AMS Graduate Student Blog

From the Blog

Jan

Research Delays

Posted by Tyler Clark at 8:29 pm

Photo from http://melaniejohnson.name/

Today was the first day of classes for the 2012 spring semester at Western Kentucky University. I am taking Real Analysis and working on my thesis this semester. My professor for analysis gave some insight into research. As everyone who has done math research knows, it is rather easy to get stuck at a certain point. She says when she gets stuck, she closes all of the books, notes, etc., related to the problem on which she is working. She then decides to read something completely different. From this alternate reading, she is sometimes able to discover a method or information that could be applied to her problem. Granted this does not always work; however, it is an interesting approach to take.

Continue reading “Research Delays” »

Jan

Productive Procrastination: The Importance of Having Several Projects

Posted by Laura Zirbel at 12:14 pm

At one point or another, something in your research will stall. Or it be proven useless, incorrect, or already shown in paper X. Co-authors and journals will take months to get back to you. Or your numerical simulation will take ages to finish. This is why I love the scattered approach to research. I don’t like to be doing one thing. I like to be doing 8 things. At any given time, my research to-do list looks something like this: Continue reading “Productive Procrastination: The Importance of Having Several Projects” »

Jan

Joint Math Meetings 2012

Posted by Tyler Clark at 9:40 pm

JMM-JointLogo As you may know, the 2012 Joint Math Meetings concluded today. Participants have shared their experience in live-time on Twitter using hashtag #JMM2012.

I would like to include a slideshow of photographs from graduate students that attended the meeting and some feedback on their experience. If you would like your photos displayed on the blog, please complete the following form. Continue reading “Joint Math Meetings 2012” »

Jan

More on motivation

Posted by Melanie Laffin at 9:08 pm

Most of us really struggle at some point (if not most of the time) with motivation. Every winter break Jan Allen from Columbia University sends out break writing tips to help you with writing your thesis.The most recent one is on finding motivation to actually write during break. Many of these ideas translate over to getting motivation in general, so I’ll modify a few.

1. Set a daily goal. My personal new years resolution was to do homework for at least 2 hours everyday. While this often won’t be enough to complete all of the homework I am assigned, just starting in those two hours is key. Even if I don’t push myself beyond two hours, I will have accomplished something.

2. Do your work early in the day. While I realize that its completely unreasonable for most of us to get up at 8am to do work, I find that working in the morning or early afternoon leaves me feeling good about doing other things in the evening.

3. Reward progress. Pretty self-explanatory.

4. An interesting idea – donate $5 to your favorite U.S. presidential candidate’s opponent for everyday you do not study or work on research. If you aren’t very political this may not apply, but most people can perhaps cut the $5 out of their beer budget or their hobbies outside of school.

Just something to keep in mind as we start a new semester with a clean slate.

Dec

Break Motivation

Posted by Tyler Clark at 12:30 pm

I hope everyone’s semester has rounded up nicely. Now, it is time for a break. However, does that really mean we have time to just relax and take time to ourselves? I have been home visiting my parents for Christmas. Before I arrived, I told myself I would be super productive and get some extra reading done. Unfortunately, since I have arrived, I have not done anything productive.

I know I have this long list of tasks, but I just cannot seem to get myself to focus. Is anyone else having this difficulty? How are you convincing yourself you have to do work?

Dec

Critical Math

Posted by Melanie Laffin at 5:44 pm

Sometimes I think about basic ideas in mathematics that that the general public would greatly benefit from. In particular, I think that mathematicians often take for granted that these things are natural to us, and that to most people it’s almost like having a super power. Please augment this list!

1. Computing how long it will take to pay off a balance on a credit card, with interest.
2. How to balance a checkbook.
3. The concept of instantaneous rate of change vs. average rate of change.
4. Basic laws of probability.
5. How to add and multiply fractions, and compare fractions (as in, is 5/9 larger than 9/45)?
6. Basic logical reasoning, in particular understanding “if-then” statements, and converse/contrapositives of such statements.

Good luck with the rest of your semester, and have a great holiday break!

Nov

Contemplative education; math and meditation

Posted by Luke Wolcott at 6:57 pm

“The faculty of voluntarily bringing back a wandering attention, over and over again, is the very root of judgment, character, and will. . . An education which should improve this faculty would be the education par excellence.”

-William James, 1890

The ability to focus and refocus attention is obviously extremely important for a mathematician working on research, or a student learning in class. There is a growing body of scientific evidence showing that meditation can improve this ability. In fact, there is a range of different meditation techniques, with a range of potential benefits: e.g. increased focus, mindfulness, curiosity and creativity; better control of emotions, and stress reduction; improved interpersonal communication. Sounds great, right?

In the last few decades, empirical evidence has been piling up, supporting the millenia-old subjective claims of meditators. An incomplete but good research bibliography is maintained here; see also here or here. Continue reading “Contemplative education; math and meditation” »

Nov

Upcoming Breaks

Posted by Tyler Clark at 12:30 pm

It is becoming increasingly obvious that breaks from school is no longer a time to get some R&R. I will spend this Thanksgiving break with my parents and also working on my thesis. I just need to keep in mind, “I must write! I must write! I must write!”

Over Christmas break I will continue writing, but I will also begin studying for comprehensive exams. Today we set a date for when everyone will be taking their comps. We decided it will be the first and second week of classes starting back in January. Thankfully my university has a long winter break and we do not start back until LATE January. This should give me plenty of time to study. Does anyone have any advice on studying for comps (algebra, statistics, and probability)?

Nov

Grad Blog on Twitter

Posted by Tyler Clark at 1:57 pm

AMSBlogTwitter We are now on Twitter. Make sure you follow us, @AMSGradBlog.

Nov

Sudoku

Posted by Tyler Clark at 10:24 pm

As many of you may know, Sudoku is a logic-based, combinatorial number-placement puzzle. I recently found an online database of Sudoku puzzles at http://www.websudoku.com/.

Sudoku has a great deal of math involved in it. If you are interested in reading about the mathematics behind Sudoku, you might want to check out Taking Sudoku Seriously: The Math Behind the World’s Most Popular Pencil Puzzle by Jason Rosenhouse and Laura Taalman. I have not yet read the book myself, but have heard great reviews on it. Let me know what you think about it if you have read it.