Geometry, Robots and Society

Geometry, Robots, and Society
February 23, 2022

UCB Latinx Community Group Hosts Speaker Federico Ardila

Wednesday, February 23, 2022 at 1:30 pm

375 Physics North

How do we move a robot efficiently from one position to another? To answer this question, we understand the map of all possible positions of the robot, using techniques from geometry and combinatorics. We also face important ethical questions: What's the role of mathematicians and scientists in building a welcoming and inclusive scientific community and a just and equitable society?

Federico and his Students

Federico Ardila received his Ph.D. from MIT in 2003 and is Professor of Mathematics at San Francisco State University and the Universidad de Los Andes. He is a Fellow of the American Math Society, a National Science Foundation CAREER Awardee, and a winner of the Math Association of America National Teaching Award in the US, and a recipient of the Premio Nacional de Ciencias and Premio Nacional de Matemáticas in his native Colombia. His research is in combinatorics and its connections to geometry, algebra, topology, and applications. 

Federico is constantly working towards fostering an increasingly diverse, equitable, and welcoming community of mathematicians that empowers and serves the needs of all communities. With that goal, he founded the SFSU-Colombia Combinatorics Initiative, he co-directs the MSRI-UP undergraduate research program, he hosts more than 200 hours of combinatorics lectures on YouTube, and he studies and writes about the role of mathematics in education and society. Federico has advised more than 50 thesis students in the US and Colombia; the majority of his US advisees are members of underrepresented ethnic groups. These days, when he is not at work, he is probably reading, playing records, or playing the marimba de chonta.