Research Event

Event participants

Vasuki Shastry, Associate Fellow, Asia-Pacific Programme
Ravi Velloor, Associate Editor, The Straits Times
Chair: Yu Jie, Senior Research Fellow on China, Asia-Pacific Programme, Chatham House

Corporate Members Event Webinar Partners and Major Corporates

Event participants

Dr Yu Jie, Senior Research Fellow on China, Asia-Pacific Programme, Chatham House
James Kynge, Global China Editor, Financial Times; Editor, Tech Scroll Asia
Chair: Dr Robin Niblett, Director and Chief Executive, Chatham House

Research Event

Event participants

Antony Dapiran, Writer; Lawyer; Author of City on Fire: The Fight for Hong Kong
Chair: Jessie Lau, Journalist; Researcher; Artist; Board Member and Online Editor-in-Chief, NüVoices

17 April 2020

Research Event

Event participants

Yu Jie, Senior Research Fellow on China, Asia-Pacific Programme, Chatham House
Kerry Brown, Associate Fellow, Asia-Pacific Programme, Chatham House; Professor of Chinese Studies and Director of Lau China Institute, King’s College London

Invitation Only Research Event

Event participants

Rebecca Wolfe, Lecturer, Harris School for Public Policy and Associate, Pearson Institute for the Study and Resolution of Global Conflicts, University of Chicago
Tom Gillhespy, Principal Consultant, Itad
Shodmon Hojibekov, Chief Executive Officer, Aga Khan Agency for Habitat (Afghanistan)
Chair: Champa Patel, Director, Asia-Pacific Programme, Chatham House

Many movie animation techniques are based on mathematics. Characters, background, and motion are all created using software that combines pixels into geometric shapes which are stored and manipulated using the mathematics of computer graphics. Software encodes features that are important to the eye, like position, motion, color, and texture, into each pixel. The software uses vectors, matrices, and polygonal approximations to curved surfaces to determine the shade of each pixel. Each frame in a computer-generated film has over two million pixels and can have over forty million polygons. The tremendous number of calculations involved makes computers necessary, but without mathematics the computers wouldn.t know what to calculate. Said one animator, ". . . it.s all controlled by math . . . all those little X,Y.s, and Z.s that you had in school - oh my gosh, suddenly they all apply." For More Information: Mathematics for Computer Graphics Applications, Michael E. Mortenson, 1999.

The outcome of elections that offer more than two alternatives but with no preference by a majority, is determined more by the voting procedure used than by the votes themselves. Mathematicians have shown that in such elections, illogical results are more likely than not. For example, the majority of this group want to go to a warm place, but the South Pole is the group.s plurality winner. So if these people choose their group.s vacation destination in the same way most elections are conducted, they will all go to the South Pole and six people will be disappointed, if not frostbitten. Elections in which only the top preference of each voter is counted are equivalent to a school choosing its best student based only on the number of A.s earned. The inequity of such a situation has led to the development of other voting methods. In one method, points are assigned to choices, just as they are to grades. Using this procedure, these people will vacation in a warm place a more desirable conclusion for the group. Mathematicians study voting methods in hopes of finding equitable procedures, so that no one is unfairly left out in the cold. For more information: Chaotic Elections: A Mathematician Looks at Voting, Donald Saari

Archimedes was one of the most brilliant people ever, on a par with Einstein and Newton. Yet very little of what he wrote still exists because of the passage of time, and because many copies of his works were erased and the cleaned pages were used again. One of those written-over works (called a palimpsest) has resurfaced, and advanced digital imaging techniques using statistics and linear algebra have revealed his previously unknown discoveries in combinatorics and calculus. This leads to a question that would stump even Archimedes: How much further would mathematics and science have progressed had these discoveries not been erased? One of the most dramatic revelations of Archimedes. work was done using X-ray fluorescence. A painting, forged in the 1940s by one of the book.s former owners, obscured the original text, but X-rays penetrated the painting and highlighted the iron in the ancient ink, revealing a page of Archimedes. treatise The Method of Mechanical Theorems. The entire process of uncovering this and his other ideas is made possible by modern mathematics and physics, which are built on his discoveries and techniques. This completion of a circle of progress is entirely appropriate since one of Archimedes. accomplishments that wasn.t lost is his approximation of pi. For More Information: The Archimedes Codex, Reviel Netz and William Noel, 2007.

Archimedes was one of the most brilliant people ever, on a par with Einstein and Newton. Yet very little of what he wrote still exists because of the passage of time, and because many copies of his works were erased and the cleaned pages were used again. One of those written-over works (called a palimpsest) has resurfaced, and advanced digital imaging techniques using statistics and linear algebra have revealed his previously unknown discoveries in combinatorics and calculus. This leads to a question that would stump even Archimedes: How much further would mathematics and science have progressed had these discoveries not been erased? One of the most dramatic revelations of Archimedes. work was done using X-ray fluorescence. A painting, forged in the 1940s by one of the book.s former owners, obscured the original text, but X-rays penetrated the painting and highlighted the iron in the ancient ink, revealing a page of Archimedes. treatise The Method of Mechanical Theorems. The entire process of uncovering this and his other ideas is made possible by modern mathematics and physics, which are built on his discoveries and techniques. This completion of a circle of progress is entirely appropriate since one of Archimedes. accomplishments that wasn.t lost is his approximation of pi. For More Information: The Archimedes Codex, Reviel Netz and William Noel, 2007.

With 468 stops served by 26 lines, the New York subway system can make visitors feel lucky when they successfully negotiate one planned trip in a day. Yet these two New Yorkers, Chris Solarz and Matt Ferrisi, took on the task of breaking a world record by visiting every stop in the system in less than 24 hours. They used mathematics, especially graph theory, to narrow down the possible routes to a manageable number and subdivided the problem to find the best routes in smaller groups of stations. Then they paired their mathematical work with practice runs and crucial observations (the next-to-last car stops closest to the stairs) to shatter the world record by more than two hours!

Although Chris and Matt.s success may not have huge ramifications in other fields, their work does have a lot in common with how people do modern mathematics research

* They worked together, frequently using computers and often asking experts for advice;
* They devoted considerable time and effort to meet their goal; and
* They continually refined their algorithm until arriving at a solution that was nearly optimal.
Finally, they also experienced the same feeling that researchers do that despite all the hours and intense preparation, the project .felt more like fun than work.
For More Information: Math whizzes shoot to set record for traversing subway system,. Sergey Kadinsky and Rich Schapiro, New York Daily News, January 22, 2009.
Photo by Elizabeth Ferrisi.
Map New York Metropolitan Transit Authority.
The Mathematical Moments program promotes appreciation and understanding of the role mathematics plays in science, nature, technology, and human culture.

A triple cork is a spinning jump in which the snowboarder is parallel to the ground three times while in the air. Such a jump had never been performed in a competition before 2011, which prompted ESPN.s Sport Science program to ask math professor Tim Chartier if it could be done under certain conditions. Originally doubtful, he and a recent math major graduate used differential equations, vector analysis, and calculus to discover that yes, a triple cork was indeed possible. A few days later, boarder Torstein Horgmo landed a successful triple cork at the X-Games (which presumably are named for everyone.s favorite variable). Snowboarding is not the only sport in which modern athletes and coaches seek answers from mathematics. Swimming and bobsledding research involves computational fluid dynamics to analyze fluid flow so as to decrease drag. Soccer and basketball analysts employ graph and network theory to chart passes and quantify team performance. And coaches in the NFL apply statistics and game theory to focus on the expected value of a play instead of sticking with the traditional Square root of 9 yards and a cloud of dust.

A triple cork is a spinning jump in which the snowboarder is parallel to the ground three times while in the air. Such a jump had never been performed in a competition before 2011, which prompted ESPN.s Sport Science program to ask math professor Tim Chartier if it could be done under certain conditions. Originally doubtful, he and a recent math major graduate used differential equations, vector analysis, and calculus to discover that yes, a triple cork was indeed possible. A few days later, boarder Torstein Horgmo landed a successful triple cork at the X-Games (which presumably are named for everyone.s favorite variable). Snowboarding is not the only sport in which modern athletes and coaches seek answers from mathematics. Swimming and bobsledding research involves computational fluid dynamics to analyze fluid flow so as to decrease drag. Soccer and basketball analysts employ graph and network theory to chart passes and quantify team performance. And coaches in the NFL apply statistics and game theory to focus on the expected value of a play instead of sticking with the traditional Square root of 9 yards and a cloud of dust.

Muthu Alagappan explains how topology and analytics are bringing a new look to basketball.

Van Wedeen talks about the geometry of the brain's communication pathways.

Researcher: Meredith Greer, Bates College. Going Over the Top Description: Meredith Greer talks about math and roller coasters.

Researcher: Andy Andres, Boston University Moment: http://www.ams.org/samplings/mathmoments/mm136-baseball.pdf Andy Andres on baseball analytics.

euromicron AG, a medium-sized technology group and specialist for the digital support of business processes through secure infrastructures, is pooling its digital expertise at KORAMIS GmbH, the group subsidiary that specializes in cyber security and automation. With focus on digital platforms and services KORAMIS’ portfolio will also cover the areas Smart IoT, Smart Building as well as Data Management in the future. For this step the management of KORAMIS GmbH was extended by Andreas Schmidt.

euromicron AG, a medium-sized technology group and expert on the digital networking of business and production processes, has now fully placed the capital increase it resolved on July 10, 2019.

THERE'S nothing like the sweet taste of victory, especially when it's long in coming.

GIVEN the financial position of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF), John Barnes had resigned

Located in a global hotspot for biodiversity, Los Angeles County is home to more than 4,000 distinct species of plants and animals, including 52 endangered species - more than any county outside of Hawaii. And with 1 million animal and plant species facing extinction due to human activity, according to the United Nations, efforts to better understand the factors that shape biodiversity in Los Angeles could help shape global conservation efforts.

Water scarcity, a socio-environmental threat to anthropogenic activities and ecosystems alike, affects large regions of the globe. However, it is often the most vulnerable and disadvantaged populations that suffer the severest consequences, highlighting the role of economic and institutional factors in water scarcity. In this way, researchers generally consider not only the physical constraints but socio-economic determinants as well.

Researchers at Western and Suncor are teaming up to use algae as a way to produce serological test kits for COVID-19 - a new process that overcomes shortfalls of existing processes while saving money.

In a ground breaking study, an international team of 21 scientists led by Sean Hoban, Ph.D., Conservation Biologist at The Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois, evaluated five genera spanning the plant tree of life (Hibiscus, Magnolia, Pseudophoenix, Quercus and Zamia) to understand how much genetic diversity currently exists in collections in botanical gardens and arboreta worldwide.

Rampant deforestation, uncontrolled expansion of agriculture, infrastructure development and exploitation of wild species have created a 'perfect storm' for the spillover of diseases from wildlife to people.

The good thing about BirdLife is that, as a truly global organisation, we're already great at staying connected, even when we're thousands of miles apart. Here are just a few of the ways our work will carry on over the coming months, even if it's from our living rooms.

In these unusual and tragic times, I am indeed grateful that we are able to connect virtually to continue the business of environmental governance. While the efforts of all your capitals are correctly focused on preventing human suffering, as parts of the world move slowly towards recovery, the environmental agenda remains one of our most powerful insurance policies in preventing future global pandemics like COVID-19.

And against the backdrop of threatened lives, crippled businesses and damaged economies, the UN chief warned the Petersberg Climate Dialogue in Berlin that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are also under threat.

"Pollinators were the key," says Edgar Mora, reflecting on the decision to recognise every bee, bat, hummingbird and butterfly as a citizen of Curridabat during his 12-year spell as mayor.

The world's two largest economies are both partners and rivals, deeply intertwined but also with divergent interests. How will these contradictions resolve themselves following COVID-19?

With scarce resources that are quickly dwindling, developing nations could soon be buried by debt.