Department of Mathematics and Statistics
UMKC (University of Missouri - Kansas City)
Expository Talks Series, and
Video/Film Series
Semester: Fall 2008 - 21st Year
Location: Haag Hall, Room 309 (unless otherwise indicated below)
Day & Time: Friday, 4-4:50 pm (talks), 4-5:00 pm (videos)
Campus Map for Talks (PDF Format)
Contact: Richard Delaware,
delawarer@umkc.edu
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Dates, Titles, Speakers (with Abstracts & Posters as available)
Friday Sept. 12
Expository Talks Series
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Friday Sept. 19
Expository Talks Series
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Friday Sept. 26
Expository Talks Series
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Friday Oct. 3
No Talk;
Go to the Kansas City Regional Mathematics Technology EXPO
at Rockhurst University all day today, and tomorrow!
[Preregistration is FREE to all UMKC faculty and adjunct faculty (and just $5.00 for UMKC conference walk-ins); registration is only $15.00 for any student.]
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Friday Oct. 10
Expository Talks Series
Daniel Fresen, Mathematics, University of Missouri - Columbia
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Friday Oct. 17
Expository Talks Series
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Friday Oct. 24
Expository Talks Series
A Mathematical Look at Elections
Nick Baeth, Mathematics, University of Central Missouri
[CLICK on poster image to download poster. Pass it on!]
[Campus Map for Talks (PDF Format)]
In 1952, Mathematician Kenneth May proved that when there are exactly two candidates there is only one election procedure which satisfies certain reasonable properties. However, as soon as a third candidate is thrown into the mix things become much more complicated. In fact, Economist Kenneth Arrow proved in 1950 that when there are three or more candidates there are no voting procedures which satisfy certain reasonable properties. In this talk we will carefully define these reasonable properties and determine which are satisfied by several voting methods that are used throughout the world. We will conclude with a proof of a weak version of Arrow's Theorem and a list of what we should do in face of this negative result.
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Friday Oct. 31
Expository Talks Series
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Friday Nov. 7
Expository Talks Series
On the visibility of lattice points
Neil Nicholson, Mathematics, William Jewell College
[CLICK on poster image to download poster. Pass it on!]
[Campus Map for Talks (PDF Format)]
Imagine a military school’s graduation. The graduates march into an open field in perfect formation, forming an r x s lattice. Outside of this rectangular arrangement, parents snap photos of their children. Obviously, to take a picture of their child their straight-line view of their child cannot be interrupted by any other graduates. In particular, there’s a professional photographer who wishes to photograph every member of the graduating class. Is there a position he can stand in order to view each graduate? If so, how close of a point can we find? We will explore this idea more specifically, dealing only with lattice points. We’ll show that there is indeed such a point and put bounds on just how close that point may be.
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Friday Nov. 14
Expository Talks Series
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Friday Nov. 21
Expository Talks Series
Two (yes two!) Short Talks by Students from Mathematics
[Please come and support our students.]
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