Seminar:

Fall 2013, Thursdays, Milner 216, 4:00-4:50 PM


Date: September 12

"  Why I Became a Mathematician - A Tale of Art, Heavy Metal, Eigenvalues and Bad Ass Muscle Cars "
  Dr. Josef Sifuentes  

Abstract

As an undergraduate at Rice University, I became involved in a project to use mathematics to create special effects for a music video. The star of the video is a fully customized muscle car owned by Applied Math Professor Richard Tapia. Through this video my love of art and muscle cars turned into a love and appreciation of the beauty of mathematics. My interest led me to pursue a Ph.D in applied mathematics and a career in mathematical research. This first foray into mathematics influenced the way I approached problems and some of my thesis results on using multiple grids to deflate the GMRES process applied to acoustic scattering problems