Mathematical Association of America

Allegheny Mountain Section

Spring 2021 Meeting
9-10 April 2021
Edinboro University (virtually)

Meeting Information

Meeting Schedule

Student Talk Schedule and Abstracts (Friday)

Faculty Talk Schedule and Abstracts (Saturday)

Conference book sale information here!

Invited Speakers

Tim Chartier 4PM-5PM, 9 April 2021 Talk Title: Mathematical Celebrity Look-Alikes Abstract: Have you ever wondered what celebrities you look like? This talk develops a mathematical answer to this question from a group of celebrity photos. Vectors norms enable us to discern what celebrity looks most like a selected individual. Then, we broaden the question to explore what linear combination of celebrity photos best approximates a selected photo. Would you describe yourself as a cross between Russell Crowe and Ben Stiller? Or maybe Julia Roberts and Jennifer Aniston? In this talk, we learn how to answer this question using mathematical methods from undergraduate linear algebra classes. Bio: Tim Chartier is an award-winning professor of mathematics and computer science at Davidson College. A skilled teacher and researcher, Professor Chartier received the Alder Award, Euler Book Prize, and the Daniel Solow Author's Award from the MAA and is an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow. He specializes in sports analytics and has worked with the NBA, NFL, ESPN, NASCAR teams, and others. Dr. Chartier is one of three instructors in Outlier.org’s Calculus course. He has also worked with Google and Pixar on K-12 educational initiatives. He is an award-winning author of multiple books on mathematics and computer science. He has served as vice president and is currently chair of the Congress of the MAA and was the first chair of the Advisory Council for the National Museum of Mathematics. He serves as an expert resource for major news organizations such as NPR, the New York Times, Bloomberg TV, and CBS.

Carol Schumacher 9AM-10AM, 10 April 2021 (where) Talk Title: All Tangled Up Abstract: Toys have inspired a lot of interesting mathematics. The Spirograph (TM) helps children create lovely curves by rolling a small circle around the inside or the outside of a larger circle. These curves are called hypotrochoids and epitrochoids and are special cases of mathematical curves called roulettes. A roulette is created by following a point attached to one curve as that curve "rolls" along another curve. Another children’s toy, the Tangle (TM), inspired some students and me to investigate roulettes that we get by rolling a circle around the inside of a "tangle curve," which is made up of quarter circles. The resulting roulettes we named "tangloids." In this talk, we will look at many pretty pictures and animations of these curves and discuss some of their interesting properties. As a bonus, I will discuss the nature of generalization, which is very important in mathematics. Bio: Carol Schumacher is Professor of Mathematics at Kenyon College and has served three terms as department chair. She received her Ph.D. in mathematics from The University of Texas at Austin. Schumacher is the recipient of Kenyon’s Trustee Teaching Award and of the Ohio Section MAA’s Distinguished Teaching Award. She is the author of Closer and Closer: Introducing Real Analysis and Chapter Zero: Fundamental Notions of Abstract Mathematics, 2E. She loves teaching pretty much anything, but especially loves Calculus I and Calculus III, the transitions to proof course, the real analysis sequence. And she has recently gotten into teaching applied differential equations and dynamics. Schumacher is active in the Mathematical Association of America. She was co-chair of the 2015 CUPM Curriculum Guide to Majors in the Mathematical Sciences and is MAA VP. She has addressed Project NExT fellows at their summer workshop and has been involved with workshops that help faculty incorporate inquiry into their classrooms.

Tom Edgar 11:45AM-12:45AM, 10 April 2021 (where) Talk Title: A Mathematician's Groundhog Day: Prove, reflect, and repeat Abstract: What might a mathematician do if they were forced to relive the same day over and over, much like Bill Murray in the classic movie Groundhog Day? Wouldn't boredom set in after proving the same theorem over and over? Not if they use different techniques each time! In this talk, we will discuss why mathematicians might be interested in proving one result in many ways. We'll explore multiple proofs for a variety of theorems that are typically encountered by undergraduate mathematics students. In particular, we will encounter several visually-inspired proofs that encourage alternate ways of thinking about pure mathematical ideas. Bio: Tom Edgar is an associate professor of mathematics at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington, where he has lived for the past decade. He received his undergraduate degree from Dickinson College in Pennsylvania, a Masters degree from Colorado State University, and his Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. He is the recipient of the distinguished teaching award from the Pacific Northwest Section of the Mathematical Association of America, and he will serve as the editor of Math Horizons, the undergraduate magazine of the MAA, during the calendar years 2020-2024. He enjoys exploring integer sequences, combinatorial number theory, representation theory, and visual mathematics, especially with students in the classroom or via undergraduate research.

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