Community & Events

The 杏吧原创 Math community is involved in several events throughout campus and the community. The department sponsors two math clubs and various lectures throughout the year. Through these clubs and lectures, professors and students work on math projects and learn about recent mathematical developments in mathematical research. In this way,the math professors get to know our students in a holistic way. Students can also assume leadership roles in our clubs. We work together to help our community by offering free math help to elementary, middle, and high school students on the weekends.

Groups on Campus

杏吧原创 Society for Women in Mathematics

The 杏吧原创 Society for Women in Mathematics mentors and encourages women as they prepare for careers in mathematical sciences while providing a platform for conversation among women and other gender minorities in the mathematics community. We welcome all students independent of their gender, gender identity, or major in the university. For information and to be added to this group, please contact Dr. Shultis at shultis@gonzaga.edu.

SIAM Chapter (Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics)

SIAM fosters the development of applied mathematical and computational methodologies needed in various application areas. Applied mathematics, in partnership with computational science, is essential in solving many real-world problems. Through publications, research and community, the mission of SIAM is to build cooperation between mathematics and the worlds of science and technology. 杏吧原创 hosts an active chapter of SIAM. Our faculty liaison is Dr. Joe Stover who can be contacted at stover@gonzaga.edu.

Saturday Community Outreach Tutoring Program

In an effort to strengthen ties to the Spokane community and provide service to our neighbors, GU students and faculty volunteer to tutor kids on weekends. For more information please contact the faculty coordinator for this program, Dr. Tomas Guardia at guardia@gonzaga.edu.

Math Seminar Series and Events

Throughout each semester 杏吧原创's Mathematics Department hosts math talks (colloquia). These talks are directed towards Mathematics majors but are usually accessible at a variety of levels. If you have questions or are interested in presenting contact Dr. Hays Whitlatch at whitlatch@gonzaga.edu.

Upcoming Events:

Please visit again soon for information on upcoming events.

Past Events

Dissecting Graphs

Presented by Ann Clifton (Louisiana Tech University)

Graphs are used to model a wide range of phenomena from social networks to the structure of chemical compounds. In a social network, we may want to divide the group into teams that share some special characteristics. In a chemical compound, we may be interested in certain types of substructures. How far can these divisions be taken while preserving the desired characteristics?We model this question by asking which graphs have an equitable dissection. An equitable dissection of a graph on n vertices is an iterative partitioning of the vertex set into two disjoint balanced subsets so that the induced subgraphs are connected. We say a graph is equitably dissectable if the iteration results in n isolated vertices. We will present some recent results and questions for future work.

 

A Taste of Equivariant Topology

Presented by Dr. Eric Hogle (杏吧原创)

Equivariant topology studies moving shapes. Some very simple questions about how shapes can move haven't been answered until quite recently. You might think it would be hard to understand research that hasn't even been published yet, but come give it a try! If you can imagine a donut, you can learn something only a handful of people on earth know.


 

Inventing the Future of Medical Imaging with Mathematics

Presented by Dr. Melody Alsaker (杏吧原创)

When most people think of medical imaging modalities such as CT, MRI, or ultrasound scans, they probably don't think about mathematicians being involved in the development of these important life-saving technologies. Medical imaging is part of a large and dynamic field of applied mathematics known as "inverse problems." This talk will provide an introduction to the idea of an inverse problem, and we will touch on the mathematics behind a few modern medical imaging technologies, including my own area of research, Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT).


 

The Future of Governing Equations

Presented by J. Nathan Kutz (University of Washington)

Machine learning and AI algorithms are transforming a diverse number of fields in science and engineering. This is largely due their success in model discovery which turns data into reduced order models and neural network representations that are not just predictive, but provide insight into the nature of the underlying dynamical system that generated the data. We introduce a number of data-driven strategies, including targeted uses of deep learning, for discovering nonlinear multiscale dynamical systems, compact representations, and their embeddings from data. Importantly, data-driven architectures must jointly discover coordinates and parsimonious models in order to produce maximally generalizable and interpretable models of physics-based systems and processes.

 

Mathematical modeling of water flow, plankton, pollutants, and more: Are more complex models necessarily better?

by Lisa Lucas (Research General Engineer for the United States Geological Survey)

Abstract: A common refrain of environmental scientists is: “Environmental science isn’t rocket science. It’s harder than rocket science.” Understanding, predicting, and managing the workings of environmental systems is a grand challenge, due in no small part to the intricate interactions between physical, biological, and geochemical processes that are, individually, complex enough for whole careers to be spent deciphering them. Fortunately, technological advancements in field and laboratory instrumentation, remote sensing, and computing permit us to measure and mathematically model environmental systems with ever-increasing extent and resolution. Drawing on my and colleagues’ work in San Francisco and Chesapeake Bays, I will discuss both complex and super-simple modeling approaches, with an emphasis on the latter. I will show how simple, computationally trivial models---such as those that can be evaluated with a pencil and paper or a spreadsheet---can be surprisingly valuable for (1) diagnosing and learning about how complex environmental systems work, (2) integrating multiple physical, biological, and/or geochemical processes, (3) producing accurate results, and (4) providing valuable guidance for ecosystem management. I will draw on examples from environmental fluid mechanics, algal blooms, contaminant transport, and hypoxia in coastal and river systems.

Biography: Dr. Lucas is a Research Engineer and Eco-hydrodynamicist with the U.S. Geological Survey. Inhabiting the interface between environmental physics and biology in aquatic ecosystems, she studies how interactions between hydrodynamics and other physical and biogeochemical processes influence water quality and aquatic ecosystem function. She works in estuarine and river systems, implementing a broad range of mathematical modeling approaches spanning multi-dimensional numerical models to simple algebraic equations solvable with a hand calculator. Lisa’s work aims at improving understanding and prediction of how aquatic ecosystems work and, thereby, supporting informed ecosystem management. She loves collaborative, interdisciplinary science, as is required in her recent projects focusing on the modeling of harmful algal blooms, nutrients, salinity intrusion, and methyl mercury. Lisa studied Civil Engineering as an undergrad at the University of Notre Dame and did her Master’s and Ph.D. in Civil & Environmental Engineering at Stanford Uni