February 2007

Saturday February 3rd, 2007 Location: RLM 4.102 (On the UT campus) Group Leader: Dr. Fernando Rodriguez-Villegas Topic: Math Games Title: Ready, Set, Go! Poster: Click here for the poster.

SET, the famously addictive "family game of visual perception", is explained and deconstructed by the Math Department's own Dr. Fernando Rodriguez-Villegas.

For the official game website click here .

We also have posted the SET rules and some extra activities related to the game.

There is one game that was mentioned but not played called JAM that Dr. Rodriguez-Villegas mentioned was similar to Tic-Tac-Toe. The game of JAM is really simple. Look at the picture . Every line will be called a "road" and every dot a "town". The goal of the game is to control all the roads going through a town. So, the two players take turns picking the roads, so for example player 1 colors his or her road red, and then player 2 colors his/her road blue. Once someone has three roads that go through the same dot, he or she wins.

Check out some of the pictures taken during the lecture.

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Saturday February 24th, 2007 Location: WEL 1.316 (On the UT campus) Group Leader: Dr. Edward Odell Topic: Ramsey Theory Title: Pigeonholes and Shaking Hands: An introduction to Ramsey Theory. Poster: Click here for the poster.

UT Math Professor Edward Odell explained the basics of Ramsey theory, like the Pigeonhole Principle and the Ramsey Party Problem.

To find out more about the topics discussed in class, look at the handout.

To find out more about Ramsey Theory, a good start is the wikipedia page.

There is a good website where you can play the Kevin Bacon game and other similar games.

You can find out more about Paul Erdos, Frank P. Ramsey, and Terry Tao by clicking on the links.

Check out some of the pictures taken during the lecture.

About the pictures below: On the left, there is a picture of pigeons in holes; on the right, a proof that R(3)>5

April 2007

Saturday April 7th, 2007 Location: RLM 4.102 (On the UT campus) Group Leader: Dr. Thomas Butts (from UT Dallas) Topic: Problem Solving Title: Some of My Favorite Problems and Why I Like Them Poster: Click here for the poster.

Dr. Thomas Butts is a Professor in the UT Dallas Math Department. Like the title says, he will tell us about his favorite problems and why he likes them, and we will get to learn how to solve them!

Check out some of the pictures taken during the lecture.

About Dr. Butts: On top of being a professor in the Dallas Math Department, Dr. Butts is involved in a lot of outreach programs (much like this one!). Among these:

1. He has been writing activities for We All Use Math Every Day , an outreach program designed to accompany episodes of the TV show Numb3rs .
2. He leads a Math Circle in Dallas with his colleague Titu Andrescu.
3. Frequently gives talks about problem solving directed at both teachers and students.
4. Is a member of the Advisory Panel on The American Mathematics Competitions Committee.

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Saturday April 28th, 2007 Location: RLM 4.102 (On the UT campus) Group Leader: Dr. Michael Saclolo (from St. Edward's University) Topic: Math History Title: Euler: His Life and Work. Click here for the poster.

As many of you know, 2007 marks the 300th anniversary of Leonhard Euler's birth. In honor of this, Dr. Michael Saclolo, from St. Edward's University, gave a very entertaining lecture about this famous Swiss mathematician's life and work.

You can now download the power point presentation . For the activities handout, click here .

Check out some of the pictures taken during the lecture.

To learn more about Euler, here's the wikipedia link .