# Invited Paper Sessions

## Low Dimensional Symplectic and Contact Topology

Friday, July 28, 1:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m., Continental Ballroom B

The origins of symplectic and contact topology can be traced back to classical mechanical systems. Since then, both symplectic and contact topology have become very robust fields of study in their own right. The aim of this session will be to highlight techniques and recent results in the areas of low-dimensional symplectic and contact topology ranging from applications in knot theory to the theory of planar arrangements and singularities. Most of this work uses some version of Floer theory (such as contact homology or Heegaard Floer homology), which is an infinite-dimensional analog of Morse homology. We will aim to make this session understandable to nonexperts.

Organizers:
Dusa McDuff, Barnard College, Columbia University
Whitney George, University of Wisconsin LaCrosse

#### Constructing Interlocking Solid Tori in Contact 3-Manifolds

1:00 p.m. - 1:20 p.m.
Doug LaFountain, Western Illinois University

#### The Weinstein Conjecture

1:30 p.m. - 1:50 p.m.
Bahar Acu, University of Southern California and UCLA

#### Contact Invariants and Reeb Dynamics

2:00 p.m. - 2:20 p.m.
Jo Nelson, Barnard College and Columbia University

#### The Flexibility and Rigidity of Lagrangian Cobordisms

2:30 p.m. - 2:50 p.m.
Lisa Tryanor, Bryn Mawr College

#### A New Approach to the Symplectic Isotopy Problem

3:00 p.m. - 3:20 p.m.
Laura Starkston, Stanford University

## Mathematics and Democracy

Friday, July 28, 2:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m., Continental Ballroom A

Democracy is fraught with different meanings that mathematics can help to make more precise. This session will include talks on the properties of voting systems that best reflect the will of the people in electing a single winner (e.g., for mayor or president), or best represent different factions in electing multiple winners (e.g., to a committee or council). Among other topics discussed will be different ways of apportioning representatives to states, or seats in a legislature to political parties; methodologies for drawing district lines to avoid gerrymandering; and the avoidance of different social-choice paradoxes.

Organizer:
Steven Brams, New York University

#### Political Hypotheses and Mathematical Conclusions

2:00 p.m. - 2:20 p.m.
Paul H. Edelman, Vanderbilt University

#### Multiwinner Approval Voting: An Apportionment Approach

2:30 p.m. - 2:50 p.m.
D. Marc Kilgour, Wilfrid Laurier University

#### Voting and the Symmetric Group

3:00 p.m. - 3:20 p.m.
Michael Orrison, Harvey Mudd College

#### Consistent Criteria, Problematic Outcomes, and the Hypercube

3:30 p.m. - 3:50 p.m.
Tommy Ratliff, Wheaton College

4:00 p.m. - 4:20 p.m.
Karen Saxe, Macalester College and AMS

#### Orthogonal Decomposition and the Mathematics of Voting

4:30 p.m. - 4:50 p.m.
William S. Zwicker, Union College

## Spatial Graph Theory

Thursday, July 27, 1:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m., Continental Ballroom A

Spatial Graph Theory is a relatively young interdisciplinary field that brings together knot theory, low dimensional topology and geometry, combinatorics, and graph theory, and has applications in chemistry, molecular biology, and biophysics. In addition, because of its combinatorial nature, many problems in Spatial Graph Theory lend themselves well to undergraduate research. For these reasons, faculty at primarily undergraduate institutions as well as those at research universities may be interested in learning about Spatial Graph Theory.

Organizer:
Erica Flapan, Pomona College

#### Topological Symmetry Groups of Möbius Ladders and the Petersen Graph in $\mathbb{R}^3$

1:00 p.m. - 1:20 p.m.
Emille Davie Lawrence, San Francisco University

#### Intrinsic Chirality of Graphs in $\mathbb{R}^3$ and Other $3$-Manifolds

1:30 p.m. - 1:50 p.m.
Hugh Howards, Wake Forest University

#### Alexander Polynomials of Spatial Graphs and Virtual Knots

2:00 p.m. - 2:20 p.m.
Blake Mellor, Loyola Marymount University

#### Realization of Knots and Links in a Spatial Graph

2:30 p.m. - 2:50 p.m.
Kouki Taniyama, Waseda University

#### Conway-Gordon Type Theorems

3:00 p.m. - 3:20 p.m.
Ryo Nikkuni, Tokyo Woman’s Christian University

#### Legendrian Spatial Graphs

3:30 p.m. - 3:50 p.m.
Danielle O’Donnol, Indiana University

#### Oriented Matroid Theory and Linear Embeddings of Spatial Graphs

4:00 p.m. - 4:20 p.m.
Elena Pavelescu, University of South Alabama

#### Random Linear Embeddings of Spatial Graphs with Applications to Polymers

4:30 p.m. - 4:50 p.m.
Kenji Kozai, Harvey Mudd College

## Big Ideas About Big (and Less Than Big) Data

Thursday, July 27, 2:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m., Continental Ballroom B

Data analytics is a growing field, with graduate degrees, undergraduate majors and minors, and concentrations popping up at colleges and universities around the country. Data analysis impacts our lives broadly from predictions of movie rankings on Netflix to targeted marketing by retailers, to name two of many applications. The landscape of data science is broad. The ideas of the field can be applied using smaller datasets from a biometric device like a Fitbit or iWatch to large datasets in finance or health care. This session will sample areas of data science from a variety of applications, calling on various topics in mathematics such as graph theory and linear algebra, as well as statistical modelling. The session will also include presenters from government, academia and business demonstrating the inherent interdisciplinarity of studying big and less than big data.

Organizers:
Tim Chartier, Davidson College
Jennifer Galovich, St. John's University and the College of St. Benedict

#### Know Thyself: Introspective Personal Data Mining

2:00 p.m. - 2:20 p.m.
Talithia Williams, Harvey Mudd College

#### Using Big and Less-than-Big Data Sets in Public Health

2:30 p.m. - 2:50 p.m.
Martin I. Meltzer, Ph.D., Health Economics and Modeling Unit (HEMU), Division of Preparedness and Emerging Infections, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

#### Let Me See Your Papers: Using Real-Time Network Graph Traversal to Uncover Suspicious Offshore Activity

3:00 p.m - 3:20 p.m.
Abhishek Mehta, Tresata

#### Toward Unsupervised Learning for Social Media Using Linear Algebra

3:30 p.m. - 3:50 p.m.
Michael Berry, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

#### Finding and Telling Data Stories

4:00 p.m. - 4:20 p.m.
Dash Davidson, Tableau Software

#### Creating Partnerships with Industry and Finding Data Analytics Problems for Students

4:30 p.m. - 4:50 p.m.
Michael Dorff, Brigham Young University

## The Life and Legacy of J Ernest Wilkins (1923-2011)

Saturday, July 29, 1:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m., Salon A-3

J Ernest Wilkins earned a PhD in Mathematics at the age of 19 from the University of Chicago. In 1942 he became the seventh African American to earn a PhD in Mathematics. In 1976 he became the second African American to be elected to the National Academy of Engineering. Wilkins’ career spanned academia, industry and government including the University of Chicago Met Lab during the Manhattan Project. He also helped establish the doctoral program in mathematics at Howard University. This session will share his impact in nuclear-reactor physics and optics, his plight of being a “negro genius”, and his impact on the mathematical community.

Organizers:
Ronald Mickens, Clark Atlanta University
Talitha Washington, Howard University
Ron Buckmire, National Science Foundation and Occidental College

#### J Ernest Wilkins, Jr.: My Friend, Colleague, and Collaborator

1:00 p.m. - 1:20 p.m.
Ronald E. Mickens, Clark Atlanta University

#### The Remarkable Wilkins Family

1:30 p.m. - 1:50 p.m.
Carolyn Wilkins, Professor Berklee College of Music
Sharon Wilkins Hill, PhD

#### J Ernest Wilkins at the University of Chicago

2:00 p.m. - 2:20 p.m.
Bob Fefferman, The University of Chicago

#### My PhD Dissertation Advisor – J Ernest Wilkins

2:30 p.m. - 2:50 p.m.
Cleo Bentley, Prairie View A&M University

#### Dr. J Ernest Wilkins, Jr.: The Man and His Works

3:00 p.m. - 3:20 p.m.
Asamoah Nkwanta, Morgan State University

#### The Scientific and Mathematical Impact of J Ernest Wilkins

3:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Talitha Washington, Howard University

## AWM Invited Paper Session

### No Longer Hidden Figures: Women Mathematicians Share Their Path to the Profession

Friday, July 28, 2:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m., Salon A-3

The recent blockbuster hit, Hidden Figures, shines light on the talented group of African American women mathematicians that helped lead the United States in the race to become the first country to put a man on the moon. Their passion for mathematical excellence and desire to make meaningful contributions to the greater society allowed them to persevere in circumstances that were not always welcoming. In this series of talks, the speakers will take us on a journey from their budding mathematical interest to their individual paths to the profession, including any stumbling blocks along the way. Our hope is that these talks provide the audience with concrete experiences and ideas that can be implemented in and out of the classroom as we all seek to broaden the participation of women and underrepresented groups in mathematics.

Organizers:
Jacqueline Jensen-Vallin, Lamar University
Talithia Williams, Harvey Mudd College
Alissa Crans, Loyola Marymount Univeristy

#### The "Firsts" in STEM: Modern Day 'Hidden Figures'

2:00 p.m. - 2:20 p.m.
Talitha Washington, Howard University

#### A Quest to Cure Cancer with Math

2:30 p.m. - 2:50 p.m.
Shelby Wilson, Morehouse College

#### Young, Mathematically Gifted, and Black

3:00 p.m. - 3:20 p.m.
Candice Price, University of San Diego

#### A Path, Thus Far...

3:30 p.m. - 3:50 p.m.
Suzanne Weekes, Worcester Polytechnic Institute

#### Life Has Critical Points

4:00 p.m. - 4:20 p.m.
Emille Davie Lawrence, University of San Francisco

#### Panel Discussion

4:30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Year:
2017