SIAM awarded over $46,000 to 95 chapters for activities taking place throughout the 2014-2015 academic year. Many of SIAM’s Student Chapters have weekly or biweekly meetings, seminars, invited speakers, workshops, field trips to companies and labs, and other interesting activities. Below are a few exciting events our chapters held in fall 2014 or plan to do in spring 2015. View the complete list of chapters receiving funding.
The Cardiff University chapter hosted their Third SIAM Chapter Day on January 15. Doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers from Cardiff University and other universities were invited to showcase their research in a poster presentation. Guest lecturers included Des Higham (University of Strathclyde), Kevin Glazebrook (University of Lancaster), and Peter Wells (Cardiff University). The chapter also hosts regular seminars given by junior or postdoctoral researchers in mathematics or engineering.
SIAM’s Carnegie Mellon University chapter plans to host seven or eight talks per semester from faculty members inside and outside the math department. They will also conduct outreach to local high schools to promote the importance of mathematics.
Charles University in Prague chapter has planned talks with Martin Mysicka, a former physicist who’s become a successful actor, and Adrian Hirn, who will give a talk about his work at Bosch Rexroth AG. They will also host talks from recent graduates to discuss their experiences in the job market, post-university. Their SIAM student seminar series gives students opportunities to present their research and hone their speaking skills. Successful applicants to the Grant Agency of Charles University will offer advice to new applicants in a panel discussion. The chapter also plans to host an intensive course on working with FEniCS, an automated programming environment for solving PDEs using finite element method.
The University of Edinburgh SIAM student chapter annual conference will feature invited speakers from academia and industry and student poster sessions. They will also host a more informal student conference, where PhD students with related research in applied mathematics will present their work. The student conference will also feature an informal Q&A.
In October, George Mason University’s student chapter hosted the Sixth GMU SIAM Research Symposium, featuring talks by Maria Emelianenko, Timothy Sauer, Chris Manon, and Neil Epstein. The chapter will host a weekly student research presentation, a visiting lecturer from the Courant Institute, and a series of Linux tutorials. They also plan to volunteer for the annual MATHCOUNTS competition and work with high school math clubs.
University of Pennsylvania chapter will hold four joint workshops with PICS (Penn Institute for Computational Science)—for Python, MATLAB, R, and Mathematica—and monthly Student Research Colloquia.
The SIAM student chapter at Institut Teknologi Bandung in Indonesia plans to print a chapter magazine, host two chapter meetings with invited speakers on economics and math, and take a field trip to Indonesia Airlines, where they will learn about the applications of optimization in airline scheduling.
Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis chapter plans to host its first organizational meeting, a Career Day in Math, Statistics, Actuarial Science, Computer and Information Science & Physics, a one day conference in conjunction with the AMS student chapter at IUPUI, a field trip to an industrial site or scientific lab, and one guest speaker from industry.
Illinois Institute of Technology chapter’s plans for 2014-15 include an introduction to Beamer, a tour of the Wind Tunnel Lab at IIT, an introduction to robotics design by Dr. Spenko of IIT’s robotics lab, and a talk on math modeling in ecology with field ecologist Keala Cummings. The chapter will also participate in this year’s Chicago Area SIAM Student Conference (CASSC) along with University of Illinois at Chicago and Northwestern University.
Middle East Technical University chapter plans to host a workshop on Bent, Semi-Bent, and Hyper-Bent Functions, three seminars, Science is Fun (METU activities for high school students), and a trip to Central Bank in Ankara.
The National University of Ireland, Galway student chapter hosted the inaugural Irish Applied Mathematics Research Student Meeting in December with the aim of attracting attendees from various universities around the country and in the UK. The conference featured two plenary speakers, contributed talks from students, and a poster session.
The SIAM student chapter at University of Minnesota plans to hold an integration bee, a professional development series (four events focused on résumé writing, interviewing, elevator pitches, and networking), an interdisciplinary student poster session and networking event, a once-per-semester guest lecture, field trips to local labs, a student seminar series, and an undergraduate Mathematical Contest in Modeling.
This spring the Purdue University chapter will host its annual Computational Science and Engineering Student Conference (CSEC), at which graduate and undergraduate students in a variety of departments from Purdue and neighboring universities can meet, present their research, and network.
Rice University chapter holds one social event per semester—barbeques with informal team-based, math-related challenges designed to engage SIAM members, facilitate collaboration, and inspire interest in applied mathematics. In the fall, they organized a career panel to consider applied math-related career paths. They plan to take a field trip to Space Center Houston or a local company in industry.
RWTH Aachen chapter has plans for excursions to Kisters AG, DRL/ETW (Airbus), and Ford Motor Company (R&D).
The Spelman College SIAM student chapter plans to hold workshops on using LaTex, MATLAB, and R; an invited talk by Domonique Watson, a PhD student in Emory’s Biostatistics Department; and a research day at which chapter members will present their research.
St. Mary’s College of Maryland chapter will organize an applied mathematics colloquium with five invited speakers. In November, they organized a student research symposium featuring six student talks. This spring, they will hold a one-day field trip to NASA Goddard Space Center.
Tufts University chapter plans to hold invited speakers (faculty, graduate, and undergraduate), talks about experiences in industry, discussions about attending conferences and presenting research, and tutorial workshops on applied math software.
Universidade Nova de Lisboa chapter plans to visit Critical Materials (a company that focuses on the development of solutions and products for applications in material systems and structures) early in 2015, participate in Expo-FCT (an annual event where high school students visit UNL), and hold a project sharing day featuring a seminar on the applications of mathematics in industry by Mário Figueiredo.
The chapter at University of Colorado Denver will host the SIAM Front Range Student Conference on March 7, an event co-sponsored by the SIAM Student Chapters of UC Denver, UC Boulder, UC Colorado Springs, Colorado School of Mines, University of Wyoming, and Colorado State University.
University of Illinois at Chicago student chapter has planned a field trip to tour the MCS facilities at Argonne National Labs; a weekly seminar series featuring speakers from applied mathematics, statistics, and computational science; and talks by speakers from financial mathematics and industry.
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth student chapter plans to host five speakers as part of an undergraduate student seminar series, hold a field trip to either Massachusetts High Performance Computing Center or COMSOL HQ, and host a bocce ball competition among chapter members and scientific computing faculty.
The joint University of Texas at Dallas/Southern Methodist University chapter organized an interdisciplinary seminar at SMU and a professional development session focused on writing CVs and cover letters at UTD in the fall. In the spring semester, SMU will host the regional Finite Element Rodeo, and UTD hopes to hold a panel discussion on career and job opportunities in industry.
University of Wisconsin-La Crosse chapter plans a one-day trip to the IBM facility in Minneapolis and 12 other chapter meetings, including a graduate school discussion panel and workshops in Mathematica and LaTex.
The SIAM student chapter at Washington University plans to host peer advising sessions geared toward underclassmen, an internship panel, student/faculty luncheons, and visits to Boeing and Busch.
SIAM encourages the formation of chapters at institutions around the world. For information on starting a chapter at your institution, visit the website.