Mathematics Talks for Undergraduates

I have given a number of mathematics talks for undergraduates in the past. Below are descriptions of several of them. Venues for these talks include the Vanderbilt Undergraduate Seminar in Mathematics, the Furman University Department of Mathematics Colloquium, and the Harvard Math Table.

• How to Win at Monopoly
  March 2006
  Vanderbilt Undergraduate Seminar in Mathematics

  Modeled the game of Monopoly with Markov chains as way to determine which properties are likely to be landed on most often.

• Wavelets: Uniform and Otherwise
  November 2004
  Furman University Department of Mathematics Colloquium
  
  Presented basic wavelet and data compression ideas, including an introduction to my research on nonuniform wavelet bases. I also presented this talk at the Harvard Math Table in October 2004.

• The Incredible Shrinking Data
  March 2004
  Harvard Math Table
  
  Presented basic Fourier analysis and data compression ideas. The talk featured data compression examples of both audio and image data. I also presented this talk at the Vanderbilt Undergraduate Seminar in Mathematics in October 2001 and April 2003. See these overheads from the October 2001 version.

• Two's Company, Three's a Conundrum
  March 2002
  Vanderbilt Undergraduate Seminar in Mathematics
  
  Presented material on Cardano's solution to the general cubic polynomial equation and the Four Color Theorem as part of a lecture on famous math problems in which "one more" or "one less" makes a significant difference in difficulty.

• And the Winner Is...?
  February 2002
  Vanderbilt Undergraduate Seminar in Mathematics
  
  Presented material on voting methods and basic social choice theory. At the talk the week before, the undergraduate attendees were directed to a web site where they could vote on their Oscar picks. During the voting theory talk a week later, this voting data was used to illustrate how different voting methods can produce different results from the same set of voter preferences. The interactivity and inclusion of pop culture helped keep the students interested. See these overheads for more information.

• Huh?
  November 2001
  Vanderbilt Undergraduate Seminar in Mathematics
  
  Presented nonintuitive mathematics results in basic probability and traffic flow to a general undergraduate audience.

Page maintained by Derek Bruff (derek.bruff [at] vanderbilt.edu).

Last updated September 3, 2006.

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