Posts for 'Mathematics' Category

This course includes a complete set of lecture notes, plus problem sets, exams, and a term paper.Principles of Applied Mathematics is a study of illustrative topics in discrete applied mathematics including sorting algorithms, information theory, coding theory, secret codes, generating functions, linear programming, game theory. There is an emphasis on topics that have direct application in the real world.

A small and humble theater in Daehangno was packed with people eager to see the hit play ``Proof'' by American playwright David Auburn.Some of the audience might have come to the theater to see TV star Kim Ji-ho, while others were attracted by the drama's Broadway reputation.

Whatever the reasons were, they seemed strongly moved by the drama, which delves into human relations, identity, love and finally belief through mathematics.

The Korean production of ``Proof'' makes good use of the reputation of the main actress as well as the drama itself. Kim returns to the stage two years after her latest work, ``Closer'' as the troubled 25-year-old Catherine.The play revolves around the mathematically talented Catherine, the daughter of a renowned Chicago mathematician who suffers from a mental breakdown and finally dies of a heart attack.

Catherine sacrifices a promising career to take care of her father in his later years and is gradually captivated by the fear that she might have inherited her father's mental illness.

Read the complete story

Dr. Roman Polyak is a fortunate man. In mathematics, his area of research, few get to see their discoveries translated into actual applications during their lifetime.

Yet more than two decades after he first developed his theory and published it, Polyak watched a conference presentation that showed how his mathematics had translated into a device to help treat cancer.  

“In the presentation, they showed a photo of a boy,” said Polyak, smiling as he recalled the image of a young patient helped by this new technology.  “I was in heaven.  I never dreamed, 25 years ago, that rather abstract mathematics could be used for cancer treatment.”   

Polyak, who holds a joint appointment in operations research and mathematical sciences at George Mason University, works in the field of mathematical optimization. Optimization, as the name implies, involves making something as effective as possible.

“People have been working on optimization since the ancient Greeks learned that a string encloses the most area when it is formed into the shape of a circle,” he said

Read the complete story

Schools in England are to receive £140m over the next three years to improve maths and science teaching.

The strategy involves making the subjects more exciting to encourage more pupils to study maths and science.

It also includes a better system of recruiting and retaining good quality maths and science teachers.

The long-term aim is to help the UK plug a skills gap and compete in the global economy.

The multi-million pound package is more than double the amount spent between 2005 and 2008.

Its underlining theme is to increase the number of science and maths teachers, improve results at GCSE and increase the number of young people aged 16+ studying these subjects.

Read the complete story

Mahimaranjan Adhikary, a renowned mathematician, has been branded a plagiarist by the American Mathematical Society (AMS), considered the world's most respected body for mathematics.

AMS has cautioned universities and institutes worldwide not to refer to at least three of Adhikary's research papers as he had "copied them word for word" from works of foreign mathematicians. The incident puts a question mark on the checks-and-measures system of Calcutta University, where Adhikary worked for over three decades and was recently re-employed after retirement "considering his contribution to the field of mathematics". A red-faced CU has investigated the charges and found them to be true.

Read the complete story

Korean students ranked 11th in the world in science ability, scoring an average of 522 points in the Program for International Student Assessment the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development administered on 400,000 students aged 15 (high school freshmen and sophomores) in 57 countries last year. Korean students ranked first in 2000 and fourth in 2003. In the latest test Finland ranked first with 563 points, followed by Hong Kong (542 points), Canada (534 points), Taiwan (532 points) and Japan (531 points).A country must excel in science and technology in order for its economy to develop. In terms of the numbers of scientific research papers registered in the Science Citation Index, the U.S., Britain, Germany, Japan, China, France, Canada, Italy, Spain and Australia ranked from one to 10 in that order. In terms of GDP, the U.S. ranks first, followed by Japan, Germany, China, Britain, France, Italy, Canada, and Spain (9th) and Australia (14th). In terms of the number of research papers registered in the SCI, Korea ranked 13th, and 11th in terms of GDP. If a country’s science and math education improves, its economy develops. Conversely, if science and math education collapses, then the country’s economy will soon decline.

Read the complete story

American students even in low-performing states like Alabama do better on math and science tests than students in most foreign countries, including Italy and Norway, according to a new study released yesterday. That’s the good news.The bad news is that students in Singapore and several other Asian countries significantly outperform American students, even those in high-achieving states like Massachusetts, the study found.“In this case, the bad news trumps the good because our Asian economic competitors are winning the race to prepare students in math and science,” said the study’s author, Gary W. Phillips, chief scientist at the American Institutes of Research, a nonprofit independent scientific research firm.The study equated standardized test scores of eighth-grade students in each of the 50 states with those of their peers in 45 countries. Experts said it was the first such effort to link standardized test scores, state by state, with scores from other nations.Gage Kingsbury, a director at the Northwest Evaluation Association, a group in Oregon that carries out testing in 1,500 school districts, praised the study’s methodology but said “a flock of difficulties” made it hazardous to compare test results from one country to another and from one state to another. “Kids don’t start school at the same age in different countries,” he said. “Not all kids are in school in grade eight, and the percentage differs from country to country.”

Read the complete story

 NEW DELHI: The Income-Tax Appellate Tribunal has held that transfer pricing is not an exact science in which mathematical certainty is possible and some approximations cannot be ruled out. The case relates to transfer pricing of captive software development services rendered by an Indian subsidiary Mentor Graphics to its US-based overseas parent.Mentor Graphics had carried out a detailed transfer pricing analysis and documentation choosing a set of comparables, which was rejected by the first level audit officer and the latter’s decision upheld by the commissioner (appeals).
The tribunal, however, did not approve of the order of the transfer pricing officer and deleted the adjustment to the taxpayer’s income made by him, upholding the transfer price paid the taxpayer.The primary issue in the case was the choice of appropriate comparables for benchmarking or comparing the profits of the Indian entity, in order to evaluate the adequacy of the transfer prices between the Indian entity and its overseas parent.

Read the complete story

It was an algebra class with a difference. Students were excited about working on sums and jumped up with answers. Even when they made mistakes, they were quite willing to try again.At the Science City camp for four Chennai Corporation schools on Wednesday, students enjoyed learning new concepts without the usual routine of textbooks and notes.The three-day programme will have sessions on Internet, yoga, soft skills and ecology.Resource persons have been chosen from premium research institutes and colleges. Students would also be given study tips and introduced to web-based research tools.Seema Tiku, scientific officer of Science City, said the children would be given activity books, merit certificates and prizes for various competitions. Interactive learning was the keyword here, she said.Students of Corporation Higher Secondary Schools in Tiruvanmiyur, Guindy, Adyar and Kamaraj Nagar and Corporation High School in Canal Bank, R.A. Puram participated. Ms. Tiku said six more science camps would be conducted for Corporations schools this year.

 School begins again, and we read more about the intrusion of pseudoscience into school science curricula in this country, particularly into the study of biology and evolution.The motive, despite the claims of proponents of intelligent design and other bogus "disciplines," has been religious. Although some of the creation scientists' arguments presented have a probabilistic flavor, the mathematics curriculum has seemed somewhat resistant to this trend. Recently a number of readers have sent me course descriptions from various schools that suggest otherwise, however.The issue is complicated (perhaps too complicated for a column), but I'll also briefly discuss the relevance of evolution to a more defensible, but still flawed argument relating religion and mathematics.

Read the complete story