Professor Andrew Rich of Manchester College in Indiana will speak today in Avery Hall, room 115 at 4 p.m.
Every year Pi Mu Epsilon brings in a notable speaker to give a lecture, focusing on thought-provoking math applications or problems. Pi Mu Epsilon is an organization that emphasizes education in mathematics.
The Hilda Function will be the topic of this year’s lecture. This lecture is not limited to math geniuses. It is, in fact, free and open to the public. Jay Cummings, president of the Pi Mu Epsilon Chapter at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said this function doesn’t require a lot of heavy math and is relatively easy to understand.
“There isn’t a lot of math they’re expecting you to know,” Cummings said.
The program is geared toward undergraduates, said Cummings. However, he encourages both graduate and undergraduate students to attend. Pi Mu Epsilon has also invited people from other departments within UNL and other colleges in the area.
These lectures have record attendance compared to other monthly social events.
“The attracted audience is bigger,” Cummings said. “The monthly meetings have mostly undergraduate math students, whereas the lectures attract graduate students, faculty and people from neighboring universities.”
Today’s lecturer, Rich, has traveled around to world to teach at places including Handong University in South Korea, St. Andrews University in Scotland and Indonesia. He’s also been invited to speak about the number Pi, binary representations, the Golden Ratio and other mathematical questions.
Every year Pi Mu Epsilon looks for interesting guests to speak. Last year, Gwen Fisher, a mathematician and artist, discussed how she uses math to help her make art. This year Cummings suggested Rich and said it seemed to work out perfectly.
“We thought it would be an interesting and accessible topic to undergraduates,” Cummings said. “We looked at that abstract and thought it would work really well.”
News@dailynebraskan.com
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