Temple Math Club is an active club within Temple University, which organizes weekly events on Thursdays 5:00 PM to 6 PM. The meeting room is Wachman Hall 617. Any undergraduate, graduate, faculty, or staff member may attend these meetings and collaborations with other organizations are always welcome!
The mission of the Math Club at Temple University is to build a scholarly community of students and faculty with a passion for mathematics and to popularize this field through a series of activities promoting appreciation and understanding of the role mathematics plays in science, nature, technology, and human culture. To join or enjoy the Math Club one does not need to be the next Euler or Archimedes; one must simply have the interest and ability to find the fun in logic.
We invite speakers (undergraduates, graduates, and faculty) from the University and surrounding institutions to present on various mathematics and applied science fields with the hope to inspire our math, science, engineering majors and all other math enthusiasts. We also offer professional development opportunities within the field of mathematics. We organize events outside of campus, such as watching Math/Science movies, and with other organizations.
Club officers:
- President: Tommy Pham
- Vice President: Nora Melican
- Secretary: Dylan Heathcote
Faculty Advisors:
- Prof. Andy Eisenberg
Director of Undergraduate Studies:
- Prof. Maria Lorenz
Graduate Student Advisor:
- Henry Brown
You may contact the club through the president, Tommy Pham, at tommy.pham9@temple.edu
Weekly challenge problems -->
Thursday January 18, 2024 at 17:00, WH 617
The first meeting of Spring 2024!
We will introduce the club, get to know each other, solve math puzzles, and enjoy free pizza!
Thursday January 25, 2024 at 17:00, WH 617
Construction of Reals using Dedekind Cuts – Antonio Vinagre
This week’s meeting of the Temple Math Club will feature a talk by Antonio Vinagre on constructing the real numbers using Dedekind cuts. And, as always, there will be free pizza!
Thursday February 1, 2024 at 17:00, WH 617
This week will feature ‘MathJeopardy’! Enjoy pizza while partakingin a fun Jeopardy-style math triviagame. The winning team will beawarded a prize!
Thursday February 8, 2024 at 17:00, WH 617
This week will include a math game night! Stop by Thursday evening for a casual meeting with math-related board games and pizza. Feel free to bring along your favorite board game!
Thursday February 15, 2024 at 17:00, WH 617
Why There’s No Quintic Formula
This week will include a deep dive into quintic equations and why no quintic formula exists. The video “Why there’s ‘No’ Quintic Formula” will explore how the world of complex variables can be applied to quintic equations, providing an alternate perspective to the usual Galois theory approach.
Thursday February 22, 2024 at 17:00, WH 617
Journeys of Black Mathematicians: Forging Resilience
We will watch the movie “Journeys of BlackMathematicians: Forging Resilience”. Sponsored by the Math Department Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee, the film highlights the experiences of black mathematicians throughout history.
Thursday February 29, 2024 at 17:00,
Problem Solving with Math and Programming
This week's meeting of the Temple Math Club will involve a discussion about Project Euler Problem 88 (https://projecteuler.net/problem=88). Project Euler has a large collection of math-related programming challenges. Time-permitting, we may discuss another Project Euler problem as well. And, of course, there will be free pizza!
Thursday March 14, 2024 at 17:00,
This Thursday is 3/14, so the Math Club meeting this week will be a Pi Day celebration! We'll discuss some history and fun facts about pi, take part in pi-themed competitions, and have some pie. And, of course, there will be free pizza!
Thursday March 21, 2024 at 17:00,
Scissors Congruence: How To Cut Up Shapes and Get Away With It – Maxine Calle
This week's meeting of the Temple Math Club will feature a talk by University of Pennsylvania grad student Maxine Calle titled "Scissors Congruence: How To Cut Up Shapes and Get Away With It", exploring how we can tell when given shapes are equivalent under cut-and-paste transformations. And, of course, there will be free pizza!
Thursday March 28, 2024 at 17:00,
Series Expansions from Orthogonal Functions – Katharine Ott
This week's meeting of the Temple Math Club will feature a talk by Katharine Ott from Bates College, titled "Series Expansions from Orthogonal Functions (Taylor's Version)", exploring the relationship between orthogonal series expansions and Taylor series. And, of course, there will be free pizza!
Thursday April 4, 2024 at 17:00,
Eigenvalues of Random Matrices– Luke Peilen
This week's meeting of the Temple Math Club will feature a talk by Professor Luke Peilen titled "Eigenvalues of Random Matrices." He'll discuss some of the history of the theory of random matrices along with some connections to physics and number theory. And, of course, there will be free pizza!
Thursday April 11, 2024 at 17:00,
All of Math is Wrong, Actually– Andy Eisenberg
In this week's meeting of the Temple Math Club, I'll be giving a talk discussing a variety of classic bad math proofs. We'll "prove" that 1 = 2, that 3 = 0, that pi = 4, and that all horses are the same color, among other claims. And, of course, there will be free pizza!
Thursday April 18, 2024 at 17:00,
Of Friends and Politicians: An Invitation to (Spectral) Graph Theory - Nizar Bou Ezz
The friendship theorem states that if in a group of people each pair shares exactly one mutual friend, then there is always a person (the politician) who is everybody’s friend. While the theorem’s statement may seem straightforward, its (classical) proof requires a deep understanding of the adjacency matrix of the friendship graph. In this talk we will see how “abstract”notions in linear algebra (that you may have encountered in your classes) are used to study real-world social dynamics.
Thursday April 25, 2024 at 17:00,
Space-filling curves coming from hyperbolic geometry - Ross Griebenow
Interesting constructions of fractal curves that completely fill higher dimensional spaces have been known for 130 years, but it’s not obvious that such curves ever arise naturally. Starting with an elementary introduction to hyperbolic geometry, I’ll describe a simple and organic example of sphere- filling curves due to Cannon and Thurston. Prerequisites will be limited to groups and their actions on sets.
Thursday August 29, 2024 at 17:00,
Fall semester first meeting + a call for speakers
I hope everyone had a good summer! The Temple Math Club will be starting up again, with our first meeting this Thursday. Here’s some quick information, with a few small requests for action:
Who/Where/When: I’m the faculty advisor for the Math Club, and Tommy Pham is the club’s president. The meetings occur on Thursdays from 5 pm – 6 pm in Wachman 617, and anyone interested is welcome to attend.
Call for speakers: The Math Club hosts talks and meetings of a variety of different types (undergraduates presenting their own research projects, professors pitching ideas for research projects, outreach from local companies seeking mathematically minded job applicants, talks about math history, panels of Temple alums discussing their experiences, movie nights, game nights, and more). If you are interested in giving a talk at the Math Club, or if you have a grad/undergrad student who might want to present their work to the Math Club, please contact Tommy Pham (tommy.pham9@temple.edu), who will take care of all the talk scheduling. (Talks should generally be aimed at undergraduates and assume minimal background.)
Please announce the club to your students! If you think your students might be interested in attending the Math Club, please make an announcement about the club at some point over the next couple of days! Students who attend the first couple of meetings (especially the first meeting) can get added to a mailing list and Discord to continue to receive information about future meetings (and weekly math challenge problems). It might help to let students know that there will always be free pizza at the meetings.
This week's meeting: The first meeting of the semester will consist of introductions followed by math puzzles and games, as is tradition.Thursday September 5, 2024 at 17:00,
David Palomino: "Vector Bundles: A Look at the Geometrical Anatomy of Theoretical Physics".
This week's meeting of the Temple Math Club will feature a talk by David Palomino titled "Vector Bundles: A Look at the Geometrical Anatomy of Theoretical Physics". And, of course, there will be free pizza!
The meeting will be on Thursday from 5 pm - 6 pm in Wachman 617.
Thursday September 12, 2024 at 17:00,
"The Mathematics of Musical Scales and Tuning Systems" by Evan Mallon
This week's meeting of the Temple Math Club will feature a talk by Evan Mallon titled "The Mathematics of Musical Scales and Tuning Systems," exploring music theory connections to number theory and group theory. And, of course, there will be free pizza!Thursday September 19, 2024 at 17:00,
"Knots and why we care about them" by Andrew Clickard
This week's meeting of the Temple Math Club will feature a talk by Andrew Clickard titled "Knots and why we care about them", giving a beginner-friendly introduction to knot theory. And, of course, there will be free pizza!
Thursday September 26, 2024 at 17:00,
"Taking Notes in Math Classes: When Copying What's on the Board Goes Wrong" by Tim Fukawa-Connelly
The Temple Math Club this week will host Dr. Tim Fukawa-Connelly from the College of Education and Human Development giving a talk about different ways that information is conveyed during a math class, and strategies for improving note-taking skills. And, of course, there will be free pizza!
Thursday October 3, 2024 at 17:00,
Ergodic Theory: How to Measure an Environment by Alvyn Wiratama
This week's meeting of the Temple Math Club will feature a talk by Alvyn Wiratama giving an introduction to ergodic theory and its connections to statistical mechanics. And, of course, there will be free pizza!
Thursday October 10, 2024 at 17:00,
Metalenses and Optimal Transport
This week's meeting of the Temple Math Club will feature a talk by Irem Altiner on the optimal transport problem, covering some of the history and an application in geometric optics. And, of course, there will be free pizza!
Thursday October 24, 2024 at 17:00, Wachman 617
Math Club & Advising Team Spring Course Info Session
This week's meeting of the Temple Math Club will feature a joint event with the Math Advising Team in which students can learn about upper-level math courses that will be offered in the Spring and ask questions about program requirements and other students' experiences. And, of course, there will be free pizza!
Thursday October 31, 2024 at 18:00, Wachman 617
Spooktacular Math Mania: Halloween Games, Pizza, and Treats!
This week's meeting of the Temple Math Club will be Spooktacular Math Mania, a social event with math-related games, Halloween candy, and, of course, free pizza!
Thursday November 7, 2024 at 17:00, Wachman 617
Introduction to total nonnegativity, by Mark Skandera
This week's meeting of the Temple Math Club will feature a talk by Mark Skandera on totally nonnegative matrices, with connections to graph theory and hydrocarbon molecules. And, of course, there will be free pizza!
Thursday November 14, 2024 at 17:00,
The Basel Problem: Weierstrass' Contribution to Euler's 100-year-old Solution, by Nora Melican
This week's meeting of the Temple Math Club will feature a talk by Nora Melican on the Basel Problem. She'll discuss complex analysis, Taylor series, the Weierstrass Factorization Theorem, and, of course, there will be free pizza!
Thursday November 21, 2024 at 17:00,
Investigating Lucas Sequences Under a Modulus, by Tommy Pham
This week's meeting of the Temple Math Club will feature a talk by Tommy Pham investigating generalized Fibonacci sequences under a modulus. And, of course, there will be free pizza!
Thursday December 5, 2024 at 17:00, Wachman 617
The last game night /meeting of the semester!
This week will be the final meeting of the semester for the Temple Math Club. We'll have a relaxing board game night for people to take a break from studying, and, of course, there will be free pizza!