Third Biennial SIAM Conference on Applied Mathematics Education to Coincide with MAA MathFest in July 2020
By Ron Buckmire and Karen Bliss
For the first time, the SIAM Conference on Applied Mathematics Education (ED20) will be co-located with the Mathematical Association of America’s (MAA) MathFest. MathFest will begin on July 29 and ED20 will commence on July 30, with both events concluding on August 1 in Philadelphia, Penn. ED20 marks the third iteration of the biennial conference. The meeting was paired with the SIAM Conference on Mathematics of Planet Earth in Philadelphia in 2016, and with the SIAM Annual Meeting in Portland, Ore., in 2018.
This year’s conference is a unique collaboration between SIAM and another national mathematics association. MathFest is the MAA’s summer meeting — a venue for presentations on research in mathematics and mathematics education that is also particularly welcoming to both undergraduate and graduate students. As indicated on the meeting’s website, ED20 is “intended for mathematics teacher educators, especially for in-service professional development; faculty members in colleges and universities who are interested in applied and computational mathematics and have a strong interest in educational innovation, practice, improvement, and faculty development; and graduate students in applied mathematical areas with ambitions for careers in academia with a strong education component.” The conference is sponsored by the SIAM Activity Group on Applied Mathematics Education, and the organizing committee consists of a dozen applied mathematics professors and professionals from a diverse set of institutions, led by Karen Bliss (Virginia Military Institute) and Ron Buckmire (Occidental College).
With the MAA exiting its agreement with the American Mathematical Society for shared stewardship of the Joint Mathematics Meetings after 2021, MathFest’s importance in the annual calendar of national mathematics meetings is increasing. Other events will likely co-locate with MathFest—beginning with ED20 this year—in future years.
The themes of ED20 are as follows:
- Educating Students in Applied Mathematics
- Issues of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Applied Mathematics
- Mathematical Modeling Inside and Outside the Classroom
- Engaging the Public in Applied Mathematics
- Scholarship and Research in Applied Mathematics Education.
Invited speakers for the conference include Chad Topaz (Williams College), who will present the SIAM-MAA Joint Invited Presentation, as well as Brynja Kohler (Utah State University), Chris Rasmussen (San Diego State University), Cristina Villalobos (University of Texas Rio Grande Valley), and Darryl Yong (Harvey Mudd College).
ED20 attendees have until March 6 to submit minisymposia abstracts and until April 30 to submit contributed papers. They must register for the conference by June 30.
Ron Buckmire is a professor of mathematics and Associate Dean for Curricular Affairs at Occidental College. Karen Bliss is an associate professor in the Department of Applied Mathematics at Virginia Military Institute.