Call for speakers

Hi All,
Apologies to those who get this email twice. Thank you to all those who came to the puzzle's and games day. You are welcome to bring puzzles and games and play with them during whatever else we are doing!

We are looking for people who would like to share twenty minutes of their research with an informal chalk talk. The next meeting is

Wednesday, Feb 24 at 11:30AM in ECS642,

unless there is strong opposition from people who would like to attend. After the talks there will be discussion, refreshments and puzzles and games.

Please write to me if you want to speak. We welcome any Math and CS flavoured research from students or professors in any department. An announcement will go out when a speaker is confirmed.

Cheers,
Alejandro Erickson
stay updated at http://compthry.blogspot.com/

image credit

Fun and Games!

Bring your puzzles and games! The first meeting is


Wednesday Feb 10th at 11 am in the fabulous and highest room on campus, ECS 642 (not strictly highest).

The theme we are beginning with is mathematical puzzles and games. I have a couple that I will bring, but I encourage others to do so as well. This includes card games like SET, physical puzzles (hopefully we can get some on loan too) brain teasers, games you invented, etc.

Here is one for you to think about before you get there:
We have an airplane with n seats and n passengers. Exactly 1 passenger is blind. The blind passenger chooses a random seat (uniformly) among the ones that are available when he or she boards. The other passengers sit in their own seats unless their seat is occupied, in which case they choose uniformly at random as well. What is the probability that the blind person sits in their assigned seat?

A prize for the first person to send me a solution (or explain it in person)! (to be handed out at the seminar).

Maybe you like paradoxes. Here is a very famous one. Let S be the set of all sets which do not contain themselves. Does S exist? This brings us to self referencing sentences: One must (never) pay attention to things written in parentheses.

That is enough from me for now, but I look forward to what others bring to the table!

Cheers,
Alejandro Erickson
Chair of the MCSPSS (for lack of a better title)