Friday, August 8
MAA MathFest 2025

Abstract: Turn your gatherings into unforgettable experiences with mathematically entertaining tricks! Join Tim Chartier for an interactive and engaging session filled with math-based antics and puzzles. Perfect for any occasion, you’ll learn clever tricks and crowd-pleasing skills that bring the magic of mathematics to life. Whether you’re mingling at a school or networking at a conference, these entertaining ideas will make you the life of the party. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to add a dash of math to your social repertoire!

Biography: Dr. Tim Chartier is the Joseph R. Morton Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science at Davidson College who specializes in data analytics. He consults with ESPN, The New York Times, the US Olympic Committee and professional teams in the NBA, MLB, NFL and NASCAR. Beyond authoring books such as Get in the Game: An Interactive Introduction to Sports Analytics and Nonstandard Notebook: Mathematically Ruled Pages for Unruly Thoughts, Tim has worked on Google and Pixar educational initiatives. Tim's authorship, research, and scholarship have been recognized with national leadership positions in the MAA and multiple awards including an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, The MAA SE Distinguished Teaching Award and the MAA’s Euler Book Award. Tim is also a performing artist having trained in mime at Le Centre du Silence mime school and Dell’Arte School of International Physical Theater. He also studied in master classes with Marcel Marceau. Along with his wife Tanya, Tim has performed a mime presentation that introduces mathematical ideas throughout the United States and in such countries as Switzerland, France, Panama, Holland, Korea and Japan.

Saturday, August 9
MAA MathFest 2025

Abstract: You may have seen news stories about people who seem to be strategically and systematically buying up lottery scratch-off tickets. What might they have been up to? This talk is about the answer proposed by a reporter, which defies the intuition we learn in school. With a little calculus, we can analyze the idea and see how it might play out in reality.

Biography: Skip Garibaldi is a mathematician who has been writing scholarly articles about the lottery for 15 years. His lottery work has led to changes in state policy, law enforcement investigations, TV interviews, and a video for Wired. Some mathematicians will know him better for his work on algebraic groups. Skip is the director of the IDA Center for Communications Research in La Jolla, California. Previously, he was associate director of the Institute for Pure & Applied Mathematics at UCLA and Winship Distinguish Research Professor at Emory University. He is a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society and has received the Lester R. Ford Award and the Air Force Commander’s Public Service Award. He grew up just down the road from MathFest, in neighboring Solano County. He sometimes buys lottery tickets.

Saturday, August 9
MAA MathFest 2025

Abstract: Charles Peirce was probably Martin Gardner's favorite philosopher. The father of Pragmatism and co-inventor of symbolic logic, he worked as a mathematician, statistician, geologist, and guru, making substantial contributions. He also invented startlingly original (pretty bad) card tricks. BUT, hidden in his inventions were completely new principles which can be made into terrific tricks. I will explain (and illustrate) the best of these, including some hidden mathematics 'in English'. I'll also tell you how you can find out more, by reading Martin Gardner.

Biography
Persi Diaconis is professor of mathematics and statistics at Stanford University. He works in probability, combinatorics and mathematical statistics and loves to study basic questions: why is a coin toss random (and is it really?). How many times should a deck of cards be shuffled to mix it? He is well known for a colorful history; running away from home at age 14 and spending ten years as a professional magician(!).  Rescued by Martin Gardner, he became an early winner of a Macarthur prize and a member of the US National Academy of Sciences.

Friday, August 8
MAA MathFest 2025

Abstract: People tend to assume, because of the schooling they received as children or of the practical life they lead as adults, that ‘calculation’ means manipulating numbers or formulas — and often that this is what mathematicians do day in, day out. With a magic routine that you can share later with friends and family, I shall show that there is a world beyond this.

Biography: Tadashi Tokieda grew up as a painter in Japan, became a classical philologist (not to be confused with philosopher) in France, and has been a mathematician in Europe and the USA.  He is also active in outreach, especially via the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) and the Youtube channel Numberphile.

Eligibility

• Must have been enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate program in mathematics or a related field within the nine months prior to MAA MathFest (August 2025).
• Must be presenting a research poster or talk at MAA MathFest.
• Must demonstrate how their participation helps broaden representation in the field of mathematics.

Students should apply for this travel grant while awaiting acceptance of their presentation, with award notifications following confirmation of acceptance.

Timeline

• Travel Grant Applications Due May 31, 2025
• Call for Undergraduate Student Posters Due June 8, 2025
• Notifications of Travel Grant Awards on or around Jun 25, 2025
• Acceptance of Awards and Travel Confirmations by July 8, 2025
• MAA Mathfest August 6-9, 2025
• Receipts due to MAA by Sep 15, 2025

About the Application

The application will collect contact information and optional demographic information, which will be separated from your application for review. It will also ask you to confirm that you have submitted a talk or poster to present and include the title of your talk or poster and the session(s).

The application will require short essays (300 words or less) in response to the following prompts.

• The MAA Core Values are Inclusion, Communication, Community, and Teaching and Learning. Please describe how one or more of these values has been important to your mathematical education.
• Please describe why you would like to participate in MAA MathFest and what you hope to gain from attending. Include specific examples of sessions or presentations you plan to attend.
• Please describe how your participation broadens representation in mathematics.
• How would this award make it possible for you to attend MAA MathFest in ways that wouldn’t otherwise be possible with other available funds? If you have applied for other funding to supplement this award, please note the amount that you're eligible for here and whether this is confirmed or pending (with a date when it will be confirmed).

Funding Details

MAA MathFest Student Scholars Travel Grant recipients’ registration, flights, and hotel will be covered upfront or booked through our travel site. A meal and incidental stipend (at the GSA rate) will be prepaid before travel once the required paperwork is completed. Additional expenses, such as airport transportation and parking, can be reimbursed after the conference. Recipients with dependents may also be eligible for up to $500 in support for childcare expenses during the conference. Full details on covered expenses and the reimbursement process will be provided upon acceptance. If you have questions, feel free to reach out to programs@maa.org.

The PIC Math Workshops on Data Science were aimed at mathematics and statistics faculty members with little or no experience in data science. The workshops were held on the campus of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, from May 29-June 2, 2017, and from June 18-22, 2019. The workshops were supported by PIC Math which is a program of the MAA and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM).

In these hands-on workshops, attendees were:

• introduced to the field of data science/statistical learning/machine learning;
• given an overview of techniques and software used to solve data science problems; and
• taught how to guide undergraduate students working on real-world data science problems

Additionally, in 2022, PIC Math supported a workshop on Interdisciplinary Data Science, held at Brigham Young University in Provo, UT from June 21-24, 2022. The 4-day interdisciplinary workshop was for a team of 2-3 faculty members from the same institution. Members of the team attended jointly with one faculty member being in mathematics or statistics and the other(s) being in a different STEM discipline such as biology, economics, physics, chemistry, social sciences, engineering, etc. 

The purpose of this workshop was to initiate and grow a community for advancing interdisciplinary work in data science at colleges and universities. Attendees: 

• gained an understanding of and strengthened their background in data science,
• participated in a hands-on experience working on a data science problem as a group from various STEM disciplines and different institutions, and
• implemented a joint interdisciplinary project at their institution with their colleague who is also participating in the workshop.

The workshop provided the faculty members with the tools, resources, experience, and network required to successfully integrate data science projects into their institution's curricula. It fostered collaboration across different STEM fields and helped faculty better prepare undergraduate students for data-related industrial careers.

The 2022 workshop was co-sponsored by the Mathematical Association of America (MAA), Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM), and Transforming Post-Secondary Education in Mathematics (TPSE Math), and was funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) DMS-1722275.

Data Science

Data Science is the process of examining data sets in order to draw insights and conclusions about the information they contain. Many PIC Math undergraduate research teams have worked on data analytics and science problems. Here are some examples:

1. Manhattan, New York: Students from Manhattan College received data from the animal shelter on abandoned pets from 2012 to 2015. The students analyzed the data and identified trends in dog and cat abandonment rates.
2. Kansas City, Missouri: Box Office Analyst is a consulting firm for the movie theater industry. The company uses survey data to help theater owners decide which movies to play in their theaters. Students from Rockhurst University used the survey data to build a mathematical model that would predict opening weekend revenues for new movies.
3. Youngstown, Ohio: The city has seen a dramatic decline in its city population and a shift in the location of the population over the past forty years. However, the police department was still using a division of the city into police beats that was created decades ago. Students from Youngstown State University received 2014 crime data from the police department, analyzed the data, and proposed two new models for more equitable divisions of the city into police beats. The police department adopted one of the proposed models.

The workshops included an overview of data science, a taste of Python, a morning of overfitting and training, a plethora of free data resources, machine learning, and getting our hands dirty working in groups on a real-world problem.

Workshop Organizers 2017, 2019, & 2022

Michael Dorff
Department of Mathematics
Brigham Young University

Suzanne Weekes
Department of Mathematical Sciences
Worcester Polytechnic Institute

In 2022 only
Thomas Wakefield
Department Chair of Mathematics
Youngstown State University

Workshop Presenter 2017, 2019, & 2022

Dr. Randy Paffenroth
Department of Mathematical Sciences and Data Science Program
Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Additional Workshop Presenters in 2022

F. Patricia Medina
Assistant Professor of Computer Science
Yeshiva University

Maria (Mia) Barger
PhD Student of Data Science
Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Preparation for Industrial Careers in Mathematical Sciences (PIC Math)

PIC Math, a program of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM), prepares mathematical sciences students for industrial careers by engaging them in research problems that come directly from industry.

The PIC Math program aims to:

• Increase awareness among mathematical sciences faculty and undergraduates about non-academic career options.
• Teach faculty how to make industry connections in order to provide research experiences for their students to work on real problems coming directly from business, industry, or government.
• Prepare students for industrial careers.

A strong component of PIC Math involves students working as a group on a semester-long undergraduate research problem from business, industry, or government. Undergraduate research is a high-impact teaching and learning practice and has been shown to improve students abilities in:

• Problem-solving
• Critical thinking
• Independent thinking
• Communicating

All these traits and skills are valued by employers of STEM professionals. PIC Math will supply faculty with tools to offer students experiences designed to better prepare them for careers.

Program Support

PIC Math is supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation under Award No. DMS-1722275. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

What does PIC Math include?

Summer Training Workshop 
PIC Math includes a summer workshop for faculty at US institutions that will provide participants with:

• Information on careers and internships to share with students.
• Guidance on developing business and industry connections and partnerships.
• Exposure to mathematical and statistical problems that arise in industry.
• Training on how to develop skills in students that are valued by employers.
• Preparation for PIC Math’s research course and review.

Spring Semester Research Course
PIC Math provides faculty with resources for a semester-long, credit-bearing course focused on solving industrial problems. Each faculty participant will assemble a team of three to five students and work with them to develop their problem-solving, teamwork, and communication skills. Faculty mentoring the research group will receive a $3000 stipend.

Please note: returning PIC Math faculty will not be eligible to receive a stipend from the PIC Math grant. 

Student Projects Submission
Each student project team will collaborate with a business, industry, or government partner and will submit regular progress reports. By the end of the spring semester, students will submit a video presentation and written report detailing their solution. 

Annual Student Projects Showcase
Students will have the opportunity to present their results in person at a summer showcase and be recognized for their accomplishments. Students traveling to the showcase, along with their faculty advisor, will be eligible for travel reimbursement up to $2,000 per institution.

Previous Workshops

Check out previous PIC Math workshops on Data Science

PIC Math Workshops on Data Science

At MAA MathFest, you’ll be joined by thousands of your peers as you explore new and emerging mathematical trends, learn skills that will help advance your career, and create connections that will last a lifetime. 

MAA MathFest 2026 Session Proposals

Be sure to mark your calendars for MAA MathFest 2026 in Boston, MA for August 5-8, 2026! Planning is already underway for next year’s meeting. Do you have an idea for an activity or event that you would like to see included for next year? Now is your chance to include your vision for MAA MathFest. The portal for session proposals at MAA MathFest 2026 is now open, and we are currently accepting submissions!

Please write to meetings@maa.org with any questions, concerns, or technical assistance requests.

Submit a Session Proposal

Further information on session types, as well as deadlines and session proposal guidelines, can be found below:

• Contributed Paper Session proposals: October 15, 2025
• Minicourse proposals: October 31, 2025
• Invited Paper Session proposals: October 31, 2025
• Workshop, Panel, Town Hall, and Poster Session proposals: December 15, 2025
• Other Mathematical Sessions and Social Events: December 15, 2025
• SIGMAA Business Meetings and Guest Lectures: January 31, 2026

Please note: This is for session proposals only; the portal for individual paper and poster abstract submissions will open in early 2026. The deadline for contributed papers and posters will be in mid-April, and the deadline for all other abstract submissions will be in June.

Questions, concerns, or need assistance/troubleshooting support? Please write to meetings@maa.org or call us at 202-387-5200, ext. 3.

Upcoming MAA MathFest Information

• 2026: Boston, MA | August 5-8, 2026
• 2027: New Orleans, LA | August 4-7, 2027
• 2028: San Diego, CA | August 2-5, 2028
• 2029: Chicago, IL | August 8-11, 2029
• 2030: New York, NY | August 7-10, 2030