Call for Sudoku talks at New Orleans math conference

laurataalman

As this forum is one of the first places I look for Sudoku-related mathematics, I thought it would be appropriate to use this forum to announce a math/Sudoku opportunity that some of you might be interested in.

This January there will be a special contributed paper session on The Mathematics of Sudoku and Other Puzzles at the Joint Mathematics Meetings of the American Mathematical Society (AMS) and the Mathematical Association of America (MAA). Some people at this forum might be interested in presenting a 10-15 minute talk at the Sudoku paper session (or simply attending, for that matter).

The general website for the conference is http://www.ams.org/amsmtgs/2098_intro.html . If you are interested in giving a talk, then click on "Abstracts" to submit a proposal for the talk. The deadline for abstract submission is September 26. The official announcement for the paper session on Sudoku is at the very bottom of this posting.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to email me at (the first four letters of my last name)@math.jmu.edu .

Laura Taalman
Department of Mathematics and Statistics
James Madison University

Notes about the conference for people outside the mathematical community:
The Joint Meetings are a huge yearly event in the mathematical community, usually taking up a large portion of two adjacent major hotels in a large city -- this year, New Orleans. The contributed paper session on Sudoku is a very small part of this very large conference. (Note: "paper" just means "talk" in this context; you do not have to have published a research paper to give a talk.) You will have to be a registered participant of the meetings to attend any sessions or to give a talk, so if you submit an abstract then make sure you also register for the meetings (this costs $$). The Joint Meetings conference does not provide travel support, but often that support can be obtained from your school or workplace.

The Mathematics of Sudoku and Other Puzzles:
Sudoku puzzles and their variants are linked to many mathematical problems involving combinatorics, Latin squares, magic squares, polyominos, symmetries, computer algorithms, the rook problem, knight tours, graph colorings, and permutation group theory. Many other puzzles also have underlying mathematical content that can be a source of open problems, undergraduate research projects, and new results. In this session we will explore the mathematics involved in solving, contructing, and analyzing Sudoku and other puzzles. We invite the submission of presentations concerning the mathematics of Sudoku, its variants, and other puzzles. Examples of presentations might include presentations of new mathematical results or computational techniques, survey talks describing known results and open problems, and discussions on using Sudoku and other puzzles as learning tools in the classroom or as the basis for undergraduate research projects. Speakers are encouraged to provide puzzle handouts for attendees if possible and relevant.

soduko · Posted: Sat Jul 29, 2006 5:12 pm Post subject:

Interesting idea

But it is to expencive for me.

Has anybody ideas to go and if so to present a paper?

Maybe I can help writing it...