Outreach
We bring math to people of all ages, through events both on and off campus. Math is all around us, not just in textbooks. In the Department of Mathematics, we help people process the math surrounding them — and, in turn, the world — by sharing the products of our teaching and research. We offer lectures, workshops and other programs that are open to people outside the department, with the goal of involving everyone in our work.
Kwangil Koh Lecture on Mathematics in Our Time
Our signature annual event is the Kwangil Koh Lecture on Mathematics in Our Time, a public lecture intended to communicate the importance of mathematics and its impact on science, technology and society. Recent topics have included the use of mathematics in art restoration and in understanding topics like soap bubbles and animal behavior.
The Kwangil Koh Lecture on Mathematics in Our Time is an annual public lecture held each year since 2012. It honors Kwangil Koh, who joined the NC State Mathematics Department as its first algebraist in 1964, retired in 2004 and passed away in 2009.
The goal of the Koh lectures is to communicate the importance of mathematics and its impact on science, technology and society.
Math Doesn’t Bug Me
Math Doesn’t Bug Me is created and organized by Lorena Bociu, and sponsored by the Center of Research in Scientific Computation (CRSC). The event has been part of BugFest since 2012. Every year, a group of about 30 undergraduate and graduate students from the Math Department and CRSC have participated, leading interactive math activities and presenting posters on their research.
For more information, contact Lorena Bociu.
For more photos from the 2017 Bugfest on September 16, please click here.
SUM Club
We bring speakers from outside the university to campus so that students and faculty can learn from their diverse math-related work and experiences. For example, our Society for Undergraduate Mathematics club sponsors a weekly series of informal talks on math topics that features speakers from both within and outside the NC State community.
Triangle Math Teachers’ Circle
The initiative is hosted by the Department of Mathematics at North Carolina State University and is supported by a grant from the American Institute of Mathematics. The Teachers’ circle collaborates with the Chapel Hill Math Circle for K-12 students and is a member organization of the Math Teachers’ Circle Network and the North Carolina Network of Math Teachers’ Circles.
Sonia Kovalevsky Day
“The goal is to show them that there’s so much more to math than arithmetic and algebra and what they learn in school”
Kristina Martin, math graduate student and Sonia Kovalevsky Day organizer
The annual Sonia Kovalevsky Day focuses on engaging middle school girls in math through a morning of fun math activities.
This annual event, sponsored on campus by the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) student chapter, brings around 50 middle school girls to campus to participate in a day of fun and educational math activities. The name of the event honors Sonia Kovalevsky, the first woman in Europe to receive a Ph.D. in mathematics, and aims to encourage young women’s interest in mathematics.
For more information, contact AWM student chapter president Katherine Harris.