Mathematics

A fun news video of John Mackey (UHM PhD ’94) being interviewed about Powerball. Mackey is now Director of Undergraduate Studies at the Carnegie Mellon University math department.

The Mathematics Department gives an undergraduate award each year prior to commencement, the Kern-Clark Award. The department gives these awards to undergraduates whose performance in their mathematics classes has been outstanding. The winner of the 2013 Kern-Clark award is Christina Mende. We are pleased that she is considering UH for math grad school as well.

The Department also gives two Excellence in Teaching Awards each year, one to a graduate teaching assistant  and the other to a faculty member, both of whom have been outstanding teachers. The winners of these awards in 2013 are Kayleigh Hyde and Michelle Manes.

Room Assignments: MATH 140 and 241 Final Exam Rooms

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From Inside Science:

Alexander Wissner-Gross, a physicist at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Cameron Freer, a mathematician at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, developed an equation that they say describes many intelligent or cognitive behaviors, such as upright walking and tool use.

The researchers suggest that intelligent behavior stems from the impulse to seize control of future events in the environment. This is the exact opposite of the classic science-fiction scenario in which computers or robots become intelligent, then set their sights on taking over the world.

The paper acknowledges work done while Freer was supported as a postdoc in our department during 2010-2011.

Graduate student Rintaro “Yoshi” Yoshida will defend the degree of Ph.D. on Thursday May 2, 2:00pm, in Keller 301.

We invite the reader to consider the entire function whose restriction to $\mathbb R$ is pictured above:
$$\varphi_{_{1/5}}(x) = \sum_{k=0}^\infty \frac{x^k}{(k!)^{(6/5)}}$$
Do you think this function has any non-real zeros? Does it belong to the Laguerre-Pólya class? See the draft dissertation for answers.

A team of more than 50 mathematicians and students from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa invite 7th-12th grade and college students to an evening of probability games and exposure to mathematical thinking. The event, Monte Carlo Night, will take place at the UH Mānoa Campus Center Ballroom on Wednesday, April 24, from 6 p.m.-8 p.m. and is free to attend.

This outreach event will be lead by the School and University Partnership for Educational Renewal in Mathematics (SUPER-M). SUPER-M is an outreach program in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Funded by the National Science Foundation and Graduate STEM Fellows in K-12 Education Program, SUPER-M strives to improve the perception of mathematics in the community through various activities and events. SUPER-M has officially partnered with 29 K-12 schools throughout the state since 2009.
UH News Release link

Graduate student Kayleigh Hyde will present her Master’s project on Monday April 22, 10:30am, in Shidler College of Business Room E201. Draft paper

Let $M$ be a nondeterministic finite automaton, having $q$ states and no $\epsilon$-transitions. If there is exactly one path through $M$ of length $n$ leading to an accept state, and $x$ is the string read along that path, then we say that $A_N(x)\le q$ (the NFS complexity of $x$ is at most $q$).

Assistant Professor Daisuke Takagi will give a “Professors & Pizza” lecture in the College of Engineering.

View details (PDF)
Abstract:

The movements of motile microorganisms and swimming nanorobots are seemingly random and difficult to predict. I will show how chemically propelled particles move in large circles, flip over on a surface, and slalom through a suspension of spheres. These observations can be explained by a simple theory, which suggests strategies for capturing, filtering, and transporting suspensions of swimmers.

Professor emeritus Ed Bertram has been named to the inaugural list of AMS fellows.

The Fellows of the American Mathematical Society program recognizes members who have made outstanding contributions to the creation, exposition, advancement, communication, and utilization of mathematics.

Information about the Colloquium