Mathematics

WIMIN Conference at Smith

Post by Sarah Fleming ’17 and Nina Pande ’17 Last Saturday, we attended WIMIN15, a conference sponsored by the Center for Women in Mathematics at Smith College. We heard two invited speakers, Linda Chen of Swarthmore College and Mariel Vazquez of University of California at Davis. Chen… Continue reading »

Math Puzzles and Contests

The  purpose of this post is to talk about the weekly math puzzle night dinners run by myself and my sidekick, Professor Miller, and to invite you to join us for this and other related activities. Here’s a quick summary of problem solving activities; for more information or to be… Continue reading »

Centennial MathFest

The centennial summer meeting (“MathFest“) of the Mathematical Association of America, August 5-8, 2015, in Washington DC, featured Hedrick Lectures on “Algebra Over Finite Fields” by Karen Smith, Centennial Lectures by Erik Demaine, Jennifer Chayes, Ingrid Daubechies, Carlos Castillo-Chavez, Karen Parshall, and Manjul Bhargava, and other invited lectures… Continue reading »

Lego Brickumentary at Images: Aug 8 and 9

AFTER IMAGES — A LEGO BRICKUMENTARY: Steven J. Miller, Associate Professor of Mathematics and instructor of The Mathematics of LEGO Bricks, will join Images Cinema Executive Director Doug Jones in a post-screening discussion about the creative possibilities of LEGOs following screenings of the family-friendly A LEGO Brickumentary on… Continue reading »

May the Fourth be with you…….

For the past two winter studies I’ve taught a course on the Mathematics of LEGO bricks, with a goal of assembling a team to assemble the 3152 piece Superstar destroyer  in under 10 minutes (we just missed by a few seconds the first year, and did it in under… Continue reading »

To bead, or not to bead….

It is often said that mathematics  is universal; one of my greatest joys, both as a parent and as a professor, is finding interesting and novel ways to illustrate various concepts. Over the past few years I’ve been fortunate to work with many great SMALL students on projects related to… Continue reading »

Math/Stat Awards Banquet

It was another glorious year in the Math/Stat department at Williams.  We celebrated its end with our annual banquet, packed with over 150 faculty and students.  As tradition, the new majors received a beverage wrench, and everyone joined in applauding the winners of this year’s awards. Colloquium… Continue reading »

Best Jobs 2015

Mathematics and statistics are essential skills for most of the best six jobs in 2015, according to the latest rankings by CareerCast.com. Here are the top six jobs: 1. Actuary 2. Audiologist 3. Mathematician 4. Statistician 5. Biomedical Engineer 6. Data Scientist For more information see also the… Continue reading »

The James Function

Like many mathematicians, I’m happy when I can combine my work with my other passions. As a lifelong Red Sox fan, I didn’t realize that all those games I watched when I was young was preparing me for a very productive career in sabermetrics, the science of applying math and… Continue reading »