How to present mathematics with impact?
Abstract

I will take a challenge. As a non-mathematician I will talk about the research of PhD student Doryan Temmerman called free products in the unit group of the integral group ring of a finite group.

As of today, I have no clue what most of the words in the title mean. But at BIMS I will present about the subject. Afterwards I will share the tips and tricks I used to craft my presentation. Curious if it will work out?

CV

Toon Verlinden is the author of The Floor is Yours – Learning to present from brainstorming to applause (LINK:http://boek.thefloorisyours.be). He is international presentation coach, expert in science communication and organizer of the science festival Sound of Science (LINK: http://www.soundofscience.be)

Together with his colleague Hans Van de Water he established The Floor is Yours (LINK:http://www.thefloorisyours.be/en). Since then, they have been training thousands of researchers to prepare and give effective presentations.

Deze lezing wordt in het Nederlands gehouden.

Korte inhoud presentatie

Leer denken als een journalist. Waarom haalt wetenschappelijk onderzoek het nieuws, of net niet? Wat is nieuws?  Waar komt het nieuws vandaan? Hoe checken we dat dan?  Wie maakt de selectie? Op basis van welke criteria? Hoe kan een wetenschapper zelf zijn boodschap bepalen?

Korte Biografie

Koen Wauters, 45 jaar. Met een professioneel leven op twee benen: taal en wetenschap. Na een middelbare school vol wiskunde en wetenschap gekozen voor Germaanse talen. Daarna begonnen als wetenschapsjournalist voor de Campuskrant, overgestapt naar het radionieuws van de VRT, en sinds zes jaar wetenschapsverslaggever voor Het Journaal op televisie. Wetenschap is breed: van Alzheimer tot zwaartekrachtgolven. Mijn taak is vertalen en verhalen van de specialist naar het brede publiek.

Many attempts to popularize mathematics for a broad audience are based on arguments that support the importance of mathematics in real-life applications.

Without any doubt this message needs to be communicated to the “others” from time to time, at least to those who must be convinced to pay our salaries. But we believe that this approach reflects an attitude of defense (or even of apology). As a matter of fact, the practical use of mathematics is often not the main reason why mathematicians are attracted to it. In this respect we could perfectly copy-paste a famous citation of Feynman about physics: “Mathematics is like sex: sure, it may give some practical results, but that’s not why we do it.”

Our approach to addressing a broader audience is by showing the surprising, mystical, artistic, humorous and mind-blowing aspects of mathematics, and by telling about the colorful protagonists and unexpected plot turns in its history. The reactions on our blog posts, lectures or bar stories confirm that deep inside many fellow men have in them a secret curiosity (respect? fascination?) for mathematics, often repressed by fear of failure, fake information or school traumas. We noticed that apparently useless trivia and anecdotes can draw the attention of outsiders to the beauty of mathematics, making them forget the need to ask for its practical use.

PAUL LEVRIE

Paul Levrie (1959) promoveerde in 1987 aan de KU Leuven. Hij is in het bijzonder geboeid door de didactiek en de geschiedenis van de wiskunde. Levrie is tevens redacteur van Pythagoras, het wiskundetijdschrift voor jongeren. Rudi Penne (1964) promoveerde in 1992 aan de Universiteit Antwerpen in een schemerzone tussen zuivere wiskunde en mechanische toepassingen, en houdt momenteel stand als meetkundige in de onderzoeksgroep Op3Mech (3D-scanning en reconstructie). Beide sprekers doceren nu wiskunde aan de faculteit Toegepaste Ingenieurswetenschappen van de Universiteit Antwerpen.

Levrie en Penne bloggen voor het maandblad Eos en geven populariserende lezingen om hun liefde voor wiskunde met anderen te delen en ze ervan te overtuigen dat hun vak best sexy kan zijn. In 2014 schreven ze een boek over wiskunde voor de geïnteresseerde leek: De pracht van priemgetallen. Het boek is ondertussen al aan een zevende druk toe.

Paul Levrie (1959)obtained his PhD in 1987 at the KU Leuven. He is particularly fascinated by the didactics and the history of mathematics. Levrie is also editor of Pythagoras, the Dutch mathematics journal for young people. Rudi Penne (1964) obtained his PhD in 1992 at the University of Antwerp in the twilight zone between pure mathematics and mechanical applications, and currently his research in the research group Op3Mech (3D scanning and reconstruction) focuses on geometry. Both speakers teach mathematics at the Faculty of Applied Engineering of the University of Antwerp.

Levrie and Penne blog for the monthly magazine Eos and give popularizing lectures to share their love of mathematics with others and to convince them that their profession can be quite sexy. Recently the seventh edition of their book De Pracht van priemgetallen (The beauty of prime numbers) has been published.

KIM VERHAEGHE

Kim Verhaeghe is Digital Content Manager at Eos Wetenschap. He is a big fan of science blogs and would like to invite you to join Eos Blogs, the blogging community of Eos Wetenschap. Take a look at www.eoswetenschap.eu/eosblogs.

Abstract:
Why is mathematics so important for society? Why is so much educational time spent on mathematics? Why do society and companies invest in mathematical research?  The strong presence of mathematics in everyday life might be hard to grasp for many people. Also for students in secondary schools, the extreme importance of a decent mathematical background is not always immediately clear. Yet, these are the students that have to decide how to optimally develop their talents for the benefit of society (or themselves). In this lecture, based on the book X-Factor, I discuss how the omnipresence of applications of mathematical can be used to introduce a wide audience to the methodology and possibilities of mathematical modeling. Based on this, I present a didactical approach that exploits the wide applicability of mathematics to motivate for new subjects, without losing the depth and level of abstraction that is so dear to the mathematician.

Referentie: X-Factor: twintig verhalen over de onzichtbare kracht van wiskunde, G. Samaey en J. Vandewalle, Pelckmans Pro, 2016.

Bio:
Prof. dr. ir. Giovanni Samaey obtained a PhD in Applied Sciences at KU Leuven in 2006. Afterwards, he was a researcher at Université de Lille and INRIA (France), the Université Catholique de Louvain, and Ecole des Ponts (Paris). Since 2011, he is a professor at KU Leuven (NUMA, Department of Computer Science). He is also a member of the Young Academie of Belgium.
His research focuses on the development and analysis of new simulation methods for systems consisting of large numbers of interacting particles, and finds applications in the modelling of tumor growth (in which that particles are biological cells), polymer composites (in which the particles are atoms), fusion energy (ions and electrons), traffic modelling (individual vehicles) or social dynamics (people). Recently, he wrot the book “X-Factor” (with colleague Joos Vandewalle), in which twenty stories and numerous anecdotes illustrate the power and necessity of mathematics for society.

Abstract:

How do you talk about symmetry for an audience that doesn’t have a clue about group theory? How can you present a proof as an exciting story to laymen? What is a great visual metaphor to introduce randomness? In short: how can you bring the beauty of mathematics to the masses? Ionica Smeets shows great ways to present mathematics and gives mathematicians some theoretical background from the field of science communication.

Bio: Ionica Smeets (Leiden University) did her PhD on continued fractions. In the meantime she accidentally became the spokesperson for mathematics in the Netherlands when she started a math blog. As an independent science journalist she made successful columns, books and tv-shows about mathematics for a general audience. In 2015 she came back to the university as a professor of science communication to study how to bridge the gap between laymen and experts.