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Movies are a cultural mirror that shows us who we are. They reflect our values and aspirations, but also our preconceived notions and assumptions. Movies about math and mathematicians are no different.

For example, many movies featuring mathematicians depict them as savants. The stereotypical savant character ranges from quirky genius to troubled outsider to dangerous deviant.

Congratulations to Ruodu Wang from the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science for being the first recipient of the Society of Actuaries (SOA) Actuarial Science Early Career Award. 

Faculty of Engineering, Faculty of Mathematics and Communitech

The following opinion piece originally appeared in the Report on Business section of The Globe and Mail on July 26, 2021.

Contemporary mathematics resulted from advances and exchanges of knowledge between cultures from every corner of the globe. Math is, historically speaking, a genuinely multicultural project.

Faculty of Mathematics-linked teams HouseAI and SAFI were named among the four winners of the bi-annual Concept $5K challenge for spring 2021.

Mathematics is like a language.

Nowadays, it’s a language with the same symbols and meaning in every place it’s used. A multiplication sign is a multiplication sign everywhere, and everybody agrees on what a multiplication sign means.

But it wasn’t always so.

Research conducted by recent computer science master’s graduate Reza Nadri, recent postdoctoral researcher Gema Rodríguez-Pérez and their supervisor Cheriton School of Computer Science Professor Mei Nagappan found that the perceived race and ethnicity of a developer — based on just their user name — can affect how the developer’s contributions to open source software projects are evaluated.

In the history of mathematics, Hypatia’s legend looms large. She was a woman mathematician in an era when women were not generally seen as academics. She has been called a martyr for truth and reason. And because of the context of her life and death, Hypatia continues to be one of the most enigmatic figures in mathematics.

Two entrepreneurial teams with links to the Faculty of Mathematics advanced to the final of the bi-annual Concept $5K challenge, which is hosted by the Velocity startup incubator.