Using math to invent solutions to society-scale problems, in time for AI

Event Description

"Why are we learning this?" — the dreaded question often received by math teachers

In this public lecture, the speaker will share his story of using his mathematician background to devise new solutions to two practical problems that affect our whole society: disease control and education. The mathematical areas of network theory and game theory feature as inspirations in his work. During the COVID lockdown, he invented an app (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-26/omicron-spread-what-is-the-future-of-contact-tracing/100770948) which addresses the incentive misalignment problem intrinsic in contact tracing: in the traditional approach, people are asked to isolate to protect others against infection, not to save themselves.

He has also been working for a decade at the intersection of education and technology. His latest creation there is a new, highly-scalable ecosystem for teaching secondary school students how to invent their own solutions to unfamiliar (math) problems, powered by a unique incentive alignment structure that involves professionally trained actors and comedians collaborating with math stars (https://www.cnn.com/world/professor-po-shen-loh-actors-classrooms-spc). This comes just in time, as the rise of AI necessitates more advanced skills.

This talk will be accessible to all backgrounds.

Speaker Info

The speaker, Po-Shen Loh is a social entrepreneur and inventor, working across mathematics, education, and healthcare, all around the world. He is a math professor at Carnegie Mellon University, and served a decade-long term as the national coach of the USA International Mathematical Olympiad team from 2013–2023. He has pioneered innovations ranging from a scalable way to learn challenging math live online at comparable engagement to live-streaming entertainment, to a new way to control pandemics by leveraging self-interest.

As an academic, Po-Shen has earned distinctions ranging from an International Mathematical Olympiad silver medal to the United States Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. As an educator, he was the coach of Carnegie Mellon University’s math team when it achieved its first-ever #1 rank among all North American universities, and the coach of the USA Math Olympiad team when it achieved its first-ever back-to-back #1-rank victories in 2015 and 2016, and then again in 2018 and 2019. His outreach takes him to cities across the world, reaching tens of thousands of people each year through public lectures and events, and he has featured in or co-created videos totaling over 25 million YouTube views.

Location

Learning Crossroads (CRX), Room CRX-C140

100 Louis-Pasteur Private, Ottawa, ON K1N 9N3, Canada

GPS coordinates for the event: https://maps.app.goo.gl/DNU5rpa83S4dfhxv5

Click on the GPS coordinates (or texts highlighted in blue) to view them in Google Maps.

This is a public event, and we encourage attendees to arrive early to secure a seat.

The main auditorium for the talk is CRX-C140 (capacity: 350 people), with seating available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Once the main auditorium reaches full capacity, additional attendees will be redirected to another nearby room in the same building, where the talk will be broadcast live.

Parking

For visitor parking at the university, please refer to the following link for details on daily rates and locations:
Visitor Parking Information

The Mann Garage is the recommended parking option. It is located closest to the event venue and offers a convenient walking route to CRX. The walking distance from Mann Garage to the Learning Crossroads (CRX) building is approximately 9 minutes.

While Brooks Garage is also nearby, please note that Google Maps currently redirects to Mann Garage, and construction may affect access to Brooks Garage.

For walking directions from Mann Garage to CRX, please follow this Google Maps link.