Month: May 2024

MAT End of Year Celebration

Prof. Bockting Events, Outreach

Thank you for spending another year with us and for being a part of the MAT community at DePaul. We will be celebrating the end of the academic year with a party and we hope that you will join us!

Pizza and snacks will be provided. This will be a great opportunity to chat with your fellow MAT students, enjoy some lunch, and get your official MAT t-shirt, tote bag, and other MAT swag.

We hope that you can join us!

When: Friday, June 7, 12:00 – 2:00pm
Where: MAT office suite on the 5th floor of SAC
Who: You!

Cat Dj GIFfrom Cat GIFs

Getting Involved with the DePaul Math Club

Prof. Bockting Events, Math Activity, Outreach, Student Opportunities

The DePaul Math Club (DMC)has had a busy and exciting school year! Throughout the year, DMC has hosted and participated in many wonderfully successful events.  Recently, this list has included the following:

  • The week before Winter Quarter finals, six DePaul math students road-tripped to Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois for the annual meeting of the Illinois Section of the Mathematical Association of America. They reported that it was an absolute blast to carpool across Illinois, attend talks, participate in activities, and hang out at their Airbnbs.
  • On Friday, April 19, twenty-five students participated in the CSH First Annual Integration Bee, which proved to be a huge success for all.  In addition to the intense, but friendly competition (see results in above article), there were plenty of chances to mingle, munch on tasty treats, and participate in other fun activities. First place won $500, $200 went to second place, and third took home $100.
  • On Friday, April 26, a group of students ventured to Indiana for the Annual Rose-Hulman Undergraduate Math Conference, where they attended talks and networked with other attendees.  Expenses for transportation, housing, and food were generously covered by the DePaul Math Department.

If you are interested in getting more involved with this exciting and vibrant group next year, please complete this short form:

You can also reach out to the DMC leadership team directly by emailing dpumathclub@gmail.com.

DMC Trip to Rose-Hulman’s Undergraduate

Prof. Bockting Events, Math Activity, Math Talks, Student Opportunities

On Friday, April 26, a group of DePaul students ventured to Indiana for the Annual Rose-Hulman Undergraduate Math Conference.  The conference featured research conducted by undergraduate students, including DePaul’s own Owen Levens.  In addition to attending (and giving!) research talks, students were able to network with other attendees and explore Rose-Hulman’s campus. Many good times were had and lots of interesting mathematics was learned!  You can learn more about their adventures by visiting the DePaul Math Club Instagram.

Expenses for transportation, housing, and food were generously covered by the DePaul Department of Mathematical Sciences.


Solution to Mathematical Toy Box – SQ2024 #1

Prof. Bockting Problems & Solutions

There are three houses, equally spaced on a street, labeled in order A, B, and C, in which five children live. There is at least one child in each house. The children decide on a weekend to arrange a playdate, and the meeting place is the house that minimizes the total distance traveled. What is the probability that the children meet at house B?

Solution: One can track all the possible configurations of children distributed in the three houses, along with the total distance (number of segments) travelled by the children in attending the playdate at the various houses:

We observe that the minimum total distance occurs in house B in 4 out of the 6 cases (highlighted blue), giving a probability of 2/3.

This problem is based on a 1950s Putnam problem, which involved a much more general result. For a shortcut, we note that the house that minimizes the total distance is the one in which where Child #3 resides.