MCN Newsletter 2015/5

8 Ara. 2015

Newsletter for the Math Communication Network, a project initiated by IMAGINARY aimed at professionals of math outreach. Learn more about it on the project website.

 

In this Newsletter:
  • Upcoming conferences
  • Recent events
  • New exhibitions
  • Funding calls
  • Highlighted projects

Remember that you can send us any news you may want to share with the community to network@imaginary.org.

 

Upcoming conferences MoSAIC Festival at MIT Museum (Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, December 11-12, 2015)

MoSAIC (Mathematics of Science, Art, Industry, Culture) events are small gatherings on Mathematics and Art organized by BRIDGES. This event will be hosted at the Museum of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

 

Illustrating Mathematics at ICERM (Providence (Rhode Island), United States, June 27 - July 1, 2016)

The Institute for Computational and Experimental Research in Mathematics (ICERM) holds this conference to bring together mathematicians from a range of fields, and practitioners from the digital arts (animation, 3D printing, laser cutting, CNC routing, virtual reality, computer games, etc). The attendees will share their expertise in mathematics and with the procedural tools used to illustrate mathematics. In addition to talks in the traditional style, several workshops will take place to train attendees about a variety of digital media, in particular 3D printing.

 

Symmetry Festival 2016 (Vienna, Austria, July 18-22, 2016)

The International Symmetry Association (ISA) organizes the multidisciplinary conference and art festival “Symmetry Festival 2016”, hosted by the Technische Universität Wien (Vienna, Austria). The event will include an international scientific conference (talks, workshops), an art exhibition (contemporary art, origami…), teacher programs, book shows, concerts, performances, movies, a family day, public program and more.

The ISA conferences gather since 1989 a broad spectrum of scientists, Nobel Laureates, recognized artists, educators and other distinguished people working in scientific and artistic fields related to the phenomena of symmetry.

The Symmetry Festival 2016 will orbit around three main topics: Symmetry and Matter, Symmetry and Life, and Symmetry and Interdisciplinarity.

Papers can be submitted and will be peer-reviewed before presentation and publication. Selected papers will appear in the proceedings issue of the Journal of Symmetry: Culture and Science. Other accepted papers will appear online.

Deadlines: Extended abstracts (max 4 p.), 15 February 2016; Notification on acceptance, 15 April 2016; Final papers, 15 May 2016; Early Bird Registration, 1 June 2016; Cancellation Deadline, 1 June 2016.

More information to come soon, or also at info@symmetry.hu

 

Maths communication at the 7th European Congress of Mathematics (7ECM) (Berlin, Germany, July 18-22, 2016)

The cultural program of the conference include an IMAGINARY exhibition and a Math Film Festival.

 

IMAGINARY Conference 2016 (Berlin, Germany, July 20-23, 2016)

MAGINARY Conference on Open and Collaborative Communication of Mathematical Research 2016 (IC16) is an interdisciplinary gathering for mathematicians, communicators and interested professionals to discuss and work together on current issues of communication and knowledge transfer in mathematics. Experts in the fields of mathematical research, didactics, computer science, architecture, design, law, and media research are invited to establish a comprehensive analysis of mathematics communication today and to develop new perspectives.

This conference will break the classical scheme of successive talks, and will propose a mixture of conventional talks together with parallel workshops, that aim to generate tangible outputs during the conference, with the active involvement of the participants. The workshops will address the following main topics:

  • A. Community, networking and legal aspects.
  • B. Advances in 2-d and 3-d visualization of modern mathematics, creation of mathematics exhibits.
  • C. Knowledge transfer and pedagogics of mathematics communication.
  • D. Agile design and tools for maths communication.
  • E. Mathematical writing, journalism and media.

Proposals for talks and workshops can be submitted until February 1, 2016. Talks are short presentations of 15+5 min aimed to all the participants. Workshops are projects to be developed in up to 11h during three afternoons, and will run in parallel in small groups of up to 15 participants. A short summary of the workshops will be presented at the end of the conference.

An exhibition corner will be also available, participants are invited to display exhibits or other items to the conference.

 

13th International Congress on Mathematical Education (ICME13) (Hamburg, Germany, July 24 - 31, 2016)

The Society of Didactics of Mathematics (Gesellschaft für Didaktik der Mathematik - GDM) will host ICME-13 in 2016 in Germany, under the auspices of the International Commission on Mathematical Instruction (ICMI). The conference features a target group TSG7 on Popularisation of Maths. The call for submission of Papers and Posters is open from 1st Sept. to 1st Oct. 2015.

 

Bridges 2016 (Jyväskylä, Finland, August 9-13, 2016)

The Bridges Conference is the world’s largest interdisciplinary conference on mathematics and art. The annual meeting on 2016 will take place in Finland. The conference will feature presentations of full and short papers, hands-on workshops, invited talks, a juried art exhibition, a math/art short movie festival, a theater event, a music night, a mathematical poetry reading, a math/art excursion, a public day, and more. Papers will be published in the refereed conference proceedings.

The Student Travel Scholarship program is open for funding young participants.

Deadlines for submissions: Regular Papers: 1 February 2016, Workshop Papers: 1 March 2016, Short Papers: 15 March 2016, Artworks: between 15 February and 15 March 2016, Movies: between 15 April and 15 May 2016.

 

ESMA Conference (European Society for Mathematics and the Arts) (Ljubljana, Slovenia, September 21 - 25, 2016)

The next ESMA conference will give the opportunity to have a new large exhibition. New artworks will be particularly welcomed. The main themes of the conference are:

  • Mathematical tools and software for the creation of artistic scientific visualizations.
  • Analysis of artistic/mathematical works from the mathematical/artistic point of view.
  • Pedagogical uses of scientific artistic works.

If you intend to show some of your work please inform the organizers ([1], [2]) as early as possible in order to prepare a catalogue in time. Contributors are invited to send a first abstract before January 30th, 2016, their full paper before June 15th, 2016, to any member of the scientific committee: ([3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8], [9], [10], [11], [12], [13]).

  Recent events International Math Outreach Workshop at BIRS

Math outreach specialists from Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States, meeting at the Banff International Research Station (BIRS), in Alberta, Canada, from the 22nd to the 27th of November 2015, created Math Outreach International (MOI), a group dedicated to international collaboration in math outreach.

MOI will get advice from an international advisory board made of prominent outreach leaders.  And it will contact the International Mathematical Union to see if it should become an IMU committee.

MOI will launch a website containing resources and links to organizations coordinating national and international outreach activities. The MOI website will link to mathematics museums, groups and individuals providing math outreach.

MOI will support efforts to expand and enrich outreach activities worldwide, especially those aimed at women and traditionally under-represented groups.  MOI’s international advisory board will advise on how to encourage policy-makers to increase resources for math outreach.

In order to achieve its goals, MOI will organize workshops and conferences, and will propose them as satellite activities of international meetings of mathematical associations.

For further information, contact Marie-Hélène Pedneau.

(full press release, conference website)

 

New exhibitions  Musimatique

The Maison des Mathématiques et de l’Informatique (Lyon, France) presents the exhibition Musimatique. A travel around contemporary music creations,  where computer-generated sounds play a fundamental role and around the physical and mathematical phenomena in music. Open to everybody, with or without musical or scientific background, the exhibition brings the visitor thorugh an artistic and experimental trip in four episodes:

-  « D’Ore et d’Espace », de Denys Vinzant. Glass and golden metal membranes and structures converted into musical sculptures.

- « Smartmusique », en partenariat avec GRAME. Using a special app for your smartphone, and using its acceleromeers, you can create music while you move and dance.

- « Ce que disent les mathématiques », en partenariat avec la Bibliothèque Universitaire Lyon 1. A collection of posters and panels that walk you through the harmony and the mathematical theory of music.

« Voir et toucher le son », en collaboration avec le département de physique de l’ENS de Lyon. An interactive workshop to see and touch the sound.

Open until June 2016 at the Maison des Mathématiques et de l’Informatique (Lyon, France). Free entrance.

 

2016 exhibitions of the European Society of Mathematics and Arts (ESMA)

In 2016 there will be at least two big exhibitions by ESMA:

  • Firenze (Italy), April 4-24, 2016. A Mathematical Fair organizeg by Enrico Giusti, from il Giardino di Archimede. The theme of the fair is “mathematics and arts”, and it will feature some public lectures, a concert by three people from IRCAM (Institute for Research and Coordination of Acoustics and Music), and more.
  • Ljubljana (Slovenia), September 21 - 25, 2016. With the occasion of the ESMA Conference (see above), a big exhibition will be held at the conference venue. All participants are invited to expose their works of art, see directions in the announcement.

(announcement)

 

Funding calls IMU funding for Women in Mathematics activities. The IMU’s Committee for Women in Mathematics invites proposals for funding of up to €3000 for activities or initiatives taking place in 2016, and aimed at establishing or supporting networks for women in mathematics, preferably at the continental or regional level, and with priority given to networks and individuals in developing or emerging countries. CWM’s help could include, for example, funding meetings, travel for individuals for consultation purposes, or advice and support in creating websites. Other ideas for researching and/or addressing problems encountered by women in mathematics may also be considered.

(official call)

 

Highlighted projects Snapshots of Modern Mathematics

The Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach and IMAGINARY launched the publication of Snapshots of Modern Mathematics, short texts on aspects of current research in mathematics written by researchers visiting the MFO. Snapshots are edited for accessibility and understandability, and can be distributed and translated under open licenses. Read more here.

 

Métiers Mathinfo

The Office national d’information surles enseignements et les professions (ONISEP), in France, has published in his journal ZoomMétiers a monographic issue “Les métiers des mathématiques et de l’informatique” (in French). The publication has involved numerous professionals from associations Femmes et Mathématiques, Société Française de Statistique (SFdS), Société Informatique de France (SIF), Société de Mathématiques Appliquées et Industrielles (SMAI), and Société Mathématiques de France (SMF) that describe the different jobs and professional positions of mathematicians, statisticians, and computer scientists  today, stressing the relation between these fields. The journal is addressed to students, parents and teachers, to help the youth to choose a professional career.

 

Numberphile

Numberphile is a YouTube channel, supported by the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI), with more than 1.4 million subscribers and more than 250 entertaining, informative math videos. Each short video presents a problem, topic in mathematical research, or just talks on mathematical culture discussed by professional mathematicians, with the help of beautiful illustrations and sketches in coarse brown packing paper.

 

Navajo Math Circles

Navajo Math Circles is a new one-hour documentary film by George Csicsery, it premieres January 6, 2016, in Seattle, Washington at the Joint Mathematics Meetings (JMM) (watch the 8-minute trailer in the link). The film is supported by the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, Vision Maker Media, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and the Simons Foundation.

 

Advent Calendars

Many countries have the tradition of Advent calendars, special countdown calendars anticipating Christmas day, often with poems or candies for each day. What would be better than a math advent calendar? Here we list four math Advent calendars:

 

 

Merry Christmas and happy maths!

 

For any issues about the Network, you can email to network@imaginary.org or Daniel Ramos at daniel.ramos@imaginary.org

IMAGINARY is a project by the Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach and supported by the Klaus Tschira Stiftung.

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