Spring 2021

Week 9: AMS Academic Postdoc Panel

The AMS chapter led the COMP seminar to provide an academic job market postdoc panel, featuring our very own UCI postdocs:
• Axel Almet,
• Anna Ma,
• Claudio Jacobo-Gonzalez, and
• Joe Kramer-Miller. 

Some quick takeaways: networking can get you far. Don’t hesitate to reach out and make connections sooner, since those connections may come to fruition at the time you are on the market. So the more options, the merrier. The job market for research focus versus liberal arts colleges are different, so you should seek advice on how to tailor your application to fit the needs of the position are applying for. The cover letters are very important across each job pool, while some liberal arts positions still insist on strong research statements even if the position does not emphasize research. And ideas relating to undergrad research will go far in these statements.

Also, you can continue into academia if you have have hard constraints on location — but that does generally make it harder. A shotgun approach can work by applying to a lot of positions — and the convenience of using MathJobs.org for applications makes applying to a lot of different places a lot easier (especially for your letter writers). But you can also take a more finely tuned approach, applying onto to a smaller selection of places for which you can rely more on your networking to get you foot in the door.

Week 8: Preparing for the quals and beyond

Dr. Phong Luong joined us to lead a “think tank” type of discussion and ask the participants to share experiences and advice regarding managing one’s mental health in grad school during a pandemic, as well as adding his own advice.

Some take-away points from this conversation to aim for a healthy work-life balance that can lead to a more successful and happier grad experience:

• No UCI email on phone;
• maintaining and sticking to a hard set work and study schedule;
• get 8 hours of sleep, no matter what;
• staying well hydrated;
• active communication with loved ones and colleagues;
• community working spaces/establishing study groups to tackle shared problems;
• fit in regular physical exercise; and
• to be a help to others, practice: slow breathing to be able to focus on active listening, POV listening and understanding, help/validate others problems (sometimes you are most helpful by offering an extra ear rather than an extra opinion), break up goals into smaller easier to achiev sized chunks, and help find mutual options to succeed.

Dr. Luong has been a great resource for grad students at UCI. If you ever want to set up a one-to-one meeting with him, feel free to reach out to him by email directly (pbluong@uci.edu).

Week 7: SIAM+COMP Data Science Career Panel

UCI’s SIAM chapter hosted a data science career panel at the UCI Math COMP Seminar.

The goal for the panel was to help graduate students who are still discerning if they would like to pursue a career in the data science industry. We discussed what this career is like, how the panelists figured out it was for them, and what you can do while in graduate school to prepare for it. 

The panel consisted of recent Math and MCSB UCI alumni who are now in data science positions:

• Greg Zitelli, Data Engineer at Capital Group
• Jen Bryson, Data Scientist at Eureka By S/4HANA CIC
• Matt Gibson, CV and ML Engineer at Trace
• Srikiran Chandrasekaran, Lead Data Scientist at CPNet.io

Some take-aways: let your advisor know early if you plan to pursue a career in industry. Your advisor can be an important networking resource, but also feel free to reach out to other faculty (e.g., Jeff Ludwig was one example highlighted for helping secure contacts in the financial sector).

Also, although it certainly can help to tailor your graduate experience to a specific industry, you don’t have to be limited in your options by your past choices. One great example that came up was one round of interviews involved a group of applicants in the room at the same time for a finance-related position, and a math-focused hiring member asked the candidates to prove that there are infinitely many primes. Even though on the surface this question had nothing to do with the job itself, our alumnus was the only applicant who could give a good answer — which led to securing a comfy job!

Week 6: Teaching and Diversity Statements

Alessandra Pantano joined us to give an overview of teaching and diversity statements.

If you are planning on pursuing an academic research or teaching position at any point in the future (so not just in the next year) you can benefit from learning more about these standard application materials now. Learning what goes into creating a strong statement earlier in your graduate school experience can help inform how you approach your own teaching or outreach efforts so that these statements can have a stronger impact when you go on the market — because evidence speaks louder than empty catch phrases. 

During the presentation, Alessandra gave an overview of each document, provided suggestions for content, shared examples from current UCI students and faculty, and highlighted advantages of drafting these documents early.

For those unable to attend or who wanted to review materials from the presentation, you can find Alessandra’s slides here: Teaching Statement and Diversity Statement. Additionally, you can view the 30 minute presentation here.

Week 5: Game Night Part 3

We met one more time in gather town, while I hosted a round of trivia and ran a raffle, again with prizes.

The rooms are still open! These are a good ad hoc meeting space if you want a temporary respite from Zoom. Gather town has updated their available game reserve to now include cooperative crosswords (including recent NY Times options) and fish bowl. Additionally, I included some ad hoc versions of connect 4 and battleship.
Main Room | Overflow 1 | Overflow 2

Week 4: Math Movie Night

As in Fall Week 10 (see below), ranked-choice voting using both the instant-runoff and ranked pairs models resulted in a tie between two movies in a contest with 5 candidates and only 9 votes cast. So I had to go a tie-breaker system. The Smith set for the ranked pairs contest, which is the minimal set such that each contestant beats every other contestant in a head-to-head matchup, consisted of Hidden Figures and Fermat’s Room. I used the tie-breaker of the total 1st through 3rd place vote counts per candidate. This resulted in victory for Hidden Figures, with a margin of 6 to 5. (Streaming took place using the group watch functionality available through Disney+.)

Movie Title	Condorcet Ranking	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4
Hidden Figures	1	33%	33%	44%	56%
Fermat’s Room	1	44%	44%	44%	56%
Good Will Hunting	3	11%	11%	11%
A Beautiful Mind	4	11%	11%
The Imitation Game	4

Week 3: Building your own website

Building your own website can be an important marketing tool for yourself when going on the market. You can’t start too early.

I gave an overview of resources available to students, faculty, and staff through sites.uci.edu. This is a free webhosting service using WordPress as a backbone for building simple websites with simple customization accessible to non-programming experts. You do not need to be an expert at all to build a functional website. I use this for my personal website as well as this very COMP website. UCI manages built-in plugins, so some functionality from other WordPress sites might be missing. NB: you loose the ability to edit your site after leaving UCI. You have the option to export your WordPress site to another hosting service (such as wordpress.org) if you want to keep your site after leaving (and you can contact OEI to help export if you have already lost UCI access).

Another very popular hosting service is Google Sites.

Week 2: Taking Quals

We were joined by Adam Marks, Jenny Pi, Dani Reagan and Yonathan Stone to give an overview of the recent experience of sitting for quals in the time of the pandemic.

Quals this year will take place June 16-19, with a different exam on each day (including an Analysis comprehensive exam). Last Spring, there were both in-person and virtual options for taking the exams. The department is currently exploring both options for the upcoming June exams, with at least the virtual option being offered. The previous Fall and Winter exams were offered only virtually using Examity.

Some advice from the panelists included:

• making ample use of the repository of UCI exams;
• working in small study groups to focus on specific exams and problems (or working alone if you’re more comfortable with that option), while focusing on identifying which problem types line up with specific exam syllabi material;
• trying at least one timed trial run on an exam;
• make use of the department and student-chapter organized study sessions (the department is offering an in-depth Complex Qual prep course, while the AMS chapter is organizing more hands-free sessions for the Algebra and Real exams, with access to some written solutions — information can be found in your email);
• making sure that you are taking care of yourself mentally while preparing for the exams (e.g., shower regularly, remember to eat, go out for walks, and taking breaks when needed);
• and get enough sleep before the exam.

Winter 2021

Week 10: Math in Film Part 2

I used Kahoot! for a second dive into some decent and not so decent efforts to embed math into conversations or plots in tv and film. You can view the quiz here. Movies and shows featured in the quiz include: Pi, Agora, Jurassic Park, Tenet, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Contagion, The Martian, The Number 23, Contact, Rushmore and Like Mike.

Week 9: Union

We were joined by Josh Jordan, Joe Li, and Jess Schirle, the math department stewards, to give an overview of what the union is currently workings, give an outline of upcoming activities in 2022, and provide information on how other graduate students can get involved.

You can go to the UAW 2865 page for overall information for the student union and information on your rights. Information on how to join the union can be found here. The stewards are also willing to answer any other questions you might have.

You can help the union identify ways they can help students with housing by filling out the following Housing Justice Survey.

Week 8: Summer Opportunities for Grad Students

I helped facilitate a conversation with a grad panel consisting of Kelly Isham, Jesse Kreger, Alex Sutherland and Shichen Tang (as well as me, John) on opportunities grad students can look into while in grad school.

Your summers are a great time to get more background in research areas, to make connections with potential collaborators, to make a difference in other communities and areas that can use a little more math, or to just earn some more money.

Programs that panelists gave background on included (with the associated panelist program participant in bold):

• BEAM (Bridge to Enter Advanced Mathematics), an outreach program working with students from low-income and underserved populations to provide a support system to build confidence in pursuing future STEM careers. This program connects with students in middle school and follows them all the way to college. They currently are hiring summer positions at their NYC and LA locations. Alessandra can also be a resource in pursuing a position with BEAM. (Alex)
• Government internships, such as the NSF MSGI (Mathematical Sciences Graduate Internship) program. This program gives the opportunity to participate in internships at federal national laboratories and research facilities, such as Los Alamos or Oak Ridge, in a nonacademic setting. The internships are aimed at students who are interested in understanding the application of advanced mathematical and statistical techniques to “real world” problems, regardless of whether the student plans to pursue an academic or nonacademic career. Pay is higher than most other teaching options ($1200/wk for 10 weeks), although participants are expected to arrange their own lodging. Travel is reimbursed. (Kelly)
• MSRI (Mathematical Sciences Research Institute), affiliated with Berkeley, which offers different programs throughout the year, with a lot taking place over the summer. UCI is a member of MSRI, which means we have a certain number of guaranteed spots for programs. Advertisements for upcoming MSRI programs are sent out by the department typically by the middle of the year, and applications for admission go through the department. (Alex and Shichen)
• PCMI (Park City Mathematics Institute) is affiliated with IAS and runs an annual summer school covering different topics (e.g., Data Science, Random Matrix Theory, Harmonic Analysis, Number Theory Informed by Computation) in Park City, Utah. This runs a three-week program in late June to early July, and cover lodging, travel and a moderate spending stipend for program participants in the graduate summer school. Applications usually take place in January, although the current plans seem to be on hold until after the pandemic. (The 2020 program was canceled due to COVID-19 and might be pushed back to 2022.) (John)
• Various other summer schools can be found, which your advisor or related faculty will be a good resource to learn more about. Some other regularly occurring summer schools the panelists participated in are the Connecticut Summer School in Number Theory (Kelly) and the Michigan Summer School on Random Matrices (John). Accommodations vary by program, with some covering all travel, lodging and food options, to some giving no financial support. Also, there are many one-off summer programs. Again, upcoming programs are advertised mostly through related faculty or through lists of previous participants in other programs (e.g., I went to two other summer schools and a number of other conferences with funding that were advertised through past participant list for my prior programs) — so making connections through these programs can help you find future opportunities.
• Some UCI math department affiliated programs, such as MathBioU and Math ExpLR, which take place over the summer. These are each a 5 week program with a bunch of minicourses (such as using LaTeX, mathematical modeling, Matlab, etc.). They are currently looking for a program coordinator for the upcoming summer. You can contact Alessandra for more information about this position, as well the program. (Jesse)
• Some overall UCI affiliated programs, such as the DTEI (Division of Teaching Excellence and Innovation) fellowship program. DTEI Graduate Fellows will be expected to engage in pedagogical activities for approximately 200 hours during the summer months (including a one-week required remote training course to be held in early Summer). Applications for 2021 were due last Friday (2/26), so you can keep a lookout for upcoming summers as early as February. (Shichen)
• Additionally, you can look into summer TA positions within the department for either 5-week summer session, as most of the panelists have done in previous summers (in addition to some of these programs).

Week 7: Balancing Productivity and Stress in Your Day

Daniel Morrison joined us for a presentation on tips and suggestions on time management techniques and tools to increase productivity and reduce stress in grad school. Some suggestions include using time management and scheduling apps to keep track of your pending tasks and assignments, explicitly prioritizing your activities beforehand, maintaining a division between work time and free time, and setting aside time to maintain social connections.

Slides from the presentation can be found here. You can find contact information for Daniel in the last slide to follow-up with any other questions you might have. They will be happy to address any followup questions you might have.

Week 6: Numb3rs Watch-Along

We watched the pilot episode of the series Numb3rs. This is a crime drama from executive producers Ridley and Tony Scott that ran for 6 seasons on CBS from 2005-2010, and followed two brothers, Don and Charlie Epps. Don is a successful FBI agent (who apparently specializes in every type of crime imaginable) who returns to LA after being away for a few years, while Charlie is a child math prodigy who is a math professor at CalSci (with most campus scenes filmed at CalTech or USC) who has all of the quirks that the public expects of a math person. And together they solve crimes. Like Turner and Hooch. 

This show has its issues. For instance, it crosses some notable ethical boundaries. One pretty sore spot is that Charlie can’t stop ogling his grad student, Amita. And the use of math is often forced in some rather absurd ways. (There was one episode where Neil Patrick Harris guest-starred as a former grad student who thought he had solved the Riemann hypothesis: NPH: “I, uh, actually have the solution”. Charlie: “You can prove Riemann’s [sic] hypothesis?” NPH: (snidely) “After 15 years, I should hope so!”) Our very own Alice Silverberg, who was a part-time unpaid consultant for the show, had some other complaints (in this article) from her time on the show — and she made an appearance during our live watch-along to give more background on her involvement with the show.

But some may argue more math and logic embedded in tv drivel (on a network whose main scripted programming is tailored toward a general audience who may undervalue actual scientific reasoning in life choices) doesn’t hurt.

Week 5: Game Night Part 2

We again met in gather town, while I hosted two rounds of trivia and ran a raffle, with $$$ prizes.

The rooms are still open! These are a good ad hoc meeting space, if you get Zoom fatigue.
Room 1 | Room 2 | Room 3

Week 4: Finding an Advisor

I helped facilitate a conversation with a grad panel consisting of Luke Fredericks, Liam Hardiman, Nick Treuer, and Dong Yan relating to experiences and ideas on finding an advisor in grad school. Some take-aways include: find out about potential research topics in Grad Seminar; start a reading course with potential advisors and give evidence you have potential to be a good researcher (e.g., taking courses, attending seminars, bringing papers you find interesting); focus on finding an advisor who can help you be successful in your research rather than get ties to a specific research topic (some students ended up in a completely different area from what they anticipated doing); don’t take it personally if a specific faculty member is unable to take you on; and reach out to former students to find out if you think someone would be the right type of advisor for you.

Additionally, I had several faculty members give feedback on a questionnaire relating to finding an advisor at UCI, and approaches that they would look for in potential students. You can find their responses in the following slides I shared in the seminar, as well as a list of other resources at the end. Note some take aways: applied versus pure may have different expectations (depending on the faculty), and all of the faculty in the slides recommended you reach out to them directly for any other advice. They want you to be successful in the program, and can help point you toward the right advisor for you. Also, they recognize things have changed in this current virtual world we are still living in — and so they are generally willing to accommodate expectations to fit student needs and availability.

Week 3: Becoming an LGBTQ+ Ally: Pronoun Etiquette and Best Practices

Hannah Gorback, a PhD student in the Department of Social Ecology and the AGS LGBTQ+ Engagement Chair, joined us for a presentation that covered a basic training on the current state of gender identity discourse and some best practices for allyship, including pronoun etiquette.

For those unable to attend or who wanted to review materials from the presentation, you can find Hannah’s slides here, which include a list of great materials and resources at the end, such as the LGBT Resource Center. Additionally, you can view the 21 minute presentation here.

If you have any questions regarding these materials or resources, feel free to reach out to Hannah directly.

Week 2: Interviewing for Academic and Non-Academic Jobs

Dennis Eichhorn joined us for an overview of techniques to improve interviews for academic and industry positions or fellowships and internships. You can not be overprepared for an interview. Some techniques highlighted include: setting objectives for stories/features you want to make sure are mentioned inside the interview (i.e., your “Secret Weapons”), learning how to deliver organized responses to standard questions, and practice as much as you can with other students or other people beforehand (plug here: Dennis is a great person to practice with!).

Slides for his presentation can be found here. A lot of other great resources and links can be found in the slides. If you have any followup questions with Dennis, feel free to reach out directly by email (email found in the slides).

Week 1: Student Evaluations

Danny Mann from the Division of Teaching Excellence and Innovation (DTEI) joined us to discuss tactics students can take to elicit more useful student feedback in evaluations, as well as approaches on how to interpret evaluations to inform your teaching methods. Also included was an overview on some possible evaluation tools, including Mentimeter and Google Forms.

Slides from the presentation can be found here.

If you have follow-up questions on how to use your own evaluations, or for a source for a confidential analysis of your evaluations, please reach out by email to Danny directly or DTEI.

Fall 2020

Week 10: Math in Film

I led a high-level overview of some films and tv shows that incorporate math directly or tangentially as a key plot device. I used a Kahoot! quiz for this overview, which can be viewed/played here. Featured films/tv shows included: The Queen’s Gambit, Jurassic Park, A Beautiful Mind, Gifted, It’s My Turn, Numb3rs, The Man Who Knew Infinity, Ex Machina, Good Will Hunting, Proof, Futurama, and Avengers: Endgame.

I also included a summary of the results for the inaugural Bad Movie Night, which took place that evening. I used ranked-choice voting, and I gave an overview for two separate tabulation methods to determine a winner:

• Instant-runoff model: This is the ranked-choice method used in some local and state elections (e.g., Maine). To calculate this, each round totals the first choices of the remaining candidates, iteratively removing the bottom candidate and redistributing the next ranked candidate for those ballots, until one candidate receives a majority. (I used the Condorcet ranking for a tie-breaker (see below).)
• Tideman method: This method determines the Condorcet winner, whom is the person who would win a two-candidate election against each of the other candidates in a plurality vote. There are three stages:
  1. tallying the total head-to-head ranks and determining a “majority” (winner) and “minority” (loser),
  2. sorting each pairing by margin of victory and minority (along with total votes for each pair) to generate an ordered list of potential edges (with an arrow pointing toward the head-to-head loser), and then
  3. locking in the order by iteratively updating a directed graph, where each edge is added as long as a cycle is not introduced. The winner is the the source (no incoming edges) in the graph.

Note both methods can result in ties and they can result in different winners. For my run, The Star Wars Holiday Special was the winner using both methods using 14 total votes, where the top 3 ranked choices were indicated. I used R to implement both methods, using this script. Here is the original voting form, that includes a trailer for each candidate as well as a selected critic’s quote. The final output for these tabulations is included below.

Movie title	Condorcet ranking	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5
The Star Wars Holiday Special	1	29%	29%	36%	43%	57%
Eight Crazy Nights	2	21%	21%	21%	29%	43%
Santa Claus Conquers the Martians	3	7%	7%
Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny	4	14%	14%	14%
Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2	5	29%	29%	29%	29%
Santa with Muscles	6

Week 9: Becoming an Anti-Racist Department