EPaDel Spring 2024 Section Meeting
Our Spring 2024 meeting was held April 13, 2024 at Albright College.
Schedule
| 8:30 - 10:30 | Registration Center for the Arts (CFA), Mezzanine |
| 8:30 - 9:00 | Light Breakfast Reception (coffee, tea, pastries) CFA, Mezzanine |
| 9:00 - 9:10 | Welcoming Remarks CFA, Roop Hall |
| 9:15 - 10:05 | Invited speaker: Alexander Diaz-Lopez Mathematics: Play, Truth, and Justice CFA, Roop Hall |
| 10:05 - 10:30 | Coffee Break & Silent Auction CFA, Mezzanine |
| 10:35 - 11:25 | Invited speaker: Michael Jones The Fundamentals of Finite Markov Chains through Applications CFA, Roop Hall |
| 11:25 - 11:45 | Business Meeting, Awards, Group Photo CFA, Roop Hall |
| 11:45 - 1:00 | Lunch & Table Discussions McMillan Student Center, South Lounge |
| 1:10 - 2:10 | Faculty/Graduate Speaker Sessions Roessner 201-205 Student Activity Roessner 203 |
| 2:15 - 3:15 | Student Speaker Sessions Roessner 201-205 |
| 3:35 - 4:25 | Invited speaker: Annalisa Crannell The Moon Tilt Illusion and Perspective Geometry CFA, Roop Hall |
| 4:25 - 4:45 | Reception & Silent Auction Winners CFA, Mezzanine |
Invited Speakers
Annalisa Crannell
Franklin & Marshall College
The Moon Tilt Illusion and Perspective Geometry
We'll explore the wonders of how geometry and perspective art can help us look at the world in new ways (literally). We'll use this geometry to dig into a controversy about classical art (was Ivins correct that Dürer messed up perspective in his iconic etching of St. Jerome?). And then we'll use our tools to analyse an illusion that most of us haven't even thought to contemplate.
The Moon Tilt illusion confuses the viewer about the direction of illumination of a waxing or waning moon. We give several examples of this phenomenon and explain how the illusion arises from standard (but surprising) aspects of perspective projections. Familiar perspective drawings and photographs of objects such as clocks and cubes help us further analyze the unfamiliar explanations of pictures of illuminated portions of spheres.
Annalisa Crannell (the Carmie L. and Beatrice J. Creitz Professor of Mathematics at Franklin & Marshall College) is the recipient of EPaDel's 2023 Distinguished Service Award, and also of both her college’s and the MAA's distinguished teaching awards. Her early research was in topological dynamical systems (also known as "Chaos Theory"), but she subsequently became active in working with mathematicians and artists on Projective Geometry applied to Perspective Art. Together with mathematician/artists Marc Frantz and Fumiko Futamura, she is the author of Perspective and Projective Geometry and Viewpoints: Mathematical Perspective and Fractal Geometry in Art. She especially enjoys talking to non-mathematicians who haven't (yet) learned where the most beautiful aspects of the subject lie.
Alexander Diaz-Lopez
Villanova University
Mathematics: Play, Truth, and Justice
In a celebrated talk in 2017, Francis Su argued that mathematics is for human flourishing as it helps us cultivate certain virtues through human desires such as Play, Beauty, Truth, Justice, and Love. In this talk, we will embark in a journey to explore aspects of mathematics that prompted me to feel or think about Play, Truth, and Justice. Among the topics to discuss are games, social media, AI, and politics.
Alexander Diaz-Lopez is associate professor of mathematics at Villanova University. His research area is algebraic combinatorics and is currently supported by the NSF grant DMS-2211379. Alexander has been the recipient of the 2021 MAA Alder Teaching Award and is a Project NExTer. Currently, Alexander is the director of the summer research program VPR^3 (Villanova-Puerto Rico Research Retreat), co-director of MSRI-UP, and Member-at-Large of the MAA EPaDel Section.
Michael Jones
Managing Editor at Mathematical Reviews
The Fundamentals of Finite Markov Chains through Applications
A Markov chain is a probabilistic model that generates a sequence of outcomes such that the probability of the next term in the sequence only depends on the current term. Even though the study of finite Markov chains applies elementary ideas from linear algebra and probability theory, the topic is rarely taught in either class. This is a shame because the ideas are straightforward and the applications are varied, compelling, and accessible. In this talk, the fundamentals of Markov chains—including the fundamental matrix, regular chains, absorption times, etc.—will be introduced through applications including the Super Bowl box pool, the Penney Ante game (made popular by Martin Gardner), the television game show The Chase, and Chutes and Ladders.
Michael A. Jones is Associate and Managing Editor of the AMS’s Math. Reviews. This year will be his 16th teaching the Mathematics of Decisions, Elections, and Games for high school students in the University of Michigan’s Michigan Math and Science Scholars summer program. His research often focuses on the intersection of mathematics and the social sciences. For example, in 2023, he and co-authors Dave McCune and Jennifer Wilson published Delegate Apportionment in the US Presidential Primaries: A Mathematical Analysis, as part of the Springer-Verlag Studies in Choice and Welfare series. From 2015 to 2019, he served as editor of the MAA’s Mathematics Magazine.
Student Activity
Local Organizers
The local organizers for this meeting are Chris Catone and Brittany Ohlinger of Albright College. Please contact a local organizer with site-specific questions, or contact an Executive Committee member with more general questions.