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Math
Nurturing a love for math
Nurturing a love for math
A new book by Penn mathematics professor Robin Pemantle and longtime math teacher Henri Picciotto offers middle and high school educators actionable materials and invites reflection and connection across disciplines.
Who, What, Why: Hiro Chiba-Okabe on law and applied math
Who, What, Why: Hiro Chiba-Okabe on law and applied math
Chiba-Okabe explains his transition from practicing law in Japan to pursuing a Ph.D. in applied math and computational science and how those interests intersect.
A method of ‘look twice, forgive once’ can sustain social cooperation
A method of ‘look twice, forgive once’ can sustain social cooperation
Using mathematical modeling, researchers from Penn and Princeton found a way to maintain cooperation without relying on complex norms or institutions.
Celebrating Penn GSE’s pilot elementary math tutoring elective
Celebrating Penn GSE’s pilot elementary math tutoring elective
The academically based community service elective is supported by Penn’s Netter Center, with the aim to redefine traditional tutoring by designing its curriculum and approach.
How much gossip is needed to foster social cooperation?
How much gossip is needed to foster social cooperation?
Researchers Mari Kawakatsu, Taylor A. Kessinger, and Joshua B. Plotkin in Penn’s Department of Biology developed a model incorporating two forms of gossip to study indirect reciprocity.
Does simple guesswork lead to more cooperation than complicated calculus?
Does simple guesswork lead to more cooperation than complicated calculus?
Theoretical biologists from Penn test two modes of social reasoning and find surprising truths in simplicity.
Who, What Why: Om Manghani
Who, What Why: Om Manghani
With MathMates, an after-school tutoring program at Andrew Hamilton School, Om Manghani has started a program to help middle school students succeed. But it’s about more than fractions and decimals, he says.
Getting creative to communicate science
Getting creative to communicate science
Across Penn’s School of Arts & Sciences, students and professors are devising imaginative ways to bring their scientific work to the public.
The evolution of societal cooperation
The evolution of societal cooperation
Research led by the School of Arts & Sciences’ Joshua Plotkin and Taylor Kessinger sheds light on the impact of social contexts and multilayered societies on promoting cooperative behavior.
Social conformity in pandemics: How our behaviors spread faster than the virus itself
Social conformity in pandemics: How our behaviors spread faster than the virus itself
Researchers led by former postdoc Bryce Morsky and Erol Akçay of the School of Arts & Sciences have produced a model for disease transmission that factors in the effects of social dynamics, specifically, how masking and social distancing are affected by social norms.
In the News
Scientific American
The 9 Unsolved Mysteries Mathematicians Can’t Stop Thinking About
Mona Merling of the School of Arts & Sciences discusses the Kummer-Vandiver conjecture in number theory, an unsolved math problem that concerns divisibility of class numbers.
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Business Insider
The universities already offering AI degrees, from Penn to Carnegie Mellon
In February, Penn became the first Ivy League school to announce an undergraduate degree in AI, featuring remarks from Robert Ghrist of the School of Engineering and Applied Science.
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WHYY (Philadelphia)
Penn to become first Ivy League to offer AI degree, looks to ‘train the leaders’ in emerging field
Penn is the first Ivy League university to offer a degree in artificial intelligence, with remarks from Robert Ghrist of the School of Engineering and Applied Science.
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The Conversation
A brief illustrated guide to ‘scissors congruence’—an ancient geometric idea that’s still fueling cutting-edge mathematical research
Ph.D. candidate Maxine Calle and Mona Merling of the School of Arts & Sciences explain the definition and history of the mathematical concept of “scissors congruence.”
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Quanta Magazine
The new math of wrinkling
Eleni Katifori of the School of Arts & Sciences is credited for her work simulating wrinkle patterns, which were crucial to an overall theory of geometric wrinkle prediction.
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New Scientist
Researchers have worked out the rules for how some things wrinkle
Eleni Katifori of the School of Arts & Sciences and colleagues used simulations of curving plastic pieces to predict the formation of wrinkling patterns.
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