Distinguished Lecture Series

Distinguished Lectures in Mathematics

Thursday, March 15th – Friday, March 16th

Dr. Arthur Benjamin – Mathemagician!
	Dr. Arthur Benjamin is the Smallwood Family Professor of Mathematics at Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California. He is also a professional magician, and in his entertaining and fast-paced performance, Dr. Benjamin will demonstrate how to mentally add and multiply numbers faster than a calculator, compute the day of the week of any date in history, and other amazing feats of mind. For the last 25 years, Dr. Benjamin has presented his mixture of math and magic all over the world to thousands of groups. He has given three TED talks which have been viewed over 12 million times. He has authored several books and DVD course that share the beauty and magic of mathematics. His most recent book, "The Magic of Math" was a New York Times Bestseller. In 2012, he was selected by Princeton Review as one of The Best 300 Professors. He has received numerous awards for his writing and teaching from the Mathematical Association of America. Dr. Benjamin has appeared on many television and radio programs, including The Today Show, CNN, National Public Radio, and The Colbert Report. He has been profiled in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Scientific American, Discover, Omni, Esquire, People Magazine, and Reader's Digest. In their "Best of America" issue, Reader's Digest recently called him "America's Best Math Whiz."
The Bingo Paradoxes Thursday, March 15 Stark 103 12:45 - 1:45 pm Imagine you are walking past a crowded Bingo parlor with hundreds of people playing. Suddenly you hear one person excitedly call out "Bingo!" Is it more likely that they have 5 in a row, in a column, or on a diagonal? The answer will surprise you.
Mathemagician! Secrets of Mental Math Thursday, March 15 Stark 103 5:30 – 6:45 pm In this entertaining and fast-paced performance, Dr. Benjamin will demonstrate amazing calculation feats and reveal the secrets of mental math.
Mathematical Card Tricks Friday, March 16 Stark 103 9:00 - 9:50 am Dr. Benjamin will demonstrate several amazing card tricks based on mathematical principles, and then explain their secrets!

For further information contact: Joyati Debnath (jdebnath@winona.edu) or Steve Leonhardi (sleonhardi@winona.edu).

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.