Submitted by Andreas Gebert on
Monday-Saturday from 10:00-17:00 h
The core principles for addressing research data are summarized in the FAIR acronym: data should be Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable.
In 2016, the German Council for Scientific Information Infrastructures (RFII) promoted the creation of different German National Research Data Infrastructures (Nationale Forschungsdateninfrastruktur, NFDI), as part of a nationwide coordinated development of scientific information infrastructures.
MaRDI (Mathematical Research Data Infrastructure) is the NFDI section devoted to mathematics. A consortium of 15 research institutions across Germany, led by the Weierstrass Institute for Applied Analysis and Stochastics (WIAS), is creating the infrastructure for handling mathematical data according to the FAIR principles. This includes creating data repositories, web portals, standardization procedures, search engines, training and promotion across the mathematical community, and beyond.
IMAGINARY collaborates with this initiative by helping with the communication and promotion of the project across different publics.
To get involved in this project, please contact the MaRDI organization.
Submitted by Johanna Marschall on
We have developed exciting stories for children aged 4 to 19 who deal with various math topics. For example, encryption (of secret messages), symmetry (of cuddly toys), logic (when solving puzzles), and spatial imagination (when flying kites).
Each topic has content tailored to four different age groups. Interactive applets are integrated into the individual chapters, which convey the content intuitively and are also fun. It is planned to make the offer freely available on a platform in several languages under an open license (German, English, Portuguese, Italian).
We present the materials and their possible use in lessons or other educational offers.
The event takes place online and is free of charge.
Register here.
We look forward to meeting you!
4 p. m. to 6 p. m.
Submitted by IMAGINARY on
The IMAGINARY team wishes you merry christmas and a happy new year!
We prepared a christmas card for you (in English, Spanish, German, French and Catalan for now) to download and forward. It was made with our program SURFER, which visualizes algebraic surfaces in real time. If you help us translate the card into other languages we can prepare new versions (for example Portuguese or Russian). We also offer you the InDesign file to recreate your own Christmas card - see attached files and below for the download directory.
2013 was a very special year for us: we collaborated with Mathematics of Planet Earth to launch a new exhibition and presented our new platform “IMAGINARY - open mathematics”. We worked on many exhibitions and events in Germany, Russia, Norway, France, Denmark, Argentina, Spain, Uruguay and Vietnam… And we presented our “IMAGINARY-Entdeckerbox”, a very exciting new medium for us to reach out to schools. The biggest news in 2013 was that we continue our great collaboration with the Klaus Tschira Stiftung. We are now working on a 3 years program to communicate modern mathematics and current research. We are looking forward for the upcoming “snapshots of modern mathematics” project and new exhibitions which are already in the pipeline for 2014.
Download directory for IMAGINARY Christmas card
Thank you for your support!
With all the best,
Your IMAGINARY team
Submitted by Sebastian Uribe on
IMAGINARY is creating a new exhibition, which aims to bring understanding about Artificial Intelligence to the general public. We are looking for partners and collaborators with interesting projects that can be turned into exhibits and works of art.
The exhibition, supported by the Carl Zeiss Foundation, will open on April 2020 and include demonstrations and explanations of Artificial Intelligence using interactive exhibits, artworks, videos, and workshops. It will feature both new and established research in fields like machine learning, expert systems, general artificial intelligence and more. The exhibition will visit three German cities, for three months each.
We are looking for partners and collaborators working in any branch of AI, with existing exhibits, or with research projects that can be turned into new ones. As always with IMAGINARY, all exhibits and content will be released online using Open Source and Creative Commons licences. We are also looking for works of art that present questions about AI and society, both in the present and the future.
If this sounds exciting to you please send us a short description of what you’re working on to ai@imaginary.org. Links to online examples and videos of your work are very welcome. You have time until the 1st of May.
Update: there is a new call for art projects, with an extended deadline (30th of September).
About IMAGINARYIMAGINARY is a non-profit organization dedicated to the communication of current research in mathematical sciences. It develops interactive software, 3d prints, visualizations for exhibitions, museums, workshops and teacher trainings. IMAGINARY also runs a collaborative platform for open source formats in mathematics communication.
It originated in the German Year of Mathematics 2008 at the Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach (MFO), a Leibniz Institute, and has become an independent organisation in 2016 with the MFO remaining a shareholder. IMAGINARY won several awards and organized more than 340 exhibition activities in 60 countries and in 30 languages and attracted several million visitors.
About the Carl Zeiss FoundationThe Carl Zeiss Foundation’s mission is to create an open environment for scientific breakthroughs. As a partner of excellence in science, it supports basic research as well as application-orientated research and teaching in the MINT subject areas (mathematics, information technology, natural sciences and technical disciplines). Founded in 1889 by the physicist and mathematician Ernst Abbe, the Carl Zeiss Foundation is the oldest private science funding institution in Germany. It is the sole owner of Carl Zeiss AG and SCHOTT AG. Its projects are financed from the dividend distributions of the two foundation companies.
Submitted by Bianca Violet on
Snapshots are short, easy to understand articles on recent topics of mathematical research. They explain mathematical problems and ideas in an accessible and understandable way, and provide exciting insights into current topics of the mathematical community for everyone who is interested in modern mathematics.
The snapshots are all written by real experts in their fields:
At the Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach, every week 50 to 60 experts from all over the world work together on current challenges in the field of Mathematics. They introduce new results, discuss different approaches and develop new ideas. After each symposium, the institute asks selected participants to explain one aspect of their research in a comprehensible language to a general audience in a few pages. A team of young mathematicians revise the articles in close collaboration with the authors and assists them in communicating complicated matters to a broad audience. Together they prepare an edited version for publication.
Find all published snapshots at the IMAGINARY texts section!
So far, there are 23 Snapshots available in English and German. More are to come. Some of the English articles are already being translated into other languages. You can filter by mathematical field and/or connections to other fields, as well as authors.
The snapshot project is designed to promote the understanding and appreciation of modern mathematics and mathematical research in the general public world-wide. As part of the project “Oberwolfach meets IMAGINARY”, it is funded by the Klaus Tschira Stiftung.
Submitted by Sebastian Hamburger on
Volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, melting glaciers: Can they be calculated? How big is the contribution of mathematical sciences to the task of mastering these current ecological problems and catastrophes that massively challenge our world? The exhibition “Mathematics of Planet Earth” gives insights into these questions. It will be shown in the Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin starting on March 27th. Several computer terminals offer interactive videos and simulations to specific examples and their mathematical models.
The exhibition was developed in the year 2013, which was themed “Mathematics of planet earth”. More than one hundred scientific institutions, universities, NGOs and research facilities all over the world united to create public awareness for the contribution of mathematics towards natural disasters and the ecological challenges our world faces. They were supported by the UNESCO, the International Science Council ICSU, and the International Council for Industrial and Applied Mathematics ICIAM.
One of the highlights was the creation of an exhibition whose contents are available under a free license. A competition was created, where users could send in virtual contributions like pictures, films, programs, or construction plans for physical exhibits. 29 groups from 11 different countries participated in that competition.
For the exhibition in the Deutsches Technikmuseum, three contributions have been picked by a jury and were didactically prepared. The selected projects are presented at touch screen stations that can be used interactively by the visitors. The exhibit “Dune Ash” of the University of Freiburg is a virtual simulation of a volcanic eruption. The calculation of the movement of an ash cloud is made visible for the visitors. “The future development of a glacier” of the Freie Universität Berlin explains how experts create models in order to predict glacier shifting. Finally, the exhibit “Tsunami” is a project from the University of Paris that shows a simulation of the evolution and computation of tsunami waves as well as a historical outline about the formation and the consequences of devastating tsunamis in the past.
The exhibition was organised in collaboration with IMAGINARY, a project of the Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach founded by the Klaus Tschira Stiftung. It can be visited in the Deutsches Technikmuseum until June 27th and is located directly next to the permanent exhibition “The first computer” about Konrad Zuse.
Submitted by Ferit Öztürk on
The exhibition “IMAGINARY through the eyes of Mathematics” is completely reproduced in Istanbul. You will be able to experience SURFER, Cinderella and Morenaments, along with a mathematical image gallery and hands-on exhibits.
More info in Turkish here.
IMAGINARY Turkey is a collaboration between the Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach, the Turkish Mathematical Soceity and the Istanbul Center for Mathematical Sciences.
Within the project, we will translate the whole IMAGINARY platform into Turkish, including software and exhibits. There will be several interactive exhibitions in Turkey as well as school projects and media events. We want to connect scientific and public partners and to establish long term partnerships.
Events:
Mathematicians, scientist in different fields, politicians, students, the math interested public and media are invited to contribute to the activities. We are plannig to add exhibits developed by our Turkish partners. Existing exibits will be updated and extended. The exhibitions and their exhibits will be used beyond the German-Turkish Year of Science.
The project officially starts on January 1st, 2015 and will last until February 2016. We will upload news, upcoming activities and reports on past activities on this page.
To participate (translation, organization, new ideas), please contact: turkey@imaginary.org
Submitted by IMAGINARY on
The jury consisted of the two mathematicians Günter Ziegler and Michael Joswig and the two journalists Holger Dambeck, SPIEGEL ONLINE, and Christoph Drösser, DIE ZEIT – both of them former DMV Medienpreis winners.
Gert-Martin Greuel and Andreas Matt are awarded for their outstanding activities in the development and implementation of IMAGINARY, a project by the Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach supported by the Klaus Tschira Stiftung. Jury member Holger Dambeck states that with unique software for everybody to visualize algebraic surfaces, with big media competitions, with worldwide exhibitions and with the internet portal “IMAGINARY – open mathematics”, the project evoke great enthusiasm for mathematics in Germany and abroad.
In addition to the media award, the DMV also gave a journalist award to Sven Preger for a radio feature on the mathematician Leanordo da Pisa (Fibonacci), and three cartoon awards to Oliver Ottitsch, Katharina Greve and Uwe Krumbiegel for their humorous cartoons on mathematics.
An important note for the IMAGINARY team: this award is due to the contribution of all team members and partners to the IMAGINARY project. We would like to especially mention Christian Stussak for his ideas, contributions in software development (SURFER, Formula Morph, et al.) and technical support for all exhibitions and programs, Christoph Knoth and Konrad Renner for the development and design of the IMAGINARY platform, Susanne Schimpf and Anna Hartkopf for their work on the platform, the coordination of exhibitions and events and the communication with our users, to Sebastian Uribe for his assistance in media work and organization. Also to the director of the Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach Gerhard Huisken and all staff members of the Institute for their constant support and work on logistics, editing, communication and finances for IMAGINARY. And to all our IMAGINARY partners: among them especially the RSME in Spain with Sebastian Xambo, Antonio Campillo and their team for organizing more than 15 exhibitions and several museum installations and for being an integral part of the project, the German Embassy in Moscow for organizing 7 exhibitions in Russia, our partners in Argentina, Portugal, Serbia, China, Panama, Colombia, Switzerland, Austria, Norway, France, et al.Thank you all!
