A collection of papers in the field of computational and experimental mathematics authored by one or both of the present bloggers has now been published by Perfectly Scientific Press.
Entitled Exploratory Experimentation in Mathematics: Selected Works, the work collects 16 articles that reflect the changing face of computer-assisted “high-performance” mathematics, wherein the computer is increasingly utilized as an active agent for exploration and discovery in the world of research mathematics.
Richard E. Crandall, a colleague of the present bloggers and Director of the Center for Advanced Computation at Reed College, comments as follows:
Refreshing always it is to have
Continue reading Bailey and Borwein publish new collection of experimental math papers
Geoff Wain, a mathematics educator at Leeds University, is promoting an initiative to organize a museum of mathematics in the U.K.
Wain notes the successful Mathematikum in Giessen, Germany, which opened in 2002 and now attracts 150,000 visitors per year, and the Museum of Mathematics in New York City, which is slated to open later this year. He asks “Where would you go to find out about mathematics? … There’s absolutely nowhere in this country. It’s very sad.”
Last week Wain and some supporters gathered at King’s College to discuss plans for the museum, which is tentatively known as
Continue reading Researchers seek UK home for mathematics museum
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded the 2012 Crafoord Prize to Jean Bourgain (Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, USA) and Terence Tao (U.C. Los Angeles) “for their brilliant and groundbreaking work in harmonic analysis, partial differential equations, ergodic theory, number theory, combinatorics, functional analysis and theoretical computer science”.
As the Crafoord Prize website explains,
This year´s Crafoord Prize Laureates have solved an impressive number of important problems in mathematics. Their deep mathematical erudition and exceptional problem-solving ability have enabled them to discover many new and fruitful connections and to make fundamental contributions to current research in several
Continue reading Jean Bourgain and Terence Tao receive Crafoord Prize in mathematics
In response to the use of citation data in research assessments such as Excellence in Research for Australia, the International Mathematical Union (IMU) and the International Congress on Industrial and Applied Mathematics (ICIAM) are considering producing a mathematics journal rating system to mitigate the exploitation of commercial or national rating methods, see also the 2008 citations report and the 2010 best practice report. They write:
In implementation of Resolution 18 adopted by the IMU General Assembly in 2010: “The General Assembly of the IMU asks the EC to create, in cooperation with ICIAM, a Working Group that is charged with
Continue reading Proposed mathematical journal rating system
An article entitled “Exploratory Experimentation and Computation,” authored by the present bloggers, has appeared in the November 2011 issue of the Notices of the American Mathematical Society. The full PDF of the article is available Here. The article has been highlighted in a number of press reports, including: LBNL News, Science Daily, Eurekalert, Physorg, Newswise, and Others.
Here is an excerpt from the LBNL News report:
A common misperception is that mathematicians’ work consists entirely of calculations. If that were true, computers would have replaced mathematicians long ago. What mathematicians actually do is to discover and investigate patterns—patterns that arise
Continue reading “Exploratory Experimentation and Computation” published in AMS Notices
Professor Jonathan M. Borwein delivered the keynote talk Teaching and Researching with Collaboration Tools and Technology as part of the 2011 Australian Learning and Teaching Council workshop, “Effective Teaching, Effective Learning in the Quantitative Disciplines,” held 29-30 Sep 2011 at the University of Wollongong, NSW, Australia. This practical, hands-on and interactive workshop immediately followed the Australian Mathematical Society 55th Annual Meeting at the University of Wollongong (26-29 September, 2011). It has been designed specifically for lecturers and tutors teaching in the quantitative disciplines.
Additional details can be found at ALTC Workshop website.
The Conversation, an online forum from the Australian academic research community and aimed at the interested public, has featured an essay written by the present bloggers. Entitled “Magic numbers: the beauty of decimal notation,” it is available here: Conversation article.
This piece briefly mentions the history of positional decimal arithmetic, from its original discovery by unknown Indian mathematicians approximately 2000 years ago, to its modern incarnation (at least in binary) in computers. The article then speculates how history may have changed if either arithmetic had been discovered earlier, or it had been communicated to Greek mathematicians such as Archimedes.
It
Continue reading Magic numbers
The Conversation is a recently established web journal dedicated to making academic and related policy issues accessible to an informed public. The editors write:
The Conversation is an independent source of information, analysis and commentary from the university and research sector – written by acknowledged experts and delivered directly to the public. As professional journalists, we aim to make this wealth of knowledge and expertise accessible to all.
So far this has been done in a most lively and stimulating fashion; it is garnering readers within and without the academy from across the world let us hope it can be
Continue reading Turning IBM’s Watson into a maths genius
A new book, co-authored by one of the present bloggers is now available: An Introduction to Modern Mathematical Computing: With Maple, authored by Jonathan M. Borwein and Matthew P. Skerritt, published by Springer, 2011. Here is a brief synopsis:
Thirty years ago, mathematical computation was difficult to perform and thus used sparingly. However, mathematical computation has become far more accessible due to the emergence of the personal computer, the discovery of fiber-optics and the consequent development of the modern internet, and the creation of Maple, Mathematica, and Matlab.
An Introduction to Modern Mathematical Computing: With Maple looks beyond teaching the
Continue reading An Introduction to Modern Mathematical Computing
In 1937, Lothar Collatz proposed the following conjecture: Start with a positive integer n, then repeatedly iterate the following: If n is even, divide it by 2; if n is odd, compute 3*n+1. Collatz conjectured that for every starting value n, the result will invariably return to 1.
The Collatz conjecture has been studied by thousands of mathematicians and computer scientists. Portuguese mathematician Tomas Oliveira e Silva has verified the conjecture for all integers up to 5.76 x 10^18. But no proof has yet been found. Well-known mathematician Paul Erdos once characterized the Collatz conjecture as “Mathematics is not yet
Continue reading Has the 3n+1 conjecture been proved?
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