Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min<\/p>\n
There\u2019s math games and math art. Math theater and math music. Math for the family. Math for the kids. Mathdramatics. Math on stage. Math movies. Math podcasts. Math murals. Math rock stars. Math awards. Math in sports. Math in culture. Philly math.<\/p>\n
Ancient math. Existential math! Asking whether it would even matter if machines solve the greatest math questions of all time but no human understands how. The beauty of math. The patterns and excitement. Ubiquity and mystery. The undeniable logic and truth. Of Math.<\/p>\n
Welcome to the Super Bowl<\/a> of Math. It\u2019s in Philly, if you didn\u2019t already know. For a limited time only. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s like the Olympics<\/a> of math every four years,\u201d said Thomas Sumner, a local official for the International Congress of Mathematicians<\/a>, held this year at the Convention Center, from July 23 to 30, with public events from July 24 to 28. \u201cCelebrating the beauty and ubiquity of all things math.\u201d<\/p>\n The International Congress of Mathematicians is a big deal. Among the largest math gatherings in the world, it is where the Nobel Prize of math \u2014 the Fields Medal \u2014 is awarded. Hosted in rotating nations, like the Olympics, the prestigious affair this year marks the first time it has been held in the United States since 1986, when it was hosted in Berkeley, Calif. Previously it had been held in Cambridge, Mass., in 1950.<\/p>\n Controversy and awards<\/p>\n It was not without some controversy that the eminent math event returns to America. In March, Tarik Aougab, an associate professor of mathematics and statistics at Haverford<\/a> College, circulated a petition \u2014 eventually signed by more than 2,600 mathematicians<\/a> \u2014 to boycott the nearly 130-year-old conference this year if it was not moved out of the United States.<\/p>\n Petitioners expressed concern that some international colleagues would be unable to get visas to enter the United States<\/a> due to President Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s administration mostly suspending entry for citizens of dozens of countries. Other concerns included fear of U.S. Immigration<\/a> and Customs Enforcement and reluctance to travel to the United States at a time when the nation is embroiled in a war in the Middle East. <\/p>\n In response the International Mathematical Union, which oversees the conference, assured attendees it was committed to providing a safe and welcoming environment for all participants and had made \u201cadditional arrangements to help mitigate risk.\u201d<\/p>\n On Saturday, at the Convention Center, crowds filled the event\u2019s free math festival in the center\u2019s exhibit hall. Sumner said that while some potential attendees did experience travel issues, over 3,000 mathematicians from all over the world made it to Philly .<\/p>\n \u201cThis is where they give out the top prizes,\u201d said Sumner, managing editor for the Simons Foundation, one of the largest charitable mathematics organizations in the United States, and the congress\u2019 main organizing partner. \u201cThis is where the most important talks in math are happening.\u201d<\/p>\n Indeed, the congress\u2019 Philly locale did not come up at all at a jammed-packed news conference Thursday when Sumner introduced the four mathematicians under 40<\/a> \u2014 including ones from the U.S., Canada, and China \u2014 to become Fields Medals recipients. The prizes are accompanied by a $10,600 award and a gold medal with the face of Archimedes, an ancient Greek math whiz. This year represented the first time the winners included more than one Asian mathematician \u2014 and also included just the third woman to ever be honored with a Fields: Hong Weng, 35, a New York University professor, awarded for breakthrough work in harmonic analysis.<\/p>\n \u2018How do we adapt?\u2019<\/p>\n The conference comes as the discipline \u2014 like so much else \u2014 faces existential questions about its future from the threat of AI. On Friday, Terence Tao, an Australian American mathematician considered a rock star in the math world \u2014 and awarded the Fields in 2006 for his contributions to partial differential equations \u2014 offered a keynote address in the hall on \u201cMathematics in the Age of AI.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s starting to solve math problems that have been stumping people for decades,\u201d Sumner said of AI. \u201cHow do we adapt to this future?\u201d<\/p>\n But on Saturday, the Convention Center floor was filled less with the angst about the future and more with the everyday joys and esoteric wonders of math. Families from all over crowded into the math festival \u2014 as symposiums and lectures continue through Tuesday. <\/p>\n Math magicians performed magic card tricks while budding mathematicians from the world over struggled through math proofs on portable chalkboards, Good Will Hunting-style. On a stage, a sports analytics panel \u2014 with representatives from every Philly sports franchise \u2014 discussed how math helps them make their moves. <\/p>\n In a bustling nook, renowned Duke University mathematician Ingrid Daubechies \u2014 another math rock star \u2014 showcased her world-famous multimedia art installation, Mathemalchemy. The 20-foot-long whimsical math wonderworld features tiny creatures and structures embodying complex mathematical concepts. She had created the installation with 23 other mathematicians and artists to showcase the beauty and creativity of math. Like a little model cat named Arnold who bakes perfectly rounded pi-cookies.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople are constantly surrounding it,\u201d Daubechies said, as crowds moved in.<\/p>\n At the festival, some mathematicians posed Philly-related probabilities. Like picking a random seat at Lincoln Financial Field that just happens to be in the premium club section (0.16), the likelihood that Kyle Schwarber<\/a> hits a home run during the next Phillies game (0.36), or getting into the University of Pennsylvania<\/a> (0.05).<\/p>\n \u201cSo it\u2019s harder getting into Penn than it is getting a club seat,\u201d explained Alissa Crans, a professor of mathematics at Loyola Marymount University, working the booth. \u201cGot to have some Philly math fun!\u201d<\/p>\n Others, like Ariana Chin, 26, who studies algebraic combinatorics at UCLA \u2014 an area of pure math that uses abstract algebra to solve elusive counting and structural problems \u2014 talked about what they love about math, and the hope it can bring, even amid the uncertainty. <\/p>\n \u201cThe beauty is the connections,\u201d she said in the quiet of the crowd. \u201cThe beauty of mathematics is expanding those connections between things you wouldn\u2019t expect to be connected.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min There\u2019s math games and math art. 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