MAA NCS Fall 2023 meeting

Invited Speaker: Melissa Hanzsek-Brill, St. Cloud State University (MAA NCS 2023 Teaching Award Winner)

Talk Title: Sustainable Mathematics:  A Community-Building Approach

Talk Abstract:   Community-building mathematics represents a transformative approach to mathematics education that empowers learning communities and nurtures a generation of problem solvers through the whole learning life-cycle.  This talk will showcase examples of successful initiatives that embody the principles, benefits, and real-world applications of this approach, highlighting its potential to foster active engagement, inclusivity, and meaningful learning experiences within diverse communities with a focus on sustaining the importance of mathematics in the public eye.

Invited Speaker: Emilie Purvine, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (MAA AWM Speaker)

Talk Title: Graphs and Hypergraphs and Topology, Oh My!

Talk Abstract:  Mathematical structures and concepts can be great models of real-world data. For example, differential equations have a long history of success in applied mathematics to model dynamics found in rivers and oceans, the atmosphere, and molecular systems (just to name a few!). Network science is an area of applied math that uses graph structures to model relational systems like social, collaboration, and transportation networks. Graphs, however, are limited to modeling pairwise relationships among entities. Hypergraphs and topological spaces provide alternate models of relational systems that allow for arbitrary sized and structured relationships. In this talk I will introduce the mathematical concepts of graphs, hypergraphs, and topology and show how they are used to model real-world data from a variety of applications including biological systems, chemistry measurements, and cyber networks. We’ll also talk about what measurements and properties of these structures can tell us about the systems they model.

Invited Speaker: Elaine Spiller, Marquette University

Talk Title: A surrogate-based strategy for analyzing and forecasting geophysical hazards 

Talk Abstract:  Geophysical natural hazards — storm surge, post-fire debris flows, volcanic flows and ash fall, etc. — impact thousands to millions of people annually. Yet the most devastating hazards, those resulting in loss of life and property, are often both geographically and temporally localized. Thus, they are effectively rare events to those impacted.

We will present methodology to produce probabilistic hazard maps that can rapidly be updated to account for various aleatoric scenarios and epistemic uncertainties. This hazard analysis utilizes statistical emulators to combine computationally expensive simulations of the underlying geophysical processes with probabilistic descriptions of uncertain scenarios and model parameters. The end goal is not a map, but a family of maps that represent how a hazard threat evolves under different assumptions or different potential future scenarios. Further, this approach allows us to rapidly update hazard maps as new data or precursor information arrives.