AIM at JMM 2025 in Seattle
AIM is proud to be a JMM partner. Each year, AIM will sponsor Special Sessions tied to AIM activities (workshops, SQuaREs, Research Communities, and Special Programs) along with an Invited Address associated with the Alexanderson Award and a reception. In 2025, look for these AIM-Sponsored activities while you’re at JMM.
The AIM booth: AIM is a mainstay in the exhibit hall. Stop by, chat with AIM staff, and learn about our various activities. Our PRIMES Scholars-in-Residence will spend some time at the AIM booth and will be happy to talk to you about the proposal process and their partnership with AIM. We will be at booths 511, 513, and 515 whenever the exhibits are open. Be sure to check out the Exhibit Hall Grand Opening Reception on Wednesday January 8, 2025, from 6:00-8:00 p.m.
Invited Address: Dmitriy Bilyk will give the Alexanderson Award Lecture, Energy minimization problems in analysis and discrete geometry, on Thursday January 9, 2025, from 10:50-11:55 a.m. in Ballroom 6E of the Seattle Convention Center. (See announcement below.) You can also see the Alexanderson Award winners get their medals at the Awards Celebration on Wednesday January 8, 2025, from 4:45-5:45 p.m. in Ballroom 6E of the Seattle Convention Center.
Special Sessions: The following special sessions are sponsored by AIM and tied to AIM activities in the past year.
Math Circles for Makers, Creators, and Artists. Wednesday January 8, 2025, 8:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m.; Wednesday January 8, 2025, 1:00-5:00 p.m.; and Thursday January 9, 2025, 8:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m. in Room 3B of the Seattle Convention Center.
Applications and Generalizations of Zero Forcing. Saturday January 11, 2025, 8:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. and 1:00-5:00 p.m. in Room 3B of the Seattle Convention Center.
Energy Minimization: From Analysis to Discrete Geometry (associated with the Alexanderson Award Lecture by Dmitriy Bilyk). Thursday January 9, 2025, 1:00-5:00 p.m. in Room 3B of the Seattle Convention Center.
Pedagogical Practices in Math Circles and Other Non-Traditional, Informal, and Recreational Math Spaces. Saturday January 11, 2025, 8:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. and 1:00-5:00 p.m. in Room 3A of the Seattle Convention Center.
Professional Enhancement Program: Leveraging GitHub and AI for Mathematics Research and Teaching, presented by Steven Clontz and Oscar Levin. Part A, Wednesday, 1:00–3:00 p.m., and Part B, Thursday, 1:00–3:00 p.m. (Note that participation in PEPs requires pre-registration and an additional fee.)
Social Events: Join us at the AIM-sponsored Math Circles Dessert and Games Night Reception, Thursday, 8:00–9:30 p.m., Grand Ballroom C, Sheraton Grand Seattle. Or come find us at the Mathematical Institutes Open House, Thursday, 6:00–8:00 p.m., Metropolitan Ballroom A, Sheraton Grand Seattle.
2024 Alexanderson Award
AIM is pleased to announce the winners of the 2024 Alexanderson Award: The paper “Energy on spheres and discreteness of minimizing measures,” by Dmitriy Bilyk, Alexey Glazyrin, Ryan Matzke, Josiah Park, and Oleksandr Vlasiuk and published in the Journal of Functional Analysis in 2021 was selected for recognition. Read more about the results…
The award will be given at the Joint Mathematics Meetings Awards Celebration, to be held from 4:45-5:45 p.m. on Wednesday, January 8, 2025 in Seattle. Dmitriy Bilyk will deliver the AIM Alexanderson Award Lecture at the JMM on Thursday, January 9 from 10:50-11:55 a.m.
AIM’s first event in Africa
In partnership with Maseno University, AIM ran the workshop Open source mathematics curriculum and assessment tools in Kisumu, Kenya, August 5-9, 2024.
This workshop focused on strengthening the impact of open educational technologies on learning mathematics across the curriculum. The gathering emphasized turning contextual challenges into opportunities, across multiple academic levels, at a broad spectrum of institutions and on multiple continents. Participants included practising mathematicians, teachers, mathematics education researchers, and experts in the creation, development, and implementation of open educational technologies. Activities were aimed at creating high-impact cross-institutional and international collaborations.
Middle: Professor Julius Nyabundi, Vice Chancellor of Maseno University, speaking at the opening ceremony. Clockwise from upper right: workshop co-organizer Michael Obiero discussing issues of mathematics instruction in Kenya; the workshop participants; David Stern outlining research directions for the workshop.
Math Fair for AIM’s 30th Birthday Celebration
On Saturday, June 29, 2024, an estimated 700 students, friends, parents, and kids of all ages joined the AIM staff, trustees, board members, and volunteers for a day of mathematical fun, games, puzzles, prizes, and treats. The event was free and open to the public. Along with the twenty or so math games and activities there was a face painting booth, snow cones, and ice cream bars. There was also a taco truck that did a brisk lunch business. The support of the Caltech community was terrific and helped make the day a great success.
Math activities for students, teachers, families — just about everyone!
AIM’s Math Communities website has a new calendar of upcoming math activities you can take part in.
Math that feels good
Creating learning resources for blind students
Martha Siegel, Professor Emerita from Towson University in Maryland, was working with a blind student who needed a statistics textbook for a required course. The Braille version of the textbook required six months to prepare, a delay which caused the student a significant delay in her studies. Siegel reached out to Al Maneki, a retired NSA mathematician who is blind, and the two of them decided to do something about it.
Focusing on math textbooks initially, Siegel and Maneki pulled together a collaborative team intent on solving the problem. “We were shocked to realize there did not already exist an automated method for producing mathematics Braille textbooks,” said Alexei Kolesnikov, a colleague of Siegel at Towson University and member of the team. Read more…
