Mathematics and Statistics Department

Tuesday, October 10, at 4:30pm in the Atrium of SMLC

Open House for Undergraduate Students

Interested in a Mathematics or Statistics Major or Minor?

• Come and meet the Mathematics and Statistics faculty and advisors. Refreshments will be provided.
• Enjoy a math talk at 3:30pm - 4:30pm SMLC 102, by Rebecca R.G., Department of Mathematical Sciences, George Mason University, Title: Classifying neural ideals

Abstract: The neural ideal was introduced by Curto, Itskov, et al in 2013 to study the firing patterns of a set of neurons, turning problems in neuroscience and coding theory into algebraic questions. In this talk I will give an overview of neural ideals, describe a simple criterion for determining whether a neural ideal is in canonical form, and give an improved algorithm for computing the canonical form of a neural ideal. I will also discuss research in progress on the homological properties of neural ideals. This work is joint with Hugh Geller.

• Finish with a movie, The Secret Life of Chaos with Jim Al-Khalili, 5:30pm – 6:30pm SMLC 102.

This film is the story of a series of bizarre and interconnected discoveries that revealed a hidden face of nature. The idea that all this chaos, is underpinned, indeed determined, by mathematical rules, and that we can work out what those rules might be, runs counter to our most dearly held intuitions