Fall 2019
Tuesday, September 10th
Welcome Back BBQ
Burgers, hotdogs and veggie burgers grilled to perfection by our Mathematics & Computer Science faculty. Everyone is welcome to come out and join the fun!
Noon
Rector Courtyard (Rain Location: Rector Atrium)
Food provided
Tuesday, September 24th
"Where Do I Go From Here?"
Professor Jeffrey Forrester & Professor Tracy McKay, Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Dickinson College & the Center for Advising, Internships and Lifelong Career Development
In this chat we discuss a wide variety of careers and opportunities for students majoring in mathematics and computer science. In addition, we will talk about graduate school options, internships, and REUs (Research Experience for Undergraduates). Specific information about our recent graduates will be provided.
Noon
Tome 115
Pizza provided
Tuesday, October 15th
"Adventures in Nonlinear Boolean Optimization: The 0-1 Quadratic and Cubic Knapsack Problems"
Professor Dick Forrester, Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Dickinson College
The knapsack problem is a classical problem in combinatorial optimization: Given a set of items, each with a weight and a value, determine which items to include in a knapsack so that the total weight is less than or equal to the capacity and the total value is maximized. In this talk we will learn about quadratic and cubic extensions of the classical knapsack problem. We will discuss both heuristic and exact solutions methods, and in particular we will see how a simple reordering of the variables can affect algorithmic performance.
Noon
Tome 115
Pizza provided
Tuesday, October 29th
"Counting with Fibonacci numbers: Fibotorials, Fibonomials, and other Fibothings"
Dr. Jordan Tirrell, Professor of Mathematics, Washington College
Formulas involving division come up quite often in counting problems. You may have seen some before, like the formula for binomial coefficients, which can be written as a quotient of factorials. For fun, let's replace the ordinary numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,... in this formula with Fibonacci numbers 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 12,... So, we'll replace a factorial with a Fibotorial (for example, the sixth Fibotorial is 1*1*2*3*5*8=240), and our binomial coefficients become Fibonomial coefficients. Shockingly, these are always integers! Integers often count things. Binomial coefficients count things, and Fibonacci numbers count things, but what do Fibonomial coefficients count? I first heard about this question in a talk when I was an undergraduate. Spoiler alert: it has now been answered. But don't worry, I have plenty of unanswered questions about Fibothings to share.
Noon
Tome 115
Pizza provided
Friday, November 15th
"Does correlation imply causation? What it means to be a data scientist in industry"
Dr. Kelly Rooker, Data Scientist, Amazon Web Services
Data science is everywhere nowadays! And for a great reason: computers can now solve problems once thought impossible. This talk will mention a variety of successful applications of deep learning in industry, then do a deeper dive into just one of those, computer vision. Finally, we'll wrap up with an overview of data science-related careers, the wide variety of options available to you, and what you can do to be better prepared for an industry job in data science.
3:00pm
Tome 115
Refreshments provided