Biography: Dr. Tim Chartier is the Joseph R. Morton Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science at Davidson College who specializes in data analytics.  He consults with ESPN, The New York Times, the US Olympic Committee and professional teams in the NBA, MLB, NFL and NASCAR.  Tim founded a sports analytics group at Davidson College that has numbered nearly 100 student researchers in an academic year; the group supplies analytics to Davidson College sports teams.  Beyond authoring books such as Math Bytes: Google Bombs, Chocolate-Covered Pi, and Other Cool Bits in Computing and When Life Is Linear: From Computer Graphics to Bracketology, Tim has worked on Google and Pixar educational initiatives.  Tim's authorship, research, and scholarship have been recognized with national leadership positions in the Mathematical Association of America and multiple awards including an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, The MAA SE Distinguished Teaching Award and the MAA’s Euler Book Award.

Additional information can be found here.

Topics include:

Get in the Game: data analytics via sports
Sports analytics has gathered tremendous momentum as one of the most dynamic fields. Diving deep into the numbers of sports can be game changing or a framework for data analytics research. What questions can be explored? What actionable insights can be gleaned? From March Madness to national media broadcasts, analytics are becoming increasingly indispensable. Dr. Tim Chartier will discuss outlooks that help with successful analytics, and a variety of questions that can be tackled. He will also share how he leads students to dig into sports via data and their success across the NBA, MLB, NFL, NASCAR, ESPN and his own college teams.

Exponential Party Fun
Turn your gatherings into unforgettable experiences with mathematically entertaining tricks! Join Tim Chartier for a talk packed with math-based antics, puzzles, and surprises. You’ll learn clever, crowd-pleasing ideas that bring the magic of mathematics to life—perfect for mingling at a school event or sparking conversation at a section meeting. These entertaining tricks will help you break the ice, start conversations, and maybe even step into the spotlight. Come add a dash of math to your social repertoire.

Mathematical Celebrity Look-alike
Have you ever wondered which celebrities you look like? Denzel Washington? Jackie Chan? Emma Stone? Maybe you’re a mathematical blend of Dev Patel and Ryan Gosling—or Natalie Portman and Octavia Spencer…perhaps even Lucy Liu and Chris Hemsworth. Let’s answer this question with math.

In this talk, we use linear algebra and systems of equations to model faces and uncover celebrity look-alikes, all while learning the art of mathematical modeling along the way. Come see how math can turn a fun question into a powerful—and entertaining—problem-solving experience.