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Undergraduate
Math Club
The
Undergraduate Math Club meets
at 4:10-5pm on Thursdays
in the second-floor undergraduate
common room in the math department.
Pizza and drinks are provided
for free for all students
who attend, and the audience
is a mix of students at all
levels from honors calculus
up through senior math majors.
At each meeting, a member
of the faculty presents a
45-50 minute talk on an interesting
mathematical problem, application,
or idea (or all three!),
and the selected topic is
something which isn't usually
seen in the standard curriculum.
Some of these topics lead
into important concepts in
theoretical or applied research,
while others explain a clever
solution to an interesting
problem. Everything is formulated
so as to avoid needing technical
background beyond calculus,
some exposure to methods
of proof, and a moderate
capacity for abstract thought.
The
talk usually begin at approximately
4:10 pm, after several minutes
of eating the pizza. Both
during and after the talk,
the audience may ask as many
questions as desired. Sometimes
the weekly talk is replaced
by a panel presentation on
some topic of general interest,
such as advice on graduate
school or an overview of
summer opportunities (in
research, jobs, and summer
educational programs). Also,
we occasionally will have
undergraduates present some
results of their own research,
if it is of suitably general
interest. The main goal is
to experience the beauty
of mathematical ideas, in
whatever form they arise,
and to have some free pizza
at the same time.
For more information,
please visit http://www.math.lsa.umich.edu/mathclub/
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