The mathematics of DNA victim identification, communicating mathematics effectively, and how to cover sustainability issues in mathematics classes were among the topics explored during a regional meeting of the Mathematics Association of America (MAA) at St. Bonaventure University.
The Fall 2011 MAA Seaway Section Meeting was held Friday, Oct. 14, and Saturday, Oct. 15, and featured four plenary presentations, including banquet speaker Jonathan Hoyle, a Macintosh software architect at Eastman Kodak in Rochester, who discussed “Forensic Mathematics and the World Trade Center Project.”
In 2001, Hoyle was a senior software engineer and mathematician at Gene Codes Forensics and was responsible for implementing the mathematical algorithms used in M-FISys (pronounced “emphasis”), the forensic software written specifically for the World Trade Center Project. The victim identification process was the largest and most complex forensic project in history.
Hoyle’s presentation described the events of 9/11 from a forensic perspective and detail the mathematics of DNA victim identification, including DNA fingerprinting, kinship analysis and other genetic applications of forensic mathematics.
Some 125 mathematics faculty, students and practitioners attended the conference, which featured more than a dozen presentations by faculty members from colleges and universities in the region as well as a number of student research projects.
In addition to Hoyle, the other plenary speakers and topics were:
- Ivars Peterson, Director of Publications and Communications at the Mathematical Association of America in Washington, D.C., who gave a presentation on “Pancake Sorting, Prefix Reversals, and DNA Rearrangements,” and the workshop “Writing Mathematics Well.”
- Tom Pfaff, associate professor of mathematics at Ithaca College, who discussed “Sustain This! Making Math Matter.”
- Dror Bar-Natan, a professor in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Toronto, who discussed “The Hardest Math I’ve Ever Really Used.”
The MAA Seaway Section consists of New York state (except for New York City and the metro area) and part of southern Ontario.
Participants from the following organizations attended the conference: Alfred University, Binghamton University, Brock University, Broome Community College, Buffalo State College, Colgate University, Eastman Kodak, Elmira College, Everest Institute, Hamilton College, Ithaca College, Mathematical Association of America, Nazareth College, Niagara University, Roberts Wesleyan College, Rochester Institute of Technology, Saint John Fisher College, SUNY College at Oneonta, SUNY Fredonia, SUNY Geneseo, SUNY Potsdam, The College at Brockport, University of Rochester, University of Toronto, University of Waterloo, Utica College, Villa Maria College, and Western Carolina University.
For more information about the meeting, please follow the pertinent link.
- Official web page for the Fall 2011 Seaway Meeting
- Abstracts of plenary talks and bios of the speakers
- Student talks & poster schedule
- Program
- Abstracts of all the talks
- Student talks & poster abstracts
Photos
Additional photos from the meeting may be viewed at www.sbu.edu/bonaflickr.
Jonathan Hoyle, a Macintosh software architect at Eastman Kodak in Rochester, discussed “Forensic Mathematics and the World Trade Center Project.” At left, Hoyle began his talk by describing the staggering challenge that the aftermath of 9/11 presented for victim identification. He then outlined the state-of-the-art DNA analysis and delicate statistical analyses used in the project.
Hoyle has made his presentation and a host of related resources available at his website. The presentation is provided as a slide show.
Dror Bar-Natan, professor of Mathematics at the University of Toronto, discussed “The Hardest Math I’ve Ever Really Used.” Bar-Natan began with a practical problem that he wanted to solve: how should a projector camera move from one close-up of a slide to another to minimize time and not produce excessive blur? The solution led him and his audience on a mathematical odyssey that included the Mona Lisa, happy Segways, and hyperbolic geometry. At right, Bar-Natan discusses pertinent surface parameterizations.
Ivars Peterson, Director of Publications and Communications at the MAA in Washington, D.C., gave a presentation on “Pancake Sorting, Prefix Reversals, and DNA Rearrangements.” His talk told of a problem about pancake flipping posed in a 1975 issue of the American Mathematical Monthly. The problem—still unsolved—was later discoved to have deep connections to computer science and biology. At left, Peterson shows the present limit of human knowledge of pancake numbers.
Peterson also gave a superb workshop on “Writing Mathematics Well.”
Peterson has kindly allowed us to upload the PowerPoint slides for both his talk and his workshop.
Tom Pfaff, associate professor of mathematics at Ithaca College, presented “Sustain This! Making Math Matter.” Pfaff argued that it's crucial for our students to understand the sustainability issues facing our planet, that it's a worthy goal of schools to aid students in developing such understanding, and that there are numerous ways that sustainability issues can be incorporated into school curricula.
Pfaff maintains a web page of sustainability curriculum materials for mathematics classes. This page includes the slides from his talk.
St. Bonaventure students Abhi Aggarwal '12, Jen Dempsey '12, Aleda Leis '13, and Chloe Priester '12 helped with on-site registration as well as moderating the Saturday afternoon talks. Thank you!
Pictured here: Abhi and Jen. As an interesting footnote, Jen's senior mathematics project grew from Anurag Agarwal's talk on the Representation Number Problem for Graphs.
The fall 2011 meeting featured a vibrant student program organized by Ryan Gantner of St. John Fisher College and included numerous undergraduate and graduate participants.
Pictured here: SUNY Fredonia undergraduates Courtney Brydges, Sara Maiorana, Kristen Joseph, and Gina Falcone relax between talks.
Cassie LeBauer and other Math Ninjas from the SUNY Potsdam Math Alliance could compute the tip, but they choose not to.
P(You’ve read this caption about Devinne Voigt's cool T-shirt) = 1.
We greatly appreciate the assistance that we received prior to and during the meeting. Charlie Ragozzine (SUNY Oneonta), the MAA Seaway Section Program Chair, and Raluca Felea (RIT) were indispensable in planning the meeting. Anurag Agarwal (RIT) provided crucial support for the Seaway Section website. Hossein Shahmohamad (RIT), Chair of the Seaway Section, ensured that the morning program ran perfectly. Tom Donahue, St. Bonaventure's Director of Print and Electronic Communications, graciously photographed the Friday banquet talk and the Saturday morning program. Wolfgang Natter, Dean of St. Bonaventure's School of Arts and Sciences, provided generous financial support.
Pictured here: Maureen Cox, the local organizer for the meeting, talks with Hossein Shahmohamad.