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A Better Way to Buy Lottery Scratch-off Tickets

A Better Way to Buy Lottery Scratch-off TicketsSkip Garibaldi, IDA Center for Communications Research, La JollaChan Stanek Ross Lecture for Students Saturday, August 9MAA MathFest 2025 Abstract: You may have seen news stories about people who seem to be strategically and systematically buying up lottery scratch-off tickets. What might they have been up to? This talk...

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The Magic of Charles Sanders Peirce

The Magic of Charles Sanders PeircePersi Diaconis, Stanford UniversityMartin Gardner Lecture Saturday, August 9MAA MathFest 2025 Abstract: Charles Peirce was probably Martin Gardner's favorite philosopher. The father of Pragmatism and co-inventor of symbolic logic, he worked as a mathematician, statistician, geologist, and guru, making substantial contributions. He also invented startlingly original (pretty bad) card tricks. BUT,...

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Machine Assisted Proofs

Machine Assisted ProofsTerence Tao, University of California, Los AngelesMAA Earle Raymond Hedrick Lecture Series Thursday, August 7MAA MathFest 2025 Abstract: For centuries, mathematicians have relied on computers to perform calculations, to suggest conjectures, and as components of mathematical proofs. In the light of more modern tools such as interactive theorem provers, machine learning algorithms, and generative...

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Pay It Forward: Practice and Progress in Post-Secondary Mathematics Education

Pay It Forward: Practice and Progress in Post-Secondary Mathematics EducationTara Holm, Cornell UniversityMAA James R.C. Leitzel Lecture Friday, August 8MAA MathFest 2025 Abstract: I will share vignettes from my time as a student, a nascent instructor, a practiced professor, and a community leader. A key theme running through these is providing all students with mathematical experiences...

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Translational Tilings of Euclidean Space

Translational Tilings of Euclidean SpaceTerence Tao, University of California, Los AngelesMAA Earle Raymond Hedrick Lecture Series Friday, August 8MAA MathFest 2025 Abstract: Translational tilings of Euclidean space are a partition of Euclidean space (up to null sets) by translates of one or more tiles.  For instance, the famous Penrose tilings are a translational tiling by a finite number of triangles which can only tile the...

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Calculating with No Numbers, No Formulas

Calculating with No Numbers, No FormulasTadashi Tokieda, Stanford UniversityMAA Invited Address Friday, August 8MAA MathFest 2025 Abstract: People tend to assume, because of the schooling they received as children or of the practical life they lead as adults, that ‘calculation’ means manipulating numbers or formulas — and often that this is what mathematicians do day in,...

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