University Math Society at Florida

It’s that time of year again! University Math Society is proud to announce our 11th annual Integration Bee, a competition open to all UF students which will be held on Saturday, March 25, 2023. The event will be held in New Physics Building, with the first phase of competition beginning promptly at 10:00 AM in NPB 1001. Lunch will be provided.

The Integration Bee consists of two components: a preliminary written test and head-to-head bracket play. During the written test, participants will be given a list of 30 integrals with an hour and a half to solve as many as they can. Top scorers will qualify for double elimination bracket play, in which participants compete to see who can solve the same integral fastest. All competition rooms will be open for viewing so you can watch your friends compete for the title of Grand Integrator 2023! Bee rules with complete details will be available on the UMS website at: https://ums.math.ufl.edu/integrationbee . If you would like to see updates about UMS and the Integration Bee, or if you have any questions about the event, please use the QR code on our flier to join the UMS Discord.

Prizes will be awarded as follows:
IFT First Prize: $500
Second Prize: $300
Third Prize: $200
Fourth Prize: $100

A special thank you to the Institute for Fundamental Theory, of the UF Physics Department, for sponsoring our first prize, and to the UF Mathematics Department for sponsoring our second, third, and fourth prizes.

We hope to see you at the event!

On Wednesday, February 15th, University Math Society, a community of UF undergrads who like math, will be having its February General Body Meeting! We'll be announcing many upcoming mathematical events, eat Publix sandwiches, play games, and hang out! Also, we'll have a fun activity related to Valentine's Day. The GBM will start at 6:00 pm and take place in Little Hall 113. Come on out and meet your fellow mathematically-minded classmates!

Finding weak solutions to partial differential equations is a real mathematical challenge! Today, UMS is hosting a talk by Dr. Wang titled "Efficient Numerical Methods for Weak Solutions of Partial Differential Equations" in which Dr. Wang will breakdown two numerical methods for finding these types of solutions. The talk will start at 4 pm on Monday, February 13th, and will be located in Little Hall 121. There will be veggie Publix sandwiches to enjoy after the talk. The full abstract is below:

Approximating weak solutions of partial differential equations (PDEs) is known to be important and extremely challenging in scientific computing and data science. In this talk, the speaker will discuss two kinds of numerical methods for weak solutions: (1) Primal-Dual Weak Galerkin (PDWG) finite element methods for low-dimensional PDEs; and (2) Deep Learning methods (Friedrichs Learning) for high-dimensional PDEs. The essential idea of PDWG is to interpret the numerical solutions as a constrained minimization of some functionals with constraints that mimic the weak formulation of the PDEs by using weak derivatives. The resulting Euler-Lagrange formulation results in a symmetric scheme involving both the primal variable and the dual variable (Lagrangian multiplier). Friedrichs Learning is a novel deep learning methodology that could learn the weak solutions of PDEs via a mini-max optimization characterization of the original problem. The speaker will explain what Friedrichs Learning is and how it can be used for solving PDEs with discontinuous solutions without any prior knowledge of the solution discontinuity.

Hey, UMS friends! On Monday, February 6th, Dr. Hamaker will give a talk introducing Boolean functions—a very cool and useful type of real-valued function. The talk will talk place in Little Hall 125, starting at 4:00 pm! Come by to learn about these functions, their analysis, and their applications! The full title and abstract is below.

Title: Boolean functions and decision

Abstract: Boolean functions are real-valued functions on the hypercube {0,1}^n. When Boolean functions take only the values 0 or 1, we can view them as decision making rules. Each input (a_1, … , a_n) corresponds to n yes/no votes, while the output is the final decision that the group makes. We will introduce some techniques for the analysis of Boolean functions and survey some applications of these tools to decision making.

On Tuesday, January 31st, University Math Society will be holding an REU Application Workshop. REUs are summer opportunities for undergraduate students to get hands-on experience doing exciting math research. However, the application process can be daunting. If you're interesting in applying to REUs, but need some help with your applications, come to this workshop to get help from fellow undergraduates! The workshop will start at 6:00 pm in Little Hall 113.

Interested in learning about a different approach to calculus that you may have not seen before? On Monday, January 30th, undergraduate student Domenic Keller will be giving a talk on Multiplicative Calculus. The talk will start at 5:00 pm in Little Hall 125. The full abstract is below:

As you may know, we can write an integral in terms of an infinite sum. What if we did the same thing but with an infinite product? In this talk, we will investigate the consequences of doing so. Though this is not terribly applicable, it is interesting and can give you a slight change in perspective on calculus. The only prerequisite of this talk is Calculus 1 since I expect everyone to have a basic foundation of calculus.

UMS is holding its first talk of the semester on Wednesday, January 25th, starring our very own Sai Sivakumar! The talk will be on the Inverse Laplace Transform, and it will start at 5:00 pm in Little Hall 125. The full abstract is below.

"I will go over some properties of the inverse Laplace transform as well as the integral for the inverse transform. We will compute an example or two. Prereqs are the Laplace transform and contour integration (we will use the residue theorem)."

Get ready for University Math Society's first GBM of the 2023 Spring semester, happening this Wednesday!! We'll announce all of the events that UMS has slotted for this semester (namely, faculty talks, student talks, socials, and workshops). After the announcements, we'll have a social so that you can get to know your fellow undergraduate students who love math! We'll supply food to eat and games to play with your UMS friends. (Not to mention, you'll hear the first whispers about our annual Integration Bee.) The GBM will take place on January 18th at 6:00 pm, in Little Hall 113.

On Thursday, March 24th, UF's beloved Dr. McCullough is going to give a talk on the theory of positive polynomials, specifically talking about algebraic certificates of positivity in regards to polynomials. He will also be awarding $20 to the first person to get a trivia question correct at the end of the talk! And, like always, we'll eat pizza after the talk! The talk will be in the Little Hall Atrium at 4:00 pm. Here is the full abstract of the talk below:

A polynomial p in one variable is positive if p(t) is non-negative for every real number t. An easy argument shows, if p (with real coefficients) is positive, then p is a sum of squares of polynomials with real coefficients. The converse is evidently true. Thus, expressing a polynomial as a sum of squares is an algebraic certificate of positivity. The study of positive polynomials, in one and several variables, goes back to at least Hilbert in the late 1800s.

See Hilbert's 17th problem. In this talk we will hit some of the highlights of the theory and, time permitting, discuss algebraic certificates of positivity in other contexts. There will be a trivia question with a $20 cash prize for the first correct answer (within 15 minutes) at the conclusion of the talk.

The fun doesn’t stop at Pi Day! This Wednesday, March 16th, UMS is having a GBM at CSE E222, starting at 6 pm. Come to get info on upcoming UMS events (including the Integration Bee), play games with your classmates, and eat pizza!

Mathletes, get your chalk ready! In less than two weeks UMS will have its biggest event of the year: the Integration Bee! Solve integrals, compete for the title of Grand Integrator, and achieve fortune! (The first place prize is $400!) The Bee will take place on Saturday, March 26th; the preliminary (i.e., qualifying) round will promptly start at 10 a.m. in NPB 1001 and playoffs will start at 1 p.m. in nearby rooms. For the complete set of rules, check out the dedicated page on the UMS website: ums.math.ufl.edu/2022-integration-bee/

Your favorite day of the year is soon approaching...

So start the latter half of the spring semester strong by celebrating 3/14, a.k.a. Pi Day! University Math Society will be putting on a social featuring fun games to be played and, of course, a plethora of pies to be eaten! We'll first eat pies at the tables by Little Hall, starting at 5 p.m. Then, at some point, we'll move inside to Little Hall 121 to play some games. Come on out, catch up with your UMS friends, and kick off the rest of the semester!