Prof Life

One Stop Shop (almost!) for Cryptography Resources

Every now and then I receive an email with a great new resource. Today’s link comes courtesy of Ava: Security Baron Blog This website has a long list of links to resources about cryptography, but it also has links specific to internet security, plus some links to games and puzzles, and finally links to learn to write some code. Thanks for the tip, Ava! Emails like yours are a delightful surprise in my inbox.

Sabbatical Update

While I’m breaking for lunch today, I’ll give a quick sabbatical update. But first, today’s #loveyourmath challenge (thanks, Ashley Johnson, for the kick in the pants!).

Today’s #loveyourmath topic: What inspired you to get into mathematics?

Math was definitely not my plan when going (back*) to college. The plan, which worked out tremendously, was to major in French and Econ and then go work for the World Bank or something. In Paris. Because, you know, Paris. But when I went to Colorado College, the block plan (one class at a time) made it very easy to start in Calc 3, then go on to DEs, then Linear Algebra, then… a year of math. And so I became a math major. I don’t know if this would or would not surprise my K-12 math teachers. In preschool, I had an existential crisis over counting (what if I keep counting? Is there an end to numbers, or no end, and which is worse?!) In 3rd-grade, I was hung up on fractions, decimals, and percents (why bother with three different ways of writing down the same thing?). I flunked 7th-grade pre-algebra (ask me about my recurring back-to-school nightmare) but then started liking math again in high school (I skipped a year of history to catch up and end my HS with Calculus). At that point, I figured I was done with math because what else is left after calculus? Anyway, I owe a huge debt to Patty Parsons and Ken Oliver who made math at Amity High School exciting to this nerd. I’m delighted to have been so thoroughly nurtured (nerd-tured?) at Colorado College by then-visiting professor Travis Kowalski; professors Marlow Anderson, David Brown, and Jane MacDougall; and former professor Amelia Taylor who overlapped with me the year I worked as paraprofessional. And I never would have gotten a PhD without the University of Nebraska–Lincoln faculty, staff (thanks Marilyn and Liz!!), and fellow grad students (shout out to Ashley, Amanda, Lauren, Mike, Ben, Nora, Anisah, Sara, and so many more). Not to mention the huge amounts of coffee and beer in Lincoln; I have a spot in my heart reserved for all the baristas and bartenders that kept me hydrated.

*Yep, back. I dropped out of college the first time. I also dropped out of 1st- and 7th-grades. I like to think I was preparing for the sabbatical cycle.

Software wins and fails

As I get my very first sabbatical going, I’m working on some homework for the American Mathematical Society’s Math Research Community in Algebraic Statistics. So far, I’ve managed to calculate a few examples by hand. But now I’m down the software rabbit hole, and I find that it’s 4 hours later and I need to vent. Successes: Got Singular installed and got my mac to shut up about “programs from the internet” every time I open it; Ran an example in Singular with (almost) the expected output; Ran the same example in Macaulay2 with the same output as Singular; Installed Bertini and managed to get the Bertini.

MathFest

The MAA knows how to throw a birthday party, that’s for sure. This year’s centenial MathFest was, ahem, badass. I’m sure everyone has her favorites, but here are my top three: Seeing my people! Karen Smith’s invited lectures & the associated special session (see below) Minicourse 6: Flipping the Classroom Anyway, I also had a wonderful time with the other speakers in the Concrete Computations in Algebra and Geometry session (organized by Karen and Sarah Mayes-Tang).

Last day at Willamette

Today, we wrapped up the REU (on-site, anyway). Each group gave their final presentations, and then we had a final round of root beer floats and games. It’s been a lot of work to be an REU mentor, but it’s been equally fun. In the next week, I’ll wrap up a few thoughts about the REU and post a link to our final product. But for now, it’s time to get to the airport and start my trip back to Hamilton.

The art of feedback (a treatise on my own artlessness)

Let’s be blunt: I’m not good at giving feedback. I tend to lay things out with little (read: zero) padding. My former linear algebra* students will understand what I mean immediately. Did you include a meaningless sentence? Did you try to prove linear independence and instead show me that 0 = 0? Here’s what I think of that:

  I’m lucky to have an REU group that takes my criticism in stride.

Starting to end the REU

There are only two and a half weeks left of the REU. How did that happen?! My REU students are still making progress. We established that the active writing will commence (and thus the research will end) on Monday. My students assure me that they’ll work on tying up the loose research ends on over the weekend.* They know that I’d like to see one more theorem from them by the end of the week, and I think they’re slightly afraid of me.

Surrounded by inspiring people

The two other REU mentors, Erin McNicholas and Colin Starr, are incredible people. Erin is one of the PIs for the grant that’s funding the REU for the next three years. Colin has had this role in the past, too. Aside from the obvious responsibilities that come with that job, there are hidden mountains of paperwork and bureaucracy to summit. Erin is a portrait of productivity. She’s doing the extra work on top of mentoring her algebraic voting theory group, learning new math alongside them, organizing the occasional picnic or outing, and keeping up with her research agenda!

#win

Whoa!

I had resolved myself to the idea that we might not prove our theorem in full generality. I accepted that we’d settle for writing a paper where we made a conjecture about the general case and wrote proofs for, I don’t know, up through n = 6 or something. Note-to-Gibbons: You shouldn’t doubt your incredible REU group like that! We riffed on the general ideas in our proof and about 10 minutes ago, we proved the general case!