discrete geometry
san francisco state university
universidad de los andes
federico ardila
2010

I was born and raised in southern California, and I moved to San Francisco on an impulse 5 years ago. This is my first year as a grad student at SFSU. I started as a physics major but drifted into the math department. I'd like to get back into physics but most of the math I've been doing has not been very relatable to physics.

Adam Chavin is proud to be starring in this performance of Federico's "Discrete Geometry". Concurrently, Adam is also performing in "Graduate Student- this is my life", a production by U.C. Berkeley where he plays a fledgling combinatorialist. His T.V. appearances include "Combinatorics Seminar" on Mondays or "Discrete Math Seminar" on Wednesday. In his free time, Adam enjoys repeatedly traveling over the three bay area bridges, since everyone he knows lives in Richmond or San Francisco.

Hi, I am Amanda Ruiz. I recently got my masters from SFSU in 2009, with Federico as my advisor. I moved on to a PhD program at Binghamton University and missed San Francisco so much that I arranged to spend part of the school year doing independent study from California. I got really lucky in that the book my current advisor assigned for me to read as independent study is the book this class is based on. So I get to play along! I'm super excited because I have taken all of Federico's joint SFSU/Los Andes classes, and have really enjoyed all of them, and have made a lot of great friends (from SFSU, Los Andes, and Berkeley) in the process. This semester I will be readjusting to my life as a new mom, but I also look forward to participating in this class and getting to know everyone via the forum and occasionally in person!

Hello my name is anita, and i like the pachanga. I'm interested in complex analysis and combinatorial analysis. I also like to read Virginia Woolf and Edgar Allan Poe. My hobbies are playing tennis and hanging out with my friends. I would like to learn more about the fascinating world of mathematics through this nurturing course. XoXo

My name is Andrés Lizcano Rodriguez, born in Colombia in 1988, grown up in Germany, and studying mathematics at Los Andes university at the moment. My mathematical interests change every now and then, at the moment Im mainly interested in topics more or less related to the real world (other than statistics, and finance). Besides studying I do rock climbing and photography I like traveling, languages, literature, movies and arts in general.

I was born in Los Angeles and lived there until high school when I moved to Northern California. I got my undergraduate degree in math at University of San Francisco. My thesis is on initial ideals of normal toric ideals and the covering radius of a polytope. Outside of school I love to ride my bicycle with my husband. I race on the road and track for Team Roaring Mouse, a local team based in San Francisco.

I like to read science fiction novels from the late 19/ early 20th century. My hobbies are stargazing and trying to learn how to draw. My math interests are combinatorics, algebra, and topology.

I was born in Bogotá, Colombia, and I study Mathematics and Electrical Engineering at Universidad de los Andes. I have participated in several math competitions since high school. I do not know yet which are my main math interests.

I'm 19 and I was born in Bucaramanga, Colombia. This is sixth semester as an undergraduate math student at Universidad de los Andes. I still don't have a main area in math but I like real/functional analysis and I would like to learn more about other fields in mathematics. I enjoy playing the drums with my rock band.

I am a fourth year student of mathematics at Universidad de Los Andes. I was born in Bucaramanga , where I attended to school, and then I moved to Bogotá to start university. I participated in school mathematical olympiads and this was my first motivation to study maths. Currently, my mathematical interests are on optimization and numerical analysis.

I was born and grew up in Bogotá, Colombia. I spent 9 great years studying mathematics at MIT. After three amazing years in Bogotá, Berkeley, and Seattle, I have been in San Francisco since 2006. I am now an assistant professor at San Francisco State University and an adjunct professor at the Universidad de Los Andes in Bogotá. I lead the SFSU-Colombia Combinatorics Initiative, an ongoing research and teaching collaboration project which you are now a part of! My main mathematical interest is to study objects in algebra, geometry, topology, and phylogenetics by understanding their combinatorial structure. I have several research projects that I would like your help with.
Outside of work, I spend much of my time enjoying the incredible San Francisco Bay Area with my lovely wife May-Li, defending the colors of the mighty Left Wing Futbol Club, treasure hunting in little record stores, and spreading the love with the Colectivo La Pelanga. (www.lapelanga.com)

My name is Federico. I'm from a wonderful city called Bucaramanga (but unfortunately i live in Bogotá). I like math, of course, but in my free time i like to read, watch, or hear any good story (called it a book, a serie, a movie, a cartoon, etc). My math interests are basically algebra, and its combinatoric properties.

I was born and raised in the greater DC area. I attended the University of Maryland College Park and initially studied physics, however upon taking a number theory class I became intrigued by theoretical mathematics and I changed my major to math and neuro-cognitive science. Upon graduating I felt the call of the west and my love of rock climbing took over. I made my way out west to climb the USA in my van and live the life of a rock bum, climbing, reading books, and living out of the van. Upon reaching Oakland I settled down for a bit and it was here that I met my amazing wife, Jennifer or as I call her Yenny. I have worked for the past 6 years with a non-profit teaching and developing informal science and math curriculum for inner city Oakland girls. This past year however I decided to head back to grad school and finish my graduate work in math and potentially economics down the road. In addition to climbing I also enjoy playing Judo and any and all other combat sports, chess, and reading philosophy and literature in my leisure. My wife and I are expecting our first child in March and I couldn't be more scared and excited at the same time.

My name is José Alejandro Samper and i'm finishing the undergraduate program in mathematics with a minor in music appreciation. I'm very interested in combinatorics, number theory and their relations of the last two with other fields of mathematics. If i'm not studying you'll find me hearing music, playing bridge or playing guitar. My favorite music is jazz, old rock and latin american music.

I like to list things. Math interests list: tropical geometry, lattice point enumeration (?), possibly other mathematics to which I haven't been exposed. Other interests list: Riding my bike, Mexican food, scrabble, word jumbles, pop music, fantasizing about getting my PhD.

Hi, I'm Lina. My areas of interest in mathematics include applications of abstract algebra, graph theory and the little I know about topology. When I'm not studying I've been known to enjoy: good conversations, music from the 1920s-1950s, nonsense literature, good movies, cooking, impressionist paintings, videogames, philosophy, good books, eating, classical music, the occasional comic, nerdy jokes, and learning new languages.

Cognitively, I am a very visual person. If I can draw a picture, I will have a far greater sense of intuition for what I'm looking at than any system of variables or equations can convey. My math interests are convex geometry, algebraic topology, and combinatorics. I also enjoy related topics, such as game theory and music theory. My hobbies include playing trumpet, swing dancing, cycling, board games, and juggling.

Hello there! My name is Mela, pronounced like "Melanie", except without the "nie". I'm a graduate student at SFSU studying signed graphs through lattice-point enumeration for polyhedra, which give rise to a rich interplay of geometry, combinatorics, and number theory. I got my BS in bioengineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In 2008, I completely switched fields and started my journey as a mathematician. I was born in Indonesia and spent my adolescent and early adult years in Illinois. Aside from math, I love being outdoors and enjoy traveling. Pictured is me standing in St. Peter's square, Vatican city. At this spot, all of the columns align -- pretty cool!

Hi my name is Michael Henley. I've lived in the San Francisco Bay area most of my life and was in the Peace Corps in Cameroon. I am in my first semester of the MA program at SFSU. My main interest is in algebra.

I enjoy all forms of abstract nonsense, including mathematics and art. I am most interested in discrete mathematics, though one could say that all math is discrete since by definition continuous motion does so discretely. My hobbies are painting, drawing and most things outdoors such as exploring the California coastline. I enjoy teaching and encouraging others to explore mathematics. It is my core philosophy that mathematics is discovered not invented. That is to say, mathematics exists quite happily on its' own without the interference of humans.

I studied math and electrical engineering at UC San Diego, and now I'm here at SFSU studying just math. I am interested in all kinds of math. My favorite topics at the moment are differential equations and algebra, but that could change tomorrow. I think I will probably continue on for a PhD in math. In my free time, I read books of all sorts, explore, cook, and try to live a life that involves as much laughter as possible.

I was born in Cali, Colombia. I came three years ago to Bogotá to study maths in Universidad de los Andes. My main interests are algebra and number theory. I play basketball, I really like Salsa and I'm also interested in philosophy.

I really like to study mathematics is pretty nice understanding, in a formal way, theories for modeling behaviors such natural, economical, financial, physics, etc or just abstract behaviors. Right now I'm working on my undergraduate thesis in Functional Analysis and I'm pretty much interested in Analysis and Geometry with analytical approaches, that's why I like Topology too, I feel the Topology like the very essence of the Analysis. I would like to work on Geometry in my master thesis through in isospectral manifolds and invariants on them, determinants and other traces. I like to know about other disciplines as the social or human science and I love the films and i would love to learn more about that later, finally i spend my time in my family, my girlfriend and having fun too. I would like to say that I'm learning Latex and I'm not that slow on that so I could work in the final project with some San Francisco Student, that would be a nice experince. Bye and thanks everyone for the interest.

Hello all, my name is Tia. For my research I am investigating the relationship between reconfigurable systems and poset structures of CAT(0) cubical complexes. Outside of the classroom I like to read, go to the beach, watch movies, and just enjoy the warm company of friends and family.

Hi my name is Tu Pham. Even though I like math all my life I didn't always wanted to be a mathematician. When I started my undergraduate I majored in computer science. Because I like math so much I took more math classes than programming classes. Eventually I switch over to math. Now I am at SFSU doing my masters. I am studying hard and hope to get into a good phD program. Something interesting about me, I used to be really addicted to Starcraft: Brood War. I would skip class and play all day. I was in a team call Lzuruha. We were top rank. Now because I want to avoid this addiction again, I rarely play starcraft 2. If you would like to play against me in starcraft then let me know.