Mathematics and Statistics

Applied Mathematics, Geometry and Topology, Analysis, Mathematical Modeling, Statistical Modeling, Game Theory, Operations, Biostatistics, Epidemiology, GIS, Image Processing

Being Happy With Being Repetitive

jeremy Communication, Education and Outreach, Mathematics and Statistics, Physics and Astronomy
One of the most difficult things to do in life is to focus. Maybe you’re different than me, but I have a lot of trouble sitting down and focusing on one task or idea. Instead, my mind buzzes with activity while my hands do another. I’m always switching between ideas, and it takes a lot of energy to focus on just one. On a more macro level, my trouble with focus manifests in the types…

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Four stages in the relationship of computer science to other fields

Theory, Evolution, and Games Group bloggers Biology and Life Sciences, Mathematics and Statistics, Technology and Engineering
This weekend, Oliver Schneider — an old high-school friend — is visiting me in the UK. He is a computer scientist working on human-computer interaction and was recently appointed as an assistant professor at the Department of Management Sciences, University of Waterloo. Back in high-school, Oliver and I would occasionally sneak out of class and head to the University of Saskatchewan to play counter strike in the campus internet cafe. Now, Oliver builds haptic interfaces…

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Peeling Back the Onion

jeremy Communication, Education and Outreach, Mathematics and Statistics, Physics and Astronomy
No matter how much advanced mathematics you study, the great thing is that you rarely have to accept anything as-is. If you come across a procedure, technique, or result and you wonder how in the world it works, you can always retrace your steps and get back to the foundational reasons as to why it works. If you keep on asking “why”, you will eventually get back to your starting axioms. In between that and…

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How Many People Need To Watch?

jeremy Communication, Education and Outreach, Mathematics and Statistics, Physics and Astronomy
We like being recognized for the work we do. This is even more relevant now, with the idea of documenting everything you do. (If it isn’t documented, did it happen?) We don’t want to do work unless there is some reward attached. This is true for both the “regular” work we do as well as our side projects. Despite claiming to enjoy what we do, I have fundamental doubts about how many people would continue…

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On Frankfurt’s Truth and Bullshit

Theory, Evolution, and Games Group bloggers Biology and Life Sciences, Mathematics and Statistics, Technology and Engineering
In 2015 and 2016, as part of my new year reflections on the year prior, I wrote a post about the ‘year in books’. The first was about philosophy, psychology and political economy and it was unreasonably long and sprawling as post. The second time, I decided to divide into several posts, but only wrote the first one on cancer: Neanderthals to the National Cancer Act to now. In this post, I want to return…

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Do I Have What It Takes?

jeremy Communication, Education and Outreach, Mathematics and Statistics, Physics and Astronomy
This is a question that students encounter over and over throughout their education. It crops up when deciding what classes to take, what projects to embark on, and what programs to study. It is a natural question, because we don’t like embarrassing ourselves. Therefore, we want to avoid pursuits that are too difficult if possible. As a physics and mathematics student, I can only give you my perspective from this small corner of life. How…

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Analogies in Mathematics

jeremy Communication, Education and Outreach, Mathematics and Statistics, Physics and Astronomy
Learning mathematics is an additive process. What I mean by this is that new mathematics often builds on what came before. Learning mathematics isn’t exactly a linear journey, but it’s a good enough rough approximation. In order to go from one concept to the next, it’s useful to offer analogies to explain what is happening. For example, when you first learn to count, you learn about the natural numbers. These are positive integers that grow…

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Coarse-graining vs abstraction and building theory without a grounding

Theory, Evolution, and Games Group bloggers Biology and Life Sciences, Mathematics and Statistics, Technology and Engineering
Back in September 2017, Sandy Anderson was tweeting about the mathematical oncology revolution. To which Noel Aherne replied with a thorny observation that “we have been curing cancers for decades with radiation without a full understanding of all the mechanisms”. This lead to a wide-ranging discussion and clarification of what is meant by terms like mechanism. I had meant to blog about these conversations when they were happening, but the post fell through the cracks…

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Regurgitating

jeremy Communication, Education and Outreach, Mathematics and Statistics, Physics and Astronomy
When I sit down to take a final exam, I don’t think about how to make my answer as perfect as it could be. I don’t waste time making it as clear and concise as possible. After all, that’s not the goal I have when I write my exam. Instead, I’m looking to answer all the questions as best I can in the allotted time. If I finish early, then I’ll go back and look…

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Picking Yourself

jeremy Communication, Education and Outreach, Mathematics and Statistics, Physics and Astronomy
I like school. That’s probably clear from reading my blog. I enjoy learning about science and mathematics, and the school system is one that I’ve learned to navigate with ease. Sure, I sometimes have complaints and suggestions for improvements, but on the whole, I enjoy going to school. That being said, there is one part of school that I think doesn’t prepare us well for life outside of education. It’s about learning how to pick…

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