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April is Mathematics Awareness Month

Mathematics Awareness Month is held each year in April. Its goal is to increase public understanding of and appreciation for mathematics.

Each year a national theme is selected by The Joint Policy Board for Mathematics (JPBM). The 2012 theme is “Mathematics, Statistics, and the Data Deluge.”

According to the official MAM website:

Massive amounts of data are collected every day, often from services we use regularly, but never think about. Scientific data comes in massive amounts from sensor networks, astronomical instruments, biometric devices, etc., and needs to be sorted out and understood. Personal data from our Google searches, our Facebook or Twitter activities, our credit card purchases, our travel habits, and so on, are being mined to provide information and insight. These data sets provide great opportunities, and pose dangers as well.

Theme essays, posters, and related resources are available here.

The Joint Policy Board for Mathematics (JPBM) is a collaborative effort of the American Mathematical Society, the American Statistical Association, the Mathematical Association of America, and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.

Related articles:

Avalanches of Words, Sifted and Sorted, by Anne Eisenberg. The New York Times, March 25, 2012.
IBM Scoops up Mathematicians for Big Data Analysis, by Gabriel Knight. Info boom, February 28, 2012
How Companies Learn Your Secrets, by Charles Duhigg. New York Times Magazine, February 16, 2012

Id: 
1293
Start Date: 
Monday, April 2, 2012