STEM Speaker Series and Math Competition Award Ceremony

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Module 1
The Math Behind Netflix
Rebecca Gobel Menssen and Angelia Wang
In our digital world, information about who we are and what we like is being collected at an amazing rate. As we conduct Internet searches, watch movies, download apps, or write emails, we are unknowingly providing data. This information can then be used to personalize a user's experience on the web by predicting their interests. Discuss the basic concepts behind classification and prediction algorithms through the example of Netflix, how it recommends titles, and how it can be led astray.

Module 2
Watching Mice Think: The Intersection of Math, Chemistry, and Neuroscience
Brita Schneiders, Lionel Fisk, and Joel Eliason
Being able to watch brain activity in living mice has helped scientists better understand how humans learn. To do this, scientists have taken advantage of known chemical theory to make brain cells fluoresce (light up) when they fire. Using differential equations, mathematicians can predict what is going on beneath the surface and infer details that cannot be observed directly in the lab.

Module 3
Ask a Grad (panel discussion)
Led by Sara Clifton
All the grad student facilitators will sit down for an informal discussion about why they chose to pursue a Ph.D., how they got where they are, what they enjoy most about their research, and what they hope to do in the future. Questions from the audience are welcome and encouraged.

FACILITATORS

• Angelia Wang studied applied math and computer science at Brown University and is now a first year grad student intending to do research in computational neuroscience.
  
  
• Rebecca Gobel Menssen studied math, physics and economics at St. Olaf College in Minnesota and is now a third year Ph.D. student studying computational biophysics.
  
  
• Joel Eliason graduated from Brigham Young University and is now a first year Ph.D. student interested in the statistical physics of biology.
  
  
• Brita Schneiders studied applied math at the University of Colorado Boulder and is now a third year Ph.D. student conducting research in computational neuroscience.
  
  
• Lionel Fisk went to the University of New Mexico and is currently a first year Ph.D. student interested in the mathematical modeling of processes that occur inside the cell.
  
  
• Sara Clifton studied mechanical engineering at Colorado School of Mines before switching to applied and computational mathematics. She is now a fifth year grad student investigating math models of biological and social systems, and she will be researching social epidemiology as a postdoc at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign next year.

For information contact Gloria Liu at glorial@oakton.edu or 847.635.1738.

Des Plaines
Room 210, Lee Center

Skokie
Room C240 (simulcast)