Professor Wood sends along the following puzzle, courtesy of BrainFreeze, celebrating Pi Day. The attached PDF contains a rotationally symmetric Sudoku puzzle with only 18 entries filled in. (This is conjecturally the least number of entries that can yield a unique solution if you require rotational symmetry.) Further, the 18 entries come from the first 18 digits of π = 3.14159265358979323…

Click here for the puzzle (PDF).

As an aside, when you drop the requirement of rotational symmetry, it has been proven that at least 16 clues are required in order to yield a unique solution. However, no puzzle with a unique solution is known with only 16 clues — the sparsest known puzzles require 17 clues (and 48,000+ such examples have been constructed; a list is maintained by Gordon Royle at The University of Western Australia).

This Thursday, February 25 at 12:00 p.m.,  the Mathematics & Computer Science department will host a lunch in our department lounge (SCIE 601) for both prospective and current majors. This will be an opportunity to learn about our major programs, ask questions, and meet the many friendly faces of our department.

Tags: free lunch, majors, open house

A summer research program for undergraduates at Colorado-Boulder is scheduled for June 19-26, 2010. The program will introduce students to research problems in applied statistics; students who are considering graduate study in applied mathematics or statistics should strongly consider this an an opportunity to “test the waters.”

Details and application can be found at:

http://www.stat.berkeley.edu/~summer/

Tags: applied mathematics, statistics, summer school, undergraduate research

The Research Training Group in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Washington will host a summer school for advanced undergraduates and beginning graduate students on Inverse Problems & Partial Differential Equations.  Students will attend lectures in the morning and problem sessions in small groups with mentors in the afternoon. On-campus accommodation and meals will be provided, plus a travel allowance of up to $500.

Please note the application deadline of April 1, 2010. For more information, or to apply, please visit:

http://www.math.washington.edu/ipde/summer

Tags: analysis, summer school

Brown University’s Symposium for Undergraduates in the Mathematical
Sciences (SUMS) is an annual conference which is designed to foster
greater undergraduate interest and scholarship in mathematics and
mathematical sciences. SUMS will be held on Saturday, March 13, 2010 at Brown University in Providence, RI. This year’s featured topic is Math and the Environment.

The organizers of this conference connect visiting students with students at Brown for housing. However, registration is required. Please visit

http://math.brown.edu/sums/

for more information, or to register.

Tags: applied mathematics, Brown, undergraduate conference

The Statistical and Applied Mathematical Sciences Institute (SAMSI) will host a one week undergraduate workshop intended for college juniors and seniors focused on SAMSI research activities related to the statistical and applied mathematical modeling and analysis of experimental data. Participants will be involved in a hands-on experience; they will use mathematical and statistical models to analyze epidemiological data.

Tutorials on modeling, mathematical and statistical methodology will be given. Participants working together in small teams will analyze the available data using mathematical and statistical software.

Please note the application deadline of April 2, 2010. For more information, visit:

http://www.samsi.info/200910/ug/ug-application201005.html

From the Logic Center at UCLA:

Dear Colleague,

The UCLA Logic Center is organizing a summer school for undergraduates this July. The goal of the school is to introduce future mathematicians to methods and central results from mathematical logic. Courses do not assume prior knowledge in logic. But they are very intensive, and require mathematical maturity (we reach graduate level material).

Eligible students should be undergraduates, currently in their Junior year or earlier (or foreign equivalent). The application deadline is March 7. Further information is available on the summer school webpage, http://www.math.ucla.edu/~ineeman/Summer-school/ . Questions about the summer school can be directed to logicschool@math.ucla.edu

Tags: logic, Opportunities, REU, summer, UCLA

The Department of Computer Science and the Department of Sociology and
Anthropology at Trinity University, San Antonio, TX, are pleased to offer a
10-week REU (Research Experiences for Undergraduates) program where students
will work collaboratively on a wide variety of AI & multi-agent systems
problems. We will use multi-agent systems to simulate social environments.

Important Dates:
March 5, 2010: application deadline.
March 19, 2010: notification of decision.
May 24 – July 30, 2010: program dates.

Eligibility: Funding is limited to United States citizens or US permanent
residents. Women and minorities are particularly encouraged to apply.

Funding: Each participant will receive
- a stipend of $4,000,
- free housing in university dormitories,
- travel expenses to and from San Antonio,
- an afternoon refreshment break everyday and several social gathering
dinners and activities.

For more information go to http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~yzhang/reu/reu.html,
or contact Dr. Yu Zhang at yzhang@cs.trinity.edu

Tags: REU, summer, undergraduate research

John Hopkins University runs summer programs through the Center for Talented Youth, and are frequently looking for university students to serve as teaching assistants during their summer courses. From their own description:

CTY offers challenging academic programs for highly talented elementary, middle, and high school students from across the country and around the world. Information regarding our summer programs can be found at http://www.cty.jhu.edu/summer/employment.

The coordinators are looking to hire students with backgrounds in either Mathematics or Computer Science. Locations, dates, and application information can be found at the link above.

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln will be offering two REU research programs in Applied Mathematics this summer. The titles of the two projects are:

Fractional Calculus on Time Scales

Life History of Plants

Both programs require familiarity with Ordinary Differential Equations (i.e., MATH 229 for Wesleyan folk). For more information, or to apply by the deadline of March 1, visit:

http://www.unl.edu/summerprogram/research2010/math.shtml#app

Tags: applied math, Nebraska, REU, summer, undergraduate research