Mathematics Network
Announcements
Check out our new UCLA Math Shirts!
2 New Designs || $15.00 each
Contact Anna Ramos for more details!
anna@math.ucla.edu
NBC Learn, in partnership with the National Science Foundation, launched the la test set of stories in their series Science Behind the News. The video collection explores science, technology, engineering and math found in current events. View the video, Predictive Policing, featuring research in crime modeling conducted by UCLA Professors Andrea Bertozzi (Math), Jeffrey Brantingham (Anthropology) and the Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics.
Click Here for more info!
Professor Lloyd Shapely awarded the Nobel Prize in economics
Lloyd Shapley with King of Sweden
On December 10, 2012, Professor Lloyd Shapley accepted the Nobel Prize in economics (shared with Professor Alvin Roth of Harvard), “for the theory of stable allocations and the practice of market design.” The ceremony took place at the Stockholm Concert Hall and the prize was awarded by King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden. Following the ceremony, a banquet for the Nobel laureates was held at the Stockholm City Hall. Shapley was joined by his family members, UCLA Chancellor Gene Block, and mathematician Guillermo Owen.
Professor Shapley joined UCLA in 1981, holding a joint position in the economics and mathematics department. He has been professor emeritus since 2000.
View Prize Lecture
UCLA Math Fall 2012 Newsletter Available Online
Download the 2012 newsletter here.
Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader to Access web links.
Museum of Mathematics Founder Delivers 2012 Math Commencement Address
On June 17, Museum of Mathematics (MoMath) executive director Glen Whitney delivered the department’s 2012 commencement address. Whitney received his PhD in mathematical logic from UCLA in 1994. After an academic career at the University of Michigan, he joined Renaissance Technologies as a hedge-fund quantitative analyst. Whitney discovered the spirit of hands-on math exploration as an elementary-school math club coach, and he’s seen the value of math as a tool to give back to society, helping to design the data collection systems used by the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative. Whitney left his full-time position to devote himself to MoMath, America’s only museum of mathematics, which opens in Manhattan in December 2012. As executive director of the museum, Whitney is working to change public perceptions of mathematics and to improve the way we educate our youth in this country.
View Whitney’s commencement address here.
Join Us for UCLA Alumni Day 2012 and the Mathematics Department Info Fair
Please join us at UCLA Alumni Day 2012, which will take place on campus on Saturday, May 5, 2012. Join thousands of UCLA alumni and their families and friends as they come back to campus for a day of fun, good food, lectures, campus tours and more. Reconnect with old friends and network with new ones.
Make sure to stop by our table at the Info Fair, 9 am to 12 noon, to say hello and catch up with the latest news and developments in the department.
To see the Day’s schedule of activities and to sign up, Click Here.
See you there!
Please join the UCLA mathematics department and the UCLA Career Center for the alumni panel, Moneyball: High Scoring Careers in Math, featuring successful math alumni working in a variety of professions. Learn the plusses and minuses of pursuing a degree, employment, or graduate school in mathematics from professionals who have succeeded in their academic and career choices. Join us for this rich program where UCLA Mathematics Department alumni will share the formula for success you can have in a variety of careers using your mathematics degree, and your unique interests and skills. You don’t have to be a math major to pursue your Moneyball – all majors and levels welcome! Note to alumni: you must by a BruinView™ for Alumni subscriber to attend.
Monday, April 16, 7-8:45pm
UCLA Career Center
Second Floor, Room 200
Light refreshments will be served
Click Here to register and to see a list of panelists, and/or subscribe to BruinView™ for Alumni.
UCLA Math Fall 2011 Newsletter Available Online
[Download the 2011 newsletter here.]
(http://www.math.ucla.edu/downloads/nl2011.pdf)
Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader to access web links.
Be a Host for Dinner for 12 Strangers
Dinners for 12 Strangers is a global phenomenon and you can be a part of it! For more than 40 years this UCLA tradition has brought alumni, faculty and students from all generations together to enjoy good food and great conversation. An award-winning program, Dinners for 12 Strangers is emulated by hundreds of universities. In 2011, alumni hosted 290 dinners, involving more than 3,100 Bruins.
The 2012 dinners will be held on
Saturday, Feb. 25
Sunday, Feb. 26
Saturday, March 3
If you live in the Los Angeles area you can request your dinner guests to be students of our department! If you live anywhere in the world you can host a dinner for alumni. Please sign up before January 13, 2012 here.
UCLA Mathematicians Solve Violent Los Angeles Gang Crime with Math
Hollenbeck gangs network
On October 31, 2011, the Los Angeles Times featured new research by UCLA mathematicians that uses a mathematical algorithm to identify street gangs involved in unsolved violent crimes. Professor Andrea Bertozzi, Assistant Adjunct Professor Martin Short and PhD student Alexey Stomakhin set out to solve the problem proposed by the Los Angeles Police Department to identify the top three most likely gangs responsible for an unsolved crime based on activity patterns in the field data of the Hollenbeck division in East Los Angeles, home to some 30 gangs and nearly 70 gang rivalries. Building on the earthquake model they had previously developed to analyze crime activity between these gangs, the research team set out to solve the inverse problem of identifying which gang might be responsible for the unsolved crimes. The results are promising. About 80 percent of the time, the algorithm places the true culprit in the top three gangs based on simulated data that mimics the field data. The result would be approximately 50 percent of the time with random guessing. The algorithm has the potential to apply to a broader class of problems that involve activity on a social network, including identifying terrorist groups based on their communications activity.
Click here to read about their research in the Los Angeles Times
Click here to read about their research in the UCLA Newsroom
Lecture Podcasts and Videos
Special Public Lecture: Science and Cooking
October 25, 2011
Video available online here
UCLA’s Department of Mathematics, the Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics (IPAM), and California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) hosted a public lecture on “Science and Cooking” by Professor Michael Brenner (Glover Professor of Applied Mathematics and Applied Physics, Harvard University) and Professor Amy Rowat (UCLA Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology).
Brenner and Rowat explored how much of cooking, both that which you practice every day, and that which is practiced by the world’s finest chefs, is strongly rooted in science and scientific principles. With a little bit of knowledge about some basic principles in science, as well as methods for making measurements, experiments in the kitchen can be reinterpreted in scientific terms, leading to new culinary creations. They described the development of a science course at Harvard (debuted in the fall of 2010) on this topic, in which cooking was used as the basis to teach science to 300 non-science undergraduates. Each week, the class was visited by a world famous chef (e.g. Ferran Adria, Jose Andres, Grant Achatz, Bill Yosses, Dan Barber, Wylie Dufresne…), who illustrated the scientific principles of the week. Each lesson was illustrated by a laboratory, in which the students carried out and made scientific measurements on a recipe – understood in quantitative terms by an equation. This lecture summarized the intersection of science and cooking, focusing on its use as a pedagogical device for teaching science.
AMS Einstein Public Lecture in Mathematics Available Online
October 9, 2010
The AMS Einstein Public Lecture in Mathematics: The Cosmic Distance Ladder presented by UCLA Mathematics Professor Terence Tao is now available for viewing online. The video can be accessed two ways:
We hope you enjoy the lecture again or for the first time. Feel free to spread the word!
