Mathematics

Scripts & Talks

Lars Wallenborn

Research

My diploma thesis explores the complexity of a certain equivalence on forms. I improved the bound of the decision problem of this equivalence from exponential runtime to non-deterministic polynomial time. A short description can be found in the introduction:

Sommerakademien

The “Landesverband Mathematikwettbewerbe NRW e.V.” hosts three academies per year tailored towards high-school students. These academies have the mission to support pariticpants of the “Mathe-Olympiade” and to create a platform for math enthusiasts in general. Since 2008, I work in an honorary capacity, giving talks as well as supporting with IT consulting. A few of the talks have a handout or script:

Lars Wallenborn

Matheclub

The “Bonner Matheclub” is a meeting place for students of secondary schools to meet each other as well as university students to do math together. While some playfully work on mathematical problems, others train for math competitions like the “Mathematik-Olympiade”. Participation is free of charge and there are. Details can be found on the website of the Matheclub.

Motivation for Mathematics

I wrote a script for a seminar I gave to German high school teachers in 2018. If you are not able to read German, feel free to reach out. The biggest take away probably is that I — barring any claim for scientific soundness — identified the following four sources of motivation for Mathematics:

  • Intellectuality Being an intellectual is desired by many, and becoming a mathematician is a safer bet then becoming a philopsopher or writer nowadays.
  • Eternal Truth Once something is proven to be true, it will stay that way forever, or, at least until the heat death of the universe — arguebly.
  • Biggest Riddle there is If you like riddles, Mathematics will be one of the biggest and diverse resources you can find. Starting slow and easy and ending in unsolved problems.
  • Magic If magic is definied as the power of the mind having unexpected effects on the real world, Mathematics is as close as I can imagine to being real world magic.

Every student and mathematician may draw motivation from all of them and everybody weights the importants of the different sources differently. The script drills down on each of these concepts and tries to enrich each with applications and approaches in the context of high school classes.








Recent Blags