Fields Notes 17:2 | Page 12

In the Field and colleagues from 20 English and 12 French schools in and beyond the Ottawa region. The main goal of this event is to provide students with the opportunity to see a side of mathematics and its applications that they don’t typically get to see in a classroom setting. Math Horizons Day MANY STUDIES SHOW THAT ONE of the major difficulties encountered by students is seeing the relevance of the course they are taking. This can seriously affect their motivation and their ultimate success. This effect seems to be most pronounced in mathematics. The 16th edition of the Math Horizons Day at the University of Ottawa took place on Friday, April 28. This year, we had record participation with high school students, teachers, The day started with words of welcome from the mathematics department Chair followed by two presentations: an English presentation about the value and importance of formal mathematical proof with some concrete examples, and a French presentation on the theory and applications of mathematical cryptography. Students had the chance to practice on some interesting cryptography exercises. As many students and teachers commented afterwards, the presentations were an inspiration on the important role mathematics plays in our modern society. The day continued with team competitions, relays, and an individual competition. Both students and teachers commented on the importance of such enrichment activities to give students the chance to sharpen their mathematical skills in a challenging but fun environment.  — Joseph Khoury Living on the Precipice THE RESILIENCE OF COMPLEX SYSTEMS to disturbance is a topic of long-standing and continuing interest in multiple academic communities and has led to both insights into real- world systems and policy improvements. However, significant theoretical, empirical, and policy challenges remain. This conference was convened on May 16 and 17 in Waterloo, Ontario to take steps toward addressing some of these challenges, with a special emphasis on natural, human, and coupled natural-and-human systems. Coupled systems include many important real-world systems such as the global climate system and endangered ecosystems, but due to their higher complexity, they also represent a significant challenge in terms of their mathematical characterization and analysis. The meeting attracted 87 participants from Ontario and the US, and brought together mathematical modellers (including the plenary speaker Alan Hastings, Distinguished Professor of Environmental Science and Policy at the University of California, Davis) and experts from biology, environmental 12 sciences, economics, and sociology. Events included a plenary talk, 8 invited talks, a poster session, 16 contributed talks in three parallel sessions, two workshops (one led by grad students), a Maple software demonstration, and even a group activity involving composition of haikus along the theme of resilience. The conference was a resounding success. As one invited speaker commented, "although many of us regularly discuss the benefits of embracing a multidisciplinary perspective, [this] conference took things to a higher level". This conference also laid the foundations for new collaborations, as several participants agreed to continue their discussions and plan future research. In a further example of impact, some graduate students were inspired to incorporate resilience analysis into their mathematical models of ecological dynamics.  — Madhur Anand