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BIDDEFORD, Maine

Department of Mathematical Sciences to host three upcoming math events

RSU 21 students are led in a lab activity at last year's Julia Robinson Math Festival, held on UNE's Biddeford Campus.
RSU 21 students are led in a lab activity at last year's Julia Robinson Math Festival, held on UNE's Biddeford Campus.

UNE’s Department of Mathematical Sciences is gearing up for a variety of math-related events during the first week of June, including the Spring 2016 Conference for the Northeast Section of the Mathematical Association of America (NES/MAA), which will be hosted by UNE for the first time.

The two day event, to be held on June 3 (11:30 a.m.-9 p.m.) and June 4 (8am – 4 p.m.) on the Biddeford Campus’ Alfond Center for Health Sciences, will bring together mathematics professional from all over New England to discuss recent research in mathematics and mathematics education. Participants will attend presentations and panel discussions and will have the opportunity to collaborate on new research.

Key speakers include Francis Su, Ph.D., the president of MAA, who will discuss “Voting in Agreeable Societies;” Gilbert Strang, Ph.D., of MIT, who will present on “Compressing Matrix Images Using Singular Values;” Charles Tilburg, Ph.D., associate dean of UNE’s College of Arts and Sciences and associate professor in the Department of Marine Sciences, who will provide an  “Analysis of the Invasion of Delaware Bay by the Mitten Crab (Eriocheiwr saneness) : Or Why oceanographers Love Mathematics;” and Cheng Peng, Ph.D., of the University of Southern Maine, who will discuss “The Science of Turning  Raw Data into Actionable Knowledge.” In addition, James Quinlan, Ph.D., and Craig Tennenhouse, both assistant professors in UNE’s Department of Mathematical Sciences, will provide a workshop on SageMathCloud.

The conference will be preceded by a June 1 GeoGebra Workshop, which will also be held on the Biddeford Campus. A professional development workshop, the event aims to bring together teachers, students, graduate students, school administrators and researchers from the New England region for training and to provide a forum for young researchers to present their results. Among the speakers will be University of New England faculty James Vesenka, Ph.D., UNE professor of physics and director of the Microscopy Core Facility, and Susan Bell, M.A., visiting assistant lecturer in the Department of Mathematical Sciences.

On June 2, the Biddeford Campus will host the Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival for the fourth time. The festival, whose mission is “to inspire a life-long curiosity for mathematics by instilling a genuine interest in creative problem-solving from an early age,” will provide an opportunity for 200 fifth-grade students from the RSU 21 school system to engage in hands-on activities with UNE faculty in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines. Planned activities include math puzzles and problems, a lesson on addictive drugs and their effects, microscope work, an exploration of electricity and marine science studies of tide pool animals and fish in the Saco Bay Estuary.

About the University of New England

The University of New England is Maine’s largest independent university, with two beautiful coastal campuses in Maine, a one-of-a-kind study abroad campus in Tangier, Morocco, and an array of flexible, accredited online degrees. In an uncommonly welcoming and supportive community, we offer hands-on learning, empowering students to make a positive impact in a world full of challenges. The state’s top provider of health professionals, we are home to Maine’s only medical college, Maine’s only dental college, a variety of other interprofessionally aligned health care degree programs, as well as nationally recognized programs for marine science degrees, natural and social sciences degrees, arts and humanities degrees, and business degrees.