2018 Section Meeting

Invited talks

Ken Ono, Emory University

Why does Ramanujan, "The Man Who Knew Infinity", matter?

Abstract: Ramanujan's work has has a truly transformative effect on modern mathematics, and continues to do so as we understand further lines from his letters and notebooks. In this lecture, some of the studies of Ramanujan that are most accessible to the general public will be presented and how Ramanujan's findings fundamentally changed modern mathematics, and also influenced the lecturer's work, will be discussed. The speaker is an Associate Producer of the film The Man Who Knew Infinity (starring Dev Patel and Jeremy Irons) about Ramanujan. He will share several clips from the film in the lecture.

Annalisa Crannell, Franklin & Marshall College

Drawing conclusions from drawing a square

Abstract: Those of us who teach projective geometry often nod to perspective art as the spark from which projective geometry caught fire and grew. This talk looks directly at projective geometry as a tool to illuminate the workings of perspective artists. One of the surprising results of using this tool is that it implies that every quadrangle (whether convex or not) is the perspective image of a square. We will describe implications of this result for computer vision, for photogrammetry, for applications of piece-wise planar cones, and of course for perspective art and projective geometry.

Michael Dorff, Brigham Young University

How mathematics is making Hollywood movies better

Abstract: What's your favorite movie? Star Wars? Avatar? The Avengers? Frozen? What do these and all the highest earning Hollywood movies since 2000 have in common? Mathematics! You probably didn't think about it while watching these movies, but math was used to help make them. In this presentation, we will discuss how math is being used to create better and more realistic movies. Along the way we will discuss some specific movies and the mathematics behind them. We will include examples from Disney's 2013 movie Frozen (how to use math to create realistic looking snow) to Pixar's 2004 movie The Incredibles (how to use math to make an animated character move faster). Come and join us and get a better appreciation of mathematics and movies.