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## Merck Researcher Jeff Sachs on mathematical models for drug discovery

Jeff Sachs of Merck Research Laboratories explains how mathematical models can make seemingly insurmountable amounts of data in medicine and biotechnology more manageable and informative. How can models be designed to uncover information we need from medical data in order to determine actions to be taken and decisions to be made in drug discovery and development?

Watch the video to learn how:

## Machine Learning for various applications

The extraordinary success of search engines, recommendation systems, and speech and image recognition software suggests that future advances in these technologies could have a major impact in our lives. In this talk, we discuss modern intelligent-algorithmic systems based on sophisticated statistical learning models and powerful optimization techniques. One can envision new algorithms that operate in the stochastic or batch settings, and that take full advantage of parallelism. We review our remarkable understanding of classical stochastic approximation techniques, and pose some open questions. The lecture concludes with a discussion of modern neural nets and the demands they impose on optimization methods.At the 2014 SIAM Annual Meeting Jorge Nocedal talked about all this and more. Watch the video!

## The mathematics of electricity costs [Video]

In this video from the 2013 SIAM Annual Meeting, Alejandro Jofré of Universidad de Chile considers a wholesale electricity market model with generators interacting strategically and general networks including externalities such as transmission losses. Previous work shows how mechanisms such as the case when prices correspond to the Lagrange multipliers of a centralized cost minimization program allow the producers to charge significantly more than marginal price. This situation originates an important regulatory problem. In this presentation we consider an incomplete information setting where the cost structure of a producer is unknown to both its competitor and the regulator. We derive an optimal regulation mechanism and compare its performance to the “price equal to Lagrange multiplier”. Watch the video:

## Jamology – the mathematics of traffic jams [Video]

Jamming phenomena are seen in various transportation system including cars, buses, pedestrians, ants and molecular motors, which are considered as “self-driven particles”. This interdisciplinary research on jamming of self-driven particles has been recently termed “jamology”. This is based on mathematical physics and includes engineering applications as well. In his talk at the 2013 SIAM Annual Meeting, Katsuhiro Nishinari of the University of Tokyo traced the background of this research: simple mathematical models, such as the asymmetric simple exclusion process and the Burgers equation, were introduced as the basis of all kinds of traffic flow. This was then extended in order to account for various traffic phenomena, and the comparison between theory and experiment was given to show that the models are able to capture fundamental features of observations. Watch the video!

## Mathematicians tackle global issues

Philadelphia, PA– More than 100 academic institutions and scholarly societies have joined in a major world-wide initiative: Mathematics of Planet Earth (MPE) 2013. This year-long effort will highlight the contributions made by mathematics in tackling global problems, including natural disasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes, and tsunamis; climate change; sustainability; and pandemics. MPE2013 partners will sponsor workshops, research conferences, public lectures, outreach events, and educational opportunities for all ages.  Each country from a partner institution will host a special launch to the year.

MPE2013 enjoys the patronage of UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization.  The Director-General of UNESCO, Irena Bokova, said, “UNESCO strongly supports this extraordinary collaboration of mathematicians around the world to advance research on fundamental questions about planet Earth, to nurture a better understanding of global issues, to help inform the public, and to enrich the school curriculum about the essential role of mathematics in the challenges facing our planet.” Read the rest of this entry »

## Math detects contamination in water distribution networks

Philadelphia, PA—None of us want to experience events like the Camelford water pollution incident in Cornwall, England, in the late eighties, or more recently, the Crestwood, Illinois, water contamination episode in 2009 where accidental pollution of drinking water led to heart-wrenching consequences to consumers, including brain damage, high cancer risk, and even death. In the case of such catastrophes, it is important to have a method to identify and curtail contaminations immediately to minimize impact on the public.
A paper published earlier this month in the SIAM Journal on Applied Mathematics considers the identification of contaminants in a water distribution network as an optimal control problem within a networked system. Read the rest of this entry »

## Tell us why math matters and win a cash prize!

Every time you log into Facebook, you probably notice advertisements along the sidebar that seem surprising relevant to your interests. Much like the algorithms Facebook implements for advertisers to target and reach the broadest range of users, math makes it possible to determine a team’s ranking in college football, predict traffic patterns, and reduce the large, cumbersome size of an image to a workable and smaller JPEG file.

As a SIAM student member, this surely comes as no surprise to you, but what about the rest of the world? SIAM’s Math Matters, Apply It! series gives students like yourself the chance to educate others and spread awareness of the application of mathematics to our daily lives.

## The math of malaria

Philadelphia, PA – June 20, 2012—Malaria affects over 200 million individuals every year and kills hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. The disease varies greatly from region to region in the species that cause it and in the carriers that spread it. It is easily transmitted across regions through travel and migration. This results in outbreaks of the disease even in regions that are essentially malaria-free, such as the United States. Malaria has been nearly eliminated in the U.S. since the 1950s, but the country continues to see roughly 1,500 cases a year, most of them from travelers. Hence, the movement or dispersal of populations becomes important in the study of the disease.

In a paper published this month in the SIAM Journal on Applied Mathematics, authors Daozhou Gao and Shigui Ruan propose a mathematical model to study malaria transmission. Read the rest of this entry »

## Watch highlights from M3 Challenge 2012!

Watch highlights from Moody’s Mega Math Challenge 2012, where thousands of high school students from the Eastern U.S. created mathematical models to determine the best regions in the country for establishing rail lines as part of a revived High-Speed Intercity Passenger Rail (HSIPR) Program. The regions were ranked based on estimates of ridership numbers over the next 20 years, and costs of building and maintenance, in addition to the effects such rail networks would have on American dependence on foreign energy.