The Spring 2023 Section Meeting will take place at Indiana University - Kokomo on Friday, March 31, 2023 and Saturday, April 1, 2023. The local organizer is Dr. Amelia Tebbe antebbe (at) iu.edu.
Parking instructions
Parking restrictions are not enforced during the conference (except accessible parking and 24/7 enforceable labeled spots). Parking can be within any student or employee parking space (ST or EM).
Plenary Speakers:
Catherine Hsu
Projective and Non-Abelian SET
Mathematicians love SET. On the surface, this classic game is a con test of pattern recognition, but it also presents an interesting way to visualize the geometry of a torus over a finite field. In this talk, we will discuss some of the mathematics connected to SET and then explore several new versions of the game, including one arising from projective geometry and one arising from non-abelian groups. In particular, we will see how these non-abelian variations on SET can give intuitive visualizations of abstract group structures.
Prime Components in Apollonian packings
An Apollonian circle packing is a fractal arrangement formed by repeatedly inscribing circles into the interstices in a Descartes configuration of four mutually tangent circles. The curvatures of the circles in such a packing are often integers, and so it is natural to ask questions about their arithmetic properties. For example, it is known by work of Bourgain-Fuchs that a positive fraction of integers appear as curvatures in any integral Apollonian circle packing. In this talk, we investigate the arithmetic properties of the collection of integers appearing in “thickened prime components'' of Apollonian circle packings.
Heidi Berger
The Upside of Down Syndrome
My son Isaac has Down syndrome. He was born in 2015, within a year of me receiving tenure at Simpson College. The experience of being his mother has had a profound effect on me as a mathematician. Having been with him through dozens of hospitalizations and surgeries, I wanted to learn about his medical complexities and, more generally, about coordinated health care for those with chronic illness. To accomplish these goals, I've designed and implemented multiple courses and undergraduate research projects over the past several years. This talk will explore how mathematics and a healthy dose of imposter syndrome can be used to understand and improve health care outcomes for individuals with Down syndrome.
INDIANA NEXT PANEL DISCUSSION
Topic: In recent years there has been a surge in interest regarding alternative assessment techniques, such as mastery grading. One barrier to implementing these is sufficient resources and support in getting started. The panelists will discuss their forays into this arena and will share some resources for others to begin testing in their own courses.
Panelists:
Derek Thompson (Taylor University)
Kelsey Walters (Rose-Hulman University)
Moderator:
Rachel Petrik (Rose-Hulman Univeristy)