Themes for 2023-24

Your project (either in poster, video or artifact) must cover a topic in one of the three themes listed below. For each of these themes, your goal should be to offer an engaging enough perspective that a reader can walk away with a greater sense of understanding and interest in your chosen topic. 

You may also discover some crossover in these themes as you create your poster (e.g. perhaps to motivate interest in a mathematical concept you have learned outside of class, you would like to talk about its history, or other applications outside of mathematics). That's fine—you won't be graded on your poster's thematic purity. These themes are mainly meant to help you get the ball rolling on mathematically interesting topics.

The following video help you choose a proper topic for your project as well as guide you in the production of your project.

 

General Themes

Theme 1: Extra-ordinary mathematics: Present a mathematical concept that you've taken the time to learn outside of class.
First-year university mathematics topics can be an accessible approach to tackling this theme, such as eigenvalues and eigenvectors, modulo arithmetic, complex numbers, integrals, etc. More complex topics can also be approached from an expository angle - you don't have to solve a millennium problem to explain it and show that it's interesting!
 
Theme 2: Crossing over mathematics: Present an application of mathematics that bridges mathematics with other disciplines. 
 Examples may include art that can be made with mathematics, or mathematical modeling in non-mathematical fields (e.g. biology, economics, computer science, etc.). Explain the significance of the mathematical practices used in these applications.
 
Theme 3: Mathematical history: Present an interesting story about the development of mathematics and explain why it is relevant to understanding contemporary mathematics.
 This could be about a specific mathematician, a significant (solved or unsolved) problem in mathematics, the development of a field/mathematical practice, or any other interesting component of the history of mathematics.

 

Special Category

This year, we are introducing a special category: Women in Math. If your project, covering one of the above three themes, also includes the representation of women in math and the representation is properly explained in your work, your team will be (automatically) qualified to compete in this special category which has a separate award for the winning team. We highly encourage inclusivity and gender diversity in our discipline. Thus, this special category awards the one who utilizes creativity to enhance women's engagement and representation in mathematics.

 

Should you have any questions regarding the themes or the competing categories, please do not hesitate to reach out to Dr. Asghar Ghorbanpour (aghorba@uwo.ca) or Joanne Chien (lchien2@uwo.ca).