SPOTLIGHT
PETER LILJEDAHL
2018 MARGARET SINCLAIR
MEMORIAL AWARD
LECTURE SPEAKER GEORGE HART
2018-2019 RCI LECTURE
SPEAKER KANG LEE
FIELDS CQAM PUBLIC
LECTURE SPEAKER
Peter Liljedahl is the recipient of the
2018 Margaret Sinclair Memorial
Award, which recognizes innovation
and excellence in mathematics
education at any level. He is
Associate Dean of Graduate Studies
at Simon Fraser University and he
began his career in mathematics
education as a grades 8-12
mathematics and physics teacher at
a school in Vancouver. His research
interests are as wide-ranging as his
influence: creativity and discovery in
mathematics teaching and learning,
affect; beliefs; classroom practice,
professional growth of teachers,
numeracy, instructional design and
assessment in mathematics, student
learning behavior (studenting),
interactions between students in
collaboration, teacher tensions, and
building thinking classrooms. To the public, the Royal Canadian
Institute for Science or RCI, as it is
commonly know, is the place to go
to hear and learn about science.
Founded in 1849, the RCI is among
the oldest societies of its kind in
Canada. After more than a century,
and with few interruptions during
times of global crisis, RCI lectures
continue to take place today. In
2013 Fields and the RCI partnered to
bring outstanding mathematicians
to Toronto to explore the math
behind everyday life and they have
continued to do so ever since. On
December 2 and 3, 2018, George
Hart, an interdisciplinary sculptor,
mathematician, computer scientist
and educator, recently retired from
Stony Brook University, New York,
came to deliver RCI and Fields
lectures. His talks, titled Making
Math Visible and From Mathematics
to Sculpture, featured hands-on
activities for audiences of all ages.
Hart's mathematical research centers
on novel polyhedral structures and
algorithms for producing them.
He has produced algorithms for
generating various new classes of
polyhedra, which he then presents
to the world in sculptural forms. His
mathematically informed sculptures,
crafted with metal, wood, plastic, or
3D-printed, were on view during his
presentations. The Fields CQAM Interdisciplinary
Thematic Program aims to bring
together industry and academia to
work on problems found in a wide
range of disciplines. With a common
focus on modelling, computation,
and data science, the Program
features conferences, workshops,
seminars, and public lectures to offer
hands-on experience.
On February 23, 2019, Liljedahl came
to Fields to present the Margaret
Sinclair Memorial Award Lecture.
His talk, titled Thinking About
Thinking Classrooms, explored a
popular framework for teaching
mathematics both in Canada and
abroad; unpacking the framework’s
effectiveness in transforming
mathematics classrooms into spaces
where students' mathematical
thinking is considered ubiquitous and
the norm.
12
As part of a Fields CQAM public
lecture, Kang Lee (University of
Toronto) came to Fields to give a talk
on Affective Artificial Intelligence and
its Applications on January 21, 2019.
Drawing on more than two decades
of research and insights from a
century of psychological research on
human emotion, Kang Lee discussed
methods that artificial intelligence
(AI) developers can use to develop
intelligent systems with affective AI.
This included the ability to detect,
decode, interpret, and simulate
human affects. In discussing AI’s
shortcomings, Lee was hopeful about
the future of this technology to
transform our lives, asserting that AI
IQ must work in tandem with EQ or
emotional intelligence. The lecture
was very popular and extremely
well-attended.