This year the JMM, held by the American Math Society (AMS) and Math Association of America (MAA) took place in Boston, MA and my summer MSSB REU project was selected to present a poster at the Undergrad Poster Session. This was my first experience at a big conference (the JMM is touted online as the largest math conference in the world at 7K+ registrants), and it was definitely a learning one. I got to see a handful of interesting talks, present my poster, explore Boston, and catch up with friends that I hadn’t seen since the summer.
Here’s the day by day of what I was up to. I talk mostly about the food.
Wednesday
I carpooled down with my advisor Chris Danforth and also along for the ride were Lewis Mitchell (postdoc in climate at UVM) and Kameron Harris (masters student at UVM). We left bright and early from Burlington, at 7AM while temperatures lingered in the 2F range.
Arriving at about 11, it was extremely daunting at first trying to find talks to attend. Turned out that there weren’t any going on until lunch, so we checked out the conference center and then all got lunch at Legal Sea Foods.
In the afternoon, I was able to attend some interesting talks, get in a speedy 4 mile run on some great trails with outstanding views, and then that night Jim, Paul and I met up with Lewis and Kam and two of Kam’s friends for dinner at this really hip place called The Other Side Cafe. They had Left Hand Milk Stout on tap! And delicious veggie burritos.
Thursday
The four of us, and Chris’s former teacher at Bates College, Chip Ross at lunch at the Top of the Hub which was on top of the very tall Prudential Building. The views were great, and we talked a lot about bifurcations which I understand, but not at the level that these guys do who’ve been studying dynamical systems for some time. Views from the top:
boston!!!
Everyone from the REU from the summer were in town for dinner, except for Laurel who was still on her way, so we all got together for dinner at restaurant recommended by Jim called The King and I. It was great thai food and company! That was pretty much it for that night.
the dinner invitation I texted out
Friday
The theme of the this post is definitely feeling to me like food and travel, and not as much math, but this is more interesting for the most part. The first day I grabbed breakfast, I got two eggs on a wheat bagel at ABP and it was real good. I first went to support a fellow hokie, Scott Burton, present his research from the past summer on graph theory stuff. I went to a few other talks after that were actually not what I expected, and I guess that happens.
Now that the entire REU gang was in, except that John and Hussein bailed for lunch, we took the T up to the North End to see historic Boston and get some great food. We ate a really small italian place, and it was just us. It felt just like we were eating in the kitchen of an italian lady’s kitchen, and the spinach ravioli come recommended by me!
the old north church
laurel was happy!
my bro Paul
Emily (right) inside Mike's Pastry
I tried again to find some interesting talks, and sort-of did. But before long it was time for me to do what it was that I’d come to do, present my poster! The ugrad poster session was nuts, with over 300 posters being presented. It turned out to not work very well having all four us man one poster, so we took 30min turns at explaining what we did this past summer.
the poster session, huge!!
After the poster session, Laurel and I headed out for what turned out to be an amazinggg run. Check it out. Here is the view we had from the trail on the Charles River, looking back at Boston where we’d come from:
water like glass, dirt trail, awesome
I was late for dinner at the Back Bay Social Club, where I got the dirtiest look I ever have from a bartender, when I didn’t tip on a $8 beer. I’ve never paid that much, and actually had out $6, ready to leave a dollar tip even if it cost 5. But 8!? Sticker shock I guess. But looking on the menu later, the beer I ordered was actually only supposed to be 7…whatever.
Kam, Lewis and I ended up heading to BU for drinks w Kam’s friend again, and it was a fun night up there. I forget the name of the little town.
Saturday
Perhaps the most interesting talks of the conference from the group that I came with took place on Sat morning. We heard from experts in the field on Data Assimilation and Dynamical Systems, and I learned quite a bit. I also got to meet Chris Jones, who gave an excellent talk, and is the head of the MCRN that is offering a course this spring that I am considering attending.
I had to check out of the Westin, and carried all of my stuff (with some help) to lunch at the Cafetaria Boston w Laurel, Paul, Lewis, and Kam. Their fish tacos were great.
The afternoon was the session on Mathematics of Climate Change and Sustainability which was chaired by Chris and he spoke in first. The first three talks were great, and after that more educations based and less mathie. I learned from each of the first three. Apparently it got a little more heated later, about the challenges and obligation to teach mathematics with applications in the classroom. I had dipped out to haul my luggage two miles across Boston to Lewis’ hotel, the Omni Parker.
I had some free time while the talks were over, and Kam and Lewis were at the hockey game so I grabbed my laptop and headed to find a coffee shop with wireless. I stopped at Jos A Bank to ask why my shoes seemed to be falling apart on the bottom, but apparently it’s normal wear for dress shoes.
wasn't sure they were supposed to wear like this
I ended up stopping at the ABP, where I got a little package of grapes and little bag of assorted nuts to hold me over till dinner which I was actually quite productive and researched for, then registered for my classes this spring.
That night, we got dinner again at The Other Side and I got the other veggie burrito which was also excellent. And I had the Avery Salvation Ale, a belgian strong ale and it was reallyyy good.
We met up with a couple other mathematicians after at some bars called the Dead Author’s Club, and then Boston Beer Works. They were home to more really good beer, in particular the Slumbrew Porter Squared Porter was amazing. It was pretty neat for me to be by far the least educated in the group, the other guys were post-docs at MIT and on fellowships. All in all, it was a really great night out on the town and to cap off a great week in Boston.
Sunday
We headed out of Boston at like 11AM, and Chris had picked up some more amazing canolies from Mike’s Pastry to cure Lewis, Kam and my hangovers. I felt fine, but the canoli was much appreciated. Upon returning “home,” I’ve been able to rest up, get groceries and make dinner, write this up and get ready to head into the office tomorrow.
