutive Fibonacci numbers.  But what kind of spirals are these?  We will see how a simple mathematical model leads to a more flexible notion of spiral patterns and a geometrical framework that encompasses all the patterns of arrangement of organs at the growing tip of a plant.    Talk in 402 Clapp.  Pizza and beverages at 12:15 in 416 Clapp.
April 13 Smith College	Analyzing Likert data on attitudes: who has more national pride?  Americans or the British?	Kristin Javaras, Department of Biostatistics, Harvard School of Public Health	Tea at 3:45 in Burton Forum, talk at 4:00 in Burton 301, Smith College.
Apr. 19	David Vella, Skidmore College	The higher chain rule  and composite generating functions	In this talk we pose the question of how to generalize the chain rule of calculus to higher derivatives.  It turns out the question has a 150 year old answer which involves a sum over the partitions of an integer.  We add a new twist however, by applying the formula in a novel way to create a sort of machine for generating and proving many identities involving Stirling numbers, Bell numbers, Bernoulli numbers and Euler numbers. This talk is geared towards undergraduate math students who only need know what a Taylor series is.  It is NOT necessary to have heard of Stirling, Bell, Bernoulli and/or Euler numbers before.   Pizza and beverages at 12:15 in 416 Clapp.
Apr. 22 at BU	One-Day Mathematics Symposium at Boston University,	African-American Mathematics: Building pipelines	10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. at Boston University See their website at http://math.bu.edu/people/ep/AFRAMATH06
Apr. 26	Thomas  Hull, Merrimack College	Origami rings and folding heptagons	Origami, the art of paper folding, has become popular among mathematicians in part because of the ease at which it can create pretty geometrical shapes.  We'll look at one example of folding polygonal rings and see how origami can construct a regular heptagon (7 sides) with mathematical precision.  Emphasis will be on the process of going from a geometric problem (constructing a heptagon) to solving an algebraic equation (z^3 + z^2 -2z -1 = 0) to figuring out which folds will solve this equation.  Talk at 12:20 in 420 Clapp.  Pizza and beverages at noon in 416 Clapp.
May 3	Math/Stat students	Math/Stat "Talk Back"	We've decided to use the last Math/Stat Club meeting of the year for a "Talk Back" --- an opportunity for you to give the department advice about opportunities and events outside the classroom.  (Seniors will get a detailed questionnaire --- watch for it!)  What are your reactions to opportunities and events in 2005-2006?  What advice/suggestions do you have for 2006-2007? Come share your ideas and join the conversation. .  Pizza and beverages at 12:15 in 416 Clapp.