The International Congress on Industrial and Applied Mathematics, or ICIAM, is known as the largest congress in applied mathematics, held only once every four years. The first ICIAM took place in Paris in 1987; and then in Washington, D.C (1991), Hamburg (1995) and Edinburgh (1999). The next venues were Sydney (2003), Zürich (2007), Vancouver (2011), Beijing (2015), and Valencia (2019). ICIAM 2023 Tokyo is the 10th congress. The number of participants for the recent ICIAM congresses exceeded 3,000, and for ICIAM 2023, more than 4,700 participants have registered including online-only participants.

Have you ever been to Japan? In this episode, two Japanese mathematicians, Ken Hayami and Hisashi Okamoto, share some interesting background information that may enrich your experience at ICIAM 2023 Tokyo.
 
Ken Hayami, born in 1956, obtained his master’s degree in 1981 from the University of Tokyo and began his career as a researcher at the NEC Corporation. He obtained PhD degrees from the Wessex Institute of Technology (1991) and the University of Tokyo (1993), respectively. In 1993, he joined the faculty of the University of Tokyo and later he moved to NII/Sokendai, where he is now professor emeritus. Ken Hayami has been the president of the Japan SIAM since June 2023.

Hisashi Okamoto, born in 1956, obtained his PhD from the University of Tokyo in 1985, supervised by Hiroshi Fujita. He previously held positions at the University of Tokyo and the Research Institute of Mathematics (Kyoto University), and is now at Gakushuin University in Tokyo. He was an invited speaker at the 1998 International Congress of Mathematicians in Berlin.  Hisashi Okamoto has been the editor-in-chief of the Japan Journal of Industrial and Applied Mathematics since 2016.

Welcome to another episode of the Think BIG for Africa Podcast. This is another birthday (Big50) edition and my guest is a young Mathematician and Researcher; Kayode Oshinubi (Ph.D.). Kayode’s areas of research and expertise are Applied Mathematics, Biostatistics, Data Modeling, Disease Modeling, Disease Ecology, and Epidemiological Modeling.

In our conversation, we discussed Kayode’s interest and journey into the world of Mathematics, the need, and how to encourage young Africa to study Mathematics. We also discussed his current work/research in disease modeling, the problems with data in Africa, and his vision for Africa.

Listen, share, and kindly subscribe to the Think BIG for Africa Podcast on your favorite podcast platform (Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcast, Amazon Music, etc).

Enjoy! 

Guest Oliver Will was always good at math and when he got to college he figured he would parlay that into a science or engineering degree. While taking the mathematics prerequisites for a number of majors, he realized he liked the theoretical elegance of the math itself. And yet, he was interested in real-world applications, too. A course in bioethics introduced him to the idea of the computational work involved the human genome sequencing and the idea of bio-statistics. He applied to graduate programs straight from undergrad and got a PhD in applied mathematics.

As other guests on Roads Taken have discussed, a tight job market for academic positions is complicated by factors such as timing, geography, and luck. Although he’d thought the life of professor would suit him, after a rather unfulfilling postdoctoral fellowship, Oliver decided that the business world might be better suited for his skills and expertise. Unfortunately, his first experience was with a start-up that ran out of its funding, so he made one more return to the academic world—halfway around the globe—only to discover industry was probably the better fit. He became a statistician for a marketing company and continued using both big picture thinking and his applied skills to tackle everyday realities at a number of companies in a variety of fields.

While he got better at pivoting from his expected outcomes to the newer opportunities available to him in a business context,it was somewhat harder when the circumstances were personal. In this episode, find out from Oliver how sometimes sometimes envisioning a future and living into what's in front of you are two different things…on Roads Taken with Leslie Jennings Rowley.

About This Episode’s Guest

Oliver Will is has been a research scientist in advanced analytics for primary research at a number of companies, most recently Cerner Enviza, an Oracle company. He holds a PhD in Applied Mathematics from the University of Southern California. He lives in Pennsylvania with his wife and their cats.

Executive Producer/Host: Leslie Jennings Rowley

Music: Brian Burrows

Find more episodes at https://roadstakenshow.com

Email the show at RoadsTakenShow@gmail.com

Find more episodes at https://roadstakenshow.com

Executive Producer/Host: Leslie Jennings Rowley

Music: Brian Burrows

Email the show at RoadsTakenShow@gmail.com

EPISODE NOTES
WiDS Executive Director Margot Gerritsen welcomes her new co-host, Cindy Orozco, in a wide-ranging conversation about their career paths and valuable learnings along the way. 

Cindy is thrilled to be joining as podcast co-host and believes that showcasing women at all stages of their careers shows that we “share the same fears or experiences every day. It's just that some of us have been on the path a little bit longer than others.” 

Cindy is an applied mathematician who is currently working as a machine learning solutions engineer at Cerebras Systems. Originally from Colombia, she loved applied math, and did a master's in civil engineering and mathematics from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), in Saudi Arabia, and a PhD in Computational and Mathematical Engineering from ICME at Stanford. She met Margot at Stanford and has been contributing to WiDS for many years at conferences, workshops and datathons.

After answering some questions about herself, Cindy stepped right into her co-host role to interview Margot. A native of the Netherlands, Margot said her career path was similar to Cindy’s as she started in math, got excited about applied math, and decided to study fluid mechanics. After getting her PhD at Stanford, she became a professor at the University of Auckland in New Zealand and then returned to Stanford where she has been a professor for 20 years. During this time, she has been an accomplished researcher, professor, mentor, and leader in the School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences, the Institute for Computational & Mathematical Engineering (ICME), and Women in Data Science (WiDS).

When asked how she managed to juggle all of these things, Margot said she learned to not worry about making mistakes or striving for perfection, saying, “80% is perfect”, adding “I always felt I can't have it all. So you make choices, and there's always something that's got to give.” Cindy agreed that the busier she is, the better she manages her time, and when you have many balls in the air, often what you learn in one area can help you solve problems in another. 

In discussing the “imposter syndrome”, Margot said she had often felt like an imposter, and soon discovered this was a common feeling among students and faculty at Stanford. And it’s even stronger when you stand out, like a woman in STEM. It puts an extra burden on you to succeed to set the example for those who come after you. 

The pace of research in AI and deep learning contributes to feeling like an imposter. People publish very quickly and it's hard to understand what really good solid research is and what is just an idea. It gives people this sense that they're not on top. They forget the purpose of school is creating a lifelong interest in learning. “There's a lot of failure on the way to success. My favorite definition of an expert is somebody who's made every possible mistake.”

RELATED LINKS
Connect with Cindy Orozco on LinkedIN 
Find out more about Cerebras Systems
Connect with Margot Gerritsen on Twitter (@margootjeg) and LinkedIn
Find out more about Margot on her Stanford Profile

My guest today is Avery Wang – co-founder and Chief Scientist at music recognition app Shazam and now Principal Research Scientist at Apple.

Almost ten years ago, I conducted my very first interview for my first book and it was with the Shazam founders. The story of Shazam is one of pure innovation, foresight, and friendship. In 1999,  Chris Barton dreamed of a seemingly impossible solution to ambient music recognition and created the team — including friend Dhiraj Mukherjee, classmate Philip Inghelbrecht and engineer Avery Wang — to make it a reality. Even after 20 years post launch, Shazam currently has over 200 MILLION monthly active users and was acquired by Apple in 2018.

For regular listeners of this show, you will know that I spoke to fellow co-founder Dhiraj Mukherjee back In Series 1 but in today’s episode, Avery Wang talks me through the invention process – going all the way back to how as a child, he fell in love with science and maths and how his parents encouraged him to experiment, up to how he managed to invent the Shazam algorithm which every "expert" had said was impossible.

I am so over the moon to share this interview with Avery – a first of its kind because Avery doesn’t do interviews. Everyone who knows him refers to him as a genius and it’s easy to see why. He holds over 150 US and international patents, has a Bachelor of Science degree and a Masters in Mathematics and a Masters and PhD in Electrical Engineering, all from Stanford. He also went to Germany as a Fulbright Scholar and studied Computational Neuroscience.

I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.

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Let me know what you think of this episode by rating, reviewing and sharing - it means the world to me and helps others to find it too.

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Danielle on Twitter @daniellenewnham and  Instagram @daniellenewnham

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This episode was hosted by me - Danielle Newnham, a recovering founder, author and writer who has been interviewing tech founders and innovators for ten years - and produced by Jolin Cheng. 

When, where and what action should we take in order to maximise the impact of our biodiversity conservation efforts?

This week, Niamh and Sophie speak to mathematician Dr Kate Helmstedt about using decision science for biodiversity conservation, and how mathematics is being used to understand ecosystems, how we interact with them, and how they should be managed.

Show theme music: Kevin MacLeod

Host: Niamh Chapman (@nchapmanTAS) & Sophie Calabretto (@sophluidynamics)
Production: Meredith Castles (@meredithcastles), Olly Dove (@littledove440) & Sarah Lyden
Media & Promotion: Olivia Holloway (@LivHolloway_), Kate Johnson (@KatePlantPhys)

Ice shelves can be as large as a small country, so how can ocean waves and sea ice contribute to their catastrophic destruction?

This week, Dr Niamh Chapman and Dr Sophie Calabretto speak to multi-award-winning applied mathematician Associate Professor Luke Bennetts about wave science, sea ice modelling, and their link to catastrophic destruction of ice shelves on the Antarctic Peninsula.

Show theme music: Kevin MacLeod

Host: Niamh Chapman (@nchapmanTAS) & Sophie Calabretto (@sophluidynamics)
Production: Meredith Castles (@meredithcastles) & Olly Dove (@littledove440) & Sarah Lyden
Media & Promotion: Olivia Holloway (@LivHolloway_) & Kate Johnson (@KatePlantPhys)

Join Niamh as she chats with our newest co-host (and applied mathematician) Dr Sophie Calabretto. Sophie is a fluid mechanist who uses maths to help us understand why fluids flow the way they do, knowledge that has the potential to impact fields like aerodynamics, climate science, health, and industry.

Tune in to find out what pendulums have to do with predicting the weather, what it takes to be a good mathematician, and why we need supercomputers to solve a million-dollar problem.

Show theme music: Kevin MacLeod

Host: Niamh Chapman (@nchapmanTAS)
Production: Meredith Castles (@meredithcastles) & Olly Dove (@littledove440)
Media & Promotion: Olivia Holloway (@LivHolloway_) & Kate Johnson (@KatePlantPhys)