Holgate Lectures - titles offered by Mike Spivey

There are several popular computer programs for finding the best way to drive from one place to another. Though easy to describe, the problem of finding the best driving route is hard to solve in a way that is reliable and takes a reasonable time. In this talk, we will explore the idea of an algorithm: a mathematically based method for solving a computing problem. How can we be sure that an algorithm always gives the right answer? How can we use mathematics to find out how long it will take?

The pictures of M. C. Escher are endlessly fascinating in a way that seems to have something to do with mathematics -- but what? We will develop a mathematical language for describing how pictures are put together from repeating tiles, and use it to explain how one of Escher's pictures works, as well as making another picture that Escher could have drawn but didn't. There is a computer implementation of the picture language allows students to explore these ideas for themselves. (See A. Kemp, Mathematics Teaching 203 (July 2007) pp. 17--18.)

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