1. Math Club Potluck

2. Upcoming Seminars Wed Feb 3, 3:00-4:00pm in F-1
Chad Awtrey, Arizona State University, “Groups and p-adic numbers”
Fri. Feb 5, 4:00-5:00pm in D-8
Karin Saoub, Roanoke University, “Snarks on a train”
Tues Feb 16, 4:00-5:00pm
Ralph Gomez, Swarthmore College
Thurs Feb 18, 4:00-5:00pm
Brant Jones, University of California, Davis
Late March/Early April
Nathan Carlson, California Lutheran University

3. CLU at MAA Conference
San Diego, Spring 2008

4. Upcoming Conferences Sat. Mar 13: PCUMC, Pepperdine Univ.
Student preseations Career Panel, Graduate School panel, Raffle,
Keynote Speaker: Tony DeRose of Pixar Animation
Register by Feb 26 online (carpool list in Math Lab)
Sat Apr 10: MAA Section Meeting, Harvey Mudd
> So-Cal/Nevada section
Student Poster Session, three speakers including Scott Kim “puzzle master”
Register online in March (carpool list in Math Lab)
submit receipt to Dr. Fogel for Reimbursement from the Math Co- curriculum Fund

5. CLU at MAA Conference
Scripps College, Fall 2008

6. Career Options in
Mathematics
Mathematics

7. Mathematics as a Major for Future Doctors, Lawyers, & Businessmen
Do you love mathematics, but want to pursue a career as a doctor, lawyer, or businessman? Professional graduate schools in business, law, and medicine think mathematics is a great major because it develops analytical skills and the ability to work in a problem solving environment. And results on admission tests for graduate and professional schools show that students majoring in mathematics receive substantially higher scores than most other majors. William Allard & Clark Bray Duke University, Mathematics Department
Mathematics

8. Want to get into Law School?
Major
LSAT
Mathematics
+4.4%
Physics
Philosophy/ Religion
+3.4%
Economics
+2.9%
History
+1.8%
Chemistry
+1.5%
English
Biology
+1.4%
Major
LSAT
Art
+1.3%
Foreign Language
+1.1%
Political Science
-0.1%
Psychology
Sociology/ Social Works
-0.7%
Business
-1.7%
Education
-2.2%
A math major is a great preparation, and math majors outscore almost every other major on the LSAT
Michael Nieswiadomy, "LSAT Scores of Economics Majors: The Class Update", Journal of Economic Education, pp
Mathematics

9. - Dmitri Kuksov, Assistant Professor,
"Math ... is possibly the best undergraduate background to get into business schools"
- Dmitri Kuksov, Assistant Professor,
Olin School of Business, Washington University
Mathematics

10. Want to get into Business School?
Major
GMAT
Mathematics
+11.6%
Philosophy
+7.9%
Economics
+6.6%
Chemisty
+5.8%
History
+4.3%
Biology
+3.9%
English
+3.6%
Languages
+2.4%
A math major is a great preparation, and math majors outscore almost every other major on the GMAT
Major
GMAT
Political Science
+1.3%
Psychology
-1.3%
Business
-5.3%
Sociology
Fine Arts
-6.0%
Education
-8.8%
GMAC ADMINSTRATION
Mathematics

11. Want to get into Graduate School?
Major
Average GRE
Physics
1269
Mathematics
1235
Philosophy
1228
Economics
1209
Engineering
1187
Finance
1178
Computer Science
1167
Chemistry
1166
Biology
1122
Performance in the GRE (combined verbal & quantitative scores)
Major
Average GRE
English
1113
Political Science
1112
Foreign Languages
1105
Anthropology
1102
Social Science
1052
Sociology
1033
Psychology
1017
Business
999
Graduate Record Examination Guide to the Use of Scores,
Mathematics

12. “The world is moving into a new age of numbers… the mathematical modeling of humanity promises to be one of the great undertakings of the 21st century.” - Math will Rock Your World, Business Week
Mathematics

13. Career Options in Mathematics/ Statistics >>
Actuary
An Actuary is a business professional who deals with the financial impact of risk and uncertainty.
Actuaries are experts in a field that is renowned for its complexity and mathematical process.
Actuaries apply financial and statistical theories to solve real business problems.
Mathematics

14. Investment & Finance Career Options in Mathematics >>
Financial engineers apply economic principles to the dynamics of securities markets, especially for the purpose of structuring, pricing, and managing the risk of financial contracts.

15. Operations Research Analyst
Career Options in Mathematics >>
Operations Research Analyst
“Operations research” and “management science” are terms used interchangeably to describe the discipline of applying advanced analytical techniques to help make better decisions and to solve problems.
Mathematics

16. Cryptography & Cryptanalyst
Career Options in Mathematics >>
Cryptography & Cryptanalyst
Cryptanalysts design, implement and analyze algorithms for solving problems in number theory. They analyze and decipher secret coding systems and decode messages for military, political, or law enforcement agencies or organizations. They help provide privacy for people and corporations, and keep hackers out of important data systems. They are constantly working on new ways to encrypt information.  
Mathematics

17. Applied Mathematician
Career Options in Mathematics >>
Applied Mathematician
Applied mathematicians use theories and techniques, such as mathematical modeling and computational methods, to formulate and solve practical problems in business, government, and engineering and in the physical, life, and social sciences.
Mathematics

18. In today’s technology driven world, more and more math majors are in demand. Although math majors are employed in education, banking, accounting, and finance, there are many more careers you can explore with a math degree.
Mathematics

19. Reconstructing Faces
A new application of mathematics allows surgeons to plan reconstructive facial surgery by analyzing various operative strategies implemented on virtual three-dimensional models. Previously, replicas constructed from CT-scans were used, which were expensive and allowed only one surgical strategy per replica. The new virtual models use geometry, partial differential equations, and numerical analysis to represent the movement of bone and soft tissue associated with different options, so that surgeons and their patients see the predicted results and choose what’s best.
The Mathematical Moments program promotes appreciation and understanding of the role mathematics plays in science, nature, technology, and human culture.

20. Solving Sudoku
Sudoku puzzles involve a lot of mathematics. Of course, the puzzles are filled with numbers, but the solution process would be the same regardless of the symbols used. More interesting is the logic behind the solution process, which can provide extra satisfaction upon solving a puzzle (with a lot less erasing). In addition, the puzzles are examples of Latin squares–important in abstract algebra and in statistics, in experimental design. Two Sudoku counting problems are: What is the fewest number of filled-in squares possible for a puzzle, and how many different puzzles are there? There are Sudoku puzzles with 17 numbers that have only one solution, but no one knows if there are puzzles with only 16 numbers that have a unique solution. As for the second question, there are more than five billion different puzzles. For counting purposes, puzzles that can be transformed by processes such as interchanging numbers or the top two rows are not considered different. This result depends on group theory and symmetry, crucial for much of modern physics and chemistry.
The Mathematical Moments program promotes appreciation and understanding of the role mathematics plays in science, nature, technology, and human culture.

21. Making Movies Come Alive
Many movie animation techniques are based on mathematics. Characters, background, and motion are all created using software that combines pixels into geometric shapes which are stored and manipulated using the mathematics of computer graphics.
Software encodes features that are important to the eye, like position, motion, color, and texture, into each pixel. The software uses vectors, matrices, and polygonal approximations to curved surfaces to determine the shade of each pixel. Each frame in a computer-generated film has over two million pixels and can have over forty million polygons. The tremendous number of calculations involved makes computers necessary, but without mathematics the computers wouldn’t know what to calculate. Said one animator, “. . . it’s all controlled by math all those little X, Y’s, and Z’s that you had in school—oh my gosh, suddenly they all apply.”
The Mathematical Moments program promotes appreciation and understanding of the role mathematics plays in science, nature, technology, and human culture.

22. Bringing Robots to Life
Geometry, statistics, graph theory, differential equations, and linear algebra are some of the areas of mathematics that allow navigation and decision making so that robots can function autonomously and do things we either can’t, or would rather not, do.
The robot pictured to the left not only dances but also greets visitors and escorts them to their destinations, providing news and weather updates along the way. Abilities like these require algorithms for vision, pattern recognition, speech recognition, and dealing with uncertainty so that accumulated error doesn’t render the robot ineffective. Most researchers think that we are a long way from creating machines that behave like humans, but improving algorithms will improve the capabilities of robots.
The Mathematical Moments program promotes appreciation and understanding of the role mathematics plays in science, nature, technology, and human culture.

23. Making Votes Count
The outcome of elections that offer more than two alternatives but with no preference by a majority, is determined more by the voting procedure used than by the votes themselves. Mathematicians have shown that in such elections, illogical results are more likely than not. For example, the majority of this group want to go to a warm place, but the South Pole is the group’s plurality winner. So if these people choose their group’s vacation destination in the same way most elections are conducted, they will all go to the South Pole and six people will be disappointed, if not frostbitten.
Elections in which only the top preference of each voter is counted are equivalent to a school choosing its best student based only on the number of A’s earned. The inequity of such a situation has led to the development of other voting methods. In one method, points are assigned to choices, just as they are to grades. Using this procedure, these people will vacation in a warm place—a more desirable conclusion for the group.
The Mathematical Moments program promotes appreciation and understanding of the role mathematics plays in science, nature, technology, and human culture.