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At last week’s Duke Computing Roundtable, Amanda Randles opened her talk by explaining that her research was inspired by a suggestion a Duke colleague made at a similar event a few years before. It’s the exact kind of impact the roundtable's conveners hope to expand in the coming years. Sponsored by the Department of Mathematics and the Rhodes Information Initiative at Duke, the event brought together faculty, researchers and graduate students from across the university who have an interest in computational questions.… read more about Computing Roundtable Builds Interdisciplinary Community »

This fall, Bass Connections hosted a virtual event to share stories of the program’s impact with our supporters. Three Duke students described their experiences as team members on projects exploring the global financial crisis, youth concussions and sustainable farming. Leadership Opportunities Maria Paz Rios ’21, History and Mathematics Duke senior Maria Paz Rios is a member of the American Predatory Lending and the Global Financial Crisis team. The team aims to draw from local, state and national perspectives in… read more about What We’re Getting Out of Our Bass Connections Teams »

At last week’s Duke Computing Roundtable, Amanda Randles opened her talk by explaining that her research was inspired by a suggestion a Duke colleague made at a similar event a few years before. It’s the exact kind of impact the roundtable's conveners hope to expand in the coming years. Sponsored by the Department of Mathematics and the Rhodes Information Initiative at Duke, the event brought together faculty, researchers and graduate students from across the university who have an interest in computational questions.… read more about Computing Roundtable Builds Interdisciplinary Community »

DURHAM, N.C. -- The artificial intelligence behind self-driving cars, medical image analysis and other computer vision applications relies on what’s called deep neural networks. Loosely modeled on the brain, these consist of layers of interconnected “neurons” -- mathematical functions that send and receive information -- that “fire” in response to features of the input data. The first layer processes a raw data input -- such as pixels in an image -- and passes that information to the next layer above, triggering some of… read more about Accurate Neural Network Computer Vision Without The ‘Black Box’  »

Of all the things that make college students anxious, now you can add ghost cars to the list. Not haunted, unoccupied moving vehicles, Flying Dutchman style. “Ghost cars” is a term Duke Parking & Transportation (DPT) uses to define cars that enter or leave parking lots when the gates are up, like during a football game or evening event. The gate sensors don’t record them both entering and exiting, which causes problems in keeping an accurate count of the cars using a lot. A few summers ago, DPT asked a group of… read more about Quantitatively and Qualitatively, Data+ and Its Affiliated Programs Are Big Hits »

Researchers at Duke University will work with colleagues across the nation to ensure that future communication protocols used by the United States Air Force are suitable for handling the most data-heavy tasks imaginable, such as flying UAVs, and secure from adversarial attack. Led by Robert Calderbank, the Charles S. Sydnor Distinguished Professor of Computer Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Mathematics, and director of the Rhodes Information Initiative at Duke, and Vahid Tarokh, the Rhodes… read more about Duke to Lead $5 Million Center to Develop U.S. Air Force Wireless Communications Protocols »

Lillian Pierce, the Nicholas J. and Theresa M. Leonardy Professor of Mathematics, was quoted in a Quanta Magazine article about Nicolas Bourbaki, an anonymous society that has written books intended as pure expressions of mathematical thought for almost a century. Pierce describes meeting the group and explains that their anonymity is in a “spirit of fun." “There is no rigor to the secrecy,” she said. Read the article at Quanta. read more about Inside the Secret Math Society Known Simply as Nicolas Bourbaki »

As COVID-19 disrupted school life throughout the world, DUMU responded by hosting the 2020 Duke Math Meet online this past Halloween, October 31st.  Roughly 450 students from over 80 teams around the country participated in the 2020 Duke Math Meet.  Because of the 12-hour time difference, four ITCCC teams from Beijing were permitted to participate late Saturday evening. The Power Round, Team Round, and Individual Round proceeded as normal with the aid of the submission platform Gradescope.  For the… read more about DMM 2020 »

From the AMS press release: Forty-six mathematical scientists from around the world have been named Fellows of the American Mathematical Society (AMS) for 2021, the program's ninth year. The Fellows of the AMS designation recognizes members who have made outstanding contributions to the creation, exposition, advancement, communication, and utilization of mathematics. The AMS is pleased to present the class of 2021 Fellows who are being recognized by their peers for their contributions to the… read more about Lillian Pierce named Fellow of the AMS »

Working in the fields of computational and applied math, new math faculty member Hongkai Zhao develops models and algorithms that can solve problems in science and engineering. Much of Zhao’s recent work has focused on inverse and imaging problems, which have direct applications for medical technologies such as CT scans, MRI scans, ultrasound, optical tomography and radar imaging. Based on different physical models and imaging modalities, the goal is to construct images or infer desired biomedical information from the… read more about Hongkai Zhao: Creating Efficient Algorithms for Science and Engineering Applications »

In July, Duke distributed 150,000 masks to university staff, faculty and students as part of its return to work protocols, which require all members of the Duke community who come to campus to wear a mask and complete daily symptom monitoring.  Offices and individuals in need of a transparent face covering can contact Duke Disability Management System for the spring semester. So far, Duke has distributed about 600 see-through masks to employees and students.  “A clear mask can be the positive… read more about Professor Miller uses a see-through face mask to help communication »

  Conceived as the brainchild of mathematician Ingrid Daubechies and fiber artist Dominique Ehrmann, the Mathemalchemy project is a large multimedia art installation that celebrates the creativity and beauty of mathematics.  It is an exciting collaborative enterprise, driven by the energy and enthusiasm of twenty-three mathematical artists and artistic mathematicians.  A majority of the Mathemalchemy team members (all doubly vaccinated) got together and built… read more about Mathemalchemy »

Duke Math sponsors the Mathematics Employment Experience for High School Students (MEEHS) program, led by Professor Kirsten Wickelgren (Math).  In this program teams of high school students, teachers and researchers work together on mathematical problems and exposition during a week of the summer.  Two high school teachers select about four students each to work alongside researchers on a single problem.  This year's problem was data on 42 similar cases involving one prosecutor. The… read more about MEEHS use math to conclude jurors removed illegally »

DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke students will soon emerge more prepared to use data to create new knowledge in a host of disciplines thanks to the newly launched Center for Computational Thinking (CCT).  The new center is a response to the growing demands for more computational skills among new college graduates. It will infuse data literacy across the academic experience while simultaneously preparing students to consider the ethical, legal, and social impacts of technology. “The CCT will provide training in a co-curricular… read more about Duke Launches Center to Bring Computational Thinking to All Students »

Working in the fields of computational and applied math, new math faculty member Hongkai Zhao develops models and algorithms that can solve problems in science and engineering. Much of Zhao’s recent work has focused on inverse and imaging problems, which have direct applications for medical technologies such as CT scans, MRI scans, ultrasound, optical tomography and radar imaging. Based on different physical models and imaging modalities, the goal is to construct images or infer desired biomedical information from the… read more about Hongkai Zhao: Creating Efficient Algorithms for Science and Engineering Applications »

ACTIVE FACULTY ROBERT J. LEFKOWITZJames B. Duke Distinguished Professor of Medicine  Robert Lefkowitz, M.D., has been a member of the Duke faculty since 1973 as a professor of medicine and a professor of biochemistry and chemistry. He won the 2012 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, sharing the award with Brian Kobilka, who did postdoctoral work with Lefkowitz at Duke. The two were recognized for their work on a class of cell surface receptors that have become the target of prescription drugs,… read more about A Look at Duke's Nobel Laureates »

The National Science Foundation has awarded Duke University a $3 million, five-year Research Traineeship grant to develop a program for graduate students to develop expertise in using artificial intelligence (AI) for materials science research. The aiM (AI for Understanding and Designing Materials), program will fill a vital workforce gap by training the next generation in the new convergent field of materials and computer science research. “To achieve the promise of the U.S. Materials Genome Initiative of… read more about Filling an AI and Materials Science Training Gap »

Students returning to Duke University are participating in surveillance testing to help rapidly identify and isolate people who may have contracted the COVID-19 virus. This is done using pool testing, which combines nasal samples from five people for a single test to allow more testing using fewer resources. See the full video below, and hear Mathematics Prof. John Harer (beginning at 3:45 mark) discuss how math comes into play. read more about Pool Testing at Duke »

From sports analytics to game theory, and cryptography to diseases, the Department of Mathematics offers a unique set of classes to challenge and engage our students. Below is a sampling of Featured Courses we are currently offering. Please refer to our complete Course listing to see all our classes, plus refer to DukeHub for exact course times and instructors. Featured Courses MATH 89S: Game Theory and Democracy What is democracy? More specifically, how does one create rules for… read more about Featured Math Courses »

Duke's Ingrid Daubechies was one of four recipients of the 2020 Princess of Asturias Awards for Technical & Scientific Research. The annual award is presented by the Princess of Asturias Foundation. In citing Daubechies and the three other recipients, the Foundation said they "have made immeasurable, ground-breaking contributions to modern theories and techniques of mathematical data and signal processing. These constitute the foundations and backbone of the digital age (by enabling the compression of graphic files… read more about Ingrid Daubechies Receives Princess of Asturias Award for Technical & Scientific Research »

Duke University researchers have developed an AI tool that can turn blurry, unrecognizable pictures of people’s faces into eerily convincing computer-generated portraits, in finer detail than ever before. Previous methods can scale an image of a face up to eight times its original resolution. But the Duke team has come up with a way to take a handful of pixels and create realistic-looking faces with up to 64 times the resolution, ‘imagining’ features such as fine lines, eyelashes and stubble that weren’t there in the first… read more about Artificial Intelligence Makes Blurry Faces Look More Than 60 Times Sharper »

Today around the country scientists are pausing their usual activity and reflecting on race in our society, on the recent events around our country, on the murders of the black people which precipitated them, and on the underlining hard truths which are at their core. I encourage you to take a moment to explore ShutDownSTEM (https://www.shutdownstem.com/) and consider curtailing your regular work today in solidarity with the Black community and ShutDownSTEM. I personally plan to take some time… read more about #shutdownstem »

In 2020-2021, the Duke University Energy Initiative’s Energy Research Seed Fund will support projects addressing renewable energy’s integration into the grid, battery performance, electrochemical catalysts, utilities’ decision-making, the energy-water nexus, and energy’s connections with war and health. The Energy Research Seed Fund has a strong track record of investing in early-stage projects that go on to secure external support. The program will award six grants to projects involving thirteen… read more about Energy Research Seed Fund awards six grants to Duke faculty to kickstart innovative projects »

Congratulations to Duke Math faculty member Cynthia Rudin on being awarded a 2020-2021 Energy Research Seed Fund grant. This year the Duke University Energy Initiative program awarded six grants to projects involving 13 faculty from five Duke schools, investing a total of $249,590 in promising new energy research. The program has a strong track record of investing in early-stage projects that go on to secure substantial external funding. Professor Rudin is working with Sudeepa Roy (Computer Science) and Alexander… read more about Duke Math faculty member awarded Energy Research Seed Fund grant »

We're proud of Math major Maria Paz Rios for her work in Colombia: "As part of the Duke for Colombia Campaign, and with the help of Bogotá Police and Red Cross Colombia, I was able to go to Soacha, one of the poorest sectors in Bogotá, and deliver 600 family kits with food and essential supplies to people that hadn't had anything to eat in days.  This aid will support around 3,000 people in Soacha for two weeks!  Thank you for allowing me to pursue this campaign while I was in school, which is when it was really… read more about Undergrad delivers food in Colombia »

Congratulations to the following student award winners from Duke University units in 2020.   African & African American Studies   John Hope Franklin Award for Academic Excellence: Elizabeth DuBard Grantland Karla FC Holloway Award for University Service: Beza Gebremariam Mary McLeod Bethune Writing Award: Jenna Clayborn Walter C. Burford Award for Community Service: Kayla Lynn Corredera-Wells   Art, Art History & Visual Studies… read more about Student Honors and Laurels for 2020 »

DURHAM, N.C. -- Eighteen Duke students and alumni have been awarded Fulbright placements to teach English, study and do research abroad during the 2020-2021 academic year. The Fulbright US Student Program is the U.S. government’s flagship international educational exchange program, offering opportunities in over 140 countries. The Fulbright award is designed to facilitate cultural exchange and increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and those of other countries. The awards are announced on… read more about Eighteen Duke Students And Alumni Awarded Fulbright Scholarships »

Congratulations to Duke Mathematics Professor Alexander (Sasha) Kiselev for being named one of the 2020 Simons Fellows in Mathematics and Theoretical Physics.  The Simons Foundation’s mission is to advance the frontiers of research in mathematics and the basic sciences.  It exists to support basic or discovery-driven scientific research undertaken in the pursuit of understanding the phenomena of our world.  The Simons Fellows program extends academic leaves from one term to a full year, enabling recipients to focus solely… read more about Professor Kiselev named 2020 Simons Fellow »