Math Is in Everything and There Is Life after Math. The largest employers of math
graduates in the United States are the National Security Agency, high tech and ...
Math Is in Everything and There Is Life after Math The largest employers of math graduates in the United States are the National Security Agency, high tech and information technology companies, financial and insurance companies, motion picture special effect companies, and educational institutions. Many mathematicians work at educational institutions as college or university professors or as high school math teachers. A math major is the best preparation to teach college level math, but an advanced degree in math will almost always be required. Undergraduates preparing to teach college and university math usually do not have to take any education courses although those preparing to teach high school math do have to take a large number of education courses in order to meet Kansas State Board of Education teacher licensure requirements. A math-ed major is the best preparation to teach high school math, but students sometimes double major in math-ed and math to have more career options. The National Security Agency is the world's largest employer of mathematicians. NSA and other government agencies employ mathematicians in cryptology and related areas of communications, engineering, signals processing, speech research, and the design of specialized computers. For example, Robert Redford portrayed a bookish Central Intelligence Agency researcher in the 1975 movie Three Days of the Condor. In the 1999 video Decoding Nazi Secrets, NOVA presented a full account of history's greatest code-breaking coup. The German message-coding Enigma machine appeared invincible because of the 150 million million million ways it could encrypt a message. A group of American and British mathematicians working in a top secret research facility at the Bletchley Park estate outside London cracked the Enigma code and changed the outcome of World War II. Cryptanalysts, including mathematician Alan Turing, developed the mathematics necessary to analyze and crack the German and Japanese Enigma codes, and they created Colossus, the world's first computer, to examine the thousands of possibilities determined by the cryptanalysis of Enigma codes. With practice, the Bletchley Park team was able to decode intercepted Axis messages in just a few hours and give the Allies a tremendous strategic advantage. The Internet could not function without a wide variety of mathematical tools ranging from data and image compression, data encryption, error correction techniques, and methods for routing messages. Mathematicians use affine transformations to compress pictures and videos into fractals that can be stored on compact disks, transmitted over the Internet, and quickly reassembled back into images virtually indistinguishable from the original pictures such as those in the Encarta encyclopedia. Cryptologists use mathematical encryption systems to secure cellular, internet, and satellite communications involving financial, military, and personal information. Information technologists use clever algorithms and error correcting codes to deconvolute and enhance corrupted or distorted data making it possible for CD players to read scratched compact discs and for the deep space probes Voyager I and II to send back stunning pictures of the outer planets. Systems analysts use graph theory to route data in telecommunication systems and fractal-based modeling to describe Internet data traffic. Modern movie animation techniques and special effects are based on mathematics. Animators create characters, scenery and lighting and motion using software driven by mathematical equations and computers to do the tremendous number of calculations involved. Four fascinating examples are the liquid metal assassin in the 1991 movie Terminator 2: Judgement Day, the dinosaurs in the 1993 movie Jurassic Park, the launch sequence in the 1995 movie Apollo 13, and the stars shining over the ship in a night scene in the 1997 movie Titanic.
http://www.math.ksu.edu/ugrad/careersjobs/Math_Is_In_Everything.pdf
O:\uss\files\careers\Math Is in Everything and There Is Life After Math.doc
December 1, 2016
Scientists create antennas which approximate mathematical fractals to improve the performance of antenna arrays and cell phones. Engineers design fluid transporting fractals to control and improve fluid dynamics. Medical researchers use chaotic dynamics and fractal architecture to study disease and aging. Mathematical physicists used dynamical systems to discover low energy pathways along which space vehicles can travel using far less fuel. Analysts use techniques from nonlinear differential equations to enhance video images. In one famous case during the 1992 Los Angeles riots, a video of the beating of a truck driver revealed a fuzzy spot on the arm of a man who threw a brick at the truck driver. Mathematicians enhanced the fuzzy spot into a rose tattoo and helped identify and convict the assailant. Financial and insurance companies also employ a large number of mathematicians. Those in the actuarial field work for insurance companies, consulting firms, commercial banks, investment banks, and retirement funds. They are employed by corporations as well as state and federal governments. Actuaries solve real-world problems involving money, probabilities, and future events. They help design and price insurance and retirement plans; evaluate and manage risks; and plan cash flow, claim payment, and investment strategies. Mathematicians discover new, beautiful, and exciting mathematics all the time. Two recent examples are the classification of finite simple groups and The Proof of Fermat's last theorem which was dramatized in a 1997 NOVA video. More information about some of the applications of math mentioned above may be found on the Mathematical Moments web site http://ams.org/samplings/mathmoments/mathmoments. Here is a small selection of the applications of math described at that web site. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Adding Depth http://ams.org/samplings/mathmoments/mm81-depth.pdf Analyzing Data http://ams.org/samplings/mathmoments/mm77-topology-data.pdf Boldly Going http://ams.org/samplings/mathmoments/mm49-space.pdf Compressing Data http://ams.org/samplings/mathmoments/mm41-compression.pdf Enhancing Your Image http://ams.org/samplings/mathmoments/mm24-image.pdf Investing in Markets http://ams.org/samplings/mathmoments/mm13-investing.pdf Listening to Music http://ams.org/samplings/mathmoments/mm6-music.pdf Making Movies Come Alive http://ams.org/samplings/mathmoments/mm2-movies.pdf Resisting the Spread of Disease http://ams.org/samplings/mathmoments/mm78-spread-disease.pdf Routing Traffic Through the Internet http://ams.org/samplings/mathmoments/mm14-routing.pdf Securing Internet Communication http://ams.org/samplings/mathmoments/mm4-internet-comm.pdf
Seeing More Clearly http://ams.org/samplings/mathmoments/mm35-adaptiveoptics.pdf Seeing the World Through Fractals http://ams.org/samplings/mathmoments/mm11-fractals.pdf
Solving Crimes http://ams.org/samplings/mathmoments/mm51-crime.pdf Tracing Your Routes http://ams.org/samplings/mathmoments/mm33-tracing-your-routes.pdf
The Solving Crimes Mathematical Moment above is about the CBS-TV Program NUMB3RS that portrays an FBI agent Don Eppes (Rob Morrow) and his mathematician brother Charlie (David Krumholtz) who helps the Bureau solve a wide range of challenging crimes. The math Charlie uses in many of the episodes of NUMB3RS is based on real FBI cases. Here is the The Math Behind NUMB3RS and some Numb3rs Math Activities associated with the shows. For example, the math behind Episode 9 of Season 4, named Graphic, is at http://numb3rs.wolfram.com/409/ and http://www.math.cornell.edu/~numb3rs/baker/409.html The Season 4 episode index is at http://numb3rs.wolfram.com/season4.html .
http://www.math.ksu.edu/ugrad/careersjobs/Math_Is_In_Everything.pdf
O:\uss\files\careers\Math Is in Everything and There Is Life After Math.doc
July 27, 2015
