Department Seminar

12:00 - 12:50 PM, Wednesday, February 7, Gildemeister 155

Refreshments served beforehand Gildemeister 135. 

NCAA March Madness:
How WSU almost ruled the world with Linear Algebra  


Dr. Aaron Wangberg
Winona State University

The NCAA Men's Basketball tournament presents a fun mathematical challenge each year: Pick the best bracket and claim bragging rights for a year. In 2017, WSU students used techniques of linear algebra to pick their bracket in friendly competitions among a sportscaster, a basketball coach, WSU's mascot (Wazoo), and 19 million of our nearest friends on ESPN's bracket challenge. In this talk, we'll highlight the techniques used to choose the bracket and show how we came within seven points of ruling the ESPN bracket world.