44th Annual WKU Mathematics Symposium

Day/Time: Friday, November 8, 3:45-4:45pm

Title: How mathematics is making Hollywood movies better

Abstract: What’s your favorite movie? Star Wars? Avatar? The Avengers? Frozen? What do these and all the highest-earning Hollywood movies have in common? Mathematics! You probably didn’t think about it while watching these movies, but math was used to help make them. In this presentation, we will discuss how math is being used to create better and more realistic movies. Along the way, we will discuss some specific movies and the mathematics behind them. We will include examples from Disney’s 2013 movie Frozen (how to use math to create realistic-looking snow) to Pixar’s 2004 movie The Incredibles (how to use math to make an animated character move faster). Come and join us and get a better appreciation of mathematics and movies.

Day/Time: Saturday, November 9, 10:45-11:45am

Title:

Mixing surfaces, algebra, and geometry

Abstract:

The only things more beautiful than your favorite mathematical topics are the deep connections between them. In this talk we will start with a (seemingly) simple dynamical system, a saltwater taffy puller, and explain how investigations into this system lead us to many other fields of mathematics, such as linear algebra, number theory, topology, geometry, combinatorics, and group theory. In the process we will touch upon the work of Max Dehn, who invented several fields of mathematics a century ago, as well as the work of William Thurston and Maryam Mirzakhani, both of whom won the Fields Medal. We will also discuss a number of open questions and new directions. The talk will be accessible to a wide audience, and familiarity with the above topics will not be assumed.