16:00
Mathematical models of curiosity
Dani Smith Bassett is an American physicist and systems neuroscientist who was the youngest individual to be awarded a 2014 MacArthur fellowship.
Bassett, whose pronouns are they/them,was also awarded a 2014 Sloan fellowship. They are currently the J. Peter Skirkanich Professor in the Departments of Bioengineering, Electrical & Systems Engineering, Physics & Astronomy, Neurology, and Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania and an external professor of the Santa Fe Institute. Their work focuses on applying network science to the study of learning in the human brain in addition to the study of other complex physical and biological systems.
Wikipedia
Abstract
What is curiosity? Is it an emotion? A behavior? A cognitive process? Curiosity seems to be an abstract concept—like love, perhaps, or justice—far from the realm of those bits of nature that mathematics can possibly address. However, contrary to intuition, it turns out that the leading theories of curiosity are surprisingly amenable to formalization in the mathematics of network science. In this talk, I will unpack some of those theories, and show how they can be formalized in the mathematics of networks. Then, I will describe relevant data from human behavior and linguistic corpora, and ask which theories that data supports. Throughout, I will make a case for the position that individual and collective curiosity are both network building processes, providing a connective counterpoint to the common acquisitional account of curiosity in humans.
The 'Introduction to University Mathematics' course is taken in the first two weeks of the first year of the Oxford Mathematics degree. It introduces the concepts and ways of mathematical thinking that students need in the years ahead. Much of the context will be familiar from high school but the way we think and write about it, and construct arguments and proofs, is more rigorous.
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Abstract
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Mathematrix: Lunch with the Mirzakhani Society
Abstract
We will be joined for lunch by the undergraduate society for women and non-binary students in Maths. Sign up here: https://forms.gle/q3uywCN3Dn78Kvkq6. Note: this event is only open to women and non-binary students.
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Abstract
We will be joined by Professor Kobi Kremnizer, who is a trained mental health first-aider, to discuss ways to protect your mental health this season.