Playing with Math – the theme of International Mathematics Day 2024 theme
At the program, participants listened to a public lecture "Geometry, IMO and AI" by Dr. Tran Nam Dung - Vice Principal of High School for the Gifted – the Vietnam National National University – Ho Chi Minh City branch, and Dr. Luong Minh Thang - Senior Research and Management Expert at Google Deepmind. The lecture was about AlphaGeometry - an outstanding achievement on the world technology map related to AI, involving outstanding Vietnamese people in the international environment. The audience was taken into an inspirational story, going from the origins of approaches to solving geometric problems containing creativity, uniqueness and surprises in the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) competitions, efforts to find mechanisms to automatically prove mathematical theorems, to the AlphaGeometry creation story of the main author group including 3 young men from Vietnam, and the sharing and evaluation of some IMO and AlphaGeometry gold medals.
Dr. Tran Nam Dung - Vice Principal of High School for the Gifted – the Vietnam National University – Ho Chi Minh City (left photo) and Dr. Luong Minh Thang - Senior research and management expert at Google Deepmind, co-author of AlphaGeometry (right photo) at the public lecture "Geometry, IMO and AI"
Mass lecture "Quantitative research methods in socio-economics" by Dr. Nguyen Viet Cuong - Deputy Director of the Mekong Development Research Institute, mentioned mathematics widely applied in social sciences, challenges in measuring causality, and mathematical and economic quantitative methods. Mathematics in socio-economic research includes theoretical research, method development such as statistical methods, survey methods, and empirical research such as descriptive research and hypothesis testing. Dr. Nguyen Viet Cuong also introduced some popular quantitative analysis methods used to quantify cause and effect relationships in socio-economics. Simply, the question is how to "measure" the causal impact of a factor (or a policy) on a specific group of subjects.
Dr. Nguyen Viet Cuong - Deputy Director of the Mekong Development Research Institute at the lecture "Quantitative research methods in socio-economics"
At the discussion, Prof.Dr.Sc. Phung Ho Hai - Institute of Mathematics shared about the theme of International Mathematics Day: "Playing with Math means the friendliness of mathematics and the desire to bring mathematics to everyone. Playing with Math is also the most effective way to love math."
With the desire to bring mathematics to young people, Assc. Prof. Dr. Chu Cam Tho - Vietnam Institute of Educational Sciences has developed POMath - a math teaching program for children through games, activities and real-life situations. “In the process of letting children do math through games, they do not only seek victory or overcome challenges, but also express their attitudes and personalities, hidden personalities and social emotions. That is very important information and signs for us to understand children and thereby respond appropriately," Assc. Prof. Dr. Chu Cam Tho shared.
Guest speakers (from left to right): Dr. Nguyen Viet Cuong, Dr. Tran Nam Dung, Assc. Prof. Dr. Phan Thi Ha Duong, Prof. Dr. Phung Ho Hai, Assc. Prof. Dr. Chu Cam Tho
The International Mathematics Day - Playing with Math program was a great success, attracting the attention of many participants, exchanging, discussing and playing with math in colorful mathematical minigames.
Translated by Phuong Huyen
Link to Vietnamese version
